Ah, mischievous old Big G, I see this month he has set an initiative test. Clue: there may be other reasons to go wandering in this forgotten valley…

Dear NWB readers,
December; and the boulderer is caught between the crapness of ‘indoors’ and the crapness of outdoors.
Er...stay outdoors... and wait for the clouds to clear a bit, and there will be a sunset somewhere from about two thirty onwards and the light shall burn a slow gold on the desolate moors, and there shall be wonderment.

Let us take ourselves to Capel Curig, and just past the sign to the village on the Ogwen road there is a small car park. Bail north up the valley for 400m until the path is adjacent to a new fence and then wonder off leftwards to a higher valley with a few bluffs.

Scrutinize these bluffs, for here in a slight raised hollow (only accessed by ascending through waist high ‘loser’ brambles and deep bog) we may reach a small low grade rock almost too good to touch. Here Time’s blind chiselling Cherub has struck us with a vertical loveliness we cannot resist. The colours, the texture, the pockets...so what if we have ‘trench foot’ from the walk-in!
Indeed a few budding ascentionists have pulled onto the compelling letterbox pockets (being unable to resist), and have then found themselves unable to let go and leave via the heathery top.
The left-of-centre crackline will also be perfect, and made all the harder for not being a crack!
The landing is fit for a fairy banquet

How long did God spend on the Ogwen?

Love, Big G

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