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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 24, 2013 - 02:26pm PT
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Excellent. Thanks!
Very well written by Alec Sharp. History writing at it's best.
And what do I know? I have climbed a bit with Ben Campbell Kelly, but didn't know he had been involved to such a degree at Gogarth...
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Nov 24, 2013 - 04:08pm PT
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Here are a few additional pages from Mountain #57 regarding the emergence of the E-grades.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 24, 2013 - 04:32pm PT
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Kalimon
TFPU! A fantastic resource...
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Nov 25, 2013 - 12:22am PT
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What is the biggest rock in Welchland.
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Blakey
Trad climber
Sierra Vista
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Nov 25, 2013 - 06:37am PT
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Mike M,
The largest is I think Lliwedd - don't even try to pronounce it........
Some routes around 150+m, I think, slabby generally rambling scrambly easy stuff, though there's a couple of harder lines. Mind you Great Slab on Cloggy must come close to that length - So I stand ready to be corrected by someone - probably Jaan!
Steve
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Nov 25, 2013 - 08:43am PT
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Hah hah, Lol
The largest is I think Lliwedd - don't even try to pronounce it
Blakey, try pronouncing Mynydd Llandygai, a small tiny hamlet where my late dog Ci (Welsh for dog, phonetically pronounced "key", Ki in Brittany, France) was from when we lived in Tregarth. We went from north Wales to London to California to Ireland and he is buried in the Wicklow Mountains (May 15 2001).
I got him when he was five weeks old, just weaned. The vet in Bangor said he only had one other person with a dog named Ci, an Englishman's dog (they are very wary of the English in north Wales. (First time my then Irish girlfriend and I walked into the pub in Tregarth, a small village, we heard English being spoken, then they all looked at us and started speaking only Welsh. They finally copped on that Marie was Irish and me an American and became friendlier.)
I replied to the vet that of course, a Welsh person is not going to name their dog, "dog". I was going to name him Madra (Irish for dog) but I thought that too feminine, but it actually is a masculine diminutive.
Ci did do a bit of scrambling with me in Wales, California and Ireland, but no actual climbing. Great dog, 3/4 border collie, 1/4 Lab. Actually he could climb a 5.3ish (D, Diff) gully in Dalkey, if I spotted him from behind.
He died at 10-1/2 of a very rare disease, sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis, none of the vets in Dun Laoghaire, and then the UCD veterinary school, ever saw the condition before, bar one professor, Chris Bellinger, an Aussie. It was his third case in 35 years he had seen practicing in Oz, USA and Ireland. Nothing could be done. He had five surgeons working on him, but… I kissed him goodbye, the injection from the surgeon, the breathing stopped and the flatline after 15 seconds.
Back to climbing, I did a lot of bouldering and some short routes and top ropes in Llanberis Pass when living outside of Tregarth.
EDIT
Sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis, is where the connective tissue in the abdominal cavity (peritoneum) starts getting "sticky" and then adhering (encapsulating) to the various organs - stomach, liver, bladder, etc - and then hardening (sclerosing). Rare in dogs, very rare in cats but more common in adolescent Polynesian girls apparently. Professor Bellinger gave me a copy of a study of five cases (four dogs, one cat) from the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine.
EDIT
Apologies for the thread drift everyone. At least it wasn't political.
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Alan Rubin
climber
Amherst,MA.
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Nov 25, 2013 - 10:21am PT
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While Paul Williams' guidebook is a "classic", it is now quite dated. The most up-to-date "selected" guide to the area is North Wales Rock by Simon Panton, published by Ground Up. It is a good, well-illustrated book and is available on Amazon as well as elsewhere.
Another classic book on Welsh climbing that I don't believe has been mentioned on this thread is Rock Climbers in Action in Snowdinia by Tony Smythe and John Cleare. The book, first published in the late '60s/early '70s is largely a black and white photo essay by Cleare one of the first and best of the "modern" climbing photographers. It documents a very important era in Welsh climbing as Pete Crew and the Alpha Club were establishing themselves as the successors to Joe Brown and the Rock and Ice who had dominated Welsh climbing for well over a decade, though as the photos show, Brown was in the midst of a "rebound" and in the end outlasted most of the Alpha. This was the period of the first routes on Gogarth--initially the "secret crag" of the Alpha. The black and white photos really seem appropriate for the often somber Welsh atmosphere and are very well-composed. The accompanying writing by Smythe (son of famed climber/writer Frank Smythe) is quirky, but interesting as well. For some of my generation over here this book was the first true insight into an already legendary climbing scene that had previously largely been known only through semi-mythological campfire tales.
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Blakey
Trad climber
Sierra Vista
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Nov 25, 2013 - 04:54pm PT
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Hi Marlow, Patrick, Alan,
I decided to poke around in my guidebook library and what should I find but a 1940s Lliwedd guide,
See below!
We had a copy of Cleare's book in the school library, I could only dream of ever doing such stuff...there was a memorable bit of prose 'falling upwards in a shaft of light'..... that captioned one unfathomable photo.
At the expense of a small thread drift, we too currently have a Border Collie (not Welsh). A great compainion for my wife Bronwen - (Welsh name see).... A failed working dog - too wilful, not biddable as they say around here. Scared of sheep, cats, frogs, chickens - pretty much anything really!
Steve
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Nov 26, 2013 - 12:09pm PT
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Where do you live Steve? That does not look like Sierra Vista.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 26, 2013 - 12:13pm PT
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That does not look like Sierra Vista.
HaHaHaHaHa! That's the wet side of Sierra Vista!
You know, where they can still loose the hounds. ;-)
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Blakey
Trad climber
Sierra Vista
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Nov 26, 2013 - 12:56pm PT
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Patrick, Reilly,
My simple subterfuge is exposed..... I live in a small UK village in Northumberland, imaginatively called 'Wall' as it sits on and is probably made up of masonry taken from Hadrian's Wall.
I lived in Sierra Vista AZ for eighteen months or so, 2002 - 2004, when I was the the Course Director for the Military Intelligence Officer's Career Course.
Regards,
Steve
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 26, 2013 - 01:03pm PT
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Patrick, pm Steve and get him to regale you with his Bletchley Park tales! ;-)
I've a good Fort Huachuca tale but I don't want the Thread Drift Police onto me.
edit:
a propos of Bletchley Park this week saw the passing of one of its greats:
Mavis Batey,Codebreaker Extraordinaire,RIP
edit 2:
Marlow, my tale would also very likely get me brought up on charges by the PC Police
and nobody wants to see that happen, I'd never see the light of day, so
you'll have to wait until we have that bottle of akvavit in Aandalsnes
you promised me.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 26, 2013 - 01:08pm PT
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The thread drift police is very tolerant when great storytelling is involved...
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Nov 26, 2013 - 05:52pm PT
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Steve that makes sense, that is a quintessential-looking English village.
I couldn't see if the cars in the background were right or left-hand side but the car on the left on the grass, that is definitely a UK license plate.
Now where did the rock for the houses/cottages come from? A Welsh quarry perhaps? ;-)
Okay, I know they are brick houses.
And the silver car, upon looking closer with a magnifying class, another Brit car licence plate.
You mean you came to work in the States for an intelligence course, do we have intelligence in the States (ask Werner)?. I always thought that the George Bush Center for Intelligence is a bit of an oxymoron. Okay, dad was not stupid as Dubya.
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Blakey
Trad climber
Sierra Vista
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Nov 26, 2013 - 06:14pm PT
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Back on thread,
Three images from David Jones' Rock Climbing in Britain, an 80s photo book
Steve
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rmuir
Social climber
From the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Nov 26, 2013 - 07:31pm PT
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Nov 26, 2013 - 09:13pm PT
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Just ordered Rock Climbing In Snowdonia off of Amazon.com. Thank you Andy. Stoked!
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Blakey
Trad climber
Sierra Vista
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Nov 27, 2013 - 11:06am PT
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The feature Rick is about to stand on in the first photo is the 'Ochre Slab' which is a bottomless fin that juts out at right angles to the face. Very peculiar. You scoot up that to a 'cave stance' which had varying degrees of rusting tat when I did it. You then wander off left, up and down until you reach a finishing crack that sees some failures.
A real classic at around 10c.
Steve
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Blakey
Trad climber
Sierra Vista
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Nov 27, 2013 - 01:49pm PT
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Some photos from Cleare's book, culled from the net......
Steve
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SuperTopo on the Web
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Let us know!