Arete adventures

Welsh winter to Peak bogs and Kinder windscape.

Saturday saw Peak Athlete instructors off to Wales to climb the superb Arete by the name of Cnefion.

We parked just below Tryfans West face in the great little placed car park. Van doors open, freezer box ready and bacon haggis egg wraps prepared on the stove in minutes. The great start to any adventure, this makes part of the journey, it also reduces the cost when you can self cater for the day.

The view from the track leading into Idwal was amazing. It's one of my favourite spots to shoot.

The chosen route of attack was above the ridge looking out over Cwm Idwal.

Wild goats grazing on the hill side on the approach.

We also got a great little scramble in by heading up the river at the side of Idwal slabs, grade 2. The left hand branch of the river as you look at the map in the pic.

This lead out into Cwm Cnefion, just below the Arete. 

Looking back towards Cwm Idwal.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=33981

We went prepared to make the ascent in winter or none winter conditions, this covers a wide range of elements. The main element being, the snow had quickly gone from the Welsh hills within a few days.

So, it was a wet windy ascent, wind was at gale force with buffeting just when you could have done without it.

Peppermint tea and honey before we set off.

Dean heading up into the gods from P1 (pitch 1)

Dean giving a wave from the top of pitch one.

P1, handover. I am heading upto P2.

Dean arriving at P2.

Pitch two was a great section, but Dean drew the winning straw with P1. Fantastic section, just wish the Arete was bigger and longer.

At the top of Cnefion, time for tea and a bit of back slapping (Jolly good show old boy) and all that.

At this point our attention turned to the possibilities in front, snow,ice werrrrrrrrrrr. Another day maybe, conditions are not good to tackle the routes on the other side of the valley today.

Back to the van for coffee and wraps. The whole day was finished with great coffee and conversations of days to come in Wales.

So, we're does the Peak District come in.

Just sorting out the climbing gear from Saturday's trip, and BLEEP BLEEP.

Callout to Kinder for an injured walker. The Callout lasted around 6hrs, so all in all a great weekend out in the hills with two great results.

One fantastic climb and one very happy casualty carried off the hill in a prolonged evacuation due to terrain and ground conditions.

Buxton MRT in action in trying conditions.

Classic Welsh Climbs

Grooved Arête, NE Face of Tryfan.

Early start as usual, 06:00. Well slightly later in fact as We decided to get a little extra sleep before heading out. So, off to Wales then. Tryfan in fact, super classic climbs waiting to be done. Grooved Arête is the target for the day. Grooved Arête comes in at VDiff 3* route, 8 pitches of sheer joy. The best pitches overall were pitch 2, pitch 4 and pitch 6. Pitch six has the infamous Knights Move on it, simple enough just exposed. 

Dean sat at the stance on pitch 6 chillin out.

So pitch one.

The classic GA drawn on the slab to the right.

Pitch 2, my lead. Fantastic pitch, just keeps giving all the way.

Looking down from pitch 2, nice easy climbing which is well protected.

Top of pitch 2.

Stance on pitch 6, massive stance. Big ledge, you could camp on this no problem.

Topped out on pitch 8.

Looking out towards Tryfan ridge.

Great views over Ogwen.

Walk out down North gully to meet heather terrace.

Fantastic way off the top, super scramble route.

Looking back to the ridge from little gully.

Fantastic trip out, if the route is busy it's well worth the wait. Option two, get there early.

Official Guide Book Description

230m, 8 pitches.

Rockfax Description
One of the best and most popular routes of its grade in the UK. Start beneath the well-worn corner with the letters 'GA' scratched on the rock on its right-hand side.

1) 4a, 30m. Climb the tricky polished corner then make a move rightwards onto a slab. Climb this and continue up a crack, or the wall to the left, to the top of the rib.
2) 12m. Walk/scramble easily up left to the base of a long groove with a roof at half-height.
3) 50m. Climb cracks on the right-hand side of the groove past the roof, then step left into the smaller continuation groove which leads to a ledge. Belay on the next ledge a little higher.
4) 30m. Scramble up right to a path and walk along this to the base of a rib and the letters 'GA' on the rock again.
5) 4a, 50m. Start on the right of the rib and climb up and leftwards to gain the groove above. Follow this until a step left gains a steeper continuation-groove. Climb this with increasing difficulty until a move leftwards gains The Haven - a good ledge, block belay well back.
6) 20m. The infamous Knight's Move pitch. How's your chess? Climb the crack behind the belay to reach the chessboard slab above. Exit this slab by the top right corner, step round the arete to find a comfortable stance.
7) 20m. Romp up the corner above the belay to reach a good stance. An escape rightwards from here is easy if the weather is bad or darkness is closing in.
8) 25m. Head a little way right and climb the steep rock to a rib. Follow this to an ever-easing finish. © ROCKFAX

UKC Logbook Description
One of the best and most popular routes of its grade in the UK. Start beneath the well-worn corner with the letters 'GA' scratched on the rock.
1) 4a, 30m. Climb the tricky polished corner then make a move rightwards onto a slab. Climb this and continue up a crack, or the wall to the left, to the top of the rib.
2) 12m. Walk/scramble easily up left to the base of a long groove with a roof at half-height.
3) 50m. Climb cracks on the right-hand side of the groove past the roof, then step left into the smaller continuation groove which leads to a ledge. Belay on the next ledge a little higher.
4) 30m. Scramble up right to a path and walk along this to the base of a rib and the letters 'GA' on the rock again.
5) 4a, 50m. Start on the right of the rib and climb up and leftwards to gain the groove above. Follow this until a step left gains a steeper continuation-groove. Climb this with increasing difficulty until a move leftwards gains The Haven - a good ledge, block belay well back.
6) 20m. The infamous Knight's Move pitch. How's your chess? Climb the crack behind the belay to reach the chessboard slab above. Exit this slab by the top right corner, step round the arete to find a comfortable stance.
7) 20m. Romp up the corner above the belay to reach a good stance. An escape rightwards from here is easy if the weather is bad or darkness is closing in.
8) 25m. Head a little way right and climb the steep rock to a rib. Follow this to an ever-easing finish.

OMG its DT heaven

Saturday morning arrived after a full week of earlies, one more get up. This ones a bit different, we are off to WALES. The drytooling location we are off to has been given the premier site in the UK tag, so we are off to see for ourselves. Ps, the bloody car is solid in frost. It's about -5 here in the Peak and the bloody car door won't open.

First things first, brek,brek . Unbelievable  I made a bit of a location calculation cock up. The cafe we were going to was no where near were we were going. Oh well not to worry, as it turned out we got the better result. We ended up in Betsewycoed at a super cafe near the railway,what a great find.

And the breakfast was super good. http://www.alpinecoffeeshop.net/

Yummmmmmm yumm yummmmmy.

So breky over, off to DT heaven.

Moving away from Betsy and into some stunning mountain scenery.

Take the road out from Trefriw up the hill in front of the Fairy Falls Hotel.

http://www.visitllandudno.org.uk/things-to-do/food-and-drink/the-fairy-falls-p285611

Then follow the road to the very end past Llyn Crafnant, and park through the gate. Remember to be curtious and respect the local environment.

Follow the route on the card in UKC, and don't stra off into private land.

An amazing transformation as you drive from Trefriw village to Clogwyn Mannod. The change in landscape is awesome, flat flood plain to majestic mountains and typical Welsh crags. 

So, let's find some parking. Parking is a bit scarce but available in small quantities.

Passing, parking place.

Tools of the trade in hand, and we are off up the hill.

The track leading upto the crag.

Alls looking good.

Yep, if you wanna climb here this is the way in. Tight un very ohhhh long way down. No scaff tag required.

Yep, it's uh big un.

Tom belaying Pete on the Dragons lair M8+

A couple of guys climbing, Pete Harrison and a chap called Tom from plas y brenin.

Yep, that's a FBW. SOMETHING BIG WALL.

The pictures don't capture the awesome size of these walls. If you reckon your up for it, get yourself down here. This place is an absolute credit to the guys who found it and bolted it, one guy for starters who we met is Pete Harrison. The walls here are 30 meter plus, with extensions out to make longer routes. The whole place is a Mecca for major run outs, not found anywhere else.

This is the way in, a long decent into the pit via a notted line.

Super ferns in the cave area.

The only light, window to the outside world.

 

Me on Slate O the art, after my initial lead. We are doing sets of three to get burned out.

Finding the pre drilled pockets is tricky as the whole wall is wet and dark, not easy to see the pockets.

Dean high up in the gods, coming down after one of his sets of three burn runs.

First route of the day, (Slate O the art) M5+ . Well graded, and certainly worth its star.

Belay stance in the bowls of the cave.

One great bit of information, I didn't take much food on the trip. Well in fact it amounted to one CHIA CHARGE http://www.chiacharge.co.uk/ bar, (seed flapjack) between two. So one bar is a bought 80g, split two ways. We lead an M5+  25 meters ish each then did sets of three up and down the route to burn out, and I must admit it kept us going all the way, well impressed.

Super bar, and tastes great.

Admit, not many pictures of us climbing, this is due to another cockup. Còckup number two, always bring the lead which connects power pack to phone. Oh yeh, plus take less shots leaves more power in phone for later, lesson over.

We ran slate O the art as a lead route first, then ran it out in set of three. The sets of three were to burn out and get pumped. By the time we had done two leads and six runs we were pretty well out of time. Dusk was on its way, time for home. This is an area we will be back to, lots of un finished business here.

Now it's off to buy pies http://www.bodnant-welshfood.co.uk/