Climbing at Penallta, Ystrad Mynach

As the weather makes a change for the better, the last week of sunshine proved too tempting and we ventured out to Penallta. Penallta is a great sandstone outcrop which overlooks Ystrad Mynach not too far from Llanbradach. Bouldering and Trad are available in abundance.


Claire starts out looking like a pro throwing out some shapes.....

Unfortunately a flapping wet dolphin incident took the shine off as she belly flopped onto a ledge and started climbing upside down!!!!! Some may say this is a skill, but I assure you....its not.

Late night bouldering, Penallta.

So nice sized bouldering with various level problems, the worried expression comes from ingesting my left leg as I stretch a lil too far!!!!!

Lovely heel hook there.......

And for my finale, catching a dyno at full stretch. Penallta is an awesome place for practising large dyno's!

Coed Ely Pics

Coed Ely is a great sun trap and can stay relatively dry even when its raining due to its leaning face. Lots of bolted routes here plus top rope points.

Cwm Dimbath Pics

This site is difficult to locate and a trek to get to. Heavily vegetated in places but with great potential. A very middle -earth feel to this place.

Trebannog Pics

These pics have been taken from Right to left as you face the cliff from the road.

Mission 2009

South Wales has a wealth of climbs mainly recored in the South Wales climbing guide as well as the Pembrokshire guide. UKClimbing.com has a comprehensive directory of the climbs available but there is a serious shortage of photographs. I don't know about you ,but I like to see what a location looks like before diving in, especially if you've never been there before. A couple of times this year we hiked through woods and up mountains only to be met with a very poor range of climbs.

So, our mission this year is to photograph and post on this blog, and where appropriate, on UKClimbing.com as many South Wales climbing locations as possible to give a true representation of what's on offer.

Check this space soon.....

Bouldering Western Australia

Albany, Western Australia, is the centre for sea cliff climbing in the area. However, as a lot of the routes require an abseil in, bouldering is hard to come-by. The guide for the area suggests that there is bouldering within the town of Albany (Serpentine Drive, View Street and Mount St. Clements), however, these rocks were found to be in a neglected state with excessive moss and dense vegetation at the base.

However, exquisite bouldering with a sandy landing was to be found at Elephant Cove near Denmark, W.A., 35 km west of Albany. Here the beach and surrounding coast is strewn with
enormous granite monoliths. Perhaps some Deep Water Solos could be found by someone
with imagination?

Dave's Artistic Impression of the Forthcoming X3

X3 New Development Coming Soon

New Development Coming Soon

Work has started on the newly discovered Crag X3. Dave has visited the quarry twice recently. The quarry is formed from sandstone of the Brithdir Beds, which is very hard and massively bedded, meaning it contains very few horizontal breaks. Two bolt lines (a crack line and a chimney) have already been placed (estimated Fr. 5c) and gardening has revealed the potential for at least four more routes, upto Fr. 6c, upto a maximum height of 80ft.

The quarry is still in a very dangerous state with television-size boulders still coming off with little more than a light touch, and consequently were keeping the location a secret until these have been dealt with.

We'll keep you updated.

Spiderman Open for Business

As work progresses at X1, the impressive Spiderman overhang is finally open for business! This has got to be one of the most formidable overhangs in South Wales and would challenge the more stalwart amongst us.

Any takers?

Progress at the New Quarry

Dave and I have been toiling effortlessly to get the new quarry bolted ready for the summer. We had placed 3 routes (Fliddington Rex, Big Bad Baboon and Uluru) when Dave decided to lean on a wall and bend his finger at a rather inhuman angle! This along with bad weather has hampered us throughout April but finally we have some gorgeous evenings and the bolts are flying up. We have enlisted the aid of the legend that is Roy Thomas and there are now around 20 routes on the lower tier alone. This is going to be a great focus point for climbers in South Wales this summer!

Dave's artistic impression of our next project

New Quarry for Climbers in South Wales

Okay - Dave and I have been scouring the region for new climbs and have come up trumps! Over the last month or so we have been cleaning, bolting and leading some new routes. Now we are ready to reveal project X to the world!

Kris on Fliddington Rex

If you're a climber in South Wales you'll know about the 'Gap' and if you know about the 'Gap' you'll know that it's not a nice place to climb this time of the year. It gets very little sun and holds onto the moisture seeping through the mountain making climbing all but impossible. It was on a visit to the 'Gap' in January that we spotted and decided to investigate this new location. Whilst standing on the 'GAP' you can see the tip of it on the opposite side of the valley, in the forest. This is the quarry:

Location: NGR-308400E 197900N

Directions: Take the A4054 from the village of Edwardsville, drive north into Mount Pleasant. Park on the south side of Mount Pleasant and walk back south along the main road. First you'll pass a small road which runs up the side of the forest. A little further on a dirt track enters the forest behind a lay by with fly-tipping. Follow this track past a gate as it rises steeply. The track continues into the base of the quarry after 400m.

Access: We are not aware of the current access status. Keep a low profile. The base of the quarry has been used for landfilling but this is capped with topsoil.

Unlike to 'Gap' this quarry recieves sunlight all day making it an ideal alternative to climbing the 'Gap'. The quarry is huge and has 2 tiers, unfortunatley much of the upper tier is too loose to climb but the lower tier has some excellent climbs. The following have been bolted and lead, they start to the far left of the quarry if you are face on:

1. FLIDINGTON REX (5b?) - climb slab immediately below first bolt. Continue to second bolt and trend leftwards to ascend the face to the left of the slab. Gain the second horizontal ledge and continue straight over the upper slab to top out.
K. Davies D. Emanuel 09/02/2008

A direct ascent of the slab between Flidington Rex and Big Bad Baboon is proposed. This will require a lot of cleaning to remove the surface layer of flakey rock on the slab.

2. BIG BAD BABOON (5c?) - climb slab immediately below first bolt as for Flidington Rex. At the horizontal break traverse rightwards to the undercut crack. Ascend the crack on its left side and move rightwards to gain the small tree. Continue past the tree to the corner and continue up the corner to top out.
D. Emanuel K. Davies 16/02/2008

3. ULURU (5c?) – Ascend the slab to the right of the arête to gain a deep rust pocket. Continue upwards into a corner. Lower-off third bolt as rock becomes brittle above this point. Route was ascended on removable bolts – permanent bolts will be placed shortlyD. Emanuel K. Davies 16/02/2008

Dave on Big Bad Baboon

Neither I or Dave claim to be route setting experts and the grades are what we believe the climbs are. Further routes are planned and the far left of the upper tier is solid enough to climb. We'll keep you posted.

Oh - just to throw down the gauntlet - there are 2 huge overhangs at this quarry that are beyond us at the moment but if anyone is climbing mid to high 7's then this could be a project worth exploring.

We'll Keep you posted of new routes but feel free to try the quarry out for yourself this summer!

Mt Tibrogargan, Glass House Mountains, Brisbane

The Glass House Mountains comprise a series of ancient volcanoes that rise sharply from the flat surrounding landscape. The peaks are positioned west of Highway near Brisbane, Queensland. Amongst these, Mt. Tibrogargan and Mt. Beerwah are the steepest accessible peaks, with Mt. Coonowrin having been closed due to falling rock.

Mt. Tibrogargan stands 364m above sea level and forms a gorilla-like silhouette against the sky. My wife and I climbed this mountain during a visit in December 2007. The car park is located directly beneath the mountain and a steep track winds through the forest and quickly reaches the base of the scramble.

Almost immediately one has to climb a vertical chimney to achieve a large ledge. Above the ledge an open slab cuts through the dense vegetation. The slab continues to steepen as it rises until a short, near vertical section breaks the slab. Beyond this break the angle relents and the steep path continues through sub-tropical forest to the summit.

For those familiar with Snowdonia, the scramble was not unlike the north ridge route on Tryfan.

Friction is your friend on the slabs and we were lucky to climb during a dry spell. However, during our stay at Caloundra we saw how quickly the weather could change and I should imagine these slabs are a very different affair when wet. In addition, a slip from the upper part of the slab could see you tumbling a considerable distance to the forest below. For this reason climbers may wish to carry a rope and some slings (there are plenty of trees on-route) to allow an abseil to be set up to descend if the weather changed. Several companies in Brisbane also operate guided tours of these mountains, with Mt. Beerwah being particularly popular.

Don’t forget to visit the nearby Australia Zoo where you can marvel at the poisonous spiders and snakes that are indigenous to the region. Hopefully this will be the only time you see them!!!!!!!!!!!!

Barland Quarry, Bishopston one Autumn Morning

Barland quarry is a hidden gem!

Located just off the road between Bishopston & Kittle just before you reach the surf shop (not sure what its called) the entire face is pure slab pocked with erosion. Some places were smear heaven whilst others caused a few fried eggs as we slid off. There are numerous short jaunts to the left of the main face which we had a couple of hours slugging up with a couple of optimistic dynos thrown in.

The main climb shoots right up the centre where there is a short respite from a small ledge. From here a summit attempt can be mounted. Dave took the lead first but after cocking a leg onto the overhang lost his mojo and belayed down to recover! Luckily he'd placed some gear just above the overhang so when I launched myself up it I was relatively safe. Still, scary climb though, as there is little for the fingers to grip. We had an awesome time here anyway and would recommend it to middle of the range climbers, maybe a little advanced for complete beginners though. Mental!

Please note that no formal permission has been gained to enter the quarry so climbers should keep a low profile!