Colorado Welcome Party

North Chasm View Wall - Colorado Welcome Party climbs directly up the middle of the right hand buttress crossing the two Pegmatite bands near the top of the wall.

Feeling slightly let down by the lack of fear experienced on The Scenic Cruse, we decided to climb Colorado Welcome Party. Blasting directly up the right hand side of North Chasm View Wall which looked a little more spicy. It also seemed a little less travelled; nobody we spoke to had climbed it and it had a reputation for providing interest.

As it was only fiveish pitches long a leisurely start saw us on the starting ledges trying to ascertain the line. The photo topo clearly showed the route starting to the left of a prominent thin Pegmatite band whilst the only fixed gear visible was to its right. After an hour or so traversing back and forth we convinced ourselfs we were in the correct place. Henry won (or possibly lost) the toss and led the first pitch.

Hard face climbing past three widely spaced bolts deposited him below a long run out to a unprotected mantle onto a ledge. The insitu copperhead protecting this move long gone. As Henry attained the ledge and clipped the next bolt he called down,

"thank god for all those evenings soloing at Stanage, I knew they would come in handy one day."

More face climbing and further poor gear led to a ledge and belay. Encumbered by the bag, shoes, water and spare clothing I struggled to follow. Swinging leads, I headed upwards, climbing steep ground on dubious holds to an overhang. Just as things might have appeared worrying a shiny peg beckoned and some laybacking saw me through a roof.

I had agreed to climb the third pitch also, it had the dreaded R attached to the grade. After bringing Henry up I continued, lacing a thin seam with small gear and then pulling through the first of two Pegmatite bands. After aranging a cluster of poor runners (equalised of course) I ran it out ten meters to a loose flake and in-situ wire before crossing the second Pegmatite band and slowly coming to a halt on an slab. Further holds beckoned above but the drop called out from below equally convincingly. I shuffled my weight around on two sloping footholds, eyeing the rope drooping off backwards towards the wires stuffed unconvincingly behind the loose flake.

The view upstream from North Chasm View Wall

I attempt a low line towards the promised holds, fingers brush them, grasping but with my body hideously out off balance I pull back and retreat towards the rest. Reversing proves trickier still and it is with much elation that the good sloping footholds are reached.

A high crimp is discovered and a mantelshelf effected onto my handholds, an attempt is then made at smearing sideways. Self preservation stops me committing to the sloping features and I retreat to examine other options.

Further views up the Black

Half an hour later and ten meters to my left, easy but unprotected climbing takes me up to a belay consisting of a flared cam placement, a micro cam, and a size one wire. I call down the words

"On belay, please don't fall off"

After this pitch the remainder of the route flew by. Well all except the last three meters of offwidth I found to gain the rim.

The Black Canyon

We arrived in the Black knowing three things:

Firstly we would be stung to death by the poison ivy in the horrific decent gullies. It takes little imagination to work out what the SOB gully could stand for.

Secondly we knew that should we made it to the base of the routes, then the run out scary climbing up tottering rock, cut through with Pegmatite bands, would be terminal.

Thirdly, upon the unlikely attainment of the canyon rim again, we would slowly be eaten by the myriads of ticks that would have hitched a ride on our bodys.

In short I was expecting Crag Doris stacked on top of itself 16 times rising out of enormous patch of stinging nettles. (the ticks are in there somewhere) The reality was somewhat different.

It is like being in some enormous mountains, at 830 meters high the cliffs dwarf most height gain on British mountains. That is 100 meters bigger than the height gain from Idwal Cottage to the top of Carnedd Dafyidd and all vertical. From a climbing point of view it gets better, one starts at the top, walks and abseils down a gully to the base and the climbs out. The routes top out on the flat and right by the camp site. It involves no uphill walking at all.

We started out with some warm ups and then sent the mega classic route, The Scenic Cruse. This is the popular variation on The Cruse with all the offwidth taken out! This basically involved a days worth of fantastic climbing up solid well protected rock, the "scary traverse" pitch the americans banged on about seemed a mellow rest compared to all the sustained crack climbing below. Attaining the canyon rim within sight of the warm beer (too cheep to purchase a cooler) was an added bonus.

We both became convinced we had spotted poison ivy, our candidate plants differed. Adamant I was correct and Henry wrong I offered to rub "his" poison ivy plant in my face if he would do the same with mine. Later we met a guide who cleared up our difference, we were both wrong.

In short, no ticks, no poison ivy and no loose holds.