I’ve had a great couple of days of early season Welsh rock climbing work this week, teaching a Mountain Training ‘Rock Skills’ course with one team of students and practicing some abseiling and cliff safety with another group that I’ll be climbing with in Cornwall later this summer.

The west coast of Anglesey provided not only sheltered crags that were protected from the cold easterly winds, but even gave us some blue skies at times.

A short walk from Rhoscolyn Church gave access to plenty of sea cliffs where we could practice the technicalities of placing gear and protecting the climbs. And as if planned, the tides were on our side, giving us a nice dry ledge to work from by the water. We even got a visit from a friendly seal.

Today’s Rock Skills course, started indoors, with a little look at some different types of guidebooks, but most importantly a long look at the weather forecasts. After some consideration, we returned to Rhoscolyn as it looked to be the only dry place in North Wales!

And we chose well! Despite setting off in the rain, we arrived at a sunny cliff top!

Plenty of knots and rope trickery filled the day as we set up anchors and the students climbed different routes that they protected themselves under John and my watchful eyes!

The photos might look sunny, but it was still a day to be well wrapped up. A wintery feel to the air is still holding on!