My visits to Anglesey had always been flavoured by diving. I fought the precocious weather conditions for three years in order to get my BSAC First Class. I’d also been over to Ireland a few times on the ferry, so the place wasn’t that unfamiliar. On the Anglesey climbing front, I’d done little, there being so much to do in Snowdonia. However, Leo Dickinson’s picture in Hard Rock cannot fail to impress. The route looked like an adventure rather than just a stonking pitch, as is the case with many climbing photos. The ambience seemed to be captured perfectly.

My old copy of Paul William’s Snowdonia Rock Climbs gave a fair description of the route but the approach and belay were far from clear.

Andy and I were in Snowdonia for our yearly ritual except that this year, we had Loz and Shaun with us on their first trip to the hills. We spent a day on Idwal and some time in the Pass but Andy and I had our eyes on Dream. On the Monday, the weather looked reasonable so we trogged out to Holyhead through the roadworks on the A5. I’d bought an OS map and studied it carefully although we must have spent a good hour trying to find the way to the car park along the track behind Soldier’s Point.

Kit was packed and we headed off toward the cliffs. What thoughts were going through Andy’s mind, I know not but my mind was racing – my main concern being that we were up here to climb – anything! And I didn’t want to waste the day searching for something we weren’t going to find and lose the day. I needn’t have worried – the scene that presented itself was as in the pictures – just more real. We walked down onto the promontory opposite the climb and stared at it trying to get some idea of the scale, which proved difficult, as there was nothing we could scale against. Looking toward the top of the cliff and comparing with the pictures, the abseil point was located and scanning the cliff through bins, the line could be made out.

Back at the top of the cliff, we sorted kit and generally discussed tactics. The tide was high so we opted for the niche start. We both wore a fleece as there was quite a wind blowing and set off along the cliff top, picking our way carefully in the general direction of the abseil point. Perhaps the iffiest part of the traverse is getting down the last bit! The array of tapes was captured in a large krab and Andy’s 70m of static 11mm was lowered. I loaded my trusty Curlew (a caving rack) and dropped away toward my goal. The ab is quite pleasant and free hangs for a bit before contact with the cliff is regained and a general trend out to the south can be made to the niche. A belay was soon rigged and Andy came down. We were committed now and looking forward with some trepidation to the climb. I think it would be unnatural to have no fear!

Gear was sorted and I led off, climbing down at first then traversing toward the crack of Wen. Gear was fairly good and I was climbing confidently, taking in the atmosphere realising that I was in the same position as Ed Drummond on that picture of the first ascent. What were his thoughts at this point - first ascent caution and determination…..Did he have any inkling that it was to become a classic? The angle of the cliff was steep but nowhere near vertical and there were small positive holds everywhere formed in the creamy grey rock. The crack of Wen arrived too soon and I belayed and signaled to Andy. He de-rigged and set off. The traverse nature of the climb enabled me to get a good view of him as he progressed and he was soon with me at the belay. The usual expletive banter and he set off up the second pitch. Hanging there, some 150’ above the sea, allowed me to fully appreciate the situation – birds were flying round the zawn and the sea swelling and breaking over the rocks below. The wind was gusting upwards! And we were doing Dream!

The whole zawn was alive with noises as Andy pressed on toward Concrete Chimney where he set up a belay. Again, it was great to be able to watch his progress. I started to climb again, having cooled down from the 40 minutes or so I’d spent on the belay, but soon got back into the swing of it. A definite line could be seen to follow and I thought of the first ascensionists again. How had Ed seen this route? From the promontory or another route on the wall? The rock was streaked with a fine dry pinky moss as the route rose steadily to a point where I could look down on Andy before climbing down and across to join him in Concrete Chimney. This point gave another perspective on the zawn, looking back along Dream and the other routes on the wall. Above us, the rock towered but out to our left, a traverse line could be picked out on the apron to a point where it joined the sloping top. I led off into the corner and changed direction out left. This part of the climb feels particularly exposed, as you cannot see the cliff below the overhang. The sea was 'whumping' in the caves below. Gear remained adequate and I clipped the twin ropes alternately as I went. Reaching a chimney, I pulled upwards. This was steep and hard - a sting in the tail! I placed a rock 2 and retreated to rest. After another go, I looked out further left and over to Andy who was gesticulating wildly that I should go further. It was quite a grunt to get the rock back but I moved left another ten feet or so and found the groove to the top. My big mistake was clipping alternately on the twin 9mm's as the wind had twisted them, making it very hard to pull through. I struggled to the groove then pulled through about twenty feet of slack - enough to get me over the top. It began to rain - not heavily, probably just threatening by Anglesey standards. Andy came across slowly - due to the rope drag - and joined me on the slope. Loz, who had been taking photos from the Promontory shouted that he and Shaun were off and would see us in the pub!

We took our time de-kitting as the rain closed in and made our way back down to the car well pleased with our effort.

 Back to Climbing Page.