Climbers Club New Members Meet – Sep 2016

Jen on the crux of Silly Arête – image Keith Turton

The end of September marked the new members meet at Ynys Etwys ran by myself and Sharon Jones, there was a lot of interest in this meet and although we had a few last minute drop out due to various work commitments (and possible the forthcoming weather forecast) we still had a great turnout with 16 members attending.

Saturday was incredibly wet for most of the day, so there was plenty of tea drinking to be done in the morning, until the restless crew of climbers were all tea’d out and decided that getting out of the hut was in order. A few of us, (myself included who had stupidly left my waterproof jacket at work) decided on a bit of wall action and headed to Caenarfon to Beacon walls, wearing ourselves out on those towering walls followed by a spot of tea and cake at Pete’s in Llanberis. Another contingency decided to see if the weather was playing ball on the coast and went for a walk on Anglsea, much to their disappointment the weather didn’t let up, so they also retired for tea and cake. The final group left decided that it would be a great idea to do the Hylldrem Girdle, they managed to get rather wet but had a lot of fun in the process.

As part of the weekend activities, everyone was asked to bring along snacks/nibbles and drinks, and Sharon Jones, kindly agreed to provide food for a communal evening meal. The food was in abundance and everyone chipped in to either help prepare the food or tidy and wash and dry afterwards. We all just about managed to squeeze around the table and the food was thoroughly enjoyable it was a very social event. (I am sure sharon can be hired out on future meets for a small fee.)

Sunday morning the hut was full of people milling around, tidying up, making their lunches and getting ready to go climbing as the weather was gorgeous. It was still a little damp in the pass as Sarah, Sharon and I found out, when we went over to have a pootle on Crackstone Rib and Skylon.

Adrian and Rob went to Porth Dafarch, near Trearddur Bay. A lot of time was spent trying to identify the location of lines and they eventually found a really pleasant severe (Fisherman’s Friend) to do while waiting for the tide to recede a bit. Yellow Brick Road (HVS) looked like a really nice slabby climb from the opposite side of the zawn but, when they arrived with wet feet below the route, after traversing in, it turned out to be wildly overhanging. At the start Rob swears he heard a voice saying “You’ve gotta ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?” As a result of this intimidation they abandoned the climb and beat a retreat, stopping on the way back home at Castle Inn Quarry – a much softer venue! Rob wants to go back to Porth Dafarch when part of his brain isn’t channelling Harry Callahan, which probably means drinking less wine the night before.

Andy, Keith and Jenny went to Tremadoc, and did Valour, Mangoletsi/Itch and Jen did Silly Arête (the “epic”!). By all accounts, I believe this epic continued well into the dusk and they were pretty much last back to the car park.

Mark and Chris had an excellent day out doing some routes Mark hadn’t done it a while, and felt inspired to push his grade a bit – both very chuffed to be leading on E1 routes, their routes included Grim Wall Direct and Scratch Arête, which is apparently Chris’s new favourite route. Chris also managed to find several leeches on his rucksack at the bottom of Scratch Arête – I thought they lived in rivers and streams (maybe that was what was running down the crag on the Saturday!).

Jonah and Spencer climbed two classic routes, old hat but enjoyable for Jonah and completely new to Spencer, namely Merlin Direct and Scratch Arête. The first pitch of Merlin provided a bit of a surprise with the steepness and after a minor misunderstanding with the pitch split Spencer reached the top of the groove. The corner crack on the second pitch had him grinning like a child with a brace of sinker jams.
Next up was Scratch Arête, given the lovely weather they decided to wait in the queue for the party ahead of us to finish the route. It was Jonah’s lead for the first pitch which proved to be excellent. The slabby overlap beckoned me upwards, after a rather pregnant pause at the arête trying to figure out where the holds went Spencer shot past the overlap before making the long drive back to Glasgow with a silly grin on his face the whole way back!

Thanks to everyone who attended, it was a thoroughly enjoyable meet.

Stacey Gardner – with comments from others

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