UKC

Hello! An appeal for some route ID if that is ok...I currently have access only to Rockfax and Ground Up N Wales selective guidebooks, which have only have 5 or 6 routes for Clogwyn yr Oen, UKC Logbooks don't have any description that matches this route either.....I guess it would be in the CC Meirionydd. 

What is the route on Clogwyn yr Oen just to the immediate right of Slack (S 4a) where you would go up the steeper right hand side of the wall for P2, doing a thin steep crack (maybe low VS 4b) at the top of that wall, and then for a (final) P3, go pretty much straight up (with a bit of wandering) on some protectionless quartzy vague slab for quite a distance (I managed one tiny wire in about 9 metres!) before cam protection for a very spicy double crux (felt like a steady 5a move into a hard 5a move) and finally respite up a mild slab?

We did it by accident today and there's no way it can be a "new route"

I'd be keen to know its name and grade. I reckon HVS 5a. Which was fun given that I struggled up a V Diff on the Moelwyns on Saturday. Of course the route I describe may turn out to be HS 4a and we were just being weak today...

[edited to change "left" to "right" (highlighted), oops]

Please don't let it be "Tight", just another Severe! I need credibility points. And seriously there is no way this could be graded Severe....

I'll try to sort out a clear photo of the route tomorrow but I'm not sure of the quality of my little digi compact for this sort of thing.

In my old guide the routes went Slack S, Pied Piper S, One for the Road D, then a girdle called Waspie. 

In the database there's now Tight R of Slack and then Ectoplasm HVS R of One for the Road.

Can't help more than that...

Thanks Jon. I've elsewhere been shown the CC book description of Tight, and it doesn't seem to fit. The line we did was the same start as Slack (same P1 assuming that you can do the first slab however you want) but went up the wall at the start of P2 just about 1.2m right of where you would start Slack. I think Tight goes further right than this. I am of course biased in wanting to find that I was gibbering on an HVS rather than a S !

Sorry, but I'm fairly certain that is Tight. I recall that Pied Piper and Tight do have one or two quite steep sections that feel hard but, due to the rough and pocketed rock are much easier than their situation would suggest.

I think that you are correct, you shatterer of dreams you!  

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Wrong forum. Better put it in Lost and Found. You never know...

Photo here.

My comments at 23:51 Sunday can be disregarded, I wrote them without access to my photo.

The description does now make a bit more sense - The harder crack does indeed match the "crack just right of overhang" described for Tight in CC, and arguably there was a ledge before finishing up short walls (with interesting thin solid quartz flakes which also weren't that trivial).

 http://www.blue-straggler.net/Slack%20and%20Tight%20at%20Clogwyn%20yr%20Oen... http://www.blue-straggler.net/IMG_3613.jpg

For context, I have been out of the onsighting game for a while, just getting back into it 3 weeks ago with some straightforward S and HS routes at Holyhead.
Past two years I've been lazily repeating old favourite grit HS routes; last VS onsights were two years ago in Cornwall. Haven't had any trouble on any of this.
No problem leading S on Bochlwyd on Saturday (5 Pitch Route) or my share of Kirkus' Climb Direct at Clogwyn yr Oen yesterday before getting on this line I describe.

The second crack I highlight here felt like one of the neckiest lead moves I've done in more than 5 years, hence the question! Technical, reachy, gear below feet (plus a questionable cam in a placement hard to judge as it was all wet and mossy). I have prior experience on 4 or 5 HVS onsights, plus an outlier E1 headpoint and E2 headpoint, but at the moment I'd say I am just breaking back into VS. 

But if that line is Tight (S 4a) then so be it - I am just a wimp when it comes to Welsh rock!

If it's any consolation -

My friend and me climbed a route on Anglesey which, without a guidebook, we thought was about HVS.

Turns out it is VD.

All part of what makes climbing fun as long as it is only the ego which was damaged.  

Or you could change your name to Blue Struggler

Good to "meet" you - I spoke to you at the top, I'd just finished Bent. If it's any consolation the line you took past the overlap looked pretty damp and unappealing! 

Cheers! Do you mean the slab line? It was fine, it was dry but maybe looked damp because of all the dark brown surface vegetation on it (which was not a problem). And it was a shallow slab with gear, so I was happy! I think you can't have seen the scary crux crack from where you were.