Owen Hayward has been busy again, this time on the Terrapin block at the Sheep Pen boulders in the Ogwen Valley. The boulder which has a small sheep pen wall on its front side lies just a little further along the plateau from the Pinch block.

Gollum 7A is the obvious steep lip traverse left of Terrapin – classic old school, grungey stuff! It goes well in both directions and at about the same grade.

For the left-to-right version start sitting at the left end of wall and make a couple of moves up to gain a good hidden incut edge then drop in and follow the lip right (using the lip and the slopey ledge just above) to gain a diagonal jug in the small groove feature at the right hand end. Mantel out here. The start was previously climbed as Slap and Tickle 6A by Phil Targett.

For the right-to-left version start sitting at the small groove on the right. Pull on using big diagonal jugs in the groove then reverse Gollum L-to-R to gain a hidden incut finger edge at the left end. Mantel out using this and an obvious slopey foothold on the lip.

Check out Kieran King’s Sheep Pen Classics film, which includes footage of an ascent of Gollum.

Relevant links:
      The Terrapin news item