Careful Where You Place Your Nuts! Practicing Scrambling Techniques On Little Tryfan

“The best climber in the world is the one having the most fun!”

Alex Lowe

I’m setting up a top rope anchor here to belay the guys off and I have to admit I’m leaving nothing to chance. There’s nothing that loses you friends faster like dropping them from a great height. The anchor I’m putting in you could actually hang the weight of a bus off and it’s clearly overkill. I guess you could say I’m making sure my huge nuts can support us all today!“

The Author

After our trip to Snowdon yesterday we wake up early, which for me is pretty easy after a night of camping. Mainly because sleeping on a camping mat makes me very aware of every bone in my body. It’s one of the signs of me getting a bit older I try and ignore. I think the whole campsite must hear my joints creak as I force myself into a sitting position. As we all slowly emerge from our tents looking bleary eyed we whip out the camping stoves and make some much needed coffee, which I need to at least resemble a human. I get the fire pit going and as usual the wind seems to get the smoke in my face no matter where I stand (can’t just be me that gets this can it?)and after getting the heat on we start cooking ourselves bacon and sausage breakfast rolls which are full on stacked. Being sat here in the warm morning sun with a breakfast BBQ going makes sleeping on the floor totally worth it.

Llyn Owgen: Where King Arthur Stashed His Rusty Weapon?

Making sure I’ve doused the fire pit with some water before we leave so nobodies feral campsite children melt themselves in it, we all jump in the car and drive over to the Owgen Valley. The Owgen Valley just like most of Snowdonia is striking to look at, also called Dyffryn Ogwen in Welsh it’s valley that has been carved out of the rock by Glacial action it’s flanked on all sides by the Glyerau Mountains ( Tryfan, Glyder Fach and Glyder Fawr) Llyn Owgen is a shallow lake at only three metres deep but it has the fascinating legend of being the lake that King Arthur retuned his sword ‘Excalibur’ back to the Lady Of the Lake after his final battle. Now this sounds far fetched but strangely enough not too long ago some National Trust Rangers who were working on a footpath next to the lake and strangely enough experts believe it dates from around the 6th century putting it in the time of King Arthur, and are seeing if its resembles the excalibur described in the translated group of eleven medieval Welsh Tales that were produced by Lady Charlotte Guest under the title’The Mabanogion’ in the 19th century. I haven’t had a swim in Llyn Ogwen yet but I do intend to at some point, providing the Lady Of The Lake doesn’t mind.

Today we are going to be using little Tryfan to practice some climbing and scrambling techniques. There will be some who know the place well for those that don’t little Tryfan or ‘Tryfan Bach’ it’s what I’d probably describe as a volcanic rock outcrop in this case Rhyolite. This slab of rock leans backwards which makes it excellent for a low pressure climb and it also has a number of easy climbing routes on it. Going for a leant back slab means we won’t tire our arms out easily and we can calmly take our time climbing and practicing putting the gear into the rock. There’s far less pressure, and hardly any chance of falling though this still doesn’t make it any less high than it is!

This should be an experience for us all, I think as the shape of Tryfan Bach appears ahead of us and maybe its just nerves but I’m sure it looks bigger than it did earlier?

I’ve got the extra pressure of not only leading this climb but also joint responsibility with Richard for Andy and Ben. If we don’t show them how to climb safely it will come back on them one way or another. And I like my friends and myself kept free of injury if possible and alive to boot. As we approach through a path winding through the heather our trad climbing gear clinks together like wind chimes in the breeze, which would be quite zen like and calming if I didn’t know what we are about to do.

When we arrive at the foot of the rock face we realise how many of the routes are already occupied and also quite a lot of the space around the foot too. The biggest group of people seem to have just come to watch the few of their group that can climb and are giving their climbers loud applause just get getting up and down again. As much as I enjoy climbing watching others do it has never really stuck me as interesting unless they are pulling off some super human moves, like epic dynos. Then again these guys seem to have turned it into a full family day out with a picnic and everything too, which is kind of cool.

Sloth amygdala

While we are busy trying to find a route that’s unclaimed on the rock face and setting up gear, one guy takes about a two second look at the rock face and goes scrambling straight up the up the side of it, and just solos it with no ropes or anything.Because I have a very active imagination can just see in my head him making a wrong move bouncing down the rock face and making an unwanted topping to the other groups hummus.He doesn’t however, in fact he makes it look very easy. Thinking of ourselves I think the groups a little way off the kind of confidence this guys displaying. Then again sometimes I wonder if it’s confidence or if’s just people becoming desensitised to the fear. I’ve only recently watched the film ‘Free Solo’ where Alex Honnold free solo climbs El Capitan in Yosemite which is more than a bit nuts. My mind goes back to the scenes where Alex has an MRI scan and the doctors telling him he has a barely existent response to fear, that his amygdala isn’t firing and making a fear response. I’ve met a few people in my life who must have amygdala that’s decided it can’t be bothered getting up off the sofa my friend Luke who climbs like a gecko being one of them. Mine on the other hand, must have been going off like a New Years firework display in the past! Me and Richard take a look around the rock face at what is left over to climb and settle on an easy enough route you could scramble without the ropes. Climbing without a rope is not the intention at the moment, however this route is definitely a good choice to practice scrambling techniques on. The route has a large ledge about half way up which appears perfect for the setting of an anchor and to set up a belay. We can’t really see anywhere else either of us would be comfortable setting up on at this stage so it’s almost like it’s written in the stars, or the rock?

After ramming a pork pie down my pie hole (for the non UK readers that means my mouth) in what I’m classing as my lunch today, because I tell myself ‘I’ll burn it off’. I set myself up at the foot of a bit of small sloping slab and tie and with Rich on belay. Pulling myself up onto the slab I’m wedging my feet into the narrow crack that stretches up the rock face towards and through the ledge I’m heading for. The first bit of gear I have to put in is going to be pretty crucial, not because It’ll stop me from falling from a great height but because it might just about stop me falling from not quite a great height and maybe breaking my ankles. I glance at the wedge shaped bit of metal that’s hard to imagine as my ankle saviour and try not to think about us not having brought bouldering mat with us as I place this first bit of gear and double, triple check it even though I know it’s in a bomber placement (for non climbers by that I mean nothings going to remove it unintentionally. After sorting this and breathing a little sigh of relief I climb up past it and have a sketchy moment where I get both feet almost fully stuck in the crack in the rock and can’t get either of them out. Lucky after a bit of a sweaty palmed panic I retrieve my appendages from the wall, and climb further placing a few more bits of gear and eventually reaching the ledge I’m aiming for.

When I arrive at the ledge I pull myself as far into it as I can and take a minute to calm down and get my breath. There’s definitely a lot more pressure today as the one leading the climb, this isn’t a dress rehearsal so I’m taking my time and doing this right. When I’ve calmed myself down I carefully move across the rock face to have a look at the huge crack which continues on the left side of the rock face above the ledge. I get some of the gear off my climbing rack and decide to go for the biggest nuts I’ve got (boom boom), and I get my huge nuts and make sure they are firmly wedged in the crack in the rock. I’m setting up a top rope anchor here to belay the guys off and I have to admit I’m leaving nothing to chance. There’s nothing that loses you friends faster like dropping them from a great height. The anchor I’m putting in you could actually hang the weight of a bus off and it’s clearly overkill. I guess you could say I’m making sure my huge nuts can support us all today, I think and laugh to myself out loud like a serial killer.

First task is to ensure I’m safety connected to the rock face so the moment I’m set up with the anchor I use a crab this case I mean a karabiner not a pinchy sea boi, stick that on the anchor point and use a clove hitch (these lock tight if you fall on them) to make sure I’m safe. Next up is the small matter of me getting back down, so it’s pretty important I’ve set up this anchor well because I’m going to have to be the first person that tests it if I want to get back down easily. I transfer myself onto the rope and get tied in and tell Rich to bring me down. Now I’ve got to admit no matter how bombproof I’ve made this setup and how many times I’ve checked it my stomach still does a backflip as the rope goes taut and I lean backwards over the edge. I’m looking up at the anchor just imagining one of the nuts popping out of the rock face with a terrifying ‘ping’ (it probably wouldn’t make that sound) of course it doesn’t though and in a matter of a minute Richards belayed me back down. Phew.

Now we get Andy and Ben to have a go at placing gear on the ground before they climb and also removing it using a nut key in this case the amusingly named ‘nut buster’ (we all know a few of those I’m sure). We then make sure they still remember how to tie into the rope set up a belay plate and buddy check. First up is Andy on the top rope and he does a good job adding and removing gear and then Ben does the same. Well apart from the bit where they both manage to dislodge one of the nuts by kneeing it at least, so all good so far! I also belay Richard up and make sure Ben and Andy are watching what I’m doing.

Next up is more fun, I re-ascend the rock face and now I’m using the anchor to belay Andy and Ben up to the ledge that I’m sitting on, using an italian hitch. Before they do the full climb I get them to weight the rope and hitch to demonstrate how it catches them before getting them to head up the rock. This all goes very well and after showing them what I’ve been doing and how, I belay them back down. Now comes the fun part, which is how exactly I’m planning on getting down myself. At this point being rescued by other climbers or mountain rescue not even at the top of the thing would be more than a little embarrassing. The most obvious way is going to be to down-climb, which is exactly what it sounds like. And the reason why is because there’s nobody coming up as my second today, and we haven’t chosen a route that looks like there’s a walk down off the to and also there’s nobody to take the gear out but me! And I can’t just leave it in there because it’s about 200 quids worth of rock climbing gear, so what I’ve got to do is take my anchor out and then slowly climb down taking the other gear out as I go. I have to admit it’s a bit sketchy but I do it well. I’m still really relieved when I’m back on the ground though.

All the fun over it’s time to go back so we get the ropes tied up and the gear packed away, and as we walk the guys chat to us about how much fun they had learning, which is good to know! Andy has always trusted me but he’s gained a further trust, literally that he can trust me with his life, and so have Richard and Ben, and now I know I can trust them with mine too. And that builds a hell of a bond with people, It’s one of the things I love most about climbing. The other thing that builds bonds with people is the overcoming of fear with a team. That and massive nuts of course!

Enjoy this blog? The next blog will be ‘Precarious Moments on Tryfan’