North Wales winter kicks off with a bang

With good winter conditions building quickly in North Wales and Scotland snowed out, this weekend was the perfect time to kick off the Welsh winter season.

On Sunday, Chris Parkin, Mark 'Baggy' Richards (of blog fame) and Tim Neil, both of whom are supported my Mountain Equipment visited the Mecca of Welsh winter climbing, the Black Ladders. Here they climbed a new route
The Gerlan Heights VI-5.

Chris on the first pitch Gerlan Heights

Baggy tells us the story...

“Starting just to the left of Scimitar Hill, Chris amazed Tim and I with his coolness has he battled with thin turf and little gear on start of the first pitch. A fall from half height would have seen Chris deck out!! However Chris dispatched this with ease to add another fine pitch. Following this were two more amenable pitches at IV and III

Chris is a local legend and has claimed 15 new routes on the Black Ladders, many climbed in the mid 90’s with grades up to VII-7, some still unrepeated. The crag has over 40 routes, many up to 350ms and is a Welsh Jewel. Many of the routes are turf based routes which often give a serious feel due to lack of gear, especially early in the season before never has built.

Dave Garry and his partner Neil bagged the first winter ascent of Devils Dive a summer VS 4b, very green, wet and grassy route found on the right hand side of the Devils Kitchen. This came in at VI-6

I am sure this is just the start of the new routes in Wales this winter, so watch this space."

you can keep up to date with all the latest from North Wales over the winter at Baggy's Blog here