Staff Mine Trip

Today Pete, Dave, Anthony and myself went on a staff trip to Cwmorthyn Slate mine. The objective of the trip was to undertake a through tip from Cwmorthin to Okley slate mine and familiarise myself with Cwmothyn mine for a upcoming mine leader assessment. The trip got off to a good start but we soon run into problems due to a inaccurate mine survey. Having sorted this we continued on down into the Oakly levels and after some 3 houres daylight appeared. Heading out into the light we were all delighted to see the Crimea Pass, we had made our objective. After a quick bit to eat we climbed out of the mine admiring some of the workings on the Oakly side before heading back over the top of the hill back to the van.

Salbit

A spare week a quick few calls and Dan, Rob and myself were on a flight to Geneva for a few days Alpine climbing. On arrival in Geneva we picked a hire car up and drove over to Goschenen near Andermatt and started the long unrelenting trudge up to the Salbit Hut (one of the best alpine huts I have stayed in) Arriving at the hut in the early afternoon we had just enough time to climb Yes sir 4c out the back of the hut. Now all fired up we head out the next day to climb Morgesunna 5c which has 11 pitches of amazing granit climbing. Topping out we made the gnarly traverse across ball bearing like covered terrain before descending the gully back down to the hut for yet another fantastic meal. On Tuesday morning we were up at 05.00 well before dawn anxiously heading towards the Salbit Sudgrat. The approach was a long trek from the hut up some steep frozen turf which was interesting in trainers followed by a steep unprotectable gully to the start of the south ridge. 08.00 we set off on the ridge proper where we found the climbing slightly harder than expected. Reaching the top of the first tower at around 10.00 in a stupendous position the knife edge ridge continued on up out of the first gap. Rapping down into the first gap it was starting to dawn upon me that we were moving to slowly and beyond this point we were committed and at the current speed would end up in benightment. All agreeing we decided to escape from this gap rapping 250m down the face. Walking back to the hut although all disappointed we all knew we had made a good call. Climbing as a 3 and not relay training at the speeds required to complete such a route but we are already planning on returning next year for a second attempt. Wednesday morning was a lazy start before heading up Angelika 5C for a quick climb before trekking back down to the car to drop rob off at the train station. With a bad forecast coming in Dan and myself changed our flights to Thursday night and head over to Grimsel pass for some slab climbing. Climbing Foxie 5c which was a impenetrable smooth granit slab without a single hand hold in the entire 12 pitches before heading back to Geneva.

Lundy

On Thursday morning I arrived at Ilfacombe harbour with Huw, Pete, Cled and Steve (Huws client). All ready for a few days climbing the sea cliffs of Lundy we climbed aboard our ferry. On arrival in Lundy we abandoned all of our excess kit at the campsite before heading out onto the cliffs. The next few days were spent climbing hard rain or shine with the exception of monday afternoon where the rain got all to much. Tuesday saw us heading out to bag a last few routes before running for our boat home.