Snakes and Ladders – Spenser Gray and Chris Hartshorne

The March meet to Tan yr Wyddfa has not been blessed with the good weather Snod claimed he had ordered, looking out of the window I huddle down further into the chair, the rain feebly beating against the window. “We could go to the Beacon and do some leading practice if you’d like Chris?” I say, hopeful that I won’t have to spend much of the day out in the cold March rain.

My hopes were dashed, “We’ve not come all this way to climb indoors”. Brilliant! Now I need to come up with a plan for a good day out in the lashing rain and below the cloud base. “We could go and do Snakes and Ladders?” I suggest with a bit of uncertainty. Sure – loads of my friends have done it in most states of weather; sure – it goes in the wet, but I don’t fully understand the layout of the slate quarries so I expect a route finding nightmare. The route is given the grade of HVS, not for the difficulty of the route, but instead the general seriousness of the undertaking (including the chain at the start) and it follows a series of ladders and tunnels through the Llanberis Slate quarries providing an exploratory tour of the dilapidated quarry workings.

Having identified the first tunnel above Dali’s Hole we reach the chain, I see a film of water running down the wall and slab above us, not a chance of me climbing the chain free with no gear. I decide to aid up the chain (according to the guidebook this makes me a “Pansy”). On reaching the top I see what the chain is anchored to, I suddenly feel glad I didn’t see that before I aided up the chain. Chris quickly figures out how to use the knotted slings as improvised etriers and arrives without any great faff.

A short abseil off the ledge at the other side of the tunnel returns us to the edge of Dali’s Hole. Next up is a tight squeeze, located on the same level as you approach Dali’s Hole. My bag goes in first and I easily follow into the void before emerging onto the Oil Drum Glacier.

A quick scramble brings us up to the first set of ladders. Gingerly I set off along the slanting, wobbly lower section, the further I progress up it the more it bends. I reach out to the next section of ladder, secured only by a short section of rope attached to the lower half and a chain dangling off a tree – not really the most reassuring of anchors. Having satisfied myself that yes, the top half really did wobble, I back off and decide to walk around to reach the next level where we are greeted by a much sturdier ladder.

We quickly progress up a series of ladders until reaching a large ledge near the top of the Australia quarry. Unfortunately at this point we lost our way and after 45 minutes of bumbling round trying to find the abseil anchor into the Lost World (or indeed the Lost World) we both agree that we’ve put in an effort, not a stitch on our bodies is dry, and quite frankly Pete’s Eats looks like an attractive option so we trot off down the stairs back to the car.

Details of the route can be found in the following places:

The current definitive guide for Llanberis Slate

http://snakesladdersandtunnels.blogspot.co.uk/

https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=137559– The UKC comments are particularly useful to gain an idea of the state of the fixed equipment.