Yesterday Jack Rattenbury climbed a tough little addition to the Cwm Trwsgl circuit (OS grid ref 552 497).

Yokely Dokely 7B/+ starts sitting as for Pain in the Albumen (but with hands crossed over on the flake) – it then powers out right along the thin break line with an extremely burly drop-in move to gain holds on Double Yolker which provides a suitably powerful and tenuous finish.

A slightly higher finish (avoiding the hard drop-in move) is possible, but the move to snag the diagonal flake (with your left) on the upper face is bizarrely low percentage too.

There is not a huge amount of established bouldering here but with the nearby Lady Boy boulder (down close to the small lake) there is enough to justify the faff of the approach. If you are thinking of making a visit you have two choices: walk or bike up through Beddgelert Forest (it takes 1 hour to walk from the main car park if you follow the direct footpath – you’ll need an OS map for this).

Alternatively go for the epic drive round and up Cwm Pennant, but bear in mind that it takes about 20-25 minutes to get from the main Tremadog road to the road head parking – the walk in from the road head takes a further 25 minutes. Either way it will take about 1.5 hours from a start in Llanberis, or perhaps just over an hour in total if you thrash up the forest roads on your mountain bike.

Is it worth the trek – on balance, yes. The rock is perfect dolerite and it is a very peaceful, secluded location. Shame there is not more to go at, or that some of the obvious unclimbed lines had better landings. Even the classic 7A, Close to Tears has a pretty spicey landing, although would be okay with a few spotters and pads.

Finally, there is a very good looking sds line on the left side of the large lozenge shaped boulder at the base of the main crag - Ed's note: It started raining before we had a chance to try this, but it looks about 6B.

Relevant links:
      Close to Tears news item
      Lady of the Lake news item