Exploration is sometimes a tough game, people think you just pluck pristine new crags out of a hat with no discernible effort required to locate these future canvases of the mind. Big G tells of a more typical day out for the rock hunter:

The Jungle Walls of Northern Moel y Gest

Dear NWB readers,
It was the naturalist and explorer Mel (‘the mole’) Griffiths who first happened upon this extraordinary treasure, lost deep within the laurel jungles of this great mountains northern flanks. In fact so difficult is the terrain hereabouts that the traveller must be quite inventive to have any chance of passing through it alive. The steep hillside is so vegetated that it is possible to throw oneself downhill in what could be construed an entirely new pastime. Goggles are advised and no rucksack; a mat almost unthinkable. The whole scene is indeed so peculiar that one has to wonder what Mel thought he was doing when he first took such a weird initiative - rather like the first person to milk a cow, and so forth.

Park by the outdoor shops - (ironic) - just out of Porthmadog. Cross the main road to pursue a muddy path towards the quarry. After strenuous ascent a right fork leads back down again into a stretch of arse-deep brambles interspersed with loose scree. If you have fallen for this it is now easier to carry on than to turn back! Cross the quarry rubble past the incline and disappear yourself into the thickest jungle.
Two walls will be found.

The ‘outside wall’ has a flat grassy landing and is at least 15m long. This will clean up to produce a nice warm-up place on proper trem rock. Left of here and up a couple of metres is the exquisitely smooth ‘inside wall’ with one or two problems and an impressive hairline crack taking centre stage.

Surely there’s something better to do...na!

Love, Big G

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