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.
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