Lliwedd and Tremadog

This weekend myself and Phil headed up to North Wales for a weekend full of trad climbing. The idea was to try and get up onto cloggy and get some of the E1’s and E2’s ticked off, weather not being to good and the rock being wet we soon had to change our plans. We decided to head into Lliwedd and do the big 12 pitch route called “Avalanche Redwall”. This is only graded at Severe but with the rock being wet and the whole face being covered in thick cloud it made it that little more interesting. All the climbing was pretty straight forward and very easy, we managed to scale the face in just over 4hrs from bottom to top. When walking from the summit the sun decided to come out and all the cloud cleared… typical, but still a really good route and a great adventure.

Driving on the M40

Phil and the Snowdon Valley with Lliwedd in the clouds to the left

Phil on pitch 1 of a wet "Avalanche Redwall"

God we are ugly... somewhere on the face of Lliwedd

Phil on Pitch 3

Phil on Pitch 7, probably the crux due to the water running down it.

Me on Pitch 8

On Sunday we decided to head to Tremadog in the sun to try and get something a little harder climbed,

it was also nice to visit the famous Eric’s café and speak to Eric himself.

We warmed up on a route called “Meshach” Graded at HVS 5a, I led pitch 1 then Phil lead the second pitch, this was a great route with some really nice climbing, the first pitch was pretty easy and the second pitch had a tricky crux section that was protected by a nice rusty peg.


We then moved on to climb a route called “Grim Wall Direct” graded at E1 5b, this was amazing, this time Phil lead the first 5b pitch which involved a crack line onto a blank corner, I then lead the second 5b pitch which involved a roof section then into a crack line leading to the top. .. This is defiantly a 3 star route with some amazing climbing involved.


After a bite to eat Phil wanted to try An E3 (Can’t remember the name), He was climbing really well up to a slanting diagonal ramp which with all the sun and recent ascents was pretty polished and slippery, he was a little shaken so decided to retreat to fight another day…


Overall another great weekend with some really nice climbing, I am off to Font next weekend to see what all the hype is about… then again I could just keep driving down to the Alps and climb some real mountains.

Phil seconding an unknown HVS

Phil seconding the first pitch of "Meshack" HVS 5a