Annual Dinner - Royal Victoria, Llanberis

Climbing at Clogwyn y Tawr (the Gribin Facet)

Sunday 9th October 2016
Present:

Climbing:

Jim Symon and Craig Marsden
Nils Elgar and Elliot Brown
Bob Milward and Sean Kelly
Dave Wylie and Roger Dyke

Standing in the boulders taking the piss out of the climbers:-

Colin Maddison and Mary Stuart

Checking out the track to Idwal Slabs:-

Neville McMillan, driven on remorselessly by Jim & Sandy Gregson

A pleasant windless day, with lots of sunshine - on the other side of the valley.

Bob and Sean lacked a guidebook , but went up (probably) Slab Direct using Bob’s assortment of last-century Moac’s etc and a single 9mm which he assured us was no more than 20 years old and had been stored in a dark cupboard.  No other routes on the Gribin looked attractive, so they zipped over to the much-loved Tennis Shoe on Idwal Slabs, climbed it to the limit of the 165ft rope, abbed down Ordinary Route to the end of the rope and soloed the last 20 ft to the ground.

Nils and Elliot charged up Zig Zag Climb – and found the (right hand) top crack surprisingly hard for its Severe grade.  They should have borrowed Roger’s 1967 guidebook, which rates the whole route using the right-hand crack “Just Very Difficult”.  Or if the left-hand crack is taken, “excruciatingly severe”.  They weren’t enthused by Rockfax’s other offerings on the crag, so slipped away to enjoy Marble Slab on Bochlwyd Buttress, which lived up to its guidebook recommendation of ‘best quality pitch on this side of the crag’.

Jim and Craig, despite Roger’s warning that the top of the groove had been slippery in 1972, also tackled Zig Zag Climb. They had no problem with the groove (sticky rubber must make a difference) but like Nils and Elliot found the top cracks hard.  The rigours of the  “Just Very Difficult” or “Severe 4c” (or somewhere in between) behind them these intrepid mountaineers headed down.  On the descent, Craig slipped and seriously dislocated his thumb.  Very painful indeed.  A doctor walking up the track realised from all the bad language that Craig was hurt and bandaged up his hand with a spare panty-liner from her rucksack while Jim scooted back to the foot of the crag to collect their sacks.  

So, Ysbyty Gwynedd Sunday evening, then Warrington Hospital on Monday.  Quote: “The only thing that could have made it worse is if Colin and Mary had turned up.”  We hope it is soon more comfortable Craig.

Dave and Roger, armed with a guide book each and enough gear to equip a pursuits centre, settled on Gully & Slab, a 3-pitch Diff described as ‘an interesting climb’.   It was - mainly due to an error in the modern guide.   Reading ‘an intrepid swing is made onto the right wall’ inspired them to do just that, even though the moves were approaching 4a.   It took them into uncharted territory, and the start of an uninspiring second pitch wandering over large tumbled blocks.  [Yes, the old guide says left, and that would indeed have taken them onto a ‘quartz-speckled slab’.]   For the third pitch they found a super little traverse out to an exposed position with fine climbing at no more than Diff up a rib to the top of the crag – a finish that well made up for the poorer stuff below.  With 3 pitches of leading and a disco behind him, Dave headed for civilisation while Roger headed back to the middle of the crag to find a second for his aim for the day – to lead the first route he had ever climbed.  But everyone had gone to Bochlwyd, the Slabs, Ysbyty Gwynedd…  He should have soloed it – it was only a Mod.

Roger had left Neville with his new shoulder joint at Idwal Cottage around 11.30 to have a coffee at the Visitor Centre and a little potter around – the limited mobility of the new joint made walking a mile on flat ground a challenge of balance.  The concept of an idyllic, gentle day was ruined when Jim and Sandy found him and disregarding protests force-marched him up to Idwal Slabs and abandoned him there.   At this point the McMillan physique made a miracle recovery, and Neville not only made it back to the Centre but had enough spare energy to walk up the road to where Roger had left the car near Milestone.  Well, that’s made a substantial saving on gym and physio charges Neville.

Roger Dyke

Annual Dinner - Royal Victoria, Llanberis

Members: Sandy and Jim Gregson, Roger Dyke, Chris Thickett, Dave Wylie, Sheena Hendrie, Phil Hartwell, Michelle Harvie and Mark Garrod (9)

Guests: Francesca Hartwell (1)

Possibly the first time there have been 3 separate outdoor KMC activities organised and led on one day (not sure if it was totally deliberate, but what the hell). The alternative walk B met walk A at the bus stop; walk A continued on up Moel Eilio, and the bus continued up the pass without all of group B less Sandy and Jim, who were smugly watching us get turned back due to the overfull bus.

No issue – one enterprising taxi for 8 later, the rest of us arrived at Pen-y-pass to await Jim and Sandy’s arrival – that’s the trouble with buses – they keep stopping!

Walk B stayed intact as a group of 10 for approximately 1 minute; Sandy, Jim, Chris and Roger (B-1) deciding to head up the PyG track, the rest of us (B-2) heading for Llydaw and then Lliwedd. Ah well – 4 less to lose for the meet leader. Lliwedd attained in cloud, lunch had, a nice and relatively quiet day was then completely turned on its head as we met the Watkin Path, and then the normally quiet south ridge of Snowdon. The routes up, and especially the summit, were mobbed – we had never seen it so busy and it was only a cloudy day in October. Just to top it all, 3 large crosses arrived on the back of pilgrims.

We all quickly decided that this was way too busy – tranquillity was required and as soon as possible. So, off down the NW ridge over Cloggy, down to the col, and a slog up Moel Cynghorion – strange – where did all those people go?

Even when we got back to the road above Llanberis, the B meet leader managed to lose 4 others; M&M chatted to the cross bearers whilst the others (B-2-a) saw the chance to escape off down and out of sight, whilst M&M (B-2-b) took the short-cut through the woods. The full walk B team only reconvened at the bar (along with everyone else).  

Mark Garrod