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This afternoon Pete Robins completed The Super Collider, an epic 40m traverse of the steep wall at the right side of Bryn y Dyfrgi, above Llyn Arenig. This is a truly outstanding and quite possibly unique line – the only comparison that springs to mind is the Craig y Longridge traverse in Lancashire.
The routes on this little visited but impressive crag were first developed in the ‘90s by Terry Taylor. Martin Crocker also added some difficult micro lines. Details of these can be found in the CC Meirionydd guide.
Last summer Terry and Martin Crook started working on sections of the traverse, slowly unpicking the tricky and sustained sequences. Martin kept the faith and returned this spring to climb The Collider (7B) which steps on from the central block adjacent to the wall and traverses right to step off at the block by the right aręte of the wall. Martin also climbed a 7Bish line from a sds 4m left of the aręte and traversing right at a low level rightwards around the aręte.
Pete Robins came along for a look and was immediately smitten by the wall. On his second session he climbed Collider extension (7B+/F8a/+) which, as the name suggests, extends Collider by continuing up to a higher finish on the right aręte.
The obvious challenge of traversing the entire wall remained and Pete spent a number of sessions trying it before he made it all the way in one go. The Super Collider has 100 moves with only a few possible shakeout positions; consequently Pete has suggested a French sport grade of F8b+.
”It’s the obvious line to climb (usually not the case with traverses). Sustained all the way, with several cruxes and culminating in a brilliant finale racing the pump on shallow pockets”, explained Pete, before adding:
“It felt pumpy! Not really my style so the end was all-out screaming, but I’m glad it went that way!”
To reach the crag park as per the normal approach path to Arenig Fawr, follow the path up to the lake then contour on a rough path around the left side of it before crossing a slightly boggy section to reach the hillside below the crag. The central section of the wall does suffer from seepage after heavy rain.
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