Winter Sun

On December 7, 2013 by Tim Neill

Most of my friends have been away enjoying Catalunian limestone….. climbing loads of perfect sport routes they can’t remember the names of 🙂

I’ve been making the most of home…..

So, not the usual winter sun but some occasional local stuff. In between some fun work and CPD type stuff like the British Mountain Guides Trainers Conference I’ve been making the most of being at home before a month in Patagonia. Except for a few days down in S Devon and at Swanage the local crags have been quite dry (if a little nippy on the pinkies).

Zuma….South Devon classic pumper! photo Keith Ball

This has included doing lots of the old classics and favourites at Tremadog (as well as doing all the routes I’d done before on Vector Buttress I joined in with some friends trying the famous Strawberries…will try with gusto next spring). We discovered a few gaps at Craig y Castell along the road ( http://news.v12outdoor.com/2013/12/05/spinor-e4-6b-%e2%80%93-another-new-line-on-craig-y-castell/, and http://news.v12outdoor.com/2013/12/03/tales-of-suspense-e4-6a-new-routes-on-craig-y-castell/), good fun.

Some fun and safe new ground at Tremadog photo John Orr

Heading into less safe new ground…. photo John Orr

My friend Graham Frost was over from Switzerland and as he was missing the seaside we had a fun day climbing on a soapy November Main Cliff and Red Walls at Gogarth…the crags were strangely empty!

“The wet holds are still the same size even when you can’t feel your fingers”…winter Red Wall mantra…photo Mark Walker (cold belayer)

A big gap left of the classic Joe Brown line Tensor…photo Steve Long

Finally, a little while back I helped Pat Littlejohn remove some retro bolts from one of his old classic E5s at Craig Arthur near Llangollen. http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=68535 Without getting into the infinitely complicated background, Pat was understandably upset that someone had spoiled one of his very stylishly done first ascents, so we did our best to repair the damage and repair the rock with resin, dust and lichen. I’ll go back in spring to make sure it’s all ok. All I would say is that it’s easier to write armchair points of view on an internet forum than do something about it…..