Climbing in Snowdonia

The last week we have been on a family holiday in North Wales. On the way home we took a drive through Snowdonia and stopped at Llynnau Mymbyr near Capel-Curig. 

With a fantastic view of Snowdon (above) the girls had some great fun on the boulders that lay at the side of the road. 

I was quite impressed with Ev. When she was climbing up this diagonal crack she used her left foot to stop herself from over rotating with the reaction force of her right foot. She wasn't trying to have four points of contact. She was finding her own equilibrium.

After a good send, one happy boulderer.

Indoor climbing

One of the things that I have been doing up to now is taking the girls to The Climbing Station in Loughborough. It is a nice indoor bouldering and climbing wall. I like it because the low walls and crash mats allow for easy traversing as well as sending. It gives the girls the opportunity to climb around on any holds they like without ever getting higher than they want to be. Only one of the walls slopes back, but it has some nice easy holds at the bottom of it. 

Today it was the time for Ev to climb. It was good to see her trying different holds. Its all too easy as an adult to instruct children towards the good holds, but this takes away that self discovery and evaluation of holds. She didn't get too far but she had a good go. 

First reconnaissance of Pillar Rock

So where did this desire come from? Back in May this year I fulfilled a lifetime ambition of staying at the Black Sail Youth Hostel in Ennerdale in Cumbria.

Now Youth Hostels are often atmospheric, but the Black Sail is something else. The walls have climbing history soaked into them. When I arrived at the hostel and entered the common room I was instantly taken by the charm of the place. A scene of damp walkers and lots of gear crammed into a small, but comfortable space, alongside an evening of beer and heroic mountain stories left me feeling inspired.

I had planned to do several things whilst there, including swimming in Ennerdale Water, cycling down the track, walking the hills and maybe doing a little bit of scrambling up near Pillar. I spent a lazy morning slowly creeping, with aching muscles, up the Shamrock Traverse until I was within sight of the stone fortress that is Pillar Rock. From the East it looks utterly unclimbable however it is from this direction that it is most easily climbed. 

I scrambled up on Pisgah and looked across at Pillar Rock High Man. Vertigo and exposure swirled around my head leaving me terrified but yet totally convinced that I would be back to climb this. 

When the journey lay all ahead

This blog started as a non purposeful documentation of my wanderings around and musing at wildlife and nature. However after several years of not updating it my life has moved on and things of great importance now seem insignificant and things of no great significance now seem important.

I have always liked climbing and being in the outdoors. Now I have children I want them to also share in the joy of being out there on the rock and savoring life at its richest. So here is the challenge that I am setting myself. To take my children and climb three technically easy but exposed classic routes.
1) Pillar Rock
2) The Inaccessible Pinnacle
3) The Aaonach Eagach

I am confident that I could climb all three next week. However my children are all under five years old. Though I do not plan to take them climbing these routes just yet, I do want to steer their childhoods so that before I am too old we can climb these together. What this blog will now become is a documentation of the years of training and practice that will go into my kids so that when the time comes we are successful at reaching the summits of these three legendary British climbs.

When the journey lies all ahead you are at the best part of the whole adventure.

Pillar rock.

Spiders in the Garden

 Two spiders in the garden. The first Philodromus Philodromidae.

The second a delightfully emerald Araniella Araneidae

Insects at Ashover

I have wanted to see one of these for ages. Black & red froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata) sunning itself on Blackberry leaves.

Green-veined white (Pieris napi)

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)Dance fly (Empis tessellata)

Nettle Weevil (Phyllobius pomaceus)

The nymph of a Green Plant Bug (Calocoris alpestris)

The view from Shuttlingsloe

First the Hill itself! I took advantage of one of the nice days over Easter to walk up Shuttlingsloe in cheshire. The peak is really one of the western most peaks in the Peak District National Park. I had first seen Shuttlingsloe from the Roaches back in 2003 and vowed to walk up it one day. A good day here will give you a view to Snowdon. However this day was a hazy one and views were restricted to about 10 miles.



Of course back in 2003 we walked from the bus stop on the road near Axe Edge Moor, over Oliver Hill, through Flash and then down to the Youth Hostel near the Roaches themselves. This photo shows Oliver Hill (about 3 miles away) from the summit. The hill in the near ground is Cut Thorn Hill.


The vast Whetstone ridge fills the eastern horizon.






Further to the north Shining Tor.






Looking South over the flanks of the Roaches you can just see Tittesworth Reservoir that dominates the view from the Roaches itself.




And now for the Roaches. It was a similarly hot day when I was there looking this way.





Another feature that you can't help but notice from The Roaches and from Shuttlingsloe is the Silk 106.9 FM radio tower on Sutton Common to the East.

Sutton Common from a distance. The small hill to the left is the Cloud.