Llanberis slate climbing

Crag: Never Never Land, Llanberis Slate
Routes: Titan (f4c:led), Zeus (f6a+:led), Operation Zig Zag (f5c:sec), The Gargoyle (f6a+:led), Octogenarian (f5b:sec), Learning to Fly (f5a:sec), Fresh Air (f6a:sec)
I like to have at least one session on slate each year and, when I do, always think I should go more often as I really enjoy it as a climbing medium. We were planning to combine a few slate climbs with the Elidir Fawr race this evening, so were quite late setting off in the afternoon. We headed from Dinorwig down to the brilliantly named Medusa's Lair: an enclosed gorge of slate right of the main Never Never Land slab. This sheltered us from some of the wind, but it remained cold, cloudy and windy all day. We all led the easy but worthwhile Titan as a warm-up: this takes a series of well defined grooves on the right of the wall. I then led Zeus at 6a+, a good route deserving a star. Steeper than the average low grade slate climb, some nice crisp moves lead up the wall to a pronounced crux. I initially attempted this to the left up tenuous smears before moving right where a few pulls on small holds gain a huge jug and easy climbing to the finish. Slightly soft for the grade but the grading here is at least more accurate than some of the absurdly overgraded new routes nearby. Mick then led a rather scruffy route, supposedly 5c, up the blunt arete of dolerite which leads to a slab. This was pleasant enough but massively overgraded: it would be 4 in Provence. Emerging from the gorge, I led The Gargoyle, also at f6a+. This is an interesting and varied route, slightly unnerving in places. It takes an easy slab to good moves left round the obvious arete before a very sharp and balancey crux move to gain the 'gargoyle', a jutting piece of slate below a hanging groove. The expected jug isn't there, so pinch holds and a high step are needed to straddle the feature (a novel and vaguely alarming move) and pull up into the groove. It remains awkward above, but not hard. Mick led two simple routes on the main face, both massively overgraded (really f4) and Vic finished with the pleasant detached slab of Fresh Air, which I've led a couple of times before. We just had time for the dash down to Nant Peris and a coffee before the second part of the afternoon began.