So here we are in Jo and Catrin’s place in Abergele, North Wales, enjoying a cold beer after two great days of climbing. Although, for a while, it looked like the rain gods were going to stop us.

Despite a good forecast, we drove up the Llanberis pass yesterday and were met by driving horizontal rain. Great. Undeterred, we continued down to Tremadog, home of the last hopes of the rain-soaked Snowdonia climber. Fortunately for us, Tremadog came good again – time to climb!

I must confess that I wasn’t so pleased about going to Tremadog. I have never really got on with the place, as it requires a certain style and finess, which I don’t have. Nevertheless, I ‘warmed up’ with a lead of Falcon on Craig Pant Ifan. It gets E1 5b in the old guide, but it was continuously interesting and sustained, and I wasn’t surprised (and was actually quite pleased) to see that it has been upgraded to E2 5c in the North Wales select guide.

Another upgrade in the select guide is Vulcan, from E3 to E4. PJ tied on to try it, but backed off, and frankly I don’t blame him – it’s nails!! Jo picked up where PJ left off and led it to the top (10 years after he first did it) and I followed, sweating and cursing the whole way. Great route; just bloody hard :D

Then after failing on Pincushion E2 (we’ll gloss over that), and spending a night in the CC hut in Llanberis, we hit the slate today. Highlights for me were onsighting Heading the Shot, which used to get E5 but now is officially given sport 7a. Personally I thought the bolts were too far apart for it to be called a sport route, although it’s almost certainly not E5. E4 6b would be my guess. The climbing is excellent, though really thin.

Finally we dropped down to Never Never Land where I onsighted Kubla Khan E4 6b. I was dead chuffed as it’s the first ‘respectable’ E-grade that I’ve managed this trip, and sad as it sounds, that does make a difference. Jo had a good day too as he made a great lead of ‘Short Stories’ – three bolts in 25m makes it well worth the E4 grade!!

So now PJ and I leave the Land of my Fathers and head east to England. The Roaches tomorrow, and either Stanage or Millstone on Saturday. Can’t wait!

This morning I said to my Mum, “I’m so glad I’m not in Barcelona, because the weather is nice and cool here”. So, of course, today both PJ and I went and got sunburnt!

The weather today was spectacular, and Pembrokeshire was at it’s very best – although it did mean the climbing conditions were a bit greasy and hot. St. Govan’s head was shut by the army today (it’s an army firing range) so we backed up the car and resorted to Plan B: Mother Carey’s Kitchen.

Mother Carey’s (or “Mother Scary’s”, as it’s also known!) has a deserved reputation for being quite a serious cliff. It is a little loose, quite committing, and all none of the routes are soft touches. PJ started up with the excellent The Straight Gate E1, and I ticked the fine arete of Herod E2, great climbing and position, but a bit little blocky and hollow.

Then we tackled the classic E3, Zeppelin. With the tide approaching high-water, it was a quite committing to ab in – sea-cliff climbing at it’s purest. We took a hanging belay off the Rock-Idol ledge and traversed in, to ensure I wouldn’t get wet feet. Zeppelin gets E3, but with the greasy conditions it felt much harder and PJ took a spectacular fall, fortunately onto good gear and into clear air – it’s really steep. Next time he had more luck and we topped out in the evening sun with the satisfaction of having had a bit of an adventure.

Tomorrow is a rest day, so we’re pleased that it’s forecast to rain. We’re driving up north and meeting Jo in Abergele. I spoke to him on the phone just now, and he said that he also took a whipper on Zeppelin when he tried it, which made us feel a little better!

Despite plenty of fog around this morning, we jumped in the car and headed west, and pretty much as soon as we reached Pembrokeshire, the the sun came out. Grand.

PJ warmed up on Test Case, a great E3 at St Govan’s, which is pretty soft touch so good for warming up. I seconded it but found it harder than I remember it being. So I promptly ignored the warning messages and got straight on Test Case, a not-so-easy E3. Greasy conditions saw me slip off a rest hold after the crux, and take a sizeable fall. Rats. I got back on and reached the top, but I shan’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed, I felt robbed.

After a short break, we abbed back down, and PJ, after looking briefly at the classic E5 crack, Get Some In, decided on the slightly easier No Man’s Land, E4 5c. It was a fantastic route, really steep, no particularly hard moves, but it kept coming at you!. Then I finished the day off with War Crime, an absolutely fantastic, juggy E2, which my cramping arms barely managed.

So a great day, but I’m already pretty exhausted, and but I’m not sure if I’m looking forward or dreading going back tomorrow!

So I’ve been slack on the blog updating front recently…that’s cause I haven’t been climbing!! But now I’m back, and, most importantly, I’m back in Britain!

This week, PJ and I are doing a road trip around Wales and a bit of England, giving PJ a taste of the British Trad climbing!

Our plan is roughly as follows:

Today and tomorrow = Pembroke: We’re staying with my Ma and Pa Evans at the moment in Swansea, which means a little more driving, but a comfortable bed and nice food in the evenings! I’m going soft…

Tuesday – drive to North Wales, maybe an evening on Llanberis slate. I have my eyes on Poetry Pink on the Rainbow Slab. We’ll see. On Tuesday night we are guests with Jo and family in Abergele.

Wednesday-Thursday: Jo has taken these two days off and so will be joining us to climb in North Wales. No firm plans yet but maybe some sort of adventure up on Cyrn Las, with The Skull? Maybe a day on Scimitar Ridge? Maybe even up to cloggy if it’s dry? We’re staying a night in the CC hut in the pass, and then thursday night back in Abergele.

Friday – drive to the Peak, climb at the Roaches. I have a loong ticklist of slabs there: Elegy, Smear Test, the Swan, Chalkstorm, Track of the Cat, Wings of Unreason etc. Friday night we meet up with Ian, Paul, Fran and Kenny to camp.

Saturday – one of the eastern edges. Probably somewhere like Curbar or Millstone. I should imagine that Stanage will be heaving. Another night in the campsite.

Sunday – lazy morning, maybe a bit of bloddering, drive to airport, home to BCN.

Sounds fun, huh?!

Yesterday we had a quick afternoon on Gower to warm up. PJ did the classics Isis (HVS) and Lazy Sunday Afternoon (E2), and I ticked one of the few routes I hadn’t yet done on Fall Bay Buttress, Seth. It starts up Osiris/L.Sun.Aft. before splitting off right and up a nice crack. It gets E1 5c but at that grade it is a total sandbag, I reckon in another part of the world it would be soft E3!! (Gower is reknowned for it’s stiff-grades – small man syndrome reaction to Pembroke I reckon!)

The tide had come in, and with Yellow Wall still bird-banned, we walked over the other side of the headland to Trial Wall at Rhossili. Very different in style, a smooth quarried wall with some fingery routes. I did the Adulteress E2, which I’d be meaning to do since I saw it on the cover of the 91 guide (20 years ago! – I started climbing a few months after that guide was released!) , and PJ did the semi sport route next door, Blackman’s Pinch. It gets E4 but with a couple of bolts protecting the two cruxes, it feels more like 6c/+. Disappointingly, I fell off when following him, which doesn’t bode too well for the rest of the week!

So, off to Pembroke today, in theory, but would you believe it, it’s raining…

Managed a shortish evening hit the other night with Chris, and made a fairly wise choice considering the conditions – it was boiling.  The Little Orme has a fairly small scrap of rock which is conveniently North facing and home to two great routes…  I climbed the classic E3 – Hole of Creation – many years ago with Toby Keep, and had a (very) brief thrash on The Magic Flute but it was fairly obviously too hard for me.   I got back there a month or so ago with Keith and was pleased to do all the moves and a couple of links, but a freezing wind and numb fingers prevented any proper redpoint attempts.   This time it was perfect with the crag in shade but warm.

Quick warm up on Hole of Creation – Chris leading:

The Magic Flute is the tufa on the right of this photo, with the top bolt just visible.  This point marks the crux, with your left hand on a shit pinch / crimp on the thin section of tufa in the photo, crimping an intermediate with your right before slapping out rightwards onto an undercut flake.  There is a rest of sorts after this, then a couple of tricky moves to the belay.  To reach this point involves some classic and sustained tufa-style pinching and swinging around… could have been Kalymnos, except that the whole route is only 10m long!

Anyway, onto the main event – Chris just before the hard moves:

We both ballsed-up the first redpoint, Chris because he wasn’t concentrating and me because I didn’t really know what I was doing; at least I got a good sequence down.   Short rest, and no mistakes next time for Chris.  I then found myself in a very familiar place, contemplating another day here, with the terrifying walk in and another partner, again!  Thankfully I heeded a very useful bit of advice and left my bloody chalk bag on the ground… without this distraction I got up and out onto the rest much quicker.  I was still dipping like an idiot behind my back after this though!  Very nice to get a 7c done, they don’t come often.  Very motivating too, for OTMD, which i’m starting to get quite psyched for.

Finally got on an 8a the other day and you know what?  Didn’t feel too bad. The route in question is Over the Moon Direct, a bit of a classic at LPT (where else?).  Sussing the moves was definitely helped by having beta provided by Keith, who has been working the route a fair bit.  However, being a bit shorter (and stronger!) than me, he’s able to walk through the lower crux and struggles a bit more on the final section, whereas I found the opposite to be true.  I just about managed all the moves in isolation though, so quite pleased. The tough moves low down involved a big crucifix-style span to catch and move off a crozly pinch.  I could fairly easily replicate this on my garage board, which got me thinking… is it very sad to train specifically for a mere 8a in this way? Probably, but what the hell.  I’m not getting any younger!

Well, that was a pretty good trip by any standards – 4 days of sport climbing in top Spanish venues and the main aim of Fiesta de los Biceps getting a good honest Welsh Crushing!  This route has been on my wish list for a good few years and had aquired fairly epic qualities in my mind, thankfully the reality proved to be more amenable… But still quite scary! Nice to see that Britain’s greatest also felt it a worthy route (see Steve McClure thoughts here)

I would agree with Steve’s grade rating – I have seen the steep 6th pitch given variously 6c+ and 7a, but i’m sure off the deck it wouldn’t rate more than 6b+.  It is however, very steep and very exposed and it’s fair to say I was shitting it! How those holds stay put i’ll never know – many are roughly the size and shape of rugby balls, supported by just the point at one end.  There’s no option other than just yarding on them, telling yourself that everyone else has done the same.

This is the view looking up at the route with Alun finishing the first pitch – pretty well chalked line as you can see!

This is me seconding the fifth pitch (I think):

And nearing the belay…

Alun looking pleased with himself!

The next photo is the super steep pitch near the top… We suddenly felt a bit dumb for not bringing any pruissiks! The other climber in the photo is Max (or PJ?), friends of Alun’s from Barcelona who were climbing a route that crossed ours and finished with a F7b roof at the top of the Visera:

Alun’s comment: Look at the rope below me – there was hardly a breath of wind on the day, and yet that rope is hanging free, 10s of metres away from the cliff! That’s how steep it was. Also, what Jo politely doesn’t mention was that, upon starting to second him up this pitch, my left arm cramped completely and just locked up involuntarily! After a couple of minutes of mild panic where I thought I would have to climb the pitch with one arm, the blood started flowing into my cold muscles and things got better. I still had to dog my up to the belay though – a clean ascent of La Fiesta still awaits me. Jo, of course, had no such troubles, so at least Team 8amyarse got the tick!

Unfortunately, back at Rodellar base camp, our big-number ambitions had to be shelved for another year as the rain came pouring down… one day I will climb at Las Ventanas but this time we had to settle for Siurana, no great hardship in the scheme of things! We ended up totally trashed with shredded skin and, despite both of us onsighting/flashing 7b and onsighting a hatful of 7as, for our efforts we were rewarded with a display that confirmed (as if it were needed) that we reside well and truly in the realms of bumbly-punterdom: this is a photo of Max casually cruising a F8b, first redpoint… Bastard!

Every spring for the last couple of years, Jo (8amyarse.com’s North Wales representative) has made the trip over to Catalunya for a long weekend of sunny bolt-clipping. Two years ago, we conquered the Cavall Bernat (see the celebratory video here), and last year we had a succesful trip to Rodellar, just over the border in Aragón, with Jo ticking a 7b+ and me redpointing my first ‘proper’ 7b. This year, Jo is coming back out here for more – as long as the airports aren’t shut again by volcanic ash! Although last year’s trip was great, we were having so much fun in Rodellar that we actually bailed out on one of our initial goals, which was to go to Riglos, a short drive from Rodellar, and do a route called La Fiesta de Los Biceps.

‘Biceps’ is reknowned as being one of the best routes in the whole world (quite literally). It is about 8 pitches long, and the final five pitches overhang at about a consistent 20ish degrees. The beauty is that the rock at Riglos is large-stone conglomerate (my non-technical term for it) which basically means that there is an abundance of enormous jugs, allowing ‘Biceps’ to get to the top at a relatively amenable grade of 7a. Everybody I know who’s done it, and everything I’ve ever read about it, all agree: it is a must-do route!

The only worry I have is that once you get past the first overhanging pitch, there is no way down, so in actual fact it is quite committing. However Jo tells me that he is redpointing 7b+ fairly easily at the moment, and I have been onsighting 7a consistently over the last few months (and have also bagged a couple of soft 7b+s), so hopefully between us we shouldn’t have too much trouble. Go to this link here to see tons of photos of the route (and, if you’re Spanish is up to scratch, read about it too).

My other goal on the trip is to have a go a a route called Pince Sans Rire in Rodellar. It is an uber-classic 7b+ that climbs two perfect tufas, up steepening rock. Apparently it is a reasonable proposition for 7b+, “but only if you’re fit”. WTF?! We’ll see, I reckon Jo will tick pretty easily, but maybe not me. There is also a nice 7c called Egocentrismo that Jo had his eye on last year. Apparently he thought it looked quite amenable, whereas I thought it looked nails. I guess we’ll find out!

Jo arrives on Friday morning earlyish, so the plan is to drive direct to Rodellar, have an easy afternoon on Friday and set up camp, go to Riglos and tick Biceps on Saturday, have an easy day on Sunday, then try and tick some things on Monday. Jo flies out on Tuesday morning. I’m knackered just thinking about it!

I was back ‘proper’ climbing again last weekend, and it felt great. We went to Espadelles,  a jaw-dropping sector at Margalef. Recently, Margalef has been featured a fair amount in the international climbing press as one of the four ’super-crags’ of Catalunya for hard routes (the others being Siurana, Oliana and Santa Linya). Last year when we were here, we saw Dani Andrada bolting a new route, Tomas Mrazeck knocking around, and Chris Sharma filming with the BigUp crew. Wow.

This year things were different, the crag was empty. At first I was a bit puzzled but by midday it was crystal clear why: Espadelles comes into the sunshine in the afternoon, and this weekend marked the opening weekend of the ’shady-climbing’ season here in Catalunya. Even though the temperature was only about 25 degrees, the sun is so much stronger here than it is in Britain, and so from now until October we’ll be hunting out the north facing crags.

Still, we had a morning’s worth of shade and after warming up I onsighted a 7a which was undoubtedly the easiest 7a I have ever been on. 6c+ methinks but as always I’ll take the tick! Afterwards I wanted a crack at a 7b but PJ was hogging it :) , so I tried a 7a+ further left (see photo) which, according to PJ and Max, is a classic. What they didn’t tell me was that it is also the living end of 7a+, so my onsight attempt ended pretty quickly. I worked it to the top and felt that, actually, it was 7b at least. Funny grading at Margalef.

So after a lunchtime snooze we all got back on the projects and went for the tick. However by this time the sun was out in full-force and conditions were crap, the heat was just so draining. After a few goes at the early crux of his 7b, PJ nalied the sequence and cruised up, before muffing the final sequence and falling within spitting distance of the chains. I got back on the 7a+ but couldn’t get through the crux sequence. I rested and had one more go but it was a waste of time, the sweat was dripping off my forehead and both hands and feet were slipping off. Max had a couple of cracks at an 8b which, like many routes at Espadelles, has a crux pretty much right off the ground. Unfortunately he didn’t have much luck, but he had onsighted 8a the day before, so I’ll let him off.

So no real ticks, but a good day was had by all nevertheless. Espadelles will have to wait til next season though. Shady crags, here we come!

Well thank god that Jo has been posting (with some great photos) because otherwise this blog would be a boring place. As it happen I’ve been pretty ill recently, struck down down by a serious dose of man-flu. The worst thing of all was that it meant I spent my easter weekend in bed feeling crap. Boring.
Anyway last week I was a bit better so I went up to the tunnel for a couple of sessions, but I wasn’t fully recovered so wasn’t on form. The good news is that I’m now pretty much 100% again, and so I’m off up to the tunnel to meet PJ and Max tonight.

This weekend there’ll be no climbing but hopefully next weekend I’ll get a whole two days in row. I really want to get to Montgrony because the tufas there should sharpen me up for team 8amyarse’s May trip to Rodellar!