Mountain Independence

Wild camp with Merlin soaking up the sunset scenes while I'm working on a Mountain Leader Assessment in Eryri.

Points for who can identify the blurry peaks in the background.

International Dance Day spent rigging for at in Mold.

Performance this Sunday for the theatre's birthday open day. Lots on, from building tours, cinema tasters and cardboard cities, to backstage experiences, instrument petting zoos and live music on stage.

Lovely weekend on our Learn to Lead Trad Rock Skills course with 3 psyched climbers here in beautiful North Wales.

We do a lot of matchmaking here at Mountain Independence to make these skills courses happen for individuals. If you're keen to learn to lead sport or trad I have a couple of folk looking to find dates for a trad course in the near future.

We're passionate about climbing and developing folk's confidence to have their own adventures. Check out Dan's review of the course here;

"Fantastic introduction into lead trad climbing. There's a lot to cover but the pace of the course was perfect and I came away feeling confident I could get stuck into more trad climbing.
Stu covered a broad range of skills, theory, and etiquette, was very patient with questions and prior skills, and gave us a really good balance of practical experiences.

I absolutely recommend anyone curious about trying out lead trad give the course a go!"

Thanks Damo for this shot of me at Ozzimosis today. I've been out in Norway the last few weeks in Hemsedal and Rjukan with clients. We've had a couple of skills days between Krokan and Ozzimosis and gearing up for a multipitch adventure tomorrow.

I've had a gap open in the diary for ice climbing guiding/instruction between the 9th and 12th February (changeover travel days into Oslo Gardemoen either side on the 8th and 13th February) for anyone who might be able to capitalise on a last-minute ice trip. Get in touch for more info.

A nice adventure with .mountaineering making the most of the last day of the winter conditions in Eryri last week. Loads of folk out enjoying the climbing on the East Face and Bristly Ridge itself.

Defaid Gwyn ** 105m, 4 pitches 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
East Face of Bristly Ridge | Y Grib Bigog

Takes the left rib that merges with Tower Buttress.

1. V, 6. 22m Start just right of the rib, up a shallow groove steepening at a shield of rock with cracks either side. Arrange gear for the crux, up the right crack, to a niche and pull up right to a ledge.

2. IV, 4. 35m Step back left, then right to surmount a short crack and drop down to a small col. Continue up the ridge line with interest to a large ledge.

3. III. 30m. Skirt left and back up right to join Tower Buttress on broken ground as far as a bay. Belay in a left facing corner with a steep, chockstone topped crack.

4. V, 6. 18m Mantle the chockstone to a ledge. Pull up left into the stepped groove with plentiful gear afforded by the right crack, pulling out left on turf. Finish easily up to the crest of Bristly.

Tom Butel and Stu Lade 10/Jan/2025.

📸 Thanks to for the crag shot

I had another good day up on the East Face of Bristly Ridge with Mark Stevenson on Monday climbing Giant’s Steps Buttress, taking the original summer line where Dwarf Steps Variation previously traversed left avoiding the crux 4a pitch. We thought it gave a good pitch of technical well protected V,6 climbing, with a precarious move exiting the groove that Mark dispatched. Follow the summer line and description throughout.

After climbing Giant’s Steps Buttress, we abbed down the adjacent gully and traversed in to the top pitch of Grooved Buttress which gave a good pitch though with wispy turf in places.

I've knocked up a quick topo of some of the lines here, a high resolution version can be found on the blog of my website, link in the profile.

Cracking day with .carrick heading up Great Tower Buttress - The Knave Variation (IV, 5) which was a good winter adventure up on the East Face of Bristly Ridge.

Pitch 1 - climbs as summer route up the cracked rib to easier ground to belay below the obvious crack. IV.
Pitch 2 - skirt the summer crux crack by sneaking left to get above it, the first winter ascent team went up a small ramp then up a flake left of the summer line. We opted to rejoin the summer line after skirting the crux crack, squeezing up the short chimney giving well protected IV, 5.
Pitch 3 - as the summer line, scramble over the pinnacled ridge and up a step to belay on the left below the large flake III.
Pitch 4 - as the summer line, except starting to the left of the flake, then up the broken groove, finishing to the right on turf for the final moves. Great pitch of winter climbing, good gear and nice moves, IV, 5. Possibly could avoid this pitch if by heading round to the right and what appears to be easier ground.
Pitch 5 - skirt the summer line by heading left up easier ground, to gain Bristly Ridge III/IV. Scramble off then descend back down the scree. I had a look at the summer line up the tower, good gear but got stopped just before the bulge at steep moves with poor feet. Maybe one for another time.

Conditions - Bristly Ridge was already rimed up nicely before the snow which we'd spied a couple days prior when heading up Tryfan, more so than high cliffs such as Clogwyn Du. The new snow was mostly loose and unconsolidated. Turf frozen after multiple cold days with no insulating snow - axe and crampon placements coming out clean, but there's not been any freeze/thaw cycles and the ground was pretty dry beforehand, so would suggest sticking to predominantly mixed routes still for now. Any complaints about perceived winteriness please do report me to the Cymru BMC access officer.

Pic 1 Tom leading up the 1st pitch.
Pics 2 - 8 Tom following up the chimney on the 2nd pitch.
Pics 9 - 13 Tom following up the great 4th pitch.

North Wales Rock - Wired Guides

North Wales finally gets the Wired treatment; a beautifully produced select guide covering a range of the amazing climbing on offer in this special place.

My now battered copy of Ground Up North Wales Rock was my first, and for a long time favourite, guidebook to the area. This may well take the top spot and will be the guidebook I recommend to clients.

I helped a little with proof reading a few chapters, and being a guidebook geek I'm especially psyched to see my name in the mentions. I'm slowly trying to put together a collection of all the guidebooks for Wales, if anyone has any interesting old guidebooks please do get in touch!

Checking out rigging for an upcoming project working with for their show Hiraeth, Lost Roots which they've been developing the last few months. Shows will be on Saturday 16th August at Galeri, Caernarfon at the following times;

16/08/25
13:15-14:00
14:30-15:30
17:45-18:30
19:00-20:00

Will be great to see them doing their thing in this great space 🤩

Some lovely feedback from Beth who joined us for a Mountain Leader Training course and was supported by the Tom Furey Memorial Trust to help fund the cost of the course.

These are always inspiring courses to be involved with, helping folk develop towards gaining the Mountain Leader qualification is a real privilege. It was clear Beth is really passionate and brought a lot to the week.

The Tom Furey Memorial Trust do a great job of opening up the outdoors and are well worth supporting so they can continue their work. Consider donating, and check out the Furey Festival 2025 for great outdoor workshops that help fund their work. It's always a great weekend full of lots of psyche.