Snowdon winter climbing

Crag/Peak: Clogwyn y Garnedd/Yr Wyddfa
Routes: Right-Hand Trinity (wIII 3,3,2,2:led p.1,3), End Gully (wI/II:des)
This had to be squeezed into a few hours before work: not an easy task, as Clogwyn y Garnedd is one of the longest walk-ins in Wales and I wasn't especially fresh after a 17 mile run yesterday. But conditions, which had looked good when gazing at the Carneddau from our cold rock climbing session on Friday, seemed likely to be better still today: at least in terms of high crags dependent on consolidated snow. After a 6am start, Mick and I plodded up the Pyg track towards Snowdon, quite a lot of water ice around and, as expected, good consolidated neve above Glaslyn and a great view of the face, which always looks pseudo-Alpine in these conditions. Neither of us had done Right-Hand Trinity, although we'd both done Central and Left, so it seemed an obvious choice. It's a classic winter line, a well-defined gully, which leaves the top right-hand corner of the Spider snowfield to snake right across the face. We soloed up the tedious lower slopes to the Spider, enjoying steeper ice on the left where possible, then continued soloing up steeper neve to the entrance to the main gully - a fairly tight slot at this point. I led the first pitch, which was excellent and absorbing, far more interesting and tricky than it looks from below. The gully went up to a short, turfy wall which was quite thin and surprisingly technical. I moved up right on the turf, then swung back left above a wide crack. An easier section then led to excellent steeper climbing on perfect neve as the gully tightens again to a narrow slot. Above, easier ground and a good thread lead to a lovely sheltered cave belay as mist enveloped the face: a great 40m pitch. The cave protected me from the spindrift funnelling down the gully as Mick led up the very thin rock slab above the cave. This involved a bit of thought and some absorbing mixed climbing up iced runnels: hard in these lean conditions. Above, easy slopes led to another narrowing and more fine climbing to the belay. This gave me a long easy pitch up superb neve, before Mick led through up a variant finish: taking the steeper left hand line up perfect frozen turf to an icy finish up the mild cornice. A great route, comparable to Eastern Gully on the Ladders as a stress-free, strait-forward yet continuously interesting winter line. We ambled down the tourist path for a bit, rather windy with poor viz, but decided to vary the descent by taking End Gully to the base of the face. This is short but allows more advantage to be taken of the good neve: nice downclimbing, then a short traverse to a steeper section, before contouring round to the bottom of the zigzags. A real shame we didn't have time for Cave Gully, but I had to get to work, so after a quick bite we yomped down the Pyg track back for an exceptionally early finish.

Longer run

A much-needed longer run. Although I never follow a schedule I am uncomfortably aware that I'm well behind with the marathon training, as ever, so I was pleased just to feel reasonably comfortable for this plod from HK-Bretton-Chester-Eccleston-Pulford-Dod-LK-HK. Just under two hours, 16-17 miles. We then drove up to Penbarras and had a splendid walk up a frozen Moel Famau with easily chilled bubbly on the summit to celebrate Dave's 40th.

Castle Inn climbing

Crag: Castle Inn Quarry, Llysfaen
Routes: Alone With the Moon (f5:sec), Lili Marlene (f5+:sec), Ice Cream and Candy Floss (f5:led), New Route 1 (f4:led), New Route 2 (f3:sec), Comeback Kid (f4:sec), Easypeasy (f3:down), Happy Return (f4+:led), Route 1 (f5:sec), Ffrind (f4:led), Taid (f4:sec), Nain (f4:sec), Wilderness Wall (f5:led), Butterfly Blues (f4:sec), Birthday Boy (f5:sec), Inspiration (f4:sec), Smartie (f5+:led), Appenzeller (f5+:sec)
As the temperature didn't rise above -1C all day, and we could see the snow gully lines on Carnedd Llywellyn in perfect condition from the crag, this was arguably not the most sensible choice of outing. However, time was very limited, as always - far too limited for winter climbing: so we made the most of the couple of hours we had at our disposal by concentrating on the new easy sports climbs that have been developed on the little crags surrounding the main face at Castle Inn. I've been climbing here for over 20 years now, so it's nice to see some of the pressure removed from the main crag - which is a bit battered in places now. Having said that, the other crags are very short and while that was ideal in today's subzero temperatures, the routes are not exactly classics! Mick and I moved as quickly as we could from left to right, doing all the new stuff to increase mileage. The wall at the far left  runs to nice thin cracks with some good climbing, especially my f5 lead up the right-hand crack in a snow flurry. We did two tiny routes on a rough, juggy wall, then the arete left of Indian Summer. Another isolated arete gives Happy Return, a pleasant Severe with a novelty crag top belay. After my 20th (or so!) ascent of Route 1, seconding Mick on the main crag, we continued moving right and I led the pleasantly juggy Ffrind up blocky rock with horizontal breaks, and polished off the other routes on this wall. Further right again, Wilderness Wall is one of the better additions: a nice rough slab of white limestone which gives delicate climbing, as do the other routes here: after another snow flurry we had a brief glimpse of the sun on these routes! Finally, at the far end of the crag two slightly harder routes go at 5+. After 18 climbs, I restored the circulation in my hands and drove to Cadole via St Asaph to join the crew running up Moel Famau: the first time in weeks that it's been dry underfoot, as the ground was frozen solid throughout.

Dyserth climbing

Crag: Dyserth Waterfall Crag
Routes: Suleiman the Insignificant (f5:led), Diamonds and Pearls (f5:sec), Custard Corner (f5:led), Magnificent Rita (f5:led), Windsor Wall (f6b:sec), Men of Dinorwic Slate (f5:sec), Rhubarb Wall (f6a+:sec), North Wales Guidebook Wars (f5+:sec)
Crag: Dyserth Castle Slab
Routes: Jason and the Aga Nuts (f5:led), Leo Saw us Rex (f4:sec), Tegengle (f6a:led), Purple Ladies versus Godzilla (f6a+:sec)
I've always known there was climbing to be had at Dyserth, having lived there in the past and having scratched around in various dusty quarries many years ago. However, these little crags have now been given a full sports climbing makeover and it was very pleasant indeed to spend a short sunny winter's day sampling them with Mick. It was chilly, to say the least, as we arrived at the delightfully situated Waterfall crag. The cold, combined with fatigue after yesterday's race and Mick's recent flu, curtailed our plans somewhat, so I kicked off by leading an easy line left of the crag before nipping up the slightly harder arete. Mick backed off Custard Corner so I led through: seemed a tad undergraded and not that great. The obvious steep crack taken by Magnificent Rita was far better: a nice steep VS with good, positive holds. Windsor Wall was an eliminate up crisp little edges and positive pockets to the left: nice, technical climbing but a tad overgraded perhaps. Mick led the longer groove further right, in a lovely position just above the river, as the sun finally hit the face. Nice line, as is Rhubarb Wall which breaks out to the steep hanging slab above the overhangs. Finished with the steeper arete line, then headed back to the car to drive round to Castle Slab which lies above the Prestatyn walkway: another nice position, neatly contrasting with the steeper Waterfall crag with views out to sea. Great friction and nice technical moves on these routes, which all seem a bit generously graded! A bitter easterly wind was mitigated by the sunshine and the delicate climbing was very pleasant. Tegengle, in particular, gave a satisfying longer lead of 20m or so, with a couple of short, technical sequences. More like 5+, though, as was the less appealing line to its right. Finished with a short jog to Meliden and back.

Wrexham half marathon

Race: Wrexham (Village Bakery) half marathon/North Wales Championships
Time/Position: 1:17:48 (15th from 455 [2nd V40])
There was to be no repeat of last year's drama, when some prankster decided to switch the signs at the nine mile point and thereby ruin the race for the first 40 runners. And there was no repeat of the snow-related cancellation of 2011. Instead, conditions were fairly benign today - apart, that is, from a distressing headwind from the tenth mile to the finish. After feeling reasonably comfortable at target 5:50 pace, I ended up precisely one minute slower than the time I was aiming for. Presumably, however, we were actually benefitting from a tailwind up to the 10 mile point, as I went through in 58:42, within target time and only just outside my 10 mile PB. After this I really struggled as the headwind kicked in, and the last mile was fairly unpleasant as a result: no doubt also an illustration that I hadn't trained hard enough on the longer runs. Just about managed to record a narrow PB, by half a minute, and did have the consolation of first V40 in the North Wales Championships.

Collie Classic 'time trial'

An experimental timed running of our classic Friday night route up Moel Famau in what happened to be the most awful conditions of melting slush and associated thick, cloying mud. Virtually every stride was aquatic, which made for slow progress. A few die-hards turned up for the 'just for fun' time trial, which was intended to act as a partial novelty replacement for the much missed 'dash in the dark' series, which haven't taken place this year. A few of us have already recorded times in training for the 'classic route' which heads from the Collie down the leat and up to the main Cilcain path before plumetting down the steep descent to the fields back to Loggerheads and back up to Cadole. My own pb is 58m but I was well outside this today with 61.50.

Rhug Cross Country

Race: North Wales XC Championships, Rhug (11k)
Time/Position: 43:55 (6th from 34 [2nd V40])
The going was soft to very soft at this re-scheduled championship race, some explanation perhaps for the fact that my time was over two minutes down on last year. That said, I was lucky to be competing at all as I was otherwise engaged on the original date and it was only the snow-related cancellation that made it possible for me to run. Not many others did, however, and it was a small group that set off on the shorter laps before heading out for three (or was it four?) long and hilly laps of the Rhug estate. In places, this was a real quagmire with knee deep mud, and pretty draining. By the last lap it was obvious that I lacked the strength to get up into fifth place, and I had a reasonable gap, so I eased off a little: mindful of the need to continue to push the mileage tomorrow and next week as I prepare for the longer stuff. Rhug is a great location for the championships and a nice challenge in these conditions: we (me, Jeff, Paul) managed to win first Veteran's team as well, which was a bonus.

Anglesey Border League

Race: Ty Croes 5m (Border League race 5)
Time/Position: 27:58 (12th from 202 [3rd V40])
Although this is pushing it a bit for a 'border' location, it was a cracking venue for a race and a great addition to the existing league fixtures. I don't know the first thing about motorsport, but the Ty Croes race track seemed remarkably professional, with a wonderful slick surface that might have been designed for fast running (it presumably was designed for fast driving). After the first short lap, we embarked on two longer laps of the full circuit, which were surprisingly hilly, with great views out over the sea and Llyn: a bit like those you get when climbing at Rhoscolyn. The wind wasn't too bad, just a stiff breeze really, despite the exposed position, and I concentrated on moving up between small groups where possible. I seemed to have timed the race just right, as I moved into tenth place on the final corner then began to pull away into the teeth of the wind. Or so I thought. Actually, the two lads I'd gone past suddenly sprinted back in the last 50m, and with them went the chance of a top ten finish (which I've never managed in 40 BL races!) Really enjoyed the race, though, well worth the drive out.