The Hunger

So my Latest Big thing is a new route i have put up on Bird Rock near Tywyn it is a 40M pitch which is quite hard about F7b.
As its a Trad Route though it gets E7 6b, You start up this nice easy bit or rock (5a) which climbs up to a groove. When you arrive at the groove there is some decent kit, so you truck on up an E4 6a to the ledge where you get a decent sling and an insitue wire. From here you start the first crux sequence which passes a very bad peg ( blade peg about 5mm deep). You pass this up and leftward to a good rest then make a rock over move up to some slopers, from here you move up and left to a good hold and the sanctuary of half a dozen cams. You then step up and Right into a groove, from here you step back left onto the overhanging face and pull into a porthole. Then all that remains is a hard rockover from a tiny crimp and an easy finish to the top. Massive air if you fall off but you really don't want to fall off, the top section is safe but you could have a bad fall from the middle crux which could result in a 25m deckout worst case. Hence the Grade... here is a photo of the route

Luminox

https://vimeo.com/44023757


This is a Video of me making the first ascent of luminox at The Cregennan lakes a V7 boulder.

Hollywood Playboy

Hollywood Playboy

Hollywood Playboy: So I found a project for the year just down the road from where i live, I named it Hollywood Playboy inspired by a can of deodarent i had in my bathroom. Since i found the project I have bolted it with help from Terry Taylor and after many tries finally made an ascent. The route is about 3ft overhanging and very technical with 3 cruxes in which 1 is a dyno it starts with a rockover onto a block where you clip the second bolt from here an almost continuous sequence of hard moves leads to the top with only marginal rests. So you make the first easy crux sequence between the 2nd and 3rd bolt to a semi rest from here and extremely difficult pull rightward gains access to the crux sequence where a quick snatch to a pebble type crimp and a hard rockover followed by a foot swap on a marginal edge gains the sanctuary of larger crimps and the next bolt. From here you get a quick shake out and an attempt at the dyno move which if fully committed isn't that hard. Once you have made the dyno you then slap up and into a undercut mono and clip the bolt, all very strenuous. Even then theres still no let up as the final moves involve slapping up to sloping sidepulls on smears and a hard dynamic move to catch the hanging flake where the chains can be clipped. I gave the route 7c+ but to tell you the truth i have no idea  as i have onsighted 7b+ but never tryed anythin as hard as this so it might be graded wrong. I will say however after working the route i must have tried it between 20 and 30 times before i made an ascent so i am looking forward to a repeat if any ones up for the challenge.

March to September

So March was an amazing month for me, I started the month with a trip to Nesscliffe. It was my first time in Nesscliffe and i have never had so much fun in 1 weekend, i managed to toprope a load of routes up to E7 onsight which was amazing for me just need to go back and lead them now.

So that was just the beginning I also Manged to Bag an Onsight of Swinging By The Bell in Vivian and a few other routes here and there including the amazing Left Wall Direct In the Glorious sunshine. I then spent the rest of the month Bouldering In the Pass.

 Most of April and May was spent bouldering and training hard in the Gym. Abit of a shame but it allowed me to up my bouldering and core strength so not to bad, June was a much better month tho with a few E5 onsights. I dedicated a large portion of June to climbing at Tremadog Trying to tick a load of lines, it was quite a success with most of the routes up to E4 being ticked. I did however have a terrible time on Void, me and Bruce set off up Void it was his Big lead and i was happy to second. We climbed the first few pitches and was resting under the pod, Bruce set off and shortly after came tumbling back down ripping a cam and decking out on the ledge. He then proceeded to bounce and roll off the ledge, this instantly blew my psyche, he pulled back on and tried again getting to the top of the pod and the jug. But failing to make the next sequence he lowered off allowing me to have a go. So up i went to the jug had a quick shake and tried to blast through the top moves. The route shut me down tho i was to tired and massively lacking in Psyche, but i persevered and after 5 attempts i made it to the top. Its an amazing route and i cant wait to get back on it when I am abit fitter.

So June was going well and i was enjoying climbing on slate at the time, I had made a few E5 Onsights and got a F7b+ onsight aswell. So when i had the opportunity i headed off to Bus Stop to Try my luck on Scare City, i Figured that i had made a bunch of E5 onsights how much harder could it be so we arrived and i set of on the route. I fell from hard moves after the flake lowered of and tried again getting it on my second go, it was a nice route quite easy but i was dissapointed that i never got the onsight but thats just how it happens sometimes.

September was good I was in and out of Llanberis at the time so i managed to grab an accent of cave route and roadside basic on the cromlech boulders.
Then it was time to head off to Font so we packed the car and drove over, it was a great trip getting some fine lines done, the only burden was the persistent rain which made it difficult to get out. But i still managed a bunch of 6B+ flash and a quick 7A but with Ieuan feeling ill we cut the trip short and headed back to wales.
But hopefully next year will be better and i can get out on some hard problems... we shall see

Start to 2012

Starting the crux sequence on Hollywood Playboy

So I decided to up my game this year, I started the year by Gradually building up my strength. This was was a great way for me to refine my technique and try to build up some finger and tendon strength.

So i spent most of the winter months bouldering and the occasional endurance session just to try and keep fit, which i found is harder to do without a belayer :). By the end of January I found out That Barmouth quarry was opened to climb in which was great for me as it was only down the road from where i was living, so i waited for a nice day and headed on up to clean loose rock from some of the routes. There was 1 obvious line which hadn't been climbed  a large diagonal crack line that resembled a lightning bolt hence why i named the route Zeuse,  so i abbed off tore at the wall removing large portions of loose rock and then tried the route on a grigri. getting to the top first go it felt like an E4 but it still had some loose rock on it. So a few days later i went back and ran round the crag ticking all the routes bearing in mind there was nothing harder than an E2 and whoever graded those routes was being ambitious. I also did The sport route that Terry bolted which are great lines, i then proceeded to climb my line which went well other than snapping a hold of at the start and jumping off back 2 the floor i think once it cleans up it will go at about E2 5c depending on if the other routes at the crag get downgraded or not. 

So i Had noticed a wall in the quarry which is immediately obvious, when you stand at the bottom it looks so blank and other than the pinscar fractures looked impossible. So i threw a rope down it and tried it on a gri gri, the route was so blank i thought it might be impossible tiny sidepulls and crimpers but i persevered and after about 3 sessions had worked all the moves on it. So i knew a sequence was possible but could not link the 3 cruxes on the route, but me being me i checked for gear found 3 bomber placements even if they where small bits of kit and thought it would be a possible lead. The only problem was 1 piece of kit was also a crucial hold and if you dont place it a deck out from 12m is possible, but i went for the lead anyway getting past the first crux and to the 2nd piece of kit i pressed on but fell on the hard crux crossover. i then dogged my way up higher until below the dyno where i also lobbed of on the first go but got it on the second once here you have to place a cam from a side pull in your hand hold which i found out was very hard and ended up hanging of the gear. Unable to get to the top I lowered off and decided i would try the route when i was abit fitter, the only problem was i found out theres a bird ban that lasts from march till end of june so that was it for the quarry until later in the year.