May 4th-2011: Arenig Fawr. Mid Wales.
The incredible weather which had brought two months of dry sunshine to the normally rain washed Celtic fringes of north Wales was still holding fair. Four days into May and the bedroom shutters were pushed open to reveal yet another day of blue skies,albeit tempered by a cooling breeze which had hung around now for three or four days.
Last day off before work and it was a perfect opportunity to get back to the relatively isolated Welsh mountain- Arenig Fawr. I had been here a lot in the 1990's and made the first recorded rock climbs on the isolated,grit stone like edges of Ddaer Fawr, Pen Tyrau and Craig Hyrddod which looked out across the wild and generally uninhabited rough bounds of the Migneint.
It had been so dry lately I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to solo some easier lines and check out some lower grade routes which had been put up there recently.
I arrived mid morning and parked up just outside the tiny hamlet of Arenig and took off with my Springer, zig zagging up the tracks which fringe the huge abandoned old basalt quarry which hasn't been worked since the 1950's. As the quarry track peters out, it reveals a scene almost unique to north/mid Wales. A ribbon of edges which in character have more in common with the gritstone edges of northern England than north Wales. Small, steep little outcrops and edges curl across the mountains north western face. Beginning at the fearsome looking dark ramparts of Ddaer Fawr and extending westward to a scattering of outcrops of which Craig Hyrddod takes the crown.
I went across towards the Arrowhead Buttress of Pen Tyrau, not really planning to do anything else but it won't hurt to take a look. Winking at me on the western edge of the buttress was the deep jagged crack of Kali. A route I had put up on a cold early March day in 1997. At this point a little voice in my ear said..'Go home...you've done six routes and you can bet that's Sod's Law will kick in and you'll take a peeler.' However,the devil on my shoulder said 'Go for it..it's dry...what can go wrong'?
With Fergus bouncing around under the buttress,I was more concerned about pulling a rock on his head as fellow Arenig explorer Terry Taylor had done to his sheep dog on the very day I did the aforementioned Leprechaun.
I climbed up the first few feet and was immediately concerned at just how lichenous it was. No one.. but no one climbs here these days. The typical rounded pockets that abound hereabouts were all crusted and filled with dry moss and lichen. The sharp little edges felt brittle...It was all wrong...so why did I carry on ? Fifteen feet up, with my right arm rammed in the jagged crack and my left fingers curled around the edge of the slab I shifted the weight off my right toe which was rooted in a dirty pocket. With all the weight on my left foot which was purchased on the little edge,it happened!
Was it a lichenous slip or did the flake snap ? I was off. I attempted to hit a ledge six feet below to break my fall but that just bounced me out and away from the bottom of the slab. I hit the deck and wham !..The back of my head cracked against a rock and I saw a blue flash and was momentarily deafened. Then my hearing came back but like in all the best cartoons my head was ringing and I swear I could see stars! At least I didn't land on Fergus!
'Frankly I was too busy gnawing on a dead lamb's leg!'
After lying still for a minute or so I lifted myself up and held my head in my hands. I had a huge swelling on the back of my head but no blood...hang on..yes.. blood..on my pants. Still sitting down I carefully took off my rock boots and pulled on my walking boots.Packed my rucksack and carefully stood up. There was blood inside my rucksack...how did that get there ?
I had hurt my left knee when I hit the ledge,my chest was tight,my elbow was skinned and bleeding but you know what. I felt OK. Well...not OK.I felt like I'd been set upon by a pack of ravenous dogs but I felt calm and in control and I could walk.
In a dreamlike state and wandered back over the moor and switchbacked through the quarry. For some reason I couldn't ring out on my mobile.Perhaps I landed on it in my rucksack. Not a lot of use then if I had needed to phone Mountain Rescue. Not that I would. I'd rather crawl down down the hill like a slug !
John Appleby
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→When Kali became my nemesis!
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