Major news from the north east of Wales; Mark Katz has completed the much discussed central project at Pantymwyn. This striking, independent line caught the eye of Denbigh local, Sam Cattell, when he pushed forward much of the early development of the crag. Sam became deeply embroiled, and in 2007 got close to finishing it, falling off above the lip of the roof.

And here we are 18 years later and Mark Katz has finally made it a reality. NWB caught up with Mark and he explained how it came to fruition:

”I ended up at Pantymwyn at the back end of Covid after getting rained off somewhere else – I probably hadn’t been there for over a decade. The proj always stood out though – a pure line for lime, and brutal. Obviously I knew the story of Sam dropping it, going for the last move, and of course I’d seen the picture in the old guide.”

“I wanted a summer project on lime reasonably close to Bala – which is ironic as it’s terrible in the heat. I couldn’t do any of it initially. Totally not my bag - never felt that confident on lime, plus the brutal pockets, and awkward connies at the crag.”

“I stuck with it though - tried it through the season of 21/22. I met Sam randomly in the wall and thought I better tell him – and we tried it together 22/23. The next year I came back, and dropped the last move twice in a session in March. I knew it was on but I gibbed it, it got warm and Ceri was ill too. The pressure broke me. “

“It has been most of my climbing time for a long time. That’s hard for a weekend warrior, as you get nothing else done. Plus I’m 47, my son Brenig is 7, we’ve been building a house, while working my teaching day job. Sometimes there was no progress, or I felt like I was going backwards. Ceri kept encouraging me though, and my mate Dan Turner was really encouraging. I started a weighted pull up routine that my mate Alistair Blackshaw gave me - I needed to get physically more solid.

“I had two finger injuries on it – getting a finger caught in mono as you slap to lip. So, I started training specifically - lots of pockets on the fingerboard to build resilience and tolerance, and used a replica on my board.”

“It’s strange climbing, in that it’s pockets, but also really just compression. I did my replica twice in a session and I knew it was possible. It definitely felt like I’d earned the right to try it, and maybe get it done by the end.”

“I think Jordan had done it in two halves a good long while ago - big difference to linking it though. I’d warm through the sections, but putting it together was a different matter altogether.”

“I spent more sessions on it than anything else I’ve ever tried. I’m not sure why I got so obsessed? Maybe it was how unlikely it seemed, that got me interested. Once you’ve waded in, you have to keep on wading…”

On Sunday Mark met Chris Doyle at the crag, as he had done on several occasions before. Chris was keen to get the FA film footage, but it wasn’t looking likely. Then out of the blue, and despite making a few errors and forced micro adjustments, it all came good. Mark made it through, matched the final jugs, dropped off and turned to face Chris in a state of utter bewilderment.

”I’m really pleased he was there to be honest – I’m not sure I would have quite believed it otherwise.”

[Editor’s note: the FA footage, which I can vouch is of excellent quality, will be released further down the line as part of a film that Chris is working on. So please be patient and don’t pester Mr D, as he is busy with another exciting film project which he intends to release first. More details of that will be released soon.]

NB. The name, The River Runs Dry was what Sam had always wanted to call it, so Mark decided to stick with it.

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