May 29, 20162 min read

North Wales at it's best

Last week I had the pleasure of 4 days rock climbing with Sharna. We started last Sunday - in the rain so we opted for some 'big boot' mountain routes, kicking off with a mix of Rowan Route and Milestone Buttress scramble. Although a bit wet and slippery the routes have plentiful big holds and are well protected. At the top the rain had stopped and we made our way round to the East Face of Tryfan via the Heather Terrace. Our next route was a lovely Difficult graded climb called Overlapping Rib Route, 180m of excellent climbing to pretty much the summit of Tryfan. The sun was well out by now and the rock dried off. A quick stop at the top for Sharna to make the leap from Adam to Eve before heading off down West gully. A pretty good start.

Day 2 and we decided on Idwal Slabs, a great choice of long classic rock routes and somewhere where Sharna could take the lead. I have climbed with Sharna a few times including a learn to lead course that i provided so i was confident she was up to the task. We started on Hope (V Diff). I lead first and Sharna lead the 'perilous twin cracks' on pitch 2, in fine style. We carried on leading through to the top. After that we climbed lazarus (Severe) then The Arete (V Diff). A great link up of routes. We quickly scrambled back down and nipped back up Charity (V Diff). Over 1000 feet of climbing - not a bad day.

Sharna placing protection on pitch 2 of Hope, the Twin Cracks!

Cwm Idwal from the climbers descent route

Day 3 we headed back to Tryfan as Sharna wanted to climb Grooved Arete. More great weather too. We started on Milestone Buttress on the super polished but brilliant Direct Route (V Diff). Once again Sharna took the lead on the exciting hand traverse pitch. A short walk round to the East Face and we were soon at the bottom of Grooved Arete (V Diff). This is one of the best routes of it's grade in the country, a fine mountain route with some excellent and exciting climbing, one of my favourites.

Day 4 we went for something different - sea cliff climbing at Rhoscolyn on Anglesey. A scorcher of a day we started with Sharna leading the brilliant but short Symphony Crack (Diff). The routes are nearly all single pitch and fairly easy to access at low tide so we managed to tick off 4 more routes, finishing with Truant - the hardest route we had climbed in the week at Very Severe. It finished off a great 4 days of climbing during which we managed to climb 14 excellent routes. Definitely North Wales at it's best - lets hope it continues!