The North Wales adventure

by Laura Sharpe

Everyone set off at different times on Friday and despite the snow getting worse and worse as the evening went on we all made it safely to Dolawen (although I did have to pull over on a very snowy mountain to check a car that had veered off road for casualties).
We got up early on Saturday to make the most of the dry weather. Matt, Leah, Dec and Brodie ventured up into the snowy mountains with walking axes and crampons, though Brodie impressively managed in just walking boots! Seems like they had a hard day as some of them were struggling to walk the next morning. Alex, Carlos and Georgina headed to RAC boulders and managed to complete loads of boulder problems before the rain came in and they had to hide under a rock until their lift arrived.
Meanwhile the rest of us spent the day doing some single pitch trad at Creigiau Llynau Mymbyr. Michael and Callum had a refresher course in leading from Jack’s dad and successfully led Letterbox (VS) and Evan’s Corner (VS), two excellent routes that were also led by Tim and Adam and seconded by many others. The crag also offered some excellent chimney climbs including the tight Ginnel Chimney which most of us managed to squeeze up.
The rain came in mid afternoon so some of us headed off for a lovely walk through the woods before everyone went back to the bunkhouse for a massive pasta meal. We made fools of ourselves playing the after eight game, Dec pulled a muscle playing with cardboard boxes and we tried to introduce the freshers to table bouldering but sadly most were not too keen on the idea!
Sunday was a bit rainy so we went to Dinorwig slate quarry in search of adventure. Bertrand, Mathias, Jack, Abbey, Adam and I went for a little explore around the quarry with Abbey’s mum and then found some dry sport routes at The Sidings which were a bit tricky but great fun to climb.
Matt, Tim and Alex led groups around sections of Snakes and Ladders. Unfortunately Matt’s group had to cut their day short when Michael cut his hand open at the top of the ladders but the group did a great job of fashioning a dressing out of sanitary products! Tim’s group found that some of the chain had fallen off so couldn’t climb it, faffed around a bit on the scree slope but then flew up the ladders so managed to cram a few sport routes in before we left. Alex’s group started pretty late after their car got lost on the way to the quarry but Alex stormed through the route and used some great rope work which saved Jason from sliding away down the scree slope.
We reunited with Dec, Richard, Zara and Ellie who had spent the day browsing at gear and eating 16oz burgers and finished the trip with the usual trip to Pete’s Eats.