Well to be honest, its one of the best days ive had. Me and my good friend Keith started off with a quick butty from the spar in Bethesda and the plan was run up through the kitchen then nip round into Llanberris, well that did not happen, we headed up to the kitchen over the grass from the foot of Tryfan and a nice little amble in chatting about the day, we ambled up past the slabs with the usual queue of people and up towards the kitchen.
Once the scramble began we knew it was going to be wet, slipping and sliding but generally having a great time, then the waterfall pitch, Keiths response to the wet side was 'Your not f*cking getting me up that bastard' so we opted for the left hand more difficult yet drier side, after a bit of feeling around I managed to get my self up.
We agreed id go and do a bit of a recce and see what it was like (regardless of what i saw we where going to be having a go) So i climbed up to the capstone bit, go absolutely soaked and loved it went back and told my good friend we would be 'reet' So i set my belay up and 'hauled his ass' up the waterfall pitch, now the words he said to me at this point when looking into the abyss i cannot possibly repeat, but they where not nice. So we walked on, climbing the waterfall and to the base of the route, the VD we planned on, however i forgot the guide.
'Its just up them cracks and that’s it' Peace of piss i said. Hehe, well anyway we will come to that later, so we racked up and off i goes. Now as i forgot the guide book i remembered from the vague description that it was on the left and up, so i trundled up. Now after a bit of fannying around i managed to climb past the right turn and started up the VS route.
Now looking at my log you may think, VS well that’s in his range what’s the problem, yea it is, but after it taking me a good 40mins to climb 25m, on good soaking wet holds and big boots that was my problem, so i did the good friendly thing, i thought sod it. Set my belay up, drag Keith up, he can lead that 'orrible bit! And that is what i did. Until he got to the belay, well to be fair he got slightly passed the belay, and again the words i cant repeat. But it meant him setting up a hanging belay above my hanging belay.
As i was now a bit rested i thought, well I’ll have a crack (not knowing it was vs, soaking wet and in big boots) so off i trundles not getting very far, so i says to Keith im so disappointed we wont finish this, we both agreed a good way out would be the easy looking climb to our right about 15m below us (the route we where supposed to be on) So we set up the abseil and off i go, then he joins me. (PS if anyone get my WC Cordlette out and 3 pieces of gear there will be a pint waiting!)
Yea so i go down and set up and then the old git comes down and he lead the last traverse out. Finishing this route was one of my most happiest feelings, getting out was just fantastic, and the route was amazing. Looking at it there was some what a collection of gear where we abb'd from so i think its not the first time a party has done what we did. So all in all we spent a long time in the kitchen, plenty of photos taken which i hope to get on this, but fully think it should be on everyone’s wish list, a great climb in an area that sounds so mysterious.
Now I’m fully aware of the ‘oh stop moaning its only a vdiff, well yea it is, but until you do it you don’t understand so a encourage everyone (who is technically able) to give it a good go!
Beautiful...UKC an article potential??
James....GOOSED!
