Classic Welsh 'Hard Severe' Climbs

What a glorious day to be climbing in North Wales! Not a cloud to be seen! Between various other things, I managed to fit in two classic 'hard severe' grade multi-pitch climbs in two different valleys! My foot is still aching, so kept the walking to a minimum and kept the grades at a respectable 'Hard Severe'. I'd not climbed in the Llanberis Pass for quite a while, so took advantage of an early(ish) start to climb on Dinas Mot with Kirsty, while it was still catching the morning sunshine. 

The views down the pass were perfect and we could even watch climbers opposite on Dinas Cromlech from the belays.

We climbed a route called 'The Cracks' (HS, 4c), which has some great (if a little bold in places) climbing with a bit of a sting in the tail at the top. To begin with, we were roasting hot and set off up in t-shirts. A cold wind was blowing down the pass and higher up, when we lost the sunshine, the shade became bitterly cold. In fact, I was shivering so hard by the time we reached the top that I almost shook myself off the top mantel shelf moves! One long 60m abseil down the east gully soon had us back in the sunshine though where we quickly warmed up. In fact, we warmed up so much that we went down to Llanberis for ice creams.

After getting a few jobs done, I joined Tim in the Ogwen valley for a quick ascent of a route called 'Tennis Shoe' (HS, 4b) on Idwal Slabs. We decided to climb as light and fast as we could, so used a single 40m rope and a small rack.

The shadows of the Devil's Kitchen were just reaching the bottom of the cliffs as we arrived, so we had to move fast to stay in the sun. After the first few pitches, we caught up another team, so broke off across the slab to join 'Ordinary Route'.

Being a lower grade, we decided to speed things up by moving together all the way to the top. It's amazing how fast we moved, without having to stop for belays.

Before long, we'd ascended the route, descended the path and were walking out of the cwm, while Tryfan glowed orange beside us in the sunset. A great day to be climbing in North Wales indeed.