I offered to take some people from work on a climbing expedition so they could experience what climbing is all about, and why I go all misty eyed every time I talk about it. We had planned to do some single pitch cragging in the Peak District, but the weather was looking hit and miss and the forecast was better for the west of the country. I opted for Wales to give my colleagues the opportunity to try a nice big mountaineering route in some (hopefully) reasonable weather. As it transpired, only one person managed to come along, so it turned out to be just Reg, My bro and me.

The approach

As we approached the Ogwen Valley in the car, it was quite a surprise to see that pretty much all the peaks were covered in snow. I started to question my wisdom of attempting a big route as we would almost certainly have to top out onto snow, which none of us had come prepared for. Once parked, we debated for a few minutes and decided to approach the climb and see how it looked.

Walking toward the ridge

As with all the best mountaineering routes, there’s a bit of a walk-in. Parking is at the Idwal Cottage in the Ogwen Valley, it costs just £4 for the full day – bargain! The approach starts on the cobbled path leading up behind Idwal Cottage. We followed the path until we reached Llyn Idwal, turning left and working our way along a stony path with the Llyn on our right. We passed through a gate and then headed up the hill to our left. Once we reached the top of the hill, we could see the Arête off to the right in the distance (see picture). As you can see from the picture we had to stomp through a fair bit of snow, which made some of the steeper traverses a bit sketchy.

The climb

Me near the top of pitch 1

Once we reached the foot of the Arête, it was obvious where to start, from the highly polished rock. I arrived first and took a couple of pictures of David and Reg as they scrambled up behind.

After all that walking, we eager to get stuck in. Well at least David and I were, Reg looked more than a little apprehensive. I had selected the route as a moderate grade to give him taste of a proper mountain day out, without the climbing being technically difficult. However, standing at the foot of the route made me feel a little uneasy for him, what if he just found the whole thing terrifying and couldn’t proceed? I considered this for a moment and decided that we could always abseil off from the top of pitch 2 if it wasn’t working out.

I climbed first. As I made my way up pitch 1, I placed a couple of pieces of gear to show Reg how it works. The guidebook, Scrambles and Easy Climbs in Snowdonia suggests this pitch is 26 metres. We had decided that Reg should follow next so that I could coach from above and David from the ground. Reg huffed and puffed his way up to a nice big ledge, just below my belay point. He still looked pretty white, but relieved to have the first pitch under his belt.

Reg about halfway up

Once David joined us at the first ledge, it was decided that I would continue to lead. I started climbing the sloping chimney above us. After a few easy moves I decided not to bother placing any more gear, I felt very confident and decided that adding gear would slow us down and cause a lot of rope drag (though I was very careful not to leave David and Reg exposed). I kept the pitches reasonably short, mostly setting up belays from the many spikes available.

We took a full rack with us, which was completely unnecessary. If you plan to do this climb just take nuts 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, a few slings and some carabiners. Route finding was never a problem, I just stuck to the top of the ridge wherever possible.

The climb is really easy but keeps you involved. My favourite part was the exposed ridge. I tried to strike a balance between concentrating on the moves while not losing sense of the occasion. After all what’s the point of all that exposure if you’re so focused that you don’t notice it?

When we reached the top we were met with a good 6 inches of snow and truly magnificent views. Reg looked genuinely happy and I got a buzz from his obvious sense of achievement.

The descent was tricky, steep stony paths covered in snow. In some places, sliding down on your bum was the only option. We arrived back at the car a bit weary but completely satisfied.

Conclusion

The Cneifion expedition was a brilliant mountain day. I think there’s something for both experienced climbers / scramblers and beginners. I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

If you fancy it, I would recommend purchasing Scrambles and Easy Climbs in Snowdonia as a guide.

Snowdonia Climbing – Cneifion Arete 130m Mod, Ogwen, North Wales is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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David and I had elected to head down the Llanberis pass and have a crack at a medium sized VDiff. We had risen a bit late (due to being completely destroyed by Saturday’s climbing and kite surfing antics) and we had to be in Kinmel Bay for another kite surfing lesson at 2pm, so anything bigger or more difficult was out of the question. A quick look in the climbing book revealed the ideal candidate; Rib and Slab, a 79 m VDiff, divided into 2 convenient pitches and just a short 5 minute walk-in from the road – lovely!

The view back at the Rib part of Rib and Slab (middle distance)

We scrambled up to the foot of the climb which is just to the right of the black rock of Crag Ddu (the first slab on the left) on entering the Llanberis Pass from the Nant Peris end.

I always lead the first pitch, and I’m always happy to do so but this time I threw the question in just to be sure “Who’s leading first bro?”. The response was as expected “You are, as usual, get on with it”. No getting out of that one then!

The first pitch was a pretty steep 30m. The first few moves were pretty easy and I soon got that reassuring first piece of gear in. After that things started to get interesting, I found myself faced with a large block to negotiate. The block sloped to the right with a wide crack running down it, where I was able to rest my foot and place some more protection. The spot where my foot was wedged was pretty uncomfortable and I found myself feeling a bit uneasy by the time the gear was in. The block required that I climb up some very small toe ledges and move out to the right onto its arete. This part of the climb served up some of the best exposure I have experienced to date, and I felt pretty relieved to reach a small ledge on which I could traverse right to a good gear placement – whew!

From here I made my way up a steepish wall to a ledge with a Holly Tree. I chucked a sling around the trunk of the tree and clipped my rope in. There appeared to be 2 ways around the tree, one to the left which required getting wedged in a crack but had little exposure, and one to the right which meant heading out into super exposure on very small holds. After a bit of umming and ahhhing I elected to take the exposure (I hate getting wedged into cracks). I thrashed my way past the branches of the hollybush and out onto the exposed rock. A couple of moves put me onto a nice mellow ramp leading to a big tree root belay – once again…whew!

Once I had the belay set up and David had started climbing, I reflected on the pitch and how nervous I had felt (almost throughout). There had been several times where David had tried to engage me in conversation and I had ignored him completely as the climb required such intense concentration. I hoped he wouldn’t just breeze up it and tell me how easy he found it. I had a nagging suspicion that I might have just been a bit of a wimp (following my fall the previous day). I needn’t have worried, David had major problems on the exposed block. He finally appeared on the ramp after a good deal of cursing with a big smile on his face, “bloody hell, that was nippy. I was bricking it, even as a second!”

David on the Slab part of Rib and Slab

We gathered all the gear up and prepared for David’s pitch, a nice slab with small but positive holds – hmmmm, typical! David made short work of the slab until he reached the top, where it became a very steep grassy slope. Patently aware that his last piece of protection was a good 10m below he nervously edged his way up the wet, slippery grass to a belay position. I quickly followed, happy to be able to focus entirely on the moves without worrying about falling off. Once I reached the grass David instructed me to veer off to the escape to the left where I could provide a body belay for him to move across. I moved on hands and feet like Smeagol from Lord of the Rings, managing to find every warm patch of wetness within the cool grass along the way (hmmm, sheep urine – lovely).

The walk off was pretty uneventful (unlike the treacherous descent of the previous day). We made it to Kinmel Bay in plenty of time for out kite surfing lesson, just to find there was not a sniff of wind – BUGGER!

Snowdonia climbing – Llanberis Pass, Crag Ddu – Rib and Slab 79m, Vdiff is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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