Up until the last couple of seasons, all of my winter climbing had been done in Wales. I've really bored my partners by announcing at the top of every grade V in scotland 'Hmm. I've done harder IVs in Wales.' In my (mid-grade) experience Welsh grades are harder. This might be just because the Welsh guide is so much older, or that the routes haven't been repeated much, but the scales are a way apart at the mo.A new guide would be the answer. Say the North Atlantic Oscillation manages to dominate and we get seven or eight more of these winters before the warming kicks back in. Enough time to produce and get a return on a guide? I reckon so. Go on Si, take a punt...
Mind you, people talk of Western Gully being a V - maybe it would just scrape this grade if you take the cop out right hand variant in the middle and the slab pitch is fully iced up, but if you do the direct pitch in the middle and the slab is in typical condition, i.e. mostly ice free it is (imo) VI 6/7. There is a world of difference between this route and classic Scottish Vs.
Alaska grade 1 - 3 should cover most winter routes in the UK. Anything above that gets ABO. Simple.
We thought the lower 3 pitch was 5 and serious (tricky move into a niche which would have been nasty to fall off),
I don't think it is that confusing really
We thought the lower 3 pitch was 5 and serious (tricky move into a niche which would have been nasty to fall off), the middle direct probably VI 6 (the start was thin and steep; even once I was wedged in the main chimney/groove it felt pretty sketchy) and the slab pitch perhaps tech 7 - it was completely bare save for a dribble of thin ice in the groove on the left.
based on our performance on WG, we were ready to 'step it up' on to some VIIs and maybe even some VIIIs.
I'm still believing it word. We were amazing up there. I didn't know that kind of a connnection was possible with another human being.
Wowzers.You can't ask for much more than a choice of Gogarth in a t-shirt or quality mixed climbing. Life N. Wales is good right now.
Those tricky steps were still there, but they tended to have bomber neve above and over very quickly. Now's the time to do it!