One Rung at a Time
By Jim Gregson
Winter on the Black Ladders
The long cold winter of 2009-10 must have been a bit of an eye-opener for younger climbers in Britain who have lived only through a period of mild conditions. The winters of the late 1970's and mid-1980's were more favourable, at a time when advances in ice climbing technique and equipment were being consolidated.
Ysgolion Duon, the Black Ladders, was a coveted venue for adventures and was known to give good value in return for the effort to get there. Now the crags are seamed with modern buttress climbs, but even the classic gullies give excellent outings.
A day on the Ladders often started with a sort of crux - finding somewhere to park a car at Gerlan, without having to start from much lower down in Bethesda. Then it was up past the waterworks and on into Cwm Llafar. The next difficulty would be identifying and finding the foot of the chosen route, for by some geological oddity the lower reaches of the main gullies are not so deeply incised and in thick weather take a bit of locating.
Then there is the nomenclature. You'd think that a "Central" gully would be self-evident, but in my view the Central Gully of the Black Ladders is nowhere near the middle of the crag. It can't just be me, for I've met other climbers on other routes, who firmly believed they were doing Central. Nevertheless, it gives a very good climb. passing through impressive scenery. In the middle of the gully there is a cave with a hard exit, hard enough to give pause for thought to those vanity-flatterers who think "It's only Grade 111". If it can't be done direct there is another way, probably more interesting, by traversing left across the gully wall to climb a tricky groove for ten metres then traverse back right into the main line. If you get it right, you will find yourself above the cave for a romp to the top.
On the left of the crag lies Eastern Gully, another which runs out at its base into a mix of slabs and overhangs. Fortunately ice forms quite steeply over this lower stuff, so it is possible to get a very good technical pitch to begin the climb. I remember doing this climb on a day of non-stop snowfall so whether leading or following it all felt like untouched ground. After returning to the car with my companions, we found that the police had closed the A5 so we had a longer journey home via the coast.
When you can see it, the Pyramid Buttress is sensibly named. If you can see it, then you can also find Central Gully for it lies just to the right. Up the left side of the buttress runs Pyramid Gully. This can be started up ice formed on the slabby rocks to the left, but the initial steep icefall is the true line if it has formed. Snow leads up to where the big barrel-like mass of water ice rears up. Modern ice screws are probably easier to use now for protection on this section, but in the 80's we only had relatively small-bore Salewas which were not always reliable. My recollection of this pitch is a series of moves up and left to get onto the glassy frontage of ice, being too gripped to try to place another screw, then a few moments of terror as my frontpoint placements shattered to leave me suspended by axe and hammer alone. Some frantic kicking reattached me to the ice, to move up as rapidly as possible to a safe snow ledge at the top of the pitch to calm down. Somewhere in this section I also recall clipping a krab and sling into an ancient, rusted square-section channel peg which protruded its twisted length for some way out of a crack. The rest of the gully is easier, but the surroundings are very fine, especially on a fine day.
Of course, amongst my pals, we all wanted to do Western Gully. True to its nature on the Ladders, it doesn't really reach the bottom of the crag as a well-defined gully, but once it gets the right idea it's a beauty. That being the case, it's a crowdpuller, so as well as the need for a parking spot, the walk-in, and a clear identification, you need an early start to avoid the queue.
I climbed it with my wife. The footprints in the lower slopes looked fresh, and as we roped up voices sounded from above. They didn't all sound relaxed. As we climbed up the lower ice, another, odder, sound persisted for a while. After some seconds an ice hammer rattled down past us, no longer attached to its owner. There was some swearing from above. We proceeded further up the gully, then were surprised once more when a climberless crampon skittered down. More, sustained swearing. (A long time afterwards I learned that this tackle had belonged to Trevor Jones who had been climbing with Les Brown. Trevor himself told me that he'd found Western harder than Point Five).
Wary about looking up now, I tackled the next pitch. Some people go right, up and back left here, but there is a very steep confined groove which can be climbed. Not easy, but it puts you into the big cave. My wife found following this quite hard, and being unable to swing her axe easily, slotted it away under a rucksack strap and used just a short hammer and a mittened hand. I was impressed. The cave leads to the crux, which is a thinly iced slab, sometimes needing a peg or two, which has to be climbed to regain the gully above the roof of the cave. We had caught up the tail end of the queue, so to save time I asked the last lad to take an end of my rope with him for my wife to follow, then I could come last and remove the rock pegs. Nice friendly cooperation. All this took time and the afternoon wore on.
Leading again higher up, I puzzled for some time at how to surmount a big rounded boulder blocking the full width of the gully, a veritable iced-up mammoth's arse. Once my wife was past this and we'd waited for the other party to overcome it, we set off up between the soaring gully walls. Daylight dimmed rapidly and before we were ready for it nightfall overtook us. There was no further difficulty as we passed up through the summit towers, massively rimed. Unexpectedly a big moon suddenly rose over the ridge of the mountain and we were spared the hassle of rummaging in sacks for headtorches. We'd had a great day.
There remained the bundling up of stiffened ropes and the descent to Gerlan after climbing over the summit of Carnedd Dafydd. By car headlight we all reclaimed our own bits of gear from the mixed up pile, then rushed to the warmth of the Bethesda chippy to refuel - it must have been a Saturday. There are nowadays many more and much harder climbs on the Black Ladders, but even the old ones are worth the effort. Croeso.
