Cwm Dyli

As the April showers, which inevitably extended into May, temporarily subsided, we decided to head for North Wales and have a crack at a few of the projects we had amassed in the back of our minds over winter. Well that was the idea anyway…

We arrived late on the Friday night and subsequently had rather a restless night. On Saturday morning I felt the exact opposite of wanting to work at my limit. I wanted an easy, oh I mean ‘fun’, day. We decided upon Cwm Dyli as it was recommended by a couple of friends a while back and looked like it contained lots of easy problems in a secluded spot.

I had my eye on a particular V5, Moose’s Problem, but clearly it wasn’t in the cards for me that day. I did however manage to flash a lovely V3/4 called Gwion’s Flake. Video here:



All and all it turned out well. It was good to get some mileage in and I actually missed the crisp rhyolite flakes. Is it possible to be sentimental over a rock type? It wasn’t exactly a ‘setting the climbing world alight’ day but fun nevertheless.

Sunday was a proper project day. For this I had at the top of my list a V5/6 (why does the North Wales bouldering guidebook use so many of these split grades?) in a cave below Clogwyn y Bustach called Fagin, as it’s a line of pockets up a steep prow.

Conditions were against me, it started to thunder and pour just as we got there, but thankfully the overhang was steep enough to allow time to play on the lower section. It was greasy from the humidity, but I still managed to hit the crux pocket – holding it was another story. I reckon that with about a month of training (and slightly less humidity) it will go.

Monday morning was spent doing a reachy (and rather highball) V3 at the RAC boulders then followed by a trip to Cae Du, my favourite beach-side bouldering venue. Given the scorching heat we spent more time paddling rather than bouldering, which seemed like way to much work.


All and all I was genuinely happy to be out climbing again after my shoulder injury. It’s still bothering me and I remain worried that I might have a SLAP or rotator cuff tear. I have a seemingly enormous list of things that are quite bad at the moment. Each one doesn’t exactly spell doom. It is just the increasing size of the list that seems to weigh down rather heavily.

I have to keep reminding myself that I am happy…

To quote an Economist advert I saw on the Tube: