Phil on Parsley Fern Left-Hand (II,**). Copyright Haydn Williams 2010.

Moving solo proved to be very efficient; we'd topped out by 10:00 and were back at the car at midday having come down the Pyg Track. Not wanting to waste the afternoon, we drove around to Ogwen to tick off another climb which has been on my "To Do" list for a while. At 250m long, Banana Gully (I,**) is a big route for Snowdonia, and takes a striking line up the front of Y Garn. Another efficient raid meant we'd topped out on Y Garn less than two hours later. The snow was marginally less solid than on Clogwyn y Ddysgyl, but on easy ground it didn't take away from the enjoyment of such a relatively long route.

At the top of the Pyg Track zig-zags. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010.

The rigours of yesterday took their toll and neither of us were particularly energetic this morning. We headed around to Cwm Fynnon Lloer, a location I'd not climbed in before, and proceeded to wander around in thick cloud for twenty minutes, trying to decide where our potential routes were. With the recent good weather there were footprints everywhere, which didn't help, and (having missed everything else) we eventually found ourselves at The Headwall (I). Another 250m route, this developed from patchy snow cover low down to plenty of thick stuff higher up, albeit not properly consolidated. I've never climbed a winter route without crampons before, but the nature of the snow meant that kicking steps was easy and secure; we started walking up a shallow slope and just continued to the top without ever needing anything more pointy than an axe.

Banana Gully (I,**), the snowy line to the right of the summit, gets its name from... well, you can figure it out. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010.

We descended the East Ridge of Pen yr Ole Wen in good time, and I was pretty chuffed to spot the wild Carneddau ponies on the way down; despite having been up on the range many times, I've never seen them before. The traditional stop at Rhug for a burger on the way home finished a great weekend off nicely.

A new experience for me on Saturday – my first duathlon. Fearless was a 5km off-road run, 18km lap of the Llandegla red MTB route, and another 5km run. Mud and sweat were both involved, along with pain and snow, but mercifully no tears.

Entering seemed like a good idea when I did it at Christmas; I was at the peak of my training and didn't own a house. Things spiralled downhill on the fitness front from mid-January, with me spending most nights doing DIY until very late and eating the least healthy diet known to man. As a result, my specific training for Fearless consisted of one jaunt to Sherwood Pines the week before. I rolled up on Sunday morning nervous but excited.

The excitement soon gave way to even more nerves as I was surrounded by a lot of people who were evidently taking it very, very seriously. Nevertheless I registered and set my stuff up in transition whilst trying to look like I knew what I was doing (everyone re-arranges their kit fifteen times, right?). My entry number was 53, so given my lack of training I arbitrarily decided that if I could finish 53rd or above, I'd be happy.

Fearless duathlon at Llandegla. Image copyright Frogfish Photography.

The mass start got under way on time, and everyone spread out over the first climb up a fire road. After a short steeper section we headed downhill and went properly off-road. While the fire road was mediocre, I seemed to get on much better on the uneven rooty stuff in the forest. A quick jump over a ditch led to more fire road, and the transition area after what seemed like a mercifully short run. My time, not that I knew it at that moment, was about 18 mins for the first run, which is quicker than I'd normally do 5km.

T1 went smoothly and I set off up the switchbacks at the start of the red run. The climb up to the top of the forest is always a bit of a bitch, but I managed to reel in a fair few people who were obviously struggling with the unrelenting gradient. Snow began to fall as we cleared the trees, and the next hour or so passed in a haze of holding on for dear life. I was riding Becs' hardtail Giant with undamped, elastomer-sprung Suntour forks, so while I kept up with everyone else on their posh full-sus beasts, I had to work much harder over the same ground.

Grit your teeth and hold on. Image copyright Frogfish Photography.

T2 came around just as the threat of throwing up approached – I probably pushed myself too hard on the final climb from the fire road towards the transition. The time for the bike ride was 1hr 11m – again, much faster than I'd normally do. T2 itself was a bit slow, due to the need to lace up my running shoes, but I soon got underway. This was the bit that worried me most, and sure enough we set off straight into a climb. I ended up walking for a bit and then foolishly started running just as we hit the final big climb off-road through the trees. While it felt vertical, it was probably actually only "very steep". This was by far the low point for me, especially since we then did a lap of the reservoir to pick up the first run route. Although the threat of stopping to walk was pretty great, I managed to keep up a slow jog. The field was pretty spread out by now, and I was on my own for the repeat of the rest of the first route. Down through the trees and out onto the fire road; I thought about trying to catch the two people in front of me in a desperate last-minute bid for glory, but decided that finishing in one piece would suffice. The entry paperwork said I'd "cross the line, arms aloft in muddy glory" or something similar, but I think my actual finish was a bit more low-key.

Crossing the finish line. Image copyright Frogfish Photography.

Provisional results pegged me at 50th out of 100, which later dropped to 52nd after final confirmation. So, I made my target of 53rd or above by the skin of my teeth. Five minutes quicker would have seen my placed 35th, so there's some potential for a much better result with more training. Obviously that suggests I'll be doing another one! Despite the pain at the time I really enjoyed it. Indeed, recovering in the transition area immediately after finishing I was considering what other options there were (thanks to the bloke who pointed out several, including the Evil Sheriff at Sherwood Pines later in the year).

Photos by Frogfish Photography, available on their Flickr site.

For those who have spotted the watermark and would hoist me by my own petard, yes I have contacted them about buying them, and yes I have notified them that they're on the blog. See, I'm not a complete monster!  :)

Another early start from Chester, and another cruddy petrol station quiche for lunch because I forgot my sandwiches! We abandoned my car halfway up the Nant Ffrancon due to slow (and sometimes sideways) progress in the snow. The truck made light work of it all, and we soon found ourselves heading up to Cneifion.

Climbers below Clogwyn Du. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010

With snow pretty much everywhere, we had a good choice of routes. All the gullies down to Cneifion Arete were full, but we kept going up to the top end of the cwm. I fancied a Grade II, having not led anything at that grade since Sargeant's Gully with Chris a year ago. I'd also had my eye on Hidden Gully for a while, as it gets two stars and is described as a "hidden gem". On arrival, three teams were on Clogwyn Du and one set off up Hidden Gully ahead of us. We traversed across to the gully from Easy Route on great neve, which continued all the way up. Despite a continuous flow of spindrift, there was good climbing with a couple of short steep steps.

I was proper cold at this point.

We roped up at the narrowing bit, and I led most of the way up. I got a couple of nuts in, but all the cracks needed clearing, and the rock was pretty rimed up. The climbing itself was pretty secure because the snow was so good, so it wasn't too much of an issue. I belayed just below the summit, and James took the lead for the last little pitch on reasonably steep snow.

Belay camaraderie is a remedy for being chilly. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010.

James leading the top of Hidden Gully. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010

The weather on the top was a bit breezy with poor visibility, so we descended Easy Route in the interests of speed. The plan was then to head lower and play on some of the easy gullies near Cneifion Arete. Tower Slabs had piqued my interest on a number of occasions, but at II/III I figured I had shied away from it with my natural sense of caution. With Hidden Gully proving so much fun, I got carried away and suggested we play around soloing the water ice at the bottom of Tower Slabs, possibly climbing as high as the snow terrace before heading back down. The first 5 metres or so really gave me the willies, I think as I'd not climbed proper ice for twelve months, but I soon got into the swing of things. On reaching the terrace the descent looked dodgy and we found ourselves on lovely neve. After a brief discussion we decided to carry on up; thus followed miles of perfect snow! Great placements first time with axes and crampons, a steep but not terrifying gradient, and a brilliant situation when the cloud occasionally cleared.

Wicked snow on Tower Slabs. Copyright James Devine 2010

Once on top, we came down Easy Route again and back to the car. So, another step towards my aim of leading III by the end of the season (despite a distinct lack of days out) and it ended up being an accidental solo! There's a big thaw on now, but still snow in the high gullies and freezing levels predicted to be 200m – 300m for the next few days – maybe there'll be some more action again soon.

Our house, in the middle of our street, etc.

A few people have asked to see photos, so I thought I'd post this to fulfil that role. In addition, some people have even dared suggest that "I'm removing tiles" is just a convenient excuse for not climbing / going to gigs, etc. – hopefully this will also persuade people that we really have been doing an awful lot of work! ;)

First dinner in our new home - microwave pasta on a paint-pot table!

The plan from day one involved a lot of refurbishment, meaning we started pulling out old bits of wall / flooring / utilities almost as soon as we got the keys.

The kitchen prior to 'renovation'.

The kitchen was nice enough on the surface, but investigation revealed cupboards held together with sellotape, worktops not stuck down, and the weirdest boiler wiring you've ever seen. All this had been spotted on our viewings prior to purchasing, so we quickly set about ripping everything out in preparation for an entirely new kitchen.

Kitchen - this is called progress.

Further investigative work with James led to a number of awful DIY discoveries, my personal favourite being that the hall walls had effectively been reconstructed with newspaper and toilet roll!

The study - not too bad before we got to it.

All the rooms had dado rails, which were removed at the expense of the aging plaster.

Stripped back study. Note the dado rail shaped holes in the plaster.

The ridiculous boiler in the kitchen has now been replaced with a nice combi in the attic, but this also necessitated the replacement of all the central heating pipes throughout the house. In the process, we lost the hot water cylinder and so decided to knock a wall through on the landing. That therefore needed a bit of work…

Looking across the landing into the main bedroom. I have no idea what those wires are for.

Similarly the bathroom had a wall moved and the suite was being ripped out and replaced. I made start but quickly ran out of time…

The bathroom before the professionals moved in.

… so we brought in someone who wasn't trying to fit the job into two hours after work each night. They quickly dealt with the issue…

We agree the pipe is horrible. It's on its way out at the moment.

Meanwhile things moved on apace in our bedroom, with David plastering around the new wardrobes (deftly re-arranged by James):

Something which got nicer instead of more desolate.

In the kitchen, the tiled floor is now down, and the electrics have been sorted out prior to plastering…

Another piece of construction rather than destruction. Kitchen looking across to the dining room.

The bathroom will hopefully be sorted by the end of this week, along with the rest of the plastering in the bedrooms and the lounge. Although it's a nightmare of planning and organisation, it's quite a fun project and a massive learning curve. When we get towards the bit where it's actually furnished and can be lived in, I'll take some better photos. For now I'll leave you with the foggy view from the back of the house, which isn't too shoddy…

Beats looking at the back of student housing.

RSS is basically a way for websites to provide their content in a standard manner. Nothing too exciting there; you get a list of 'articles' in a feed, with each one linking to the website page which it relates to. The 'article' in the feed can be either the full story from the website, or just a summary.

An example of an RSS feed - the "News" page of ukclimbing.com viewed in Safari

You can view RSS feeds in browsers, email clients or specialised RSS reader programs. All feeds are presented in a standard format – this will vary slightly depending on the program you use to view the feed, but is generally clutter-free and easy to use. You can tell whether a website has an RSS feed because it will either have a link somewhere on the page called "RSS", "Atom" or "Feed", or may show the RSS icon:

RSS icon.

Alternatively, you browser may tell you when it detects that a page has an RSS feed associated with it. For example, Safari puts a little "RSS" icon in the right-hand end of the address bar, which I can then click on to view the feed:

The "RSS" icon in the Safari address bar. Clicking the icon lets me view the feed.

The good bit about feeds is that they are updated automatically each time new content is added to a website. Using the BBC News as an example, we can see that the RSS feed for the front page shows us the news stories:

The BBC News main RSS feed.

When the stories on the website are updated, the feed updates to reflect this. Next time you view the feed, the new stories appear at the top:

The BBC News feed a few minutes later - note the new articles are posted at the top.

That's pretty interesting, because if you have a feed covering an entire website, you can see all the new content in one place, quickly and easily. You don't have to hunt through menus and check various sections of the site. But the real power of RSS, for me, is shown when you bookmark a feed. I have lots of RSS feeds bookmarked in the toolbar at the top of Safari:

Bookmarks (including some folders full of bookmarks) in Safari.

Although they look just like normal bookmarks, the beauty of RSS is that each time a feed is updated, Safari lets me know by putting the number of new articles in brackets after the bookmark:

RSS feed bookmarks, showing the number of new articles after each bookmark.

If I click on the "Climbing" folder to see the bookmarks within it, you can see that Safari also shows me which feeds have been updated:

Bookmarked RSS feeds showing new articles in Safari.

IE does a similar thing – it just highlights new stories in bold rather than putting the number of new stories after the title:

The RSS feed for this blog, bookmarked in Internet Explorer. New stories are highlighted in bold.

If I click on the bookmark to view the feed, and I get to see the new content. What that means is that the websites I'm interested in basically come and tell me when they have something new added. I don't have to trawl through all of my favourite websites each day to make sure I'm not missing anything, and I don't get exposed to any advertising because no-one advertises in their RSS feeds (yet!).

I've got loads of feeds bookmarked, with general news from climbing and biking websites, feeds which tell me when someone comments on this blog, feeds that allow me to see when any of my friends have been climbing, and to be told each time my uni mountaineering club website gets updated. You'll find feeds all over the place – you can be told about new posts in forums, for example. The key thing here is to let the internet come to you, instead of you having to chase around all over the place trying to keep up with what's going on.

So go on, try it out. You can view the RSS feed for this blog here. Alternatively, if you're only interested in one particular category of things I post, there are RSS feeds for those too (Gigs, Outdoors, for example). The stuff I've described above works exactly the same in Internet Explorer 8 (not sure about IE7), but I can't be bothered booting up the Windows machine to get the screenshots. If any of the above has just confused you, there's a decent guide to RSS on the BBC website here.

This one's another GT LTS, but the downhill version (the imaginatively-titled LTS DH). This is the bike I remember seeing Steve Peat riding "back in the day", and which I'd always fancied owning. The LTS 2000 project was a step closer, but the more I rode that, the more it became apparent that I'd compromised on what I wanted to do with it. So, I sneakily grabbed an LTS DH frame off eBay and hid it in the shed from Becs. Unfortunately that meant selling the LTS 2000 to fund the DH project; I was rumbled when she logged into my eBay account to look at something and spotted the LTS 2000 sale, complete with the line "selling because I have two".

Nevertheless, I carried on regardless. The build technically started many months ago, when I acquired some Shimano DX SPDs for a bargain price. I stripped them and replaced the seals, spraying them while I was at it.

Shimano DX pedal overhaul. Copyright Haydn Williams 2009

Although the frame itself was fundamentally sound on arrival, the decals were custom ones that bore no relevance to anything in my life, and the paint was looking a bit tired.

A 'good' bit of the frame prior to powder coating. Copyright Haydn Williams 2009

I took the frame in it's component pieces to John Whiteman Engineering in Long Eaton, who blasted and powder coated the lot for £20, and did a decent job too. So, the frame returned all powder coated and shiny, and shortly after I had new bearings installed and the headset fitted. All that remained was to put everything back together…

Anatomy of an LTS DH. Copyright Haydn Williams 2009

That proved not to be too much of an issue, but there were hundreds of minor niggles throughout the build, such as insufficient tyre clearance around the seatstays despite the ludicrous amount of room designed into the chainstays. I always knew this was going to be a DH build, and therefore my first proper DH bike, so I wanted some triple-clamp forks. The LTS was originally specced with Rockshox Boxxers, which seem to be relatively rare and always expensive. Instead I focussed on Marzocchi Junior Ts, initially getting hold of a set of fairly old school 130mm travel ones. However, I then spotted a lovely pair with black stanchions and red decals (and 170mm travel), which I instantly knew would really suit the frame. Once I got hold of them, it turned out the steerer tube was actually a little short. Gareth saved the day by suggesting I use an integrated stem, which solved the problem beautifully (but not before my headset spacers turned out to have too large an external diameter – no, seriously!). The final piece to fall into place was the decals. I stripped the random ones off almost immediately when the frame was delivered, and needed to get some copies of the originals. The generally acknowledged expert on these things, Gil at the Cycle Shed, didn't have the ones I wanted, so I made up some myself. This entailed using a scan from a friendly STS owner and photos of my LTS 2000, many many many hours in Photoshop, and many hours in Illustrator. At the end of it, I had the decals I wanted, in the colours I wanted, and a much better understanding of Photoshop paths and vector graphics. Gil was able to get them made up, and I was ready.

Custom GT LTS DH decals.

Anyway, I finished the build with the rest of the parts I'd lovingly sourced over the previous few months, including an AC chain guide, Hope M4 twin-pot discs and the D521s off the LTS 2000. Here she is…

GT LTS DH (Year 2000). Copyright Haydn Williams 2010

Junior T's looking sexy at the front. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010

Perfect. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010

Custom decals, looking better than I ever dared hope they would! Copyright Haydn Williams 2010

So there we go, and long and arduous journey, but worth it in the end  I think. I've proved to myself that I can do a reasonable job at this, but if I'm honest I don't think I'll be doing another one any time soon – I miss actually just going out and riding the damn thing!  :)

Full spec:
(format shamelessly stolen from Retrobike)

Frame: GT LTS-DH (2000)
Rear shock: Rockshox Super Deluxe

Fork: Marzocchi Junior T 170mm (2003?)

Headset: FSA Orbit
Stem: Marzocchi integrated
Handlebar: Azonic
Grips: GT
Barends: Hope bar plugs

Brakes: Hope M4
Brake Levers: Hope

Shifters: Deore 9sp
Rear Derailleur: XTR
Derailleur Cables: Gore Ride-on sealed
Cassette: SRAM 9sp
Chain: SRAM 9sp
Cranks: Race Face DH forged
Chainrings: FSA
Chainring bolts: Race Face
Chain guide: AC
Pedals: Shimano DX SPDs (since swapped for DMR V8s!)

Hub Skewers: Hope
Rims: D521
Hubs: XT front / FUNN rear
Tyres: Tioga Factory DH 2.1 F&R

Saddle: Titec Berserkr DH
Seatpost: System-ex
Seatpost Binder: Hope

Weight: Beastly

Last but not least, thanks go out to:

• G, for help and advice
• Dean, for the STS scans
• Retrobikers in general, including but not limited to Gadro for the chain guide and Sithlord for a jockey wheel (small but vitally important)

Heading around Llyn Bochlwyd towards the False Gribin. Photo by James Devine. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010

After wading through waist-deep powder we eventually made it up past the False Gribin and onto the ridge proper. The first bit of the route was nice and easy, but as the climbing got harder so it seemed to quickly become swamped under a sea of powder too. We followed the crest for a while, until I found myself stood at the top of a big slope of powder, poised to send it down onto some innocents on the path below. Not fancying incurring much collateral damage, we finally gave up and retreated back to the path. Turns out we weren't that far from the top anyway, but the remaining few metres of the path still weren't terribly solid. Once on the top, we plodded down Devil's Kitchen and into sheer chaos in Cwm Idwal.

James approaching the ridge from the football pitch. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010

The snow was rubbish for climbing, but perfect for making snowballs, sledging and playing around, which is what most of the population of North Wales seemed to be having great fun doing. I even saw one child who'd managed to climb halfway up the first pitch of Ordinary Route (Diff) on the slabs and bum slide back down again, it was so blanketed with snow! There were climbers all over the ice routes, which looked a bit fatter than the previous week. Unfortunately while a lot of people are having great fun on hard mixed routes (Black Ladders) and mid-grade ice (Idwal), we're somewhat limited by our lack of experience / 'bumbly' status and are desperately hoping for some freeze-thaw cycles to bring the snowy gullies into condition!

Snowdon massif and the coast from the top of the Glyers. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010

Anyway, whilst not a total success in that we didn't stick to the desired route all the way up, and it possibly wasn't the best route choice by me, it was a good day out and keeps us busy until the things we really want to do become climbable!

We had a rather leisurely start and got to the upper section of the Cwm at 10:30. There were already teams on Easy Route (I), Hidden Gully (II) and spread across Clogwyn Ddu (crazy hard). I fancied Tower Gully (I/II 2), a line which goes up the side of Maybe Tower Rib (Grade 3 scramble). On arrival, it looked a bit steeper and more hairy than I'd anticipated, but the internet had informed me that it was all fine, with nice neve in the upper half and simple ice steps throughout (albeit three of them instead of the one mentioned in the guide book).

Tower Gully (I/II 2) goes straight up the middle. Copyright Haydn Williams 2009.

The internet lied. The entire route was alternating sections of good ice and horrible knee-deep graupel which gave way under the slightest bit of pressure. None of the climbing was particularly difficult, but the penalty for failure was high and the chances of a slip also reasonable under such dodgy snow conditions. Nevertheless, it was a useful exercise in pushing myself; there was a distinct lack of gear placements in the gully walls so each pitch got a single ice screw protecting the steep step and that was about it! I'm not normally very good at getting anywhere above gear, so was pleased with my performance today.

Start of the second pitch - leaving horrid snow and getting onto nicer ice. Photo by James Devine. Copyright Haydn Williams 2009.

Right from arriving in the cwm we noticed people on some seriously hard looking routes over on Clogwyn Ddu – turns out we were watching a clean ascent of Cracking Up (IX, 9), the hardest winter route in Wales. On the way out we also saw Rich Cross and Ian Parnell on Travesty (VIII, 8), and another party got up the oft-lauded El Mancho (VI, 7).

James at the top of Tower Gully. Copyright Haydn Williams 2009

On topping out, we were treated to views over much snow inland, and out to the Isle of Man and Ireland in the opposite direction. The weather held out all day, and we had a very leisurely walk off down Devil's Kitchen, which entailed walking very slowly and messing about an awful lot. Coming down the Kitchen we met a lady who'd been on South Gully (IV 5) and The Screen (IV 4). There were actually loads of teams heading into Idwal this morning, even though most of the ice routes actually looked a little thin. I think the whole area needs a good thaw and re-freeze to get the snow into condition (and preferably more snow too!), and a longer cold spell before the popular ice routes get into the kind of nick where they can withstand large numbers of holiday ascents!

The Glyder plateau in atmospheric afternoon light. Copyright Haydn Williams 2009

So a hard day on a grade I/II, while those at the other end of the experience / talent scale had a marginally harder day on the other side of the cwm. It certainly gives us something to aim for…

Raw Head, the high point of the Sandstone Trail (227m!). Copyright Haydn Williams 2009

Seeing as I'm getting on in years, the next few minutes whizzed by in a haze of rose-tinted memories as I passed the scene of James' near death on the gap jump, "The Snake Run" (controlled freefall down a steep muddy slope) and the old downhill run (don't forget to duck under the fallen tree halfway down). The path around Rawhead soon brought me back to the present day – big icicles on the shady side of the ridge (a good metre long) and spectacular views out towards the Clwydian Range.

Looking towards Clwydian limestone. Copyright Haydn Williams 2009

As I passed Nick's house (you know, Nick. His parents live in the house on the left. He had a monkey called Spank.) and slogged over to Brown Knowl, the snow clouds started rolling in, and I finished just as the last of the sun disappeared. It was a good morning generally, and showed that you often have fantastic scenery very close to (your parents') home if you just take a second to actually look for it.