UKC

Gogarth - The Glorious First Festival

Since the controversy over the Gogarth guidebook began last year a small group of Gogarth activists and devotees set up a Wiki style online guidebook gogarth.wetpaint.com

To quote:

"For those of you who are unaware of what a wiki is, then in a nutshell it is a web community driven and authored information source. In the case of the Gogarth wiki it is the climbing community we are aimed at and those that have a love for one of the most splendid sea cliffs in the world.

This site is addressing an issue that has been at the forefront of many Gogarth devotees for some time, that of an up to date guidebook. The process is driven by volunteers who have 'real lives' as well as having bills to pay, mortages to meet, work pressures and of course even some climbing to do for themselves. This wiki guide will never replace the guidebook, ownership of such treasured guides is a key part of the climbing lifestyle. What this website will do is bridge the information gap.

From this evolved a "Gogarth mail list" which was formed to keep people up to date on Gogarth developments concerning the Wiki and the new Ground Up guidebook (although that isn't a done deal yet as the Climber's Club are still debating about whether they will produce a Gogarth guidebook - it is possible that there may be two Gogarth guidebooks). This "Gogarth mail list" includes such Gogarth climbers as Pat Littlejohn, George Smith, John Redhead, Noel Craine, Nick Dixon, Stevie Haston, Jerry Moffatt, Henry Barber, Dave Barton, Mick Johnstone, Simon Yates, Leo Houlding, Johnny Dawes and on and on and on......

Adam Wainwright has been one of the prime movers in all this activity and we received permission off Adam to publish this latest Gogarth announcement.

Gogarth - The Glorious First Festival

In Llanberis August 1st has traditionally been a day of celebration. Throughout the 80's and 90's the day the bird ban lifts from our best sea cliffs has always marked a procession across Anglesey by climbers young and old to do battle with South Stack, armed with little more than a rack of RP's.

Ask many of the protagonists of this period, a group of individuals that usually fail to remember where they were yesterday, what they were up to on any particular Glorious August First, and most will know that they were at Gogarth.

In keeping with the spirit of camaraderie that this list has seemed to generate we are suggesting that this year, on the first weekend after 1st August (the 4th and 5th), as the first happens to fall on a Wednesday and will be classed as a local day for local people, then perhaps we would like to gather ourselves into a loose group of disorganised Gogarth campaigners and make the most of this new phase in Gogarth's life. By now the Wki has shown the way to many of the best secrets of these cliffs which for too long have been the reserve of a select few, most of the best new routes have been finished off by George so there is nothing left to hide and it is high time that some of these routes were aired to the world at large.

By then Ted Sylvester and Sue (DMM) will own The Snowdon Inn in Cwm y Glo (just outside Llanberis), complete with campsite, food, beer etc. which could serve as a base camp. The first few DWS festivals held were very successful on an ad hock basis like this before they were hijacked by Red Bull and their extreme 'donuts on a jet ski team' so let's follow suit and place Gogarth back where it belongs as a premier trad climbing venue, complete with climbers, beers and some quality craic.

Here's to Gogarth

Adam Wainwright


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2 Apr, 2007
Rich and I are already planning to head to Gogarth at the start of August to climb Mousetrap once the bird ban is lifted. We've also got the other Hard Rock ticks of ADOWH, Gogarth and the Big Groove to do. It would be great if we could time it so we are around for the weekend of 4th/5th, although we could do with avoiding any queues, so it might not be a good idea from that point of view. Anyway, the 'Festival' is a great idea and it will be superb if it can attract some Gogarth virgins to one of Britian best cliffs.
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