We got a call from a previous student of mine, who is in North Wales for a couple of days asking if we fancied catching up – and what better way to do so, than taking a stroll into the quarries and doing a few climbs together. Since we saw him last, he’s been working in Antarctica for the British and New Zealand Antarctic Survey organisations and working towards his Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor in Scotland, so there was plenty to chat about!

The only snag was that the temperatures had taken a nose dive, so climbing on small handholds was a little trickier than we’d hoped. After starting with a nice warm-up in ‘Never Never Land’, we walked up to the Seamstress Slab in the ‘Serengeti’ region.

In the cold conditions (and with sudden gusty winds), Clare and I didn’t fancy leading a technical trad route, but Mark was keen to get the rope up for us and happily led off, while I belayed in my big jacket, offering words of encouragement from below! I’m pretty sure I’d led him up the easier ‘Seamstress’ crack as a student, so it was great to have him return, this time on the sharp end of the rope, on the harder route years later.

Clare floated up soon after, while I warmed my hands up…

Then I followed, finding it harder than they’d both made it look!

On the right hand side of the slab is a desperately hard and famous route called ‘Heading the Shot’ (E5 6b)***. It a classic of the quarries, requiring good balance, strength and very steady nerves as falling off would involve a long descent. Mark had been on it previously, but I’d never tried it, so we dropped a rope down it to see what it was like.

It is a slab (just), and I was surprised at how I far I managed to get, balancing on the tiniest of edges. I couldn’t find a way through the move to the overlap, which proved too much for me, (and I probaly can’t blame it on the cold finger tips either!), but Mark managed to claw his way up to the top, despite almost being blown off by the wind.

Impressive stuff.

Light was fading and the promised evening storm was approaching over Snowdon as we walked out. The clouds looked really cool.

The sun gave a final blast of colour as we reached the cars, said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. There’s no way we would have considered climbing in such cold conditions usually, so it was nice to have been ‘forced out’ from the comfort of The Cottage and made the most of the afternoon.

Llanberis Slate Quarry:

• Fresh Air, 6a***
• Seams the Same, E1 (5b)**
• Heading the Shot, E5, (6b)*** (top rope!)