I usually try to celebrate my birthday with a climb – hopefully a memorable one! I’ve had at least one celebration half way up El Cap, and another couple in Eldorado Canyon, Boulder (including an ascent of naked Edge). My last couple were not quite so exotic, with my 60th spent flying the BMC flag at Wilton Fest and last year’s anniversary catching me by surprise (and without a partner) when the scheduled rain didn’t materialise and I ended up with a solo trip for 61 tiddlers in the Peak.

However, as regular blog readers will know, Gogarth is my favourite crag in the world, and I’ve spent at least four birthdays in this seaside party venue, including ascents of Fantasia, TV Route, Fly Trap and Communications Breakdown. Not only is it a stupendous crag, it is also your best bet against the vagaries of August weather.

So it was that I tagged onto Andy and Muir’s plans to make the most of a glimmer of hope out west, amidst a generally unsettled outlook, for a trip along the pilgrimage route better known as the A55. Things were looking less than promising as we sped past Elsmere Port.

But fortune favours the brave (or perhaps just the fortunate) and arrival in the South Stack car park was greeted with a bit of sun, albeit in a biting wind. No worries, Red Wall is fully south facing and would get all the sun going.

…except on our chosen mission – Anarchy in the UK, E4 6a, which takes a direct line on Anarchist, starting on the shady side of the promontory and therefore tucked away from the pesky sun!

Another one of those rare occasions when the Gogarth mantra ‘it’ll be much warmer down there than up here’ fails to deliver, and you end up with not quite enough insulation.

Toasty if you were visiting the lighthouse…

…and hard not to envy Muir as he forged upwards into the sun.

Fairly urgent moves up a steep groove and through an overlap have the merit of decent rock and seemingly adequate gear (not always the case on Red Wall – actually almost NEVER the case on Red Wall), but on the other hand there are some moves when you genuinely have to pull.

The top pitch reverts to type, with some sketchy choss-tottering. Not really worthy of an Alt-Leads tick, but my first dose of Gogarth on the sharp end (actually any end) since my ankle op.

Handing the sharp end over to Andy, we headed down for The Cree, E4 5c. A rare Red Wall repeat for me (I led it more than a decade ago) but I still struggled to figure out quite where it went. Good lead by Andy – another route with some really very thin moves and some of them a distance above the gear.

A bit too fingery for me on the day (and surely 6a in anyone’s book – felt tougher than Anarchy)

Topped out almost in time for the cafe, and there’s a brief discussion of ‘just one more’, but common sense prevails (there really are only so many routes to go at, and it’s best not to guzzle). The draw of beer and chips in Conwy proves the deciding factor – what better way to celebrate your birthday?

The following day, Jake is free for an outing. The weather in the Peak hasn’t improved and we’re not on a schedule that would allow for another blast out to the seaside. Various ‘damp-weather’ options are proposed and dismissed, and we settle on Ravenstones for the day’s sports plan. Not an obvious contender with forecasted showers (north facing and almost an hour’s walk from the car) but at least it is central.

A pleasant stroll past the ressers brings this iconic ‘Over The Moors’ crag into view, and the sight isn’t entirely alluring.

A slog up to the base of the Trinnacle confirms the impression from below that a fair bit of greenery and lichen has managed to survive the drought of the summer of ’26, and to make matters worse it’s coming on to drizzle. Jake set off, unperturbed, up Trinnacle East, HVS 5a. We may have inadvertently taken an alternative righthand start, but it felt properly sketchy in the damp. Even once we joined the main flake / crack line, it’s still no walkover. Worth 5b and an E point???

Jake’s motivation for proposing Ravenstones was the classic test piece: True Grit, E3 5c. Apparently he’d had a poster of it on his bedroom wall though his teens and had a longstanding ambition for an ascent. A heavy downpour prompted an abandonment of a first foray, and half an hour sheltering under a handy overhang. Harnessing his inner ‘Incy Wincy spider’ mode, he was soon firing up the spectacular ground, undaunted by a lack of big cams (having failed to read the sage UKC beta for 5s and 6s and only taken a blue).

Not content with one helping of extreme scrittle, Jake set off up Guerrilla Action, E2 5c. A bit of a ‘hidden gem’ and another fine addition to this grand venue by John Smith in the 80s. No pics of Jake but here’s one of Molly Worth from earlier in the year:

With another squall moving in it was time to start the plod out before a proper wetting. Just made it to the car before the heavens opened 🙂

Great Birthday Double Bill. Can you ask for two more contrasting crags – Seaside, roadside, sunny quartzite versus top of the moor, shady, scrittly grit – both bagged with a dose of optimism from an uninspiring day. Roll on next year’s adventure.