Trebanog Day Trip

by Lewis Fisher

We arrived at the car park and looked up in awe at the graffiti covered, rubbish filled crag that we all couldn’t wait to climb. After a long approach, we set up camp and split into two groups to learn the basics of gear placement and anchor building. With a speedy snack break to fuel our climbing we set about smashing out some trad routes, with everyone seeming keen to give lead a try! Chloe lead her first route, “Decent route”, and after a tricky start, flew up to the top filled with adrenaline. We then found that the anchors, whilst sturdy enough, were concrete fence posts, and meant that all our hard work in learning to build anchors were mostly redundant.

Once we’d stopped for a quick lunch the trip was in full swing, with Tom, Zoe, and Andrew (just to name a few) all crushing their first ever trad leads! I battled with my wedged nut for a good ten minutes until a mysterious local appeared and saved the day, making it look far too easy to get out. Will pulled out some awesome overhang moves on a nice looking VS called “Air Play”, whilst I watched on from my climb “Skull Orchard”. Back on the main area Tom lead a tough looking HVS, which of course he made look easy, he is Trad Officer after all. Sadly the climbing couldn’t last too much longer, as the loss of the sun behind some clouds meant the cold set in very fast. We all packed up and got ready to leave, but not before I snagged a cheeky photo of all their happy faces.

Thanks for a great day out as always, it makes me feel like a proud parent watching you all learn to lead, and getting the confidence to take on these routes all on your own! Keep it up gang xo