North Wales Rock

Gogarth

With a gap in our itineraries me and Gordon hatched plans to head down to North Wales to bag some classic rock climbs and catch up with friends.
 I've spent a lot of time in North Wales before i moved to Scotland, and it always feels a little like going home, with some amazing friends based there it's always too long between visits.

Great climbing and great friends! Llanberis Pass

Whilst Scotland has a vast and varied amount of rock climbing, none of it is anywhere near as accessible, with the average walk-in time of 15 minutes, Snowdonia is the ideal place to dust off the cobwebs accumulated after the winter.

Gordon racking up

 I was hoping that i'd done enough winter climbing this year to have ticked over, but with not a huge amount of rock climbing last summer, but in truth i was feeling pretty rusty!
 Brilliant weather from our arrival day gave us an opportunity to target many of the classic VS routes of the Llanberis pass, our focus being on mileage. Llanberis pass is home to many routes of historic significance and offers some incredible, yet easily accessed mountain routes of all grades.

 We continued our week in much the same fashion, also visiting the crags at Tremadog, sharing days with our friends from North wales as well as a rendezvous with my friend Jon, who was visiting from Scotland and who runs All About Adventure, based out of Aberfeldy.
With sore skin and joints and an unfavourable weather forecast we decided to head home a day earlier than planned, but not before heading to Gogarth to bag one final mega-classic.

"A dream of white horses" is without a doubt one of the most iconic rock climbs in the UK, first climbed by Ed Drummond and Dave Pearce in 1968, "dream" is a highly coveted tick for any trad climber. The route as artistic as the poems Ed is also famous for.

Setting off to climb as a three with my good friend Bertie, we abseiled in to Wen Zawn, comitting ourselves to completion. Route finding is the crux of this classic, and right from the word go we were unsure of our path across the wall. After climbing a relatively short first pitch i built a belay and brought Gordon and Bertie to me, for Gordon to pick up the mantel on he traverse. The wind was building and with that part of the wall being in the shade the temperature was low. By the time we re-joined Gordon at the belay i was very, very cold. Thankfully, Gordon was happy to lead the remainder of the route, whilst i took photos and tried to warm my feet up. Even on second, falling isn't an option, and there is great potential for an epic, with a slip resulting in a huge swing to be left dangling in thin air. The position of the climbing here is incredible, traversing the sea cliff, around a corner and then over a huge sea arch!

Topping out into the sunshine after a great experience was the highlight of a great week of climbing in Wales, and a huge thanks to Gordon for the company, as well as everyone in Wales for their hospitality!