Craig y Don

Fisnishing the crux of The Tyndale

Rocio and I decided to go for a day of red-pointing on Pen Trwyn limestone, so packed accordingly. It just goes to show that you need to keep your options open for climbing: the whole of the Marine Drive was shut to both vehicles and pedestrians for the day, so we ended up calling in at Craig y Don, where we were fortunately able to have a look at another team's guidebook - at least I had a selection of wires so after climbing the easiest sport route on the crag we were able to climb a couple of trad pitches, both very worthwhile - though one felt very fierce for the grade as the holds after the crux were quite dirty and vegetated. We climbed The Tyndale (6c+ but with a hard clip for a sport route), New Wave (E3 6a and delightful) and finally The Cruel Sea (E3 6a - old school E3 - i.e. the holds think that they are on an E4).

A great day's climbing at Llandulas Cave

Llandulas Cave is becoming a great little venue for climbing, as the local community has cleaned up a lot of rubbish and loose rock. There are some excellent climbs now ranging from Grade 5 through to 7c, though the rock still demands some respect in places. Today Rocio Siemens and I worked our say through a couple of old classics at the righthand end of the crag, including the classic Ralarwdins (6b+) before moving along to a newly developed crag tucked away in the trees. Unfortunately I can't tell you where this is or we would have to shoot you. But suffice it to say that there are some really worthwhile new routes of about 20 metres in length - standout lines being a 6c groove near the righthand side - an outstanding pitch, and at the far left another nice route but it felt very strenuous and sustained for the grade, maybe I had got the wrong beta!