Collected Dingo at around 08:45 from Kathryn's and met Mike at Penllegaer at 09:00. Mike had suggested that we have a look around Bannau Sir Gaer, but I suggested that we take a look at the escarpment behin Llyn Y Fan Fach as Steve Tree and I had been impressed by one or two lines on it. I said that we could always go and have a look at Bannau Sir Gaer if there was nothing there for us. I drove, and we went via Llandeusant and parked the car at a little car park. The walk to the lake was not steep but the sun was very strong and the glare from the snow was terrific. It was almost like being in the Alps! We skirted around the east and south side of the lake and slowly gained height as we went.

Photo taken in March 2006

Dingo had his eye on a long crack/gully (probably a fault-line) that came down the escarpment. It didn't look that exciting to me, looked more like a rock-climb with a bit of snow and ice in it. We clambered up the lower slopes until we found a small jammed block in the crack and we belayed in it. Dingo headed up leaving me and Mike. I suppose he must have run out about 50 metres on the first pitch. There was 15 feet or so of water ice in it which Dingo protected with a screw. Dingo hammered a couple of pegs too. Dingo took a while. It was jolly cold and quite windy. I was glad I took my duvet jacket. Poor Mike half froze. Dingo took an hour or so to do that pitch! The pitch was fine. Lots of dry-tooling with a bit of ice thrown in. Arriving at the end of the first pitch, I saw that Dingo was belaying off a single dubious looking peg. Dingo led off the next pitch. Of course we were praying for Dingo not to fall before his first bit of gear as the peg and both Mike and I would go too! The pitch was long, probably about 58 metres. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the belay at its top to find the belay consisting of nothing more than two axes with their picks driven into the turf! Yet one more pitch, but it was about 35 metres only. The anchor at the top a huge block about the size of a pill box. At the top we changed and set off to walk back down. The route looked really spectacular from the north-west. Easily identifiable because of the huge block sitting above it on the ridge. It looked steep and long. No wonder we'd had an audience watching us from down by the lake! At the car we changed and drove back. We dropped Mike off at his car and I then took Dingo home. Strange to go climbing and not go to a pub afterwards! Looking at the guide, I reckon we did a new route. The climbing was ok, but the line was very good!