[joel182]

I've just remembered the one about Ordinary Route on the Idwal Slabs! You know the one!
The couple who got benighted trying to climb Ordinary Route, not once, but twice! They apparently spent two nights out and had to resort to drinking from puddles 

I think everyone knows that one, but is it actually true? Surely it featured in the news somewhere?!

I found https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=29936 , in which someone quotes:

'From Ogwen Valley MRT:
http://www.ogwen-rescue.org.uk/ovmro/reports/2000/i_narrative.html

9th October 2000: 21.23 - 00.55 hrs. Idwal Slabs. Female, 30 yrs. Exhaustion, dehydration and swollen feet.
The woman set off up the Slabs on the Sunday morning with her partner. The conditions were wet and they were very slow climbing. They did not reach the top of the route until dusk and then could not find the walk off. They stayed on the ledge for the night without waterproofs, food or water; these had been left in the rucsac at the bottom of the climb. On Monday morning, they still could not find the walk off and decided to climb down by Ordinary route. By dusk, they were still 200 feet from the bottom and the female could go no further due to hunger and exhaustion. Her partner climbed down and raised the alarm. She was retrieved and walked off. They had not called to any party in the Cwm during the day. They had taken 39 hours to do Hope - possibly a record.
15 Team members."

That link now seems to be broken, but http://www.ogwen-rescue.org.uk/incident-maps/?id=1062 seems to confirm the basic "cragfast on Idwal Slabs for two nights" picture.

The link is somewhat functional on the wayback machine

[Falling Down]

Aside from the tragedy those write-ups are pretty funny.  "several calls from numerous mobile phones... they had one head torch among them" etc.

[slab_happy]

The link is somewhat functional on the wayback machine

Thanks for finding that!

Aside from the tragedy those write-ups are pretty funny.  "several calls from numerous mobile phones... they had one head torch among them" etc.

"They got drunk and had a fight. This was reported by phone as having had a fit."

I rather like reading MRT incident reports. I figure there's educational value (in terms of learning "most common ways people fuck up and/or get hurt), and there's also sometimes a level of deadpan, very quiet snark which I enjoy.

[andy popp]

Ordinary route is evidently a committing proposition: "September 16th Idwal Slabs. 8 males and females. Cragfast.
The party had been climbing Ordinary Route when darkness overtook them and they became cragfast."

Cragfast is an excellent word.

[Moo]

Is the story behind 'chip shop brawl' any more entertaining than the obvious?

[SA Chris]

Cragfast is an excellent word.

Tattooed on your knuckles.

[Will Hunt]

I was trying to recall last night the one about Peter Croft and his work ethic of getting the most out of a climbing day. It's something like, he topped out a hard route with his friend and his friend decided to go off to the bar or Camp 4 or wherever and bathe in the glory of it all - Pete couldn't understand this as there was plenty of daylight left, so went off to solo The Rostrum or something.

What were the actual routes/details of this story?

[Johnny Brown]

They'd broken the nose record.

[Will Hunt]

So off to The Rostrum or was it something else?

[Johnny Brown]

Lmgtfy

https://www.climbing.com/news/in-depth-the-evolution-of-the-nose-speed-record/

[Will Hunt]

Not a rumour as such. I have it from someone who saw it with their own eyeballs.

A young lady at Almscliff had just done a move on Demon Wall Roof and she leapt for joy. Except, she was still underneath Demon Wall Roof. She cracked her head and passed out for a few moments before coming to.