A super weekend of work, fun and fun work! I’ve been delivering a Mountain Training ‘Rock Skills’ course, which is a two day intermediate level course aimed at aspiring rock climbers. It was a bit of a gamble running this kind of course in early March, but the weather has been good to us (and we went to the right places that were sheltered from the cold winds!

Saturday was spent out on the coast of Anglesey at Porth-y-Garan, as it was low tide with no swell forecast, and there are plenty of short climbs to set up and practice on.

The breeze was cool on the tops but down at the cliff base it was a total suntrap.

We were up before the sun on Sunday and sped over to the beach to catch some dawn waves before meeting the group for Day 2 of the course! We met John (who I was working with), surfing out in the waves and we were out at sea as the sun rose over the mountains. An absolutely glorious way to start the day and we were all buzzing as we got changed back into work clothes and set off to our respective places of work for the day, while the rest of the world was still waking up.

It was actually warm enough to have my staff meeting outside as we got ready for the students to arrived at 09:15! What a way to wake up before a days work!

And then to add to the excitement, we went to another cliff that was new to me! A new guidebook has been produced, which has some enticing photos of an area that I’d overlooked in the past. With the sunny aspect and shelter from the breeze, it was perfect for Day 2 of our course.

As well as having incredibly rough and grippy rock, it had lovely views and being south of the usual haunts, I didn’t recognise all the peaks! It felt like being on holiday for the day!

We climbed plenty of routes as we covered through the required syllabus and I made a note to return soon with Clare.

I’m not entirely sure of the rock type, but it’s very rough and covered in amazing shapes.

We left the crags at around 16:00 as the sun was starting to lose it’s heat.

As we’d stayed a bit later than usual, we were short of time for our de-brief, so someone suggested heading to the pub by the straits, rather than putting a pot of tea on – it was a unanimous decision, so we raced the setting sun to Felinheli for a ‘meeting’…

Sitting by the water, with a drink in hand, was quite a way to finish a day that had started with a sun rise surf. The sunset was spectacular, although the temperature did drop sharply with the light. What a day. Felt like we’d really maxed out on every minute of it. More of that please!

Climbs at Rhoscolyn, Porth-y-Garan:

• Central Wall, Severe (4a)**

Climbs at Carreg Foel Gron:

• The Shark’s Fin, HS (4b)**
• Half Height Fright, VS (4c)*
• Josh’s Corner, VS (4c)*