Well, what a difference a day makes. Thursday was a beautiful cold crisp day but due to the conditions on the high mountains we stayed low and walked from
Betws y Coed to
Penmachno. We covered navigation skills and finished off at about 7 p.m. in the pub in
Penmachno.
Friday was horrendous - full on thaw and strong winds. I decided that a shorter walk was in order so we travelled from Capel Curig to Ty Hyll via Llyn Crafnant and Llyn Geirionnydd.
I was climbing with Rich today who had travelled all the way from Bristol to take advantage of the fantastic winter condition we have at the moment. It was relatively quiet today with most people spread across a good selection of routes. Afon Ifan (Idwal Stream) II/III, South Gully IV, Central Route III, Chicane Gully III, The Ramp II, The Screen III/IV, The Devils Pasture III and The Devils Cellar IV were all in condition and climbed today. We climbed The Devils Cellar IV (with the direct start V) and Central Route III both of which were in fantastic condition.
The photo is of Rich on the direct start of The Devils Cellar (V).
Went out with Steve today to have a look at Tryfan. I must say the most difficult part of the day was the condition of the snow - it was very much one step up and 2 or 3 steps down. The snow was very unconsolidated with no base. We think we managed to squeeze a new route between Green Gully and Deffing out the Ben which was about grade 5 up to the point were we had to retreat due to a lack of time (the condition of the snow was really time consuming) but it looked like we would have finished up Green Gully anyway. I think we'll wait for better conditions before returning. A good day out though.
I was surprised how little ice there was around today. We had an early start this morning but by the time we got to the bottom of the Black Ladders Andy wasn't feeling very well so we changed plans and went for Crib Lem via David instead. By the time we got to the start of the ridge Andy was suffering badly so we decided that the strong wind and spindrift wouldn't help matters so we decided to head for home.
There were loads of people out today but I guess most of them would be aiming at the mixed routes or just going for a walk. It wasn't freezing that hard up high and as we descended we encountered rain.
I'm almost free from my family commitments so I'm hoping that the conditions remain long enough for me to have some fun in the white stuff!
I wish you all a very Happy New Year.
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i bawb.
Hwyl
Berwyn
I had the smaller group today and we decided to go up Yr Elan (962m). We covered navigation and some confidence roping in descent. It wasn't so windy today compared to yesterday but it was still a lovely day with a fair bit of wind chill. The photo is of the group with the summit of Yr Elan in the background.
I was working with a group from London this weekend who ran the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme in various schools and organisations around the Richmond area.
I went up Carnedd Dafydd (1044m) from Gerlan with a group of 7 and looked at group management and navigation whilst George took a small group of 4 up Crib Lem to look at security on steep ground and rope work.
Although it was dry the conditions were testing as the wind chill was calculated as about -27 degrees C. The ground was frozen from about 800m and the snow patches were solid.
Had a busy week at the Beacon this week it would have been even busier if it wasn't for the atrocious weather over the last couple of weeks. 'How could the weather effect an indoor climbing wall' I hear you say, well simple - you have to get there in the first place. I had a Climbing Wall Assessment scheduled to take place on Wednesday but the candidates, who were all from the same centre failed to negotiate the floods so they have had to postpone the assessment until Monday. The remainder of the week was spent running an in house staff training course at the local leisure centre climbing wall and in the evening I was running a NICAS induction course for local instructors. I did manage to run a CWA assessment yesterday even though the weather was grim everyone turned up for the course and they all passed. We were running another CWA assessment today but Leo (our new centre manager) was directing that one so that I could have a day off to shovel 2 tonnes of gravel - joy! Nice day today but looks like it's going to be wet again over the weekend. Still no sign of winter down here.
I ran a CWA training course over the weekend for 5 candidates at the
Beacon Climbing Centre. We covered subjects such as warming up, games, group management and belaying techniques we also covered leading and everyone took part in the Abseil and Top Rope Module on the Sunday afternoon.
