06/01/2009Slate Ice

Sometimes we don't even notice what is right under our noses. But not Adam Wainwright. During this continuing cold spell (minus 10C around Capel Curig last night) Adam had been watching a glistening line of ice steadily thicken on The Rippled Slab at the back of Bus Stop Quarry, barely two minutes walk from the road.

One of his main worries was that in such an obvious location someone else might get to it first. Another was that the ice was securely stuck to the slab without too much water running beneath it.

Today, Adam judged there was just enough of an ice coating. Adam initially thought he'd pretty much only have the two bolts on the underlying rock route, Virgin on the Ridiculous (E4 6a), for protection. But as he climbed he was greatly relieved to notice some bolts beneath the ice on a route he wasn't even aware existed to its left. Starting up the line of Virgin to the half-way ledge and then traversing into Buzz Stop (E3 6a) for the next section to the lower-off, he linked the thickest bits. It was fortunate that the best ice coincided with the bolts.

Graham Desroy and Ray Wood followed on the blunt end thankful to simply hook their way up using Adam's placements. Adam said: "It certainly has a great novelty value. Definitely no problems with spindrift or difficult descents in the cloud. Given the slabby nature of the wall it allowed teetering up on front points with very delicate axe placements."

Adam added: "Interestingly, if the ice was any thinner the route wouldn't have gone and any thicker would have totally hidden the bolts making it far more serious. Until it was thick enough to get screws in but that would probably need an ice age! All in all, it felt like a bolt protected version of an Andy Parkin pitch in Chamonix, albeit in a rather different setting! Very difficult to grade but perhaps V 6?"

Graham Desroy quiped: "It's more straight-forward once the bolts have been cleared of ice and there is a line of hooks to follow, that's for sure. My next problem is trying not to look too gleeful when I walk into the DMM office late for work."

In the eighties, before the rock climbs on the slab were established, Paul Trower and Ken Toms climbed a line on the left-hand side with no runners called The Tube (V). Paul recalls it being further left of where Virgin goes and that since his bold foray the drainage down the slab has altered.

Mark 'Baggy' Richards has been steadily adding to his tally of new winter routes, with two more today on Glyder Fach. His blog has all the details with a good overview of what's presently in nick.

Photos

top: Adam Wainwright teetering up the top-half of Buzz Stop.

middle: Adam going for the chain.

lower: Adam and Graham back at the road with the route literally behind them.