Wen Zawn with Caff on an on-sight attempt of Hardback Thesaurus. I was reading a forum topic on UKC a few days ago started by Chris Craggs, the title of the topic is, Awareness of Danger, here is a link In his opening post, Chris explains, “We were climbing at Horseshoe today and Colin pointed out the team to our left. The leader had gone up about six clips, taken a few falls then lowered off, stripping all the remaining quickdraws on the way down. The other guy top-roped up to the high bolt, pressed on then promptly fell off. I put my best schoolyard voice on shouted the he should lower dow ..read more

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Craig Doris. The line of War and Peace. The yellow dot on the right is the start, the yellow dot on the left is the end. The red dots are belays. Pic credit, Jethro Kiernan. After the event… Pic credit, Ray Wood. Earlier in the year, at a point in time near the summer solstice, so mid-June, Mick Lovatt and I climbed, or more truthfully, shuffled, the second ascent of the Pat Littlejohn and Steve Sustad 16 pitch traverse of Craig Doris, War and Peace on the Llŷn Peninsular, north Cymru. War and Peace had been on my radar for years, but actually finding a partner and committing to actually s ..read more

OK, so Craig the landlord at The Vaynol Pub, Nant Peris pestered, and pestered and pestered until I agreed to give a talk. At the time of asking, he said, it will be mutually beneficial. I’m still waiting for the mutual beneficial bit But maybe it’s the warm feeling I’ll get from making a few folk laugh (hopefully) and giving something to the local community and taking the piss out of my mates. Anyway, the talk is called Encounters with Superheroes, it’s basically a new name to tell favourite old stories, although there is one I haven’t done before that may, or may not, include a hippy. Othe ..read more

Tim and Olive attempt to understand each other, but neither have quite got there yet! A few days ago, I was climbing with Mick Lovatt at Llawder, Rhoscolyn, north Cymru. Ray Wood came along to take a few pics. It’s always fun when Ray comes along, he’s a mate and he makes me laugh, and his company adds an extra element to the day. It’s also great to get good quality pics of an area, a new route, or even an existing line, because, occasionally, I’ll write about the experience, and having good pictures is always better than having crap ones! I enjoy writing; piecing it together, crafting, edit ..read more

I couldn’t think of a suitable image to go alongside the angry opinionated diatribe below, so here is a fluffy one looking towards Elidir Fawr, Glyder Fawr & Carnedd Llewelyn from the top of Craig yr Ogof, Cwm Silyn after climbing a combo of Kirkus’s route & the direct. Possibly the first ascent of the season and un-chalked. It’s HVS and was climbed a long time ago by people who did not need to be told every gear placement and just got on with it. Since the easing of Covid restrictions, I’ve been climbing frequently, and more than ever, (if that’s possible) and the space, the element ..read more

The Earth Died Screaming first ascent. Pic credit, Jethro Kiernan. At the end of the first lockdown, when travel in Cymru was restricted – up the lanes from where I live, is Gideon Quarry. The imposing and well known Dinowig Quarry, is to the east of Llanberis on the slopes of Elidir Fawr, Gideon sits on the west side of the valley, and feels secretive in comparison. Gideon is one of a series of holes burrowed into the hillside, collectively they are called the Quarries of Glyn Rhonwy. In the base, of Gideon, it’s vegetated and green, there are mature trees and bushes, and amongst this more ..read more