It's not often that we purposely try and seek out a rock climb in the shade around these parts, but believe it or not, climbing in the full sun would have been toasting today. The morning shade on Milestone Buttress at the base of Tryfan was the perfect temperature and thanks to a light, warming breeze, completely midge free. Given the recent dryness, we went to climb (the usually soaking wet and greasy) 'Sopagut' HS (4b), while it was in the unusual condition of being bone dry and covered in crispy lichens.
To make more of a day of it, we linked up 'Wall Climb' V.Diff, which starts below and right of the corner of Soapgut, then traversed across to the base of the next route. Although there were some chalky handprints leading the way at first, it felt like the routes had not been climbed in a very long time (they are usually wet!). In the dried-up moss on a ledge, we found the traces of man's passing... albeit some years ago! Amazing how the metal 'gate' had simply rusted away to nothing!
The climbing was all excellent and we were having a great time...
Below the final pitch - where we were linking into another route called 'Chimmney Climb' Severe (4a), we were surprised to feel a few drops of rain. Feeling like it would amount to nothing, we huddled in on the ledge and waited as a small shower fell and then almost instantly the rock dried off.
Once it had dried off, I set off up the final section of climbing. The skies were darkening now, so I was about to get a shift on, when the next deluge arrived, followed shortly after by a big peel of thunder! Not good. Within sixty seconds, there was water pouring down the rock face, making it unclimbable - our only way off now was to retreat!
Back at the stance, we re-sorted the ropes and made one big abseil back to the base of the cliffs...
From down on the ground, we watched the storm roll on down the valley and turn north at Ogwen Cottage. Amazingly, having since heard from friends in nearby Idwal, the storm missed them completely as it was funnelled down the Nant Ffrancon towards The Cottage! They just watched it go right on by without even getting wet! Once it had passed, we got ourselves dried out, then had a slight mini-adventure as one of our ropes had become stuck after the abseil. A bit of scrambling, bushwacking and moss grabbing ensued, but it was soon sorted out and before long we returned, semi-dry back down to the van.
We took the 'alternative' way home, past the sheep, cows and a few other friendly inhabitants...
And as the temperatures were so good, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to cool off at our swimming hole...
Most refreshing it was. The only trace of the recent storm were the huge puddles in the road.
By the time we reached Coed y Parc, the sun was fully back out (although there was 14mm of rain in the gauge) and we were able to dry off the rest of our kit, while enjoying some fresh coffee and banana pancakes at The Cottage Cafe. Crazy weather, brillinat day out...
Milestone Buttress:
- Wall Climb, V.Diff
- Soapgut, HS (4b)
- Chimney Climb, S (4a) - Abandoned! (Rap point from belay spike)
No comments:
Post a Comment