Long time since I've done a post, as I've been working loads. But week before last managed to escape to North Wales for a few days. I drove up the night before arriving in Ogwen at 2am. The next morning woke up to this awesome view and sunny sky.

The goal of the trip was to clock up some more Mountain day for my Mountain Leader so on the first day decided to do the Glyder's Traverse. So started by walking from Lynn Ogwen along through the valley following the Afon Owgen towards Bethesda. The plan was to start from the most northerly mountain and work back, with Carnedd y Filiast first.

After spending 3 months in Swanage my mountain fitness was not brilliant, soon got back into the rhythm though. The weather was awesome for Wales, getting up to 30 degrees at lunch time! I kept following the traverse around to Mynydd Perfedd, Y Garn and the two Gylders. Then walked back down via devils kitchen to Lynn Ogwen. With the day still young I took my book and relaxed in the sun by the Lynn for the rest of the Afternoon/evening. The weather was that hot even managed a warm swim in the lynn at 8pm!

The Next day went for a Walk up to Pen yr Ole Wen, following the traverse around. Again it was another scorcher, with the car thermometer hitting 33 degrees in the car at 3pm. The scramble near the top of Pen yr Ole Wen is awesome and a must, especially if you like scree slopes. Getting back into the car in the afternoon to drive back south only to get stuck in traffic was not great though!

Getting a few days off work, I've spent the last 3 days climbing in North Wales and had my birthday, so the blog has suffered! I thought i'd share what I got up to over the last few days to make up for the shortage in posts. Was supposed to be walking to get some QMD's, (quality mountain days), in but weather was just too good.
After setting off from Swanage at 5:30 in the morning on bank holiday Monday to get there for lunch timeish. The journey was pretty good, only hitting traffic heading into Snowdonia National Park. Met up with my climbing partner for the next few days and headed off to the moelwyns.

Not arriving at the crag till 2, we walked back down at about 7, taking the longer route through the disused quarry. Even managed to get a picture of this spruce in the quarried rock.

Getting to the belay below the 7th pitch at the same time as the group ahead which had followed the proper route. Causing some tangling at the belay. Was really windy on the top too, making the last 2 pitches and sitting on the top of tryfan interesting! (Pic at top of post)

The final day before coming home was just as nice as the other two and seem as my friend, Joe, had not been to Idwal before we went to do Tennis Shoe. Lovely climbing on the slabs, even if some of the route was very polished!
Had an awesome few days in Wales. Brilliant company and nice climbing. Weather defiantly made up for the miserable weather that I had last time I was there.

​Last Month I visited South Wales with a friend from work to do some climbing. It was the second time I have been to South Wales and the climbing surprised me yet again! On my first visit we went to the usual tourist spot of Three Cliffs Bay and Fall bay on another day. On both days we enjoyed routed on mostly unpolished, rough limestone, perfect!
This time we started by visiting Little Tor, just around the corner from Three Cliffs and as with three cliffs can only be accessed so many hours either side of low tide as the whole lower few metres of the crag is underwater at high tide. The routes again where brilliant, not at all chossy as you would expect from limestone! Most of Little tor was made up of a surface of flakes, (as you can see in the picture), with some pretty killer cracks in between.
With the day starting miserable I Lead first picking Scout Crack, a vertical crack about fist wide. As it was a bit drizzly I elected to keep on my approach shoes. Brilliant climb and you can see why it has 2 stars, perfect fist jams and foot jams all the way, improved by missing the ledge on the left and only using the crack.
The weather soon improved and we moved on to some of the harder stuff at the crag. There was a really nice looking line going up the middle of the face that included a few jams, big moves and small pockets. When looking in the guide book found it was called 'Super Direct', given E1 5c. Nice line and glad I had my Alien’s with me!
The following day we only had a few hours before we had to start the long drive back for work, so we had to choose a non tidal venue, picking Boiler slab. Took longer than it should have on the walk in due to getting slightly lost! Again we started on the easier stuff, my friend leading ‘Classic’, a really easy route, but supposed to be one of the oldest routes in the Gower so a must climb and it was okay.
I preferred the harder stuff which had a nice amount of exposure, which when you added a quite strong breeze made the climbing rather interesting! Again the gear was bomber and the rock mostly solid.
Over the two days the routes where nice and the scenery postcard perfect. I will defiantly be returning to do more climbing in South Wales in the future, hopefully I’ve psyched you to give south wales a chance too.