Clogwyn Du'r Arddu

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Herbert Hartley:

The great black cliff of Clogwyn Du'r Arddu had been looked at by climbers for many years but none had ventured far up the steep repelling walls of the E and W Buttresses. Fred and Morley Wood addressed themselves to the task o f forcing a route up the former. This was a formidable undertaking requiring great persistence, skill and ingenuity until all the problems were solved and the name of Pigott's Route bestowed upon a superb climb.

References

[1] https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1980_files/AJ%201980%20259-269%20In%20Memoriam.pdf

Albert Hargreaves:

To take out 130 feet of line on to this entirely virgin face up a steep, loose and grassy wall, tremendously exposed, with no knowledge of what difficulties lay in the 600 odd feet above, was surely mountaineering courage of the highest order. And it must have required the utmost skill and route-finding ability, as well as courage, to finish that climb. Despite the many more difficult shorter routes that have been done "unseen" I think this expedition will stand out in the history of British rock-climbing as a most important event. [1]

References

[1] Climbers' Club Journal 1943, page 170 https://ccjournals.ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com/1943%20Journal_web.pdf

with J Cooper

The rest of the party were unable to follow, and when 200ft of ropes was runout Streetly soloed out to the top of the cliff. This was the hardest slab in Wales at the time and only Streetly's second climb on the cliff. One peg runner was inserted after 70ft of climbing. [1]

References

[1] Clogwyn D'ur Arddu - Fifth Edition (The Climber's Club 2004) by Nick Dixon

At the same time Pete made the first ascent of Great Wall on the East Buttress. Baz was going to follow Pete but heavy rain meant an early end to the day of climbing. Great Wall had been unofficially known as Master’s Wall and had been attempted several times by Joe Brown.

Tony Smythe writes of the ascent in Rock Climbers in Action in Snowdonia: ‘The climb is just about the ultimate in difficulty and entails a 200-foot run-out using only three pitons for aid. A great controversy was waged over Pete Crew’s ascent. He abseiled down the wall, cleared out the crack and inserted all the necessary chockstones, thus preparing the route beforehand. But this technique is accepted and had been used before on the cliff’.

References

[1] https://www.climber.co.uk/people/peter-crew-the-climbing-years/

Crew placed a bolt runner, the first on 'Cloggy'. This was removed by Ed Grindley in 1973.

Graded HVS at the time!

References

[1] Arnis Strapcans' first ascents book, Mountain Heritage Trust collection.

Pitches 2 and 3 were later climbed on 28th May 1978.

References

[1] https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=115863033203916&set=a.115862679870618

An early foray up the right side of the Great Wall.

...my own attempts from 1980 have been well wagged about. I call them The Tormented Ejaculation - not just mere climbing, but an expression of the flesh and blood of my work, the poetry of rock-movement inextricably bound up with the network of shape and colour. A last look at the line and a strange impulse took hold of me. I went for it. At 70ft I woke up. Ghastly! The aggression was dissipated and the fear gripped me. I had climbed with no protection and was now eyeballing a tiny shallow crack. I remembered it from the abseil and it had looked pathetic. It was real now. I contemplated jumping on the scree below before the situation got out of control. I fell a million times, my arms unfolding, my breath fading. A no. 1 stopper came to a halt, half-way down this crack, half in, rocking - my weight was on it...the mental preparation was becoming harder and harder. The so-called psyching up, a pain beyond reason. Out of the accquaintance grew more and more fear. Gone the initial naivety that had sparked off this terrifying enterprise. I knew the score and was unnerved by it...I distinctly felt a tiny slide on a friction move lower down and became very insecure, with my feet in canyon boots. I got to the little crack another 20 feet up and was dangerously pumped because of the extra strain on my fingers. The resin was wearing off the boots. I managed to place an RP1, clipped in, and was about to place a No 2 when my right foot shot off.The strain came on the RP, ripped it through, and I cartwheeled a long way down the wall. [3]

References

[1] Clogwyn Du'r Arddu (Climbers' Club Guides) 2004, Nick Dixon

Jerry had practiced what he thought would be the crux moves on abseil. However, the dangerous lower section was climbed without pre-practice and did not go to plan:

In that photo [see [2]] I am absolutely climbing to save my life. I'm out of control, it's way harder than I thought, I didn't want to be there and I'm absolutely terrified.

...

You get to some footholds where you can stand and get some RPs behind these little flakes...all I was thinking was "I need to get rescued, I need to get rescued". The I got there, got the wires in, settled down...I just told myself "I never want to climb that bottom bit again, I'm here now and I've got these wires in". The crux was above here but I'd sussed those moves on abseil...so I stood there for a while and thought "let's just go for it".

Jerry prepared for the route by soloing Great Wall, Curving Arete and The Boldest – some of these were onsight.

The day after Master's Wall, he soloed Right Wall and six other Extremes on Dinas Cromlech.

He later spoke about having potential post-traumatic stress symptoms:

And still I think about those things. It's like a post-traumatic thing, and you still think about it and stuff. […] I'll be dreaming, and I'll be just like on the thing, and then I'll wake up and think, and then I'll be going, oh God, that was so lucky, or I don't know. Not really great feelings, just feelings of like, what the hell was I doing? And I was so bloody lucky, so lucky, so lucky. And you think, what if I'd have broken that hold, and you had pictures of yourself flying through the air and stuff.(3)

References

[1] https://www.facebook.com/climbing.in.the.80s/photos/a.270388289694020/3446194975446653

[2] https://www.facebook.com/rockarchivist/photos/a.116371059819780/116371949819691

[3] Interview with Niall Grimes on Jam Crack Podcast, March 2022 http://www.niallgrimes.com/jam-crack-climbing-podcast/2022/3/17/jcpc-113-jerry-moffatt

Probably the hardest thing I did at the time, and I was going really well. [1]

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQzdrpFm_Pg

I went for the crux, the motion startling me like a car unexpectedly in gear in a crowded parking lot. I swarm through the roundness of the bulge to a crank on a brittle spike for a cluster of three crystals on the right; each finger crucial and separate like the keys for a piano chord. I change feet three times to rest my lower legs, each time having to jump my foot out to put the other in. The finger-holds are too poor to hang on should the toes catch on each other. All those foot-changing mistakes on easy moves by runners come to mind. There is no resting. I must go and climb for the top. I swarm up towards the sunlight, gasping for air. A brittle hold stays under mistreatment and then I really blow it. Fearful of a smear on now-non-sticky boots I use an edge and move up, a fall fatal, but the automaton stabs back through, wobbling, but giving its all and I grasp a large sidepull and tube upward. The ropes dangle uselessly from my waist. Arthur Birtwistle on Diagonal, I grasp incuts and the tight movement swerves to a glide as gravity swings skyward ...

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMX4NAw0NSE

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNb5_PYRhQA

[3] Photos from the first ascent by Jonathan Reti. Jonathan was the only person at the crag that day with a camera. Later pictures of Johnny in white vest were not of the actual ascent. https://www.flickr.com/photos/30814373@N02/albums/72157712866661618/

That top crux was difficult for him and his method was pretty snatchy, which is why I moved out of the fall line in case he fluffed it. Shockingly bold.

[4] Mountain Issue 112, page 17 /library/11111/mountain-112

[5] Clogwyn Du’r Arddu Climber’s Club guidebook by Nick Dixon

An earlier version climbed with Andy Popp in 1985 avoided the main pitch.

I'd practiced the crux on abseil many times, and after leaving the belay with just one krab on my belt, it flowed as in a dream until I was on the upper wall after committing through a 6b sequence (15ft above the poor lower-only RURPs and 70ft above the belay). I found moves to finish that I hadn't practiced; why?, why? In desperation, now fully here and awake, I slapped and groped with a pylon's span of rope between me and a grinning Darril [belayer]. [1]

References

[1] Dixon, N. (2004). Clogwyn Dur Arddu: Climbers' Club Guide to Wales, page 187. United Kingdom: Climbers' Club.

I had just recovered from a paralysing virus, no doubt self-induced, as most viruses are, which hospitalized me for several days. The births of four paintings (titled The Shaft of a Dead Man) were no doubt the product of this alternative head space. [1]

References

[1] Dixon, N. (2004). Clogwyn Dur Arddu: Climbers' Club Guide to Wales, page 188. United Kingdom: Climbers' Club.

References

[1] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2017/06/james_mchaffie_makes_the_first_ascent_of_the_cumbrian_face_e8_7a-71151