After a stressful week where we wanted more time, more space and more wild, Thursday afternoon came along and with it bought thoughts of a weekend adventure. One of Sam’s favourite places is Llanberis. He spent lots of his childhood there climbing and kayaking, and I went for the first time last summer, but haven’t had time to get back since.
Llanberis is really inspiring; climbing on man-made paths of slate is the opposite to what we have in Pembrokeshire, where it’s mainly sandstone and limestone, occasionally basalt. The edges on the slate are smaller and sharper- brilliant for me because I like crimps and tiny footholds.
We parked in a little car park on the side of a lake, woke up in the van and ate breakfast with the doors open to the sun. Later we went down to the infamous Pete’s Eats in Llanberis town to meet Trystan, a former TYF guide, who this summer is sailing round the coast of Greenland doing lots of first ascents and climbs before sailing back towards Scotland.
We walked through the slate quarry for a while, trying to find different climbs. We found mine- a VS slab climb- quite sharp and quite technical which I really enjoy, with lots of high rock overs and interesting moves. About halfway up I had a bit of a mental battle with it, struggling to get through to the next move it took me ten minutes to find a way, but by the time I got to the top I was dancing!
Sam’s climb was about four or five tiers below mine, it’s called The Mau Mau, E4 6a, Sam had Trystan belaying him which is exciting because he trusts Trystan more than almost anyone else to hold his falls. I spent my time taking photos, and closing my eyes when things got tense (the trait of a good belayer, not!).
On the way back up we saw what looked like a little bomb shelter made out of the slate, and as we got closer we saw that someone had covered the top with sheets of plastic to waterproof it. It was intriguing for us because we live off-grid in our van, and we weren’t sure if it was inhabited, so we went and moved the sheet of wood that acted as the door.
Inside someone had built a little bed and a wood burner made of found things; the chimney a ceramic pipe that you often find just strewn around the mines. There were climbing ropes and equipment so we closed the door, left it as we found it and walked away- inspiring to see how gently we can live.
For a long time we talked about it: the space it offered, the time it could give us, the wildness it could bring us closer to.