Sorry for the blog absence

Many apologies for my lack of blogging these last few weeks despite there having at times been some decent conditions out there.
I haven't been too well these last few months and am at present waiting on an operation in Liverpool's world renowned Heart & Chest Hospital. Until that it done & dusted I won't be out climbing, and I'm afraid I won't be blogging either.
So unless we have some unexpected late winter conditions in late March or April, this is the last you will hear of me until next winter, when I am planning on being very very very active to make up for lost time!!

All the best to everyone. Have fun and take care out there  :-)

Various reports....

I've had all sorts of information through via email & facebook this last couple of days. There has been a lot of climbing going on, and here are a few reports:

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My new friend Stephen Davo Davies has been out this week. He sent me the following info and pics about yesterday's fun on the ice:

 'Me and James Williams did the ramp yesterday morning which was in good Nik & wasn't smashed to bits to be honest, it was quite thick all the way to top "could av got a 130mm ice screw in everywhere!" There were places that were thin ie.. On raised rock areas that hat been tried for an axe hold so thee must be some blunted axes about lol. We started Devil's pasture @ 3pm with James Williams leading up & me 2nding I found it quite easy, & lots of hard thick ice all the way up to bottom of chimney, there were also visible signs all the way up of thinner ice being broken to reveal rock face but where do you draw the line on distinguishing brittle thin ice to being ready! Only the tapping of the ice will determine that outcome! There was some pockets of frozen turf all the way up Pasture but try & keep away from those to be honest! There were lots of previous axe placements which were good for both axes & crampons, saved smashing more holes!! Got to below chimney then it was a 10 meter mixed rock/ice up through chimney then a plod through thick snow to top out & bag up the ropes! On the way back down there was 2lads venturing up the Pasture & a couple half way up the Appendix via head torch. Got back to car @ 5.30pm Brilliant day & not to busy to be honest. I think the meaning of in or not depends on the ethics behind your climb when you get on the route, if ya can follow a previous lead line of formation the chances of damage are minimal. The group above us doing the Pasture before James started his lead, there was all sizes of ice coming down from 10 penny size bits to saucer sizes, don't know what the hell were doing, considering it was my 3rd ever ice climb, I didn't knock anything off!!! Just depends I suppose! Good luck if anyone's out today.'

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Congratulations to Misha who along with his partner climbed this winter's first ascent of the Devil's Appendix on wednesday, apparently a life long dream of his! 

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My friend Carl Davies has been out 3 or 4 days consecutively this week and has climbed on The Black Ladders, Clogwyn Ddu and on Idwal Ice. He'll be emailing me later with reports and pictures. Thanks Carl ;-)

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Although its way out of the reach of most of us, a new route (Wales' hardest?) Lateo X 10 was completed last Tuesday by Pete Harrison and Tom Livingstone on Clogwyn Ddu. Then had its second ascent just 5 days later by Dave Garry and Tom Livingstone. Read all about it on Dave Garry's blog and the V12 blog

Sargeant's Gully & Craig Y Rhaeadr - Today

So yes I am back with this blog. Sorry I haven't been posting for a while, kind of lost my mojo.
As some of you know 2012 was not a great year for me with health problems, which I am still suffering with although I am now getting toward the top of Liverpool Chest & Heart Hospital's waiting list for the op I need which is good news.

ANYWAY, today I went for a look at Sargeant's Gully, in what I call lower Cwm Glas but I think is officially named Cyrn Las. To say it was somewhat of a wade fest would be putting it mildly! Great exercise getting up there but not a lot of fun.
Unfortunately Sargeant's Gully is in what I can only describe as crap condition, with melting ice, water flowing underneath and general unclimbable conditions. Ah well, you have to try. So I went and had a butchers at Craig Y Rhaeadr up close. There is loads of fat ice on the crag (see pics below) but again it was melting. Give it a smack with your axe and it splits and has that hollow scary sound!
I had seen several interesting looking ice formations on the crags below Craig Y Rhaeadr which I went to investigate, but yet again ALL of them were in a right sad state.
So unfortunately today crampons were left in the sack and ice axes unused.

(You may need to click on the pics to see them properly)

Pyramid Gully, Black Ladders - yesterday (tues)

Email from Carl last night:

Hi Andy,
 Into Ladders today to do first couple of pitches of Pyramid gully and then onto Pyramid Arete. Good ice/snow ice on first two pitches, with a very 'cruxy' crux. The ice on the crux is not fat but there is enough there and no doubt it will build over next couple days. Second pitch had great ice. Moved out onto the arete to avoid a wade through deep unconsolidated snow. All rock had a heavy coat of rime and snow and proper turf was good but as usual lighter vegetation was no frozen. The arete gave plenty of interesting steps and felt very alpine along the last top section. Good protection and belays throughout route. Warthogs were pretty useful today. Saw another team on a route inbetween Central and Western Gully. A cool day, rounded off with fish and chips in Caernarfon and a trip to Beacon climbing wall, to listen to a talk by Nick Bullock that was very entertaining.
 Cheers, Carl.

Blog back tonight

This blog will be back on tonight with reports from today and yesterday.

Clogwyn y Garnedd 13th Dec - By Carl Davies

Hey Andy,

 I know its probably largely academic now considering what has happened today, but you maybe interested in what Dave and I did yesterday. I'm saying this though, but on a trip from Betws just now there was fresh snow down to about 600 metres so maybe freezing level was a little lower than anticipated for today. Anyway we went up to Clogwyn Y Garnedd via the Pyg in what was a truely stella day weatherwise. We decided to start off with Snakebite (III,3), I think in the end we did a mixture of Snakebite and Snakebite Direct. Neve was great, but climbing was delicate in places, a little sugary, but you could avoid vegetation with careful climbing. Topped out by 1300 so plenty of time for another route after a quick lunch. Downclimbed a solid End Gully and decided on Cave Gully (III,4) for our 2nd route. The crux below the cave was pretty delicate with snow ice and ice but again with careful climbing it was great fun. Solid neve both below and above the crux. A tricky exit, from the cave, onto some ice (which may have even taken a screw!), provided added interest. Worth noting there are few runners below the crux but very few above the cave (two that I found/used). There were plenty of folk out but never too crowded as they were spread about the face. We saw teams on the Trinities, Ladies and Cave, other stuff was probably done too. Maybe some of it will survive until the next cold spell. Couple pics, 1) Cave Gully, 2) Trinities - End Gully 3) Dave at top of Snakebite

Cheers, Carl.

Cwm Lloer tues 11th by Steve Fry

Hi Andy,

A quick report on Cwm Lloer from yesterday. A 'bluebird' day if ever i've seen one, cloudless skies, not a breath of wind, and temperatures below freezing all day! Got into Cwm Lloer at 9am where there is good snow cover from 700m upwards, so headed to Broad Gully to start. Super neve all the way allowing you to front point and dagger all your way up if you wanted to avoid the bucket steps that are also in situ. Having done Broad I cam down the Headwall which is definitely skiable at the moment for the brave, and went into Y Gully Right-Hand. Again the neve was bomber but I have to say this route looks better from the bottom than it actually is! Ended the day doing Y Gully Left-Hand which proved to be a significantly more testing route. The first step had running water and was incomplete but was avoidable using the rib on the right before entering back into the gully. To avoid the second step I took a rightward trending shallow gully which culminated in a steep chimney. As the gully steepened the snow became less reliable and more sugary making for a couple of spicy moves in the chimney to reach the top. A great climb but probably III, 3 in current condition. Apart from the gullies nothing else in the Cwm was in condition with no riming on the cliffs, and very little ice forming.

 A few pics from the day attached.

Video of Banana Gully by James Kelly

James Kelly was out in the Glyders today on Banana Gully. He told me it was 'Big steps all the way, very solid and secure' . He posted the below vid too:

Nice one mate!
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Also some great pics of Snowdon yesterday HERE

Trinity Gullies by Andy Barker

Trinities ok today Andy. Did great gully which is probably in the worst nic of all the gullies. Turf still needs some more substance but LH central and RH all have plenty snow. Still sugar underneath a crust but supports more than bodyweight now.. freezing again as we left the summit at 1500.

Cwm Cneifion today (Tues 11th Dec) from Carl

Had this email today from my friend Carl:

Hi Andy, Just a quick mail as don't have much time. Finished work early so took a wander into Cwm Cneifion this afternoon/evening. Virtually all snow I came across was well consolidated and easy to front point on where steep enough. I did come across some sugary snow at the very top of Hidden gully, but only the last couple of metres, and infact that wasn't that bad, just I had been spoilt with so much great neve. There is ice starting to form on many routes but it is all very thin. Best ice I saw was in Left Hand but even this is still thin. Bomber snow on the plateau between Hidden Gully and Glyder Fawr. It was beautiful up there, clear and no wind. Walking back saw head torches returning from Y Garn and Pen-yr-Ole Wen. I would guess that any gullies with good snow cover will be in good condition at the moment. Few photos 1) Y Garn, 2) Left Hand and Pillar Chimney, 3) Hidden Gully, 4),5),6) Glyder Plateau. Cheers, Carl

Cader Idris

Sounds like winter conditions are shaping up quite nicely high on Cader Idris:
Huw Gilbert Mountaineering blog

UKC

I have decided that I will not be posting on UKC (UKClimbing.com) anymore. I will still be running my small blog and hope it is of use to some of you.

Y Garn - Monday 10th Dec

 Today Davey & I headed out with the intention of heading high up into Cwm Cneifion and looking for something grade III ish to start off our winter season,.Possibly Tower Rib, or if we were feeling unusually brave Golden Girl Ali.
 Although reports from the weekend were of a big thaw, I hoped that we could find something in condition after the colder temps last night. However on driving up the A5, Cwm Cneifion although certainly having some snow cover looked pretty black in the rocky areas including Clogwyn Ddu.
Looking over to the easy gully lines of Y Garn, we could see they looked complete, and Y Garn in general just looked more wintery! So, we ditched our rope & climbing hardware in Davey's lovely T5 camper, just took axes & crampons and headed up.
 Snow cover starts around Llyn Clyd, although it is extremely soft and boggy. (as usual) We could see that Banana Gully was complete, so headed up, stopping where the gully narrows by the small crags on the left to don crampons. So to the snow conditions: the first half of the gully from this point was great if you stuck to the 3 or 4 sets of steps already kicked in the snow, rock hard in fact. However venturing a few feet to the right or left of these steps, the snow had a hard crust, but soft underneath resulting in wading knee deep. But the second half (approx top 70m) the snow was excellent neve right across the gully, and kicking steps and front pointing was possible.
 We decended via A Gully, which was much the same story snow condition wise as Banana Gully. I then went to have a peek between the buttresses into C Gully, but could clearly see that there was not complete snow cover, and the 'step' was bare turf which would most certainly not have been frozen, so we backed off that.
On returning back to Ogwen carpark we spoke to a lad (blue camper van next to us, hello!) who had been up into Cwm Cneifion, and reported snow conditions high in the cwm were actually very good, and had done Hidden Gully were he said it was 'bomber neve all the way'.

Y Garn

Davey heading up Banana Gully

At the top

Me towards the bottom of A Gully

Soloing Torquing Shit V(6) by Ryan -- plus Dave Garry's blog

Had an email off Ryan last night:

Hi Andy

I ended up soloing torquing shit V(6) yesterday. Snow not at all consolidated and ice completely unbounded from rock, but the majority of clogwyn du was very well rimed up. Quite a lot of parties out including a pair on travesty. Will do a proper write up and send photos through Monday morning if that's okay as don't get back to Cardiff and a computer till tomorrow afternoon.

Ryan
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Bloody hell Ryan nice effort! If a bit scary!
Also I read that Dave Garry & friends were out yesterday and climbed Manx Wall. You can read abot it on Dave's blog here

Although conditions are fairly poor and thawing quickly, the forecast suggests much colder weather kicking in from tomorrow onwards. Fingers crossed.

Footless Crow

I have just posted a permanent link (on the right hand side of this page) to the fabulous Footless Crow blog which is: 'A collection of the best of UK mountain, art and environmental articles'
Go check it out!