Craftnant Invaders

A team of English invaders headed up to Craftnant today. Sausage had a good day flashing Wonderwall and ticking Cruella and Grasswind and a ten minute ascent of Special K. Jordan then flashed Special K! Sausage said 7b for Wonderwall and Cruella. Wonderwall probably will feel 7b if you can lock off on small crimps on a steep wall but i reckon most 7b climbers would have a tussle with it post break. It would be v10 in hueco thats for sure. Good to see the place getting some attention.

Hard Week

Phew, i had another hard week out on the crags. Wednesday was spent bolting a 20 metre line. It took me 4 hours straight to clean and bolt it. I spent hours smashing any suspicious looking bits of rock with the peg hammer until they fell off. It is a nice crag but needs a fair bit of cleaning. The next day i almost came to a sticky end trying to get to the top of a mini crag i found. I tried to get established in a easy looking gully but it was too wet and slippy so i ended up yarding up a steeper wall aping between tree branches. I ended up staring at the top with a committing move about 8 metres up. I was about to stand up on the wet footholds when i had a reality check and realised i was about to kill myself just to get to the top of a little craglet and it probably wasn't worth it. I awkwardly got my harness on and abbed off a tree, idiot! Then i took my harness off and walked to the top round the other side, idiot! Then i went to meet Norm at Three Degrees crag. I hadn't been here since that day with Robins and was keen to tick the rib project now that my skin was better. I put two bolts in my 6b+ Ivan the Responsible as it was a bit run-out then got on my route. First RP i cocked it up then i got it next go. The name is Jumbo Loving (cos we all like a bit of Jumbo Loving!) and its probably 7c. I really this route despite it not really being my style. I was pleased as i was a bit stronger than 2 weeks ago so some small progress. Just got to get the route to the right now in a month or two and all the bolted lines will be complete. Finished off with Clitoris Allsorts 7a+ which is defo a mini classic. I have continued to train at night, did a night of pull ups and two sessions on Gorgy's board which i'm really into. I haven't had any real love for overhanging bits of wood for years and it would be very handy if i got some sustained love now as this is the best way to get really strong. And if you're enjoying yourself and into the climbing it doesn't even feel like a hard slog that you have to force yourself to do. Being psyched for board climbing is basically cheating! I spose its good now because i've got so much more improvement to come to get back to normal. Motivation might be a bit harder to come by when i eventually plateau at den 7b like usual. Today i was out with Tony at my little craglet i found. Despite being fairly small i have a soft spot for this place as it is my first crag discovery. I spent hours knocking off a lot of loose blocks of the top of the crag, as i get clearing them more were revealed underneath. They weren't on the routes but you have to get the top of the crag as free of loose rock as possible to ensure the safety of others. I eyed up 3 nice little routes and Tony bolted a couple. My unspectacular little crag:


I've bolted 12 lines this year already. For those of you wondering why i've bolted so many and only climbed 5 of them well the answer is that a few of them are slightly wet (it is February after all); a few are a little to hard for my current abilties and also i want to get as much bolted as i can before the next bout of work so i don't have to spend my weekends drilling when i want to be climbing. Right time for a weekend of culture and relaxation. I've started having dreams about drilling rock so will be good to do something else!

Craftnant Circuit

Back in 2003 i went up to the Craftnant valley with the old king to go trad climbing. We got to the base of the cliff (can't remember name) and i was eyeing up a steep e2/3 cracky thing (Phoenix??). Truth be told though i couldn't really be arsed. It was cold and windy and my attention was caught by the nearby boulder field. We went for a mooch and it turned out to be quite a big boulderfield. It seemed to have some potential despite the many horrific landings. I returned with the Cattells to try the line that was to become Wonderwall. They did the moves before me (or course!) and were chomping at the bit to climb it but were holding back to allow me the first ascent. Talk about pressure! It was my pride and joy at the time although these days its not really what i look for (nice line but fucking sharp). I gave it a ridiculous grade of V7 (it was harder). We returned with Katzy who bagged Cruella (7b/+). Danny did Grasswind at 7c which is a very nice problem and one of the only good landings there. I returned a few more times and did a few more problems. Last year i took floppy Chris up there and he was jumping around like a kid in the sweet shop spotting hard lines. He started going up with Nodder and others and many of the remaining problems were polished off including these hard beauties:
Special K
My Own Private Idaho

So its seems that its a bit of a venue now with loads of problems. A video of mine has been on the Beardown Productions site for years but someone asked me about it today so i uploaded it to youtube. Along with Nodders vid of a few of the newbies here it is:

New Stuff:


Old Stuff:

Footage

I was trawling through the archives when i came across some footage of my strongest moment of last year. I remember i had just come up from finishing bolting The Big Crunch on LPT and was expecting to be completely knackered but in actual fact felt really light and had a new high point in the Cave. Such sustained hardness seems alien now but its some inspiration to look back on.

Bolt Stuff

We will hopefully have some new areas opened up on the Orme soon as some of the banned areas are reassessed by the council with the input of BMC access rep Elfyn Jones. This means a lot of re-equipping. Check out Raymondos article about lime stuff Here. Donations mean safe routes and new areas so keep donating.

Jesus it has been pissing down here for days now. The coast is wet but not as wet as the hills. Driving to Plas-y-Brenin last night it felt like all hell and damnnation was raining down on me. Had to go home the long way round as a car and driven into a river across a flooded road and got stuck. After a late start i headed out for a mooch about. Bolted one and a half routes and went to gorgy's board which i managed to climb on for over an hour all on my own! I never could of been arsed to climb inside on my own last year. All my projects have given me a desire to improve and reach mediocrity!

Ormesman of the Week: Rowland Edwards - Early Activist.

Climbers had begun to sample the climbing on the Ormes by the late 60s but the first man to fully appreciate the potential of the place and take the bull by the horns was Rowland Edwards. Rowland was working at Plas-y-Brenin and started to make increasingly frequent trips to the Ormes in 1969. After climbing his first new route Gillies Groove on the Allotment on the Little Orme, Rowland embarked on a campaign of new routing and exploration in the area. As well as adding many free routes, Rowland established some long hard aid lines which would eventually significant free routes. 1970 saw him establish the line of Detritus on the Little Orme. This featured 200 metres of difficult climbing and took many years before it saw a free ascent from John Dunne. In 1972 Rowland also spent 16 hours establishing Wall of the Evening Light which would also gain classic status as a free route at 7b+. The best discovery during this period however was undoubtedly the magnificent Catell-y-Gwynt. This big imposing sheet of white limestone beneath the lighthouse on the Great Orme provided early inspiration to Rowland and co. The first route forged up the crag was Central Pillar which wasn't freed until 1983. In 1975 Rowland established New Dimensions on the Gwynt which was to gain classic status on a national level. Jim Moran used chalk on the 3rd ascent which some believed invalidated his ascent! How times have changed! Rowland returned the following year to make the first free ascent at E4. In 1976 Rowland became the first person to produce a guidebook to the area. He had planned to do one earlier but was threatened with legal action by Mostyn Estates who have owned most of the land in Llandudno for 500 years. This highlighted the fact that climbing on many of the crags in the area was still a contentious issue and significant access negotiations would be needed in the years to come. In the late 70s Rowland scaled down his activities in the area and after graduating as a teacher he moved to Cornwall to open a rock climbing school. Rowland eventually established his climbing school on the Costa Blanca where he is now based. His thirst for new routes hasn't subsided and with his son Mark he developed many new climbs in the area. Rowland kickstarted the new routing on the Ormes and showed the way to the locals who would eventually continue his good work.

Wake Up Call

Got out to the roof crag on Sunday after a night out on the sauce with some smelly climbers. I spent 45 minutes hanging on a bolt hacksawing a piece of metal sticking out the rock a bit close to my roof project (the saw was blunt!). This is a sign that the bottom of the crag was quarried. Then i bagged the FA of the diagonal grooves undercut route. This is really cool and weighed in at about 7b. It was quite a tussle in the end and the name is Three Stroke Norm (don't ask!!). Went to the Cave today to meet these aresholes:


It was a bit dark as a result of the temp increase but wasn't a total disaster. My strength is still a total disaster though and it took a visit to somewhere familiar to bring it home. I don't get a sense of how strong i am on new moves on a new route or down the Indy. In the cave every on every move i felt heavy and weak in every department. Even the old men Jim and Pritch burnt me off! For me being weak after a couple of month lay off is a different thing to being weak when you've actually been climbing. In 13 years i've only had more than 2 months off twice and the first was down to injury. Far from being disheartened i am quite optimistic and looking forward to getting anywhere back to my normal level. I have extra motivation as 3 out of my 4 bolted projects require a higher level of strength than i've got now. Plenty of reasons to gain strength. I really need to get to it now though and shock the body with some pull ups and fingerboarding.