[Hoseyb]

is this the massive roof pete? (pic off Baggy's blog)

[petejh]

Yeah that's it. Phots from the FA below - a bit thinner, hence why I belayed in the cave, and I was a bit scared!

[Hoseyb]

nice one! thanks. roof looks a bit to avoidable.. but might make a nice bimble. Surprised if it hasn't been wandered over.

[comPiler]

Tick Report - March
31 March 2015, 11:28 am

Well I guess I should start with the most significant news of March:



The scans have confirmed that No. 4 is not No. 4, 5 & 6... Sam's been wanting another one for a long time now, but after the Twins rocked our world, I was keen to wait until the boys were all in school full time. Super psyched as (shock horror) kids are cooler than climbing.. This has meant while Sam has been in the knackered, nauseous, and ...Irritable stage, my adventures have been curtailed to 4hrs each Monday and Friday morning. Now if the Welsh weather is not cooperating, then I get a little crabby myself. Its due in September so this will have to be factored into the planning, there will be a sweet spot in the summer where most success can be had.

First of the months adventures was a trip up to the Marchlyn Grit. Yep, seems the pillar's of Elidir are some upturned seabed, so its sedimentary folks. 34 mins up with pad and scooter. I used a bit of patio improvement to use as a warm up, its almost a one pad venue now. Sent the Tumbleweed stand and moved into trying to work the sitter. Remember the Welsh weather, and those limited windows of opportunity? well I went up in the spotting drizzle, which turned out to be snow at the boulder (the joys of 600m) this meant the easier warm ups were collecting snow and wet. Attempts on the direct sit were informative but ultimately useless, as while I did manage to get my bones off the ground, my flesh was still sat on the deck. It is quite hard, and involves core, opposition and compression off slopers. exposing new weaknesses to work on, and reminding me of old ones; namely marginal slopers.

It took 8-9 mins to get down with a pad on my back, but Logan's scooter took a battering in the process. I'd melted through the flimsy brake, and this had grooved the back wheel... Off to Ebay for some upgrades.. it was certainly fun pimping his ride..



But I couldn't keep hammering his scooter, so I bought my own!

The pimping bug still lingered, because I'd bought a budget model, and it was ace apart from the wobbly cheap headset. One upgrade later, not only had I learnt to replace a headset(using the freezer and a wooden mallet), but my scooter was smoking... Only 2.8 kg too. I can see that in a years time it may have few original parts, but like my grandfathers axe it will still be my old scooter...

The other events of the month was physio. I have passed up the chain, and now have a punishing regime to follow, made worse by my current golfer's elbow. I'm having to leave the core workout I've been promising myself until they've got a handle on my back issues, so no more progress at Marchlyn for a while (but some team trips may occur to clean up satellites). and I've been sacking off actual climbing until my elbows are under control.

So the Next Month:between body limitations and most of the month being the Easter hols, I'm limiting myself to three targets next month.

Tosheroon - There's a tide window lining up with my prescribed playtime on the 24th of April.

Non Climbing exploring - the Llugwy reservoir road needs the scooter test, and there might be some little gems left beyond the reservoir. I'm also doing some Clegir tours.

Twll Mawr - I'm super psyched to get this project done, especially as more sport has popped up on the back wall.

Watch this space.

Source: Hosey B

[comPiler]

Wild Wales with a Scooter
8 April 2015, 9:26 pm

Well sort of. I walked up a tarmac road and scootered down, but Cwm Llugwy is a wonderful solitary spot, apparently devoid of worthwhile bouldering, or so I'd been led to believe..



The tarmac road was steeper and straighter than the Marchlyn road, but felt less of a slogg. I think this was because I was enjoying the scenery.



Carreg Mianianog; home of lots of boulders of varying quality, with only 4 or so being recorded? it that little crag to the right part of Mianiog? It appears to have some good lines.... Not today's destination though.



The boulders below the Reservoir. I have been informed they are not worthy of note (apart from as a platform to jump into bog) however some look quite big? the wall is tall, and thats a 1.5 story shed in the background.

Nonetheless. I was keen to wander beyond the lake, to where the sceptics had't wandered and Bingmaps hinted. Secluding my trusty scooter, I contoured around the shorter (far)side of the Llyn.



Sneaking  look into the cwm (nice pool side craglet) the rock encountered was everything from dolerite, rhyolite, to stuff full of potatoes.... Curiouser and curiouser.



First Look. Its not Font. but boulders on dry ground (some not) some a good size (some not) and a real desire to drag a tent up here and cozy down.



Craig y Tri Marchog. called Craig yr ogof (the other one) in the guide I think. Looks dead good, and home to a couple more boulders I reckon.

So there we go, a wild place, in easy ascess of those with legs and Light luggage, and an opportunity to bag a wild boulder. Yes I think I will return....





Two Views of the same boulder.... Probably only 3m high.

The New scooter took a little battering, as the rear wheel got a little hot (its very steep) a more expensive wheel might help (the brake was fine this time), but its still going strong for now, just a little lessened in diameter. I was in a rush and didn't time the decent, but it was well under 10mins and involved 3-4 stiles....

Source: Hosey B

[fatneck]

Congrats of the imminent twin arrivals dude!!

[Hoseyb]

Its only one child this time, done twins, not sure about triplets. 4 kids will be enough me thinks. will see if I'm x - less at the next scan. (so far i'm potent in Y).

Checked the guide, an it seems the bluff to the right of mianog was not developed at the same time as the rest. Also, the guide book author seems to disagree with the OS map over most of the crag names and spellings....

[Oldmanmatt]

4 is plenty...

Waaayyyy too plenty!

Yesterday I had 7 kids and two dogs bouldering at bone hill.

I may never recover.

[Hoseyb]

its when the kids go bouldering too that it gets interesting.

So far I have been blessed by children that bounce, and bar a few weeks in Alderhey, rarely trouble the NHS.

the wonders of sudacrem and a plaster

[comPiler]

Back to Llugwy
17 April 2015, 10:46 pm

This morning I woke up with a cricked neck. However, it was Friday, and that means adventure day, regardless of owies, the sun was up and I was going out...

King Arthur's film set in full swing.. I decided to go up the Llugwy reservoir again, to give an appraisal of the "not worth it" boulders, hopefully find some worthwhile boulders (I'd brought my pad), and finally -Thrash the worn back wheel of the scooter to see if it'll last in its present state. Just inside the gate was a poor film guy in his landrover. He'd just installed this:



So the film guys can communicate with the mothership, and someone had in the meantime switched the locks on the gate! paranoia grips the waterboard... Maybe, anyhoo he was waiting patiently for the key holder...Target no. one. I surveyed the mighty field of boulders below the reservoir, and Low as was foretold.. They were a bit rubbish.

Next I ventured across to Booze buster buttress, as the crag just uphill from Mianog is apparently called



Bit more promise here with one steep face and a highball wall for those willing to venture



With damp feet I trudged uphill in search of Tarmac and was instead greeted with this:

Somewhat hidden in a re-entrant, a selection of not-that-rubbish boulders. by this point my neck was getting rather agitated with the straps of the pad and I wasn't sure I could even weight my shoulder, let alone climb. However, after all this bog trotting, there was no way I was going to walk away empty handed.

This is the Mop top boulder. Its very big, has a heather hair do, and is fairly overhanging on all sides, at least at its base.

I chose to kick off here with a couple of easy lines, this arete I climbed on both sides the one in the video is "Potato" and is about F6B, the right side has a lower start and is a bit easier. The name refers to the first big hold on the slab, a big potato.

Wandering out further up I came across this overhanging arete...



 At first I couldn't hang the starting holds without a series of minor explosions from my neck. A fair bit of stretching later, I set about working it. It was diminutive, but the move required a lot of grip and aggression. I ended up getting the first 2 moves, then flailed a lot starting in the middle before getting two overlapping halves. a good rest and time spent propping up my mobile phone meant it went down next go."Bog Trotter's Lament" is somewhere in the F6C to 7A region

Here are the main holds:



Took 20mins to get from the reservoir to the car, mainly because the wheel melted on the steepest bit, which led to some interesting fishtailing and a running stop. A more durable wheel is now in the post...



Source: Hosey B

[fatneck]

You should wear a cape Mark. It would look mighty fine billowing out behind you as you ride the tarmacadam...

[Hoseyb]

No Capes!

[comPiler]

Tosheroon - Opening this Year's Account
20 April 2015, 1:09 pm

Took a swift trip to Benllech today, as although the chances of getting a tide window was slim, it was sunny, and Friday may not be climbable..

So the tide was in. Took this picture at 0930 and from what I can work out, Tides for fishing say this is at about 2.75m. It seems clear that a sub 2m tide is required..

Rather than go home, I set about down climbing Tosheroon from the finish, to see how close to the crux I could get.. Note my Sportiva Hightops, just the job for spikey offwidths. I took my time, and although it was rather startlingly overhanging, the jugs were in the right places..

Here I am perched on the niche shelf, looking into the rather beautiful crux section of Tosheroon. This shelf can be seen here on an earlier photo shoot. I was now confident I wouldn't need a mat to protect the highball top out, but I was keen to inspect the crux further (without getting wet!)

I managed to shuffle down to this squeeze chimney section, just beyond the jug shown at the top of the picture. The crack in the background is the forearm jam shown here on a another previous attempt.

When going ground up, the key at this point seemed to be flicking my body back to gain a high foot, and switching to pure left side of the cave, My reversal of the route seems to recommend kicking through and locking off the forearm jam to gain height and enter the squeeze section.

So psyched to have a proper go from the start, but not enough to wade, however. I also think I've convinced myself that dragging a mat is a waste of time, so the approach will be easier. A spotter helps, but I think I can just get on with it. As for what grade it may end up, It feels like a more involved Brutaliser, but I think its getting an XS grade as its still fairly unique...

Watch this space

Source: Hosey B

[Hoseyb]

Sam's let me have an evening off the kids bedtime, so Its off to the Tosheroon tonight!
 

On a falling tide, and with a spotter/photographer no less.

I will succeed, or there will be blood....

[Hoseyb]

  Blood.

  need a fair bit more fitness, all good stuff though, will blog once I've hold of the pics.

If you're going to be Bear...

[comPiler]

Cae Dafydd Quickie
27 April 2015, 11:49 pm

Quick sprint up to the Cae Dafydd Boulders today with this man and the lovely Rose.

Mikey G

Mikey G feeling rocks

Mikey G Climbing rocks..

The flying nature of the visit, meant that a lot of spaniel like running around was done, (with Rose looking on patiently) before Mikey duly dispatched this no. If it hasn't been done before, He'd like to name it Zebradillo's Earlobe. Unfortunately, the video missed the sit start of the annoyingly perched flake and starts 3 moves in:

(Somewhere in the 7A/7A+ region)

We then went into a canyon to tackle a rather overhanging wall with an opportunity for a rather special low start. I got stuck in with the ordinary standing start (after the mats were jigged into some form of safety net) and surprised myself by getting maybe two moves from the topout. Fear, sadly, and running out of ideas saw me stabbing legs across the canyon into a bridge too far.

The two chalked edges in the horizontal slanting seam were my highpoint. The wall overhangs  by about 30ish degrees. More mats required....

After that Mikey and Rose had to dash, and I went to seek out some titbits I'd seen further over above the woods. Much crawling under trees later, I rediscovered them.Here are a trio of done-years-ago's:

Starts sitting on the flake boulder underneath..

Tiered slopey ledges

A dark video of jams, scrabbling and dirt

Walked out passed this and down into the woods. Don't really know why but it seemed like a good Idea at the time...(may visit these walls again, if I can get to them a bit more amiably)

Much clambering over, under and along logs....

Its all training.



Source: Hosey B

[comPiler]

Tick Report - April
1 May 2015, 10:47 pm

This month, as ever, the focus has mainly been on bouldering. this is mainly a time consideration, however it also means (along with exploration) I don't have to be too honed. Llugwy has been a real eye opener, exploration wise, with acres and acres of crap boulders, I seem to have found some alright ones, The 600m bouldering club is going strong, and may give a substantial tick, given time, replacing Tick 14, which was rubbish.

April also heralded the long awaited return to Cae Dafydd. I was able to bring along Mike Goldthorp, who's a bit strong at the moment, and he liked the place. Although the Koyamada boulder apparently has too few footholds... Or has it.

Llugwy has also given me some more scootering fun. my own scooter now has one of Logan's old fairly decent wheels on the back and I'm keen to see if I can melt that too...

Physio is moving forward, I can lift my legs to 60 degrees whilst lying on my back, and 9 times out of 10 in the morning I can stand on one leg to get dressed. Increased flexibility has meant that the real buggers, the tight little minor muscles, are being exposed so progress but the backs not pain free yet.

However, training is now back on the cards, I've had about 3 months off climbing other than my Monday and Friday morning jaunts, and core training was suspended until we progressed more with my back. Last Monday evening at work I had two sets of clients that wanted to work on upper body and core, this meant 2 sessions of Rings, jumbo campus, and knee-bar sit-ups. Suffice to say Tuesday and Wednesday were achey tummy days...

Enough text, here are some pictures. After my last visit to The Tosheroon (and before core training was resumed) I got an evening pass to visit with the old Team; a broken Ben on spotting duties (bad knee) and Charlotte once again on the camera. Its definitely a "one spotter & no mat" set up, and this worked well enough on this day. Unfortunately once more their were no victory drinks, as I was simply not match fit, maybe one for June. It didn't help that my assessment last visit that the crux was a couple of moves to easy ground was erroneous, The crux section is more like 2m which in offwidth terms is 10 times that many... Must try harder:

Taping up, headtorch and old jacket already deployed

The starting moves. My left hand is still jammed on the chockstone that takes you off the deck, my feet following the juggy initial rail

First jam, first squeeze, first knees. Bens still at the start, no need to spot yet.

Squeeze entered, double knee-bars, and thrutching fists

Turning through the squeeze

Through and getting upright

Time to face the other way...

Mid switch

And rest.... Theres a crux coming! I've already covered 4m or so.

Misunderstanding the length of the crux section I kick through

Fail! note the high squirm rail, and the lower flare of the cave, this keeps the climbing up in the rafters

Second attempt, and this is mre like it. Horizontal and leading with jams. However I needed to utilise foot jams more and my core wasn't good enough to hip scum onto the squirm rail. This may be the Key.

Nothing Left(Me, or Ben it seems)

Next Month, Twll Mawr (today actually), and Llugwy, I think. Although I'd like to get to the Cube if I can get a posse.

Source: Hosey B

[comPiler]

The Baron and the Bolt Fairy
1 May 2015, 11:33 pm

Today, Calum Muskett and myself climbed "The Baron" E4 5c,5a,6b,- in Twll Mawr. This line was one that Joe Brown attempted, and a line he still remembers to this day, one that got away.

He was thwarted in part by this death block, threatening to take out the entire party:

.. Which I booted out on abb when cleaning the line in October. I'd been psyched for this line ever since Mr Brown had pointed it out during the slate guide research, and now that it was clean, I was just biding my time until weather, drainage, and a Monday or Friday morning aligned.

I will confess to dragging Calum along, as I didn't fancy a siege, and the top pitch did look a bit spicy.. I was however, going to give everything on the offwidth pitch.

This proved to be everything that I was hoping for, and as I arrived at Joe's high point I felt humbled; both by his efforts, and the gaping maw above.

Joe's Highpoint (hopefully to remain insitu)

Getting stuck in

This was my first lead since Twll love, and I felt fully out of my depth. Calum talked me out of cheating, and with the Camalot #5 pushed as far as it would go, I committed to a series of jams, heel hooks and expletives (in my head). This resulted in a scraping rockover full of rope drag, lifting me out of the maw into the sun above. I was Chuffed.The drag was a bit too much to push on, so I belayed there and brought Calum up, who pushed on through instead.The Baron follows a seam that slices the full height of the back wall in a clean direct line,RP1-cam#5

As I seconded the amusing "bramble crevasse" pitch (no bridge present, so you have to jump across) I noticed Calum was belayed at the Twll Love belay. The poor one.

I joked across about how many RP's he had in.

He replied "None, I'm clipped into these Bolts".

Deep in Bat Country, the Bolt Fairy had visited. It didn't stop there, the sharp arete immediately left of The True Finish now had a line of shiny 12mm's. Now this arete was the right wall of the seam we were following, the seam with abundant cam placements. The seam in a historically adventure trad area.

I didn't cry. I did moan. I knew this pitch well as I'd already cleaned it, and two things were clear to me at this point, Calum was going to have to lead this pitch as I was knackered, and this trad route was going to be spoilt a bit by bolts.

It was, but that shouldn't detract from Calum's efforts, the route follows the crack until a wild leap catches the arete, truly cool move. Once on the arete, its thin and unbalanced until you arrive back at the crack at the end of the steepness. trad gear then returns, but the bolts don't stop here. To my great sadness they continued up the line I'd cleaned, even up the easy and protectable dolerite finish.Calum resisted clipping the first bolt he came too, but as things got spicy, he wasn't foolish enough to pass on some 12mm steel, and 2 bolts got clipped.

So there we go. A great line eyed for generations, spoilt by a sport route in the sky, I shudder to think what they were thinking.However, as there was also a line of drilled holes and an insitu rope over by Long in the Twll, the pessimist in me concocts a worst case scenario of a line of bolts right across Hamadryad continuing through the crux of Twll Love.

Calum reckoned this pitch would have been E6 boltless.

Being niceThe sport pitch does look great, we did climb half of it anyway. its follows a great feature, one eyed by many and tackled in part by The Direct Finish. If only it was bolted a bit more sparingly and sympathetically with area and with its history, it would be a great, safe, and a sporting E4.

The Twll Love belay has made Twll love a lot safer, without removing much of its seriousness.

Bolt do have their place on this part of the back wall, Just Not Sport Routes.

Being crossDon't people talk any more!! Don't people respect an area so steeped in adventure history, and fairly abundant in gear, that they think they can bolt anywhere they like.Both previous bolting expeditions up the back wall have been characterised by active consultation, consideration and respect for the area. This seemed more like smash and grab.Its not the first time; Igam Ogam, the Weetabix Connection... yes the routes they spoilt were already established, but the attitudes the same. Selfishness.Just because its the quarries isn't a carte blanche to do what you like, regardless of what's gone before, and its potential for the future.



The Baron E4 5c,5a,6b,- 125m

1. 40m 5c. Follow Razor's Edge to the first bolt (best to run these first two pitches together now for RE as the belay tree has been dead for many years). Continue straight up to the offwidth bomb-bay chimney (Cam #5). Pull out left to a slab and belay above on a ledge. Thread and cam belay.

2.20m 5a. Follow the seam up to the Twll Love belay, via an amusing hop left over the seam, and a pit of brambles.

3. 45m 6b. Go up the crack until on top of the pedestal, where gear and some tecky fingertip jams allow a lurch onto the jug on the right arete, follow the arete to where it rejoins the crack, gear, and continue up the dolerite band above to belay on a ledge. Once on the arete you have the choice of clipping many bolts.

4. 20m -. Scramble off as for True Finish.

Calum Muskett, Mark Dicken 1/5/15

...So there it is Tick 1 complete.



Source: Hosey B

[Fiend]

Post #1 you are a sick sick man that looks truly disgusting
Post #2 good comments I agree entirely.

[Hoseyb]

So its all got Messy.....

http://www.v12outdoornews.co.uk/2015/05/06/the-baron-e4-6b-and-tan-y-ddraig-f7a-a-tale-of-two-routes-and-a-clash-of-ethics-in-twll-mawr/


 

[petejh]

Oh fucking great - just what everyone needs at the end of a 4-week continual bombardment of shit from tribes eager to promote their own little ideological versions of the world. An ethics bun fight between two tribes each fond of promoting their own little ideological versions of the world, over a couple of different ways of climbing out of a big hole. Satisfied?

 

[Hoseyb]

No Pete, I'm not particularly satisfied, just saddened.

What i meant by saying it got messy, was that before, I didn't now who'd bolted it or there intention. Before, I didn't know that it hadn't been climbed yet ( until 3 days after our jaunt).

I hate making waves, and I hate conflict, so now I'm Conflicted and frustrated.

I know most people couldn't give a toss about the back wall of Twll Mawr, but its been a special place for me, and I hoped other people would continue to enjoy the adventure that the trad routes provide. When Horse Lassitudes was retroed, my protest was a sportingly bolted route Abbatoir Blues. I certainly didn't go in there with a spanner and a lump hammer.. When Smaug was done, I put my views in my blog, and I helped put trad routes up in the same sector. Back then I talked with Ian about the appropriateness of sport routes on the back wall and I was under the impression he agreed that this area right of smaug was better left trad. I guess he changed his mind.

I'm not a sabre rattler, but either others are going to dive in for the spoils (lots of cake walks once someones bolted an easy exit) or others will dive in and chop, scar and destroy.


Sometime I think I'm better off sacking this roped climbing lark, bouldering is a lot simpler

[petejh]

Sport climbing's pretty simple 

[Fiend]

Hosey you are totally right to raise the issue. And totally right to take a strong stance against the over-prominence of bolting in such areas. From an outsiders perspective the back of Twll Mawr looks like a bollox place to have sport climbing as the default, and ILJ seems to be pretty drill-happy in his mission to have new sport as the main development of the quarries.

[comPiler]

Happiness is found at 600m
8 May 2015, 10:20 pm

After the events of the last couple of weeks, I've sorely needed a visit to my happy place. With the forecast being a tad dour, I sent my boots off to Llanberis Resoles for some TLC and some offwidth cheating upgrades, and got out my Scooter.

Marchlyn Mawr seemed an obvious choice, let me try to explain....

I have in my "Marks Boring Rocks" folder on the family computer a file called "tick list". This little campaign strategy table contains the 14 ticks for this year as well as staged goals, conditions requirements, and special kit needed etc. It seems to be getting a lot of red on it (ticking off the accomplishments), but it has also acquired two new columns; Am I Finished with this, and Can I be Arsed.

With two ticks on the Had Enough list, the motivation assessor has only 5 ticks approaching the Red Setter mark.

The sitter into Tumbleweed is one of them.

The Goal

The walk up to the Dam took 32 minutes (scooter and v. light bag, a couple of photo's and a quick chat on way) and the tide was well out already (1030 no less) but that probably could be blamed on the election..

The excuse for coming up was to apply a bit of science to the problem. Mainly this meant identifying a sequence, The issue being that there was two possibilities; go out left to some opposing sidepulls, or slap up right up the arete. Going left seemed unfeasibly hard to start, then relenting into the realms of merely trying very hard. I could slap to the arete (and did last visit) but making progress into the stand would require these.

Steep!

An impossible start or impossible finish? I decided to only attempt the possible bits, and then try to yard between them... slap into the arete and then connive to throw back left into the sidepulls. Who knows? it may work!

A sloper

So back to the science

Issue 1:

I need to improve on slopers

Solution:

Actually use a Beastmaker

Issue 2:

Most of the movement initiation is from Foot clamp derivitives

Solution:

Increase core and Practice practice practice

Issue 3:

The sidepulls are well crimpy

Solution:

In reality I probably only need a 20% increase in finger strength so just climb more!

Issue 4:

It a bit overwhelming

Solution:

Staged goals- Tiny ones! and hoover up some satellite problems to keep the happy coming while you're at it.

After that it was a bit of cleaning, a few more rocks to the patio, and off to scoot!

Just as the rain started.

The patio is getting well gucci

10 minutes 50 seconds to descend, hindered by one crash due to the action of rain on the breaking system*, and some wimpy attempts at preventing a second crash by reducing general velocity.

Happy (and not too sore)

*wet cold wheels mean no/reduced breaking, as they get hot the water evaporates and you get lots of breaking. In reality this meant shit shit shit LOCK, a bit of fishtail and a running dismount. Constant gentle breaking seems to be the way to get wet wheels dry and breaking in a less laxative fashion.

PS. I was trawling through the stats on this blog, and it seems the "Baron and the Bolt Fairy" was a popular choice of referral for a number of Russian pr0n sites. I guess I should be a bit more careful with my title choice.....



Source: Hosey B