A perfect day?

An early-ish start and i was whizzing down the M6 to pick up Sam en route to North Wales, destination Plas Y Brenin.

A rainbow shines across the Llanberis Pass.

Our close ties with Plas Y Brenin, means that North Wales sometimes feels like a second home and our aim for later that day was a variety of meetings and formal feedback sessions with the instructors and staff.

But the early start was to give us enough time for a quick blast up some hopefully dry rock and as we veered off the A55 and headed down towards Betws Y Coed, things were looking promising, sure there was a bit of hill-fog but nothing too threatening.

As we parked up at the Cromlech boulders it was feeling a little gloomy but the rock looked dry and so with a couple of hours to spare we opted to head across to Dinas Mot and climb Western Slabs.

Looking up towards Dinas Mot

It had been a while since Sam had been on a multi pitch route, especially in the gloom of a Welsh Autumn and so this was the perfect route to get back into the groove of leading again. For anyone who has climbed this will know its a great little route with decent belays and plenty of gear that weaves its way up the right hand side of Dinas Mot.

Looking down Pitch 2 of Western Slabs. VS4c.

By the time we got to the last pitch, the clouds had lowered and a fine drizzly mist was settling in, adding a little spice to the afternoon and ensuring a thoroughly damp abseil retreat from the top. If proof were needed that hooded softshells are a good idea on mixed weather days this was it.

Rain approaches Llanberis.

Rich rigging the abseil for a hasty retreat

An hour later we were sat in the bar at Plas Y Brenin, chatting about our impending Winter 2010 sales launch over a warm cup of tea before heading off to bag more tea and cake in the staff room. The following few hours were spent chatting with the instructors, gleaning feedback on existing products, discussing new products, new hoods and generally listening to their opinions. That is afterall the whole point of why we work with them.

Sam retreating from Dinas Mot

Two hours later and it was all over and we were heading back across to Llanberis for some much needed food and a pint. The perfect day? Well it certainly wasnt bad.