Cloggy climbing

Crag: Clogwyn du'r Arddu, Yr Wyddfa
Routes: Great Slab (VS 4c,4a,4b,4a,4a:led p.2,4)
A sustained spell of extraordinary hot, dry weather. Indeed, the first time the high crags had come into condition since April, so it was worth making a special effort to get out. Moreover, it was particularly satisfying to tick this historic route, which I've been wanting to do for 20 years, right at the end of the feasible 'season'. Vic and I treated the walk-in as training, and managed it in just over an hour from Llanberis (pleasant memories of the Snowdon race in July, the only other occasion I would ever dream of using this path). Leaving the tourist path below Allt Moses to move into the shadow of this unique crag is always special, but particularly so today as the temperature dropped dramatically as we skirted the east buttress. The first pitch of Great Slab is excellent, a delicate traverse on small positive holds before a superb groove soars up to the belay. The exposure starts to bite on the next pitch, which I led, which traverses right to climb an easy rib and another traverse to a spike. I belayed in the broken ground further right, giving Vic the soaking wet '40ft corner'. This was slimy, despite the weather, but went easily enough by using holds on the right wall then moving onto the slab. Indeed, this pitch and the slab itself were both far more enjoyable than they look from below. I led a long 4th pitch, moving diagonally left across the Great Slab itself: easy climbing but tremendously atmospheric and enjoyable. The final pitch up the left edge of the slab is even better, giving superbly positioned climbing. All very memorable, with a real mountaineering flavour, as was the descent down the now infrequently used (for good reason) Western Terrace. This takes a series of shelves, with lots of debris, down to some wet grooves and honeycombed, mossy rock below the overhangs. We retired early, in order to enjoy a beer and bara brith on the sunny patio of the excellent restored cottage at the bottom of the tourist path.

Rab Mountain Marathon

Race: Rab Mountain Marathon, day two
Peaks: Foel Dduarth, Yr Orsedd, Foel Fras, Yr Elen, Gyrn Wigau
Area: Carneddau, Eryri
Time/Position: 220pts in 4:36 (33rd from 300 [62nd overall])
Salvaged a bit of pride today, although it was still a pedestrian performance well down on previous years in this event. Started early, after a good night's sleep, slogging up to the top of Foel Dduarth and contouring the ridge to Yr Orsedd - all very familiar territory in beautiful muted early morning light, so I was taking good lines and landing bang on the controls. More contouring down to Llyn Anafon, then very steeply up to the CP below Llwytmor. There was, sadly, inevitably an element of 'retracing steps' about today's route, given the restricted nature of the course. But after dibbing the CP above Melynllyn I embarked on a long contouring traverse above Dulyn to drop down to a big value CP in Ffynnon Llyffnant - a beautiful isolated high cwm that I haven't visited since doing some easy snow climbs here in the mid 1990s. I was going well, and slogged up to dib again on the main Carneddau ridge, then take the contouring path to a 40 pointer on the summit of Yr Elen. Local knowledge a big help for all these, as I landed bang on everything with minimal effort. Nice weather, with some cloud, all helped. I was well ahead of schedule, just enjoying the unpressured nature of the day, so finished with the steep climb up Gyrn Wigau (painful memories of the climax of May's Carneddau race) before dibbing a few more checkpoints on the very relaxed jog in to the finish above Rachub. Great fun, as always, but obviously a bit disappointed with the overall result compared to previous years.

Rab Mountain Marathon

Race: Rab Mountain Marathon, day one
Peaks: Carnedd Llewellyn, Foel Grach, Drum, Tal y Fan
Area: Carneddau, Eryri
Time/Position: 200 pts in 5:36
Having just missed a podium place last year in this, my favourite event, I could hardly believe that this year it was taking place in my spiritual home - the mountain region I know best of all. What a shame, then, that a monumental error and a large slice of bad luck this afternoon was to completely ruin any chance I had of improving on last year's effort. It all started reasonably well from Bethesda in persistent rain and low cloud, although I was taken aback by how restricted the 'field of play' was (with the eastern Carneddau virtually all out-of-bounds). I headed up to Cwm Llafur via various checkpoints: weird to be in the dramatic, yet familiar, terrain below the Black Ladders with hundreds of other people. After a tricky to find CP opposite Llech Ddu, which took me longer than it should have done, I slogged up Nant Fach to another on the main Carneddau ridge before heading over the top of Llewellyn in thick mist and pacing it down to a 30 pointer in Afon Wen. I sowed the seeds of my later destruction here, by unaccountably failing to go for another big CP above Melynllyn as the mist dramatically cleared. This put me way ahead of schedule as I took great 'local knowledge' lines contouring Foel Fras to a CP above Llwytmor before contouring awkwardly through the crags to a CP on the summit of Drum. Just over 3 hours to this point, with almost 200 points in the bag already. As a result, I found myself disastrously lured out to the big value checkpoints on the other side of Tal y Fan (rather than hoovering up those directly below me, which would have given me an easy, albeit wastefully early, finish). So I ran flat out round the side of Carnedd y Ddelw and down to Bwlch y Ddaefaen. I really was on home ground here, and contoured Foel Lwyd and Tal y Fan intent on bagging a 40 pointer in a ruin on the Pen fell race route. I didn't bother with the compass - foolish, as a thick sea mist unexpectedly rolled in just after I left the summit wall. Just a few metres of visibility, with no accurate position: so locating the CP was a hopeless task even though I could envisage the position of the ruin from the Pen fell race and dozens of walks in this area. After sweeping the hillside I found myself running out of time and eventually gave up and headed back for the camp in infuriating bright sunshine. The worst error I have ever made on a mountain marathon: it meant almost 3 hours virtually without scoring, so whereas last year I was 9th overall after day one, today I finished in 122nd place. A wonderful, memorable camp above Aber made up for it all though. Delightful views over the Menai Straits in lovely sunny weather, with me in a perfect pitch looking down the valley.

Llanberis slate climbing

Crag: Llanberis Slate
Routes: UBL (HS 4b:led), Clash of the Titans (f6a:led), Plastic Soldier (f6a:sec)
After weeks of rain in Snowdonia, slate was the only realistic option today. I really didn't have any time to waste, so it was hugely frustrating to find that the weather forecast was wrong and the front that had been forecast to move through in the early hours was still depositing large amounts of moisture as I arrived at 10am! After a very unwelcome fester in the cafe, we walked around the crags waiting for it to dry. Instead, it rained again. After a dank lunch in Serengeti, we gave up and walked back - but the sun came out as we approached the car so we headed up to Australia to salvage something. UBL was still damp, and I'd done it before, but it gave a reasonable warm-up. Above, the Skyline Buttress was dry (and cold!), so Mick and I then repeated the two big 40m pitches we'd enjoyed in June - but led the ones we'd seconded last time. Clash is probably slightly harder than Plastic Soldier, with a tricky crux half way up involving a semi-rockover edging on a tiny foothold, but it finishes easily up a juggy crack. Both routes are long (15 bolts) and absorbing f6a pitches up an impressive slab in a great position at the top of the quarries. Precise edging, nice delicate straitforward climbing.

Penmaen ridge

I've probably driven past this line a thousand times without bothering to investigate further. It's the obvious stepped limestone ridge which rises directly above the A55 west of Conwy. It was an ideal choice today as I had less than an hour free but needed a recovery jog after yesterday's race. I was on my way back from doing radio in Bangor, so parked in Dwygyfylchi and ran through the woods to Pen Pyra after an initial 2 mile warm-up on roads and paths round the village. The ridge is worth a few minutes of anyone's time, a surprisingly worthwhile outing. It gives gentle scrambling (grade II) but is well defined, and contains 3 or 4 steeper sections with good holds throughout. Near the top, a steep wall is taken via a slanting groove to regain the main ridge line. I carried on up scree and heather to the top of Penmaen Bach, which gives brilliant sea views to Anglesey and the Orme. Good running over Allt Wen, dark clouds gathering yet again over the Carneddau, led to the top of the Sychnant Pass and back down to the village.

Llyn Brenig race

Race: Llyn Brenig Multi-Terrain race (9m+)
Time/Position: 57:52 (8th from 72 [1st V40])
Another week, another painful circumnavigation of a lake. Rather alarmingly, however, six days was not enough recovery time for me: felt off the pace from the outset and didn't feel especially comfortable at any point. Started quite quickly on the tarmac sections along the west shore, perked up a bit for the hilly fireroads and the boggy fell race style section around the north end of the lake. But then I struggled again, slowing considerably, for the switchback fireroads - strong headwind at times - and the final sprint along the dam. That said, we had a perfect weather window for the race (heavy showers before and after) and it is a great event. Last time I did it, I failed to break the hour. Managed it quite easily this time, although was probably lucky to win my category. Rehydrated at the Denbigh beer festival.

Eglwyseg climbs/run

Crag: Craig y Forwen/World's End, Eglwyseg
Routes: End Flake (HVD:sh), Shelfway (S:sh), Hornwall variant (HVS 5a:sh), White Crack (VD:sol), As Yew Like It (S:sh)
An unusual sunny morning, and a very early start followed by a jog down to the crag from the moor. Just a few quick shunts of old favourite climbs, all horribly polished now, after which I picked my way up and down Hornbeam Wall/Hornwall several times for training purposes. A bit of bouldering to finish, followed by a run from the crag up to the moor then across to the top of Cyrn y Brain. Still very breezy, but clear. Still quite tired after Sunday's race, but a short riverside jog yesterday had loosened the limbs somewhat.

Lake Vyrnwy half marathon

Race: Lake Vyrnwy half marathon
Time/Position: 1:18:25 (26th from 1346 [6th V40])
A rare foray onto tarmac and my first proper road race of 2011. As such I was entirely dependent on a summer of fell races for any 'speed', having also not done any intervals or formal speedwork all year. Inevitably, the first few miles were therefore a huge shock to the system and I really didn't think I could sustain even the modest 6 minute/mile pace I was doing. As early as the second mile I started to struggle, and the section along the south side of the lake to mile five didn't fill me with optimism as I barely managed to keep pace. However, I gradually adapted to the shock of endless flat tarmac and began to feel much better as I turned the corner. It was a very windy day, but this is about the most sheltered course possible, hemmed in by hills, tree-lined and pleasantly scenic throughout. Despite this, we did get some headwinds on the way back - strong gusts which made life difficult. I concentrated on moving from runner to runner but was never able to draft properly! I caught Jez just before the end, then immediately developed a dreadful stitch just when I wanted to increase the pace on the final downhill mile. This, and the wind, lost me a bit of time but I managed to sustain almost exact 6 min splits throughout the entire race (5:59). A weird distance for me, the half marathon. I've probably done 30 of them over many years (including this one in 2003, when it took me 1:52!) but have entered far fewer recently and have never recorded a decent time due to various misfortunes. As a result, this took a huge 3 mins of my PB - although it remains a minute or two slower than it should theoretically be.

Clwydian run

After a disastrous attempt at half marathon training on the roads last night (exhaustion, upset stomach) this was a pleasantly relaxed longer outing in welcome sunshine. Up Foel Fenlli from Llanferres via the Druid race route, round the earthworks, then down Offa's Dyke to Clwyd Gate. I felt slightly better for the long, gradual climb over the shoulder of Moel Gyw and down to Llanarmon. An extended interval back to Llanferres completed the loop.