Catrin At Tremadog - 12th April

Catrin ab'ing down Hail Bebe

On the Thursday, after a good day out at Holyhead Mountain, we all headed for Tremadog. Again we had some great weather, and we were able to enjoy t-shirt weather all day, with light winds and no rain. Catrin decided to start the day with some leading again, so we headed for Hail Bebe (VD **). Catrin was belayed by Tanya as I hung about seeing what Catrin was doing. Again the climbing was easy for Catrin, but she focused on good gear placements and belays. At the end of all this we all abseiled down back to the bags and a lunch in the sun.

Catrin on Poor Man's Peuterey

After lunch I took Catrin up Poor Man's Peuterey (S ***) to get to the top of the cliff for some top-roping. Catrin found the climb straight forward except for the 'snake belay' at the end of pitch 2 - where she calmly told me to 'hurry up, beacuse there's a snake here!' - so I belayed just above the 'nose' to get Catrin away from the trees, snakes and general wildlife!

Catrin on the last pitch of Poor Man's Peuterey

Catrin top-roping Silly Arete

I lowered Catrin down Silly Arete (E3 5c***) so she could enjoy careful 5c slab climbing. As usual she made light work of it and was soon back at the top.

Catrin making light work of Silly Arete

We ab'ed down Barbarian and got back to the Cafe to chill out - another great day in the sun.

Contact Max (email - max@maxhunter.co.uk or 07724740225) for your own Climbing/Mountaineering course in Scotland or Wales.

Centurion

Carn Dearg Buttress with Centurion just right of centre in the photo, starting in the shadowed corner

Last night I took Ken (applemountaineering.co.uk) up on his idea to climb Centurion (HVS****) on the Ben today. Only yesterday I was wearing waterproof trousers, rigid boots, gloves, using axes and crampons - and now today, a chalk bag, rock shoes and walking up the Ben in trainers! Centurion from a distance looked perfectly dry and even in the hot morning sunshine!

Ken coming up pitch 1

Pitch 1 was steep, exciting, with perfect, rough, easy to protect rock.

Ken on pitch 2

Pitch 2 was even more exciting with good holds all the way - moving through ground that looked like it should be harder than 5a.

Pitch 2

Pitch 3

Pitch 4

Pitch 6

Pitch 6

Pitch 7

Pitch 7

Ben Nevis today with Fort William below

An awesome climb. Almost every piece of the climb was ****. So now I've got a taste of summer trad climbing for 2012, it's time to put axes and crampons away!