Pen Trwyn climbing

Crag: Pen Trwyn, Llandudno
Routes: Green Flash (f5+:led), Planned Obsolescence (f6a+:led), Mumbo Jumbo (f6a+:led), Mumbo Jumbo variant (f6a+:sec), Tears as Souvenirs Direct (f6b:sec)
This is not a crag I've visited often over the years: too hard and steep for me. I have done a few routes here and there since the late 80s, but generally come away tired and demoralised. Today was only a slight exception to that rule, although I do feel a tad stronger at present, and we did get at least get a few routes done before the inevitable pump. Green Flash may be the worst route on the Orme, and is not a great warm-up. It heads rightwards over two small overhangs on big but polished holds: short and steep. We moved round to the Mumbo Jumbo area above the bouldering caves, and I led the newly bolted f6a+ line on the far left. This is short, and loose in places, but a better warm up, with a tricky initial move followed by easier climbing. Overgraded - probably 5+ or 6a. Mumbo Jumbo itself is an excellent line, an old E2 5c, now retrobolted, which cunningly weaves round to circumvent some large overhangs. A high first clip is gained after a steep but easy start, then steeper moves gain the orange slab at mid-height. Here the rock changes from soapy and slippery to quite rough pocketed limestone. A traverse right below a small roof leads to the first crux: steeply round the overlap with a pinch-grip. The route then stays steep. I clipped the bolt above the final roof with difficulty, then tried a version of the direct finish at 6b+: using the obvious chalked hold in a very draining position. It didn't really work, and Hayley later did a superb job of unlocking the indirect solution to the final move at 6a+. It goes much further left, then uses small footholds to reach arete holds which allow the roof to be circumvented. Good climb: we did it twice. We then bouldered out the bottom few crux moves of Tears as Souvenirs, a grade harder. Very soapy rock, especially in these hot conditions (beautiful day, 30C, so glad of the shade). This was energy sapping, not clean, and a bit of a battle. In retrospect, not such a good idea after two ascents of Mumbo Jumbo. It meant that we had very little forearm power for the harder routes we tried in the Deep Fix area overlooking the deep blue sea. Stunning conditions though, so we walked down to inspect the Sticky Mix wall above the sea. Clear blue sky, flat calm sea, orange rock: we could have been in the Costa Blanca, or Thailand.