Tremadog climbing

Crag: Upper Tier, Tremadog
Routes: Falling Block Crack (S 4a:led), MTN (S 4a:led), Mistook (VS 4c:sec), Madog (VS 4c:sec), Quatre Fois Direct (VS 4c:sec)
With a long flight to Kyrgyzstan tomorrow, and a distinct lack of climbing all year, my heart wasn't really in it today. We only had the morning at our disposal, and I wanted some relaxed leading to try to get back into the swing of things, so we headed to the Upper Tier near Pant Ifan. In my many trips to Tremadog, I have never bothered with it before as it seems such a poor relation to the bigger classics on the main crags. However, it is a lovely spot giving better views than the other crags - along with a much longer (but scenic) walk-in. Groups can be a problem, but we had it to ourselves. More rain as I led the obvious line of Falling Block Crack which takes a juggy wall to a wide crack with one tricky move. MTN gave more relaxed climbing, which was just what I needed. A slabby crack to a ledge before a thin final crack up a second wall led to a mantel finish. Mistook is quite technical at the start, up twin cracks, then finishes up a slabby wall. All these routes are longer than I'd expected, 25-28m, and they pack quite a lot of climbing in: good pitches. Madog took a wet wall on Moelwyn style bubbly rock before taking a right-leaning crack - excellent jamming - to the top. Vic's final lead was the best, another gently technical thin crack before a superb finish up the harder right-hand finishing crack taken by neighbouring route Meirionydd.