Blog Posts in Category: North Wales

Gogarth Climbing

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Rock Climbing Short Link

As a climber who claims to love sea cliff climbing, there was one major sea cliff in England & Wales where I have yet to successfully climb. About three years ago I had a bit of an epic on Main Cliff which resulted in having to abseil into the sea. It has been high on my list of destinations to return to, but it just hasn’t quite happened. Due to the weather crapping out in Snowdonia, after a brilliant day on Lliwedd we headed over to Gogarth for two days of sea cliff climbing. Day 1: Lighthouse Arete Direct, Castell Helen We had a chilled out start to the day due to having had a long day the day before, which was followed by a few whiskies due to it being my birthday. The morning was lovely in North Wales so it was a shame to have had a lie in while it was sunny, but we enjoyed a chilled out breakfast in Capel Curig before heading to Gogarth. Due to the forecast being for rain, there being strong winds at the carpark and me being a bit ill, we decided. Read the full article…

Birthday Adventure on Lliwedd

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Rock Climbing Short Link

Many times while walking the classic Snowdon Horseshoe I have looked across from Crib Goch at the impressive cliffs of Lliwedd and have been drawn to them due to their scale as the shady cliffs tower above Llyn Llydaw. You don’t have to read far into the climbing at Lliwedd to realise that it is far more than a multi pitch crag, due to a combination of it’s size, the rock and it’s location in the mountains it seems to attract far more than it’s fair share of epics. I headed up to North Wales with Becky for my 25th Birthday weekend, and armed with a good forecast following a dry day we decided to head up to Lliwedd to have an adventure. Instead of opting for one of the more popular 12 pitch easy routes, we headed for a 5 pitch E1 called Terminator, followed by a 180m diff up the final arete of the face. I knew route finding was likely to be a problem at some point on the face so had planned to make sure I read the guidebook lots on the walk in while inspecting the. Read the full article…

Stag Weekend in North Wales

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Rock Climbing, Walking Short Link

It’s been a while since I have written a blog post, which is more due to the shear volume of climbing I have been doing, rather than the lack of climbing. I have been having an excellent season and have been making good headway into E2 and am now looking forward to the rest of the season. Last weekend I was due to head up to North Wales for a friend’s stag do, and given the nice weather three of us decided to head up a day early and do a mountain route in Snowdonia. We decided on Grooved Arete and were pleased to discover that we were the only people on the crag when we arrived in the morning. The weather was fantastic but very warm and humid in the sun which made the approach pretty warm. I lead the entire route to save time due to thunderstorms being forecast in the afternoon. The route was fantastic with lots of interesting pitches, although there was a surprising amount of polish which was a bit of a shame. The standout pitches for me were the second main pitch, the third main. Read the full article…

Western Gully – Black Ladders

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Winter Climbing Short Link

In an attempt to make the most of the brilliant conditions up in North Wales at the moment we took Friday off work and headed up for a long weekend winter climbing in North Wales. It was great to only spend 4hrs in a car and be at a winter climbing destination, rather than the normal 9 hours it takes to get to Scotland. Today we headed up into the Black Ladders to climb the classic Western Gully, a route which Nick had unfinished business with. After a reasonably leisurely start we set off just as it got light and made the seemingly never ending walk up towards the crag. Not knowing much about the conditions of the Black Ladders we were pleased when it came into view and was suitably white. Eventually we got to the base of the crag and had to make the long slog up the approach slopes, which was incredibly tedious thanks to unconsolidated snow on top of rocks. Eventually we arrived at the base of the climb and geared up. In an attempt to save some time we started by soloing the easy initial. Read the full article…

Climbing & Wild Camping on Cloggy

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Rock Climbing Short Link

In order to make the most of the brilliant weather we are currently experiencing, myself and Nick took some impromptu holiday and headed up to North Wales for two days of mid week climbing. Online reports were suggesting that the eternally wet Cloggy (Clogwyn Du’r Arddu) was dry, so we decided to head up for two days of wild camping and climbing on Cloggy. We left Llanberis early in the morning with ridiculously heavy rucksacks, it turns out that climbing and wild camping gear combined are pretty heavy and we were both pretty glad to get to where we were going to camp. After relaxing in the sun for a bit while we put the tent up and boiled some water to rehydrate we headed up to the base of the cliff. The first route we climbed was an E2 called Jelly Role, the first pitch of which is always wet and the guidebook description made it sound awful, and it didn’t look any better while we were there. I was supposed to be leading this wide, wet, slimy crack but I couldn’t sum up the courage to leave the. Read the full article…

Classic Climbing in North Wales

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Rock Climbing Short Link

I have just returned from an absolutely fantastic weekend in North Wales with the Avon Mountaineering Club. I spent the weekend climbing with Andrew, and we made the most of the dry weather by spending two days climbing in the Pass and one day climbing at Tremadog. Having never climbed in the Pass before, I never quite understood the hype about it, however having climbed there it is an utterly inspiring place, with great lines, on good rock, in a fantastic setting, what more could you want! Over the weekend we successfully climbed 6 routes, of which 5 were Rockfax top 50 lines, and I also got spanked by an E2 at Tremadog. The final ticklist for the weekend was: We woke up on the first morning expecting it to be freezing due to a frost being forecast, however it was surprisingly warm. After a quick breakfast we headed out of the campsite early to ensure we got a parking space at the boulders before all the spaces were pinched by walkers. After a short walk and scramble we were soon at the small ledge at the base of Cenotaph Corner,. Read the full article…

Winter Climbing On Snowdon

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Winter Climbing Short Link

With the recent cold snap there has been a lot of talk around down south about the beacons coming into winter condition. As I had holiday which I had to take before Christmas I took a punt at the start of the week and booked Thursday off as it was due to be the last cold day before the thaw. However when Wednesday night came reports were coming from locals who had been to scout out the conditions on Wednesday and it turned out that nothing was in good nick so rather than spending the day at home we headed up to Snowdonia for the day, this involved setting my alarm for 2:15! We arrived at Pen-y-Pass car park at around 7 with a beautiful starlit sky and started walking towards Trinity face along the miners track. It was a beautiful walk in as dawn broke and then as we were walking around the lakes the sunrise started with a beautiful horizon and the top of Snowdon being kissed by the sun, it definitely reminded me of alpine days. Once we got to Llyn Glaslyn we noticed the waterfall up. Read the full article…

A Week in Snowdonia

Alastair BegleyAviation, Landscape, North Wales, Rock Climbing, Scrambling Short Link

I have just got back from a fantastic week spent camping in Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. Heading up for a weeks camping in North Wales in October I was expecting the week to be full of wet weather and hill fog, I was very wrong with only one day being a wash out and only one day was spent with an annoying amount of time in hill fog. For the first two days I met up with the expedition society from Exeter Uni which I was a member of last year and who were in Snowdonia with 15 people for some scrambling. Despite arriving in the rain we awoke on the first morning to a fantastic sunrise over Tryfan and its North Ridge, one of the most famous scrambling routes in the UK for obvious reasons. Despite having done the scramble up Tryfan’s North Ridge about 7 times in the past 3 years every time I climb it I manage to take a slightly different route which keeps it interesting, and when the weather is good the views are spectacular and I don’t think I will ever get. Read the full article…