Wet North Wales Bouldering

Another day, another weather system.... This weekend North Wales will be mostly shity! But we didn't let the rain and sub zero temps keep us off the rocks... oh no!

First on the list were the cromlech boulders. After a couple of V2 and V3 warm-ups we got to work on the Backside traverse, V6/8 (alternate finishes). Brilliant starting moves traversing the lip of a roof on some small, spaced holds gets you to some slopey shelfs and lots of heelhooks. The cramped and contorted finishing moves over the lip, complete with lactic gorged forearms provides the crux. I dispatched the V6 and V7 variants fairly swiftly (thanks to Carolines cunning beta and being lanky) and worked the epic V8 full Backside! Numb lifeless hands called an end to my play and i just spotted Caroline as she worked out a sequence allowing her to traverse the lip. With her sequence solid she made it the full way across, hung out of the slopers at the end of the traverse, shook out and tackeled the finishing sequence. But the pump was too much... tickling the finishing hold at the top of the boulder, her arms eventually gave up and she dropped off - wasted! You know the feeling, every other go after that was building on the pump from the previous tries and Caroline was forced to leave the problem unsent (Till next week!).

With the rain getting heavier in the pass we abandoned ship and headed to The Pit in Ogwen. Everything was wet, it was spiting rain but the Pit was dry - result! The last time i was here i spent the whole time working Harvey Oswald V6 and spotting Nige on the first ascent of the Pit and the Pendulum V8. This time i was curious to see how difficult the V6 felt. Got her first go - even the dynamic finish felt grand - Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!
Right then... what next? I started looking at the Pit Traverse V9. To my surprise it felt great except for the nasty crimpy first few moves and the fact that the finishing V4 arete was wet!

The coolest cross through and twisty-twisty i've ever done on rock - beautiful!

By the end of the session i had linked the start to the jug on the arete - all that remained was the V4 two mover up the arete but after traversing a V9 face i couldn't cope with the wet holds and had to give up - but oh so chuffed with the climbing!! Psyched!!