UK / North Wales / Plas y Brenin
7th-14th May 2006
Last year I went with Rajesh Gadgil & Harish Kapadia for a climb in
Nashik Area to accompany British Climber Jim Fotheringham. After
the climb Harishbhai asked me about participation in the International
Rock meet organised by British Mountaineering council. Without
any hesitation I accepted the invitation though it was a self sponsored
event. It was a great honor for me actually accepting the
invitation came from Harishbhai the great personality in this
field.
6th May 2006 Himalayan Club President Dr.
M. S. Gill flagged off Indian Representatives for the meet on the
occasion of opening new office of Himalayan Club. Our team members
were Cyrus Shroff, Shripad Sapkal & Myself. Rajendra Wani
& Rajesh Gadgil helped us to cleared the airport formalities.
We traveled to Manchester via Heathrow.
At Heathrow Airport the immigration officer hold us for some time since
it was first time for Shripad to visit UK rather out of India
visit. Finally it got cleared and we were relaxed. But the
relaxation didn't kept for a long since after reaching Manchester, I
got to knew that , I lost my digital camera. Their was less time
for me to trace out since the pick up bus was waiting for all
international climbers at Manchester Airport. During the journey of
200 miles we were discussing about all new faces, some of them
are from non-English speaking country & with funny dresses.
We got to interact few of them during the journey.
We reached the famous Play y brenin the outdoor center at 6:00pm.
Initially after the completion of the registration formalities we
helped ourselves for the tea and then the real interaction with
all climbers. Dave & Becky the host from BMC interacted each one of
us. Becky was a very well organised sweet lady. After the dinner
we were allocated rooms to spend next 7 days.
The place Plas y brenin one of the nicest place I lived in. A lake
nearby & mountains on both the side. Sometime one can see the
Snowdon the highest mountain of Wales. Luckily the weather also
was good for climb.
But unfortunately the next day(8th May) after the breakfast Dave
informed all climbers about the weather forecast where we might
need to climb in the rain. Woh... It must be a unique experience
to climb in the rain. We visited Tramadog where as per the host rocks
were dry. But prediction was underestimated and we climbed a
route of the grade VS(Very Severe) with my host Davis. Davis was
a 55 yr old climber climbing since from last 30 yrs. He climbs E1
grade of British climbing. The climb was of 3 patch where I lead the
second patch. As per Davis due to rain the climb grade went up to
HVS. When we reached on top we both were totally wet. We found a
place for abseiling and then later visited a coffee shop. Sipping
coffee was enjoyable in that weather. Like us many other climbers were
enjoying tea/coffee along with our packed lunch. That evening
Plas y Brenin host presented some of the climbing clips and we
were thrilled watching them.
So Next five days schedule was of similar fashion. Luckily weather was
good all the time except the second last day of our meet. On 3rd
day of the meet I presented Climbing near Mumbai some of the
pictures which I carried in my laptop.
Remarkable event for me was climbing with Alan Hinks. The First
Britisher who climbed all 14 8000mts peak. He is 55 yr old now
but looks very strong and very much careful about his equipment.
We did a route called brant 345 ft of the grade HVS. He lead entire
climb. And during the climb got to learn some of the safety
methods from him. After reaching the top we couldn't able to find
the route to descend so we spent almost 3 hrs reach the base from
where we started. Since he was about to present his climbing
presentation we windup and return home as fast as he can like the
way he climbed the Brant.
Another remarkable event is climbing at Gogarth. The sea cliff's. To
climb the sea cliff one has to abseil to the base of the cliff
which itself is breathtaking. I had to pea once on the way. I
climbed with Colin Hawes who climbs HVS graded routes. He built
climbing wall as a profession. I made a deal with him to get some
of the equipment specially camming devices.
Other host were Jim Hall. In all I did total 9 routes. Climbing the
Slate quarries was also a unique experience. Also we did some
climbing practice on the artificial wall during the stay. We
visited DMM equipment manufacturing factory once. Also we visited Joe
Brown equipment shop to memorize the great British climber.
So overall it was a great experience. M sincere thanks to BMC & HMC
specially Harish Kapadia & Rajesh Gadgil to avail such
opportunity.
Written by: Rajan Rikame
Click here for Photographs |