The last of the Welsh winter and more training

toping out

So on the weekend we had the last of the Welsh winter conditions. This meant we hiked two hours up hill to get to the base of the route in Ogwen valley, as the freezing levels were high. We ended up soloing an ice fall to make it to the base of the grade 2 gully which we intended to climb. The conditions in the gully were good, there was lots of solid ice and lots of strong frozen nevee. The first pitch was a solid icefall where I got an ice screw belay in. The second pitch was frozen nevee and icy steps. The third pitch with a bit of mixed climbing with a few icy steps. Last but not least, the last pitch was the big head wall at the top. This felt very exposed as there was no gear on the big traverse diagonally across the head wall. We ended up being very lucky with the weather throughout the day as it was blue skies and sun all day. But as we topped out nearing the end of the day we saw big rain clouds moving in across the valley. 

feeling the exposure

Jason seconding 

TRAINING

Last week I trained five days on plastic and lots of hanging on the Beastmaker. Since Monday I've been fully back in my training routine again after having the weekend off to rest. I've had a few problems with my elbow but thanks to Lifestrength for their strength tape, they've been sorted.

new 7B+/C boulder problem