[Fiend]

Just a hint of the massive bouldering potential of the Rhinnogs - quite possibly more potential than the rest of England and Wales put together. Obviously a lot of it requires long walks across wild moorland, but this gem doesn't. Park at the viewpoint, grid reference SH615259, on the minor gate-infested road that leads in/out of Cwm Nantcol. Walk 2 minutes downhill on the East side of the wall, crossing a fence carefully, turn right to find a pillar of Five Clouds style gritstone. The right arete is still unclimbed.

Careless Orc Font 6b / V4 (!) ***
The immaculate left arete of the pillar. Tied down spotter useful due to stepped landing. Spring onto the arete and and make a technical teeter to reach the jug and easier finish.

[Bonjoy]

Nice! Spotter looks understandably gripped in pic one.
Bold claim re potential, but it does beg a few questions. Given that this sort of thing has been said for years, why has nothing been done? The only other pictures I’ve seen have been underwhelming. If there’s such a shed load of it, how come nobody can find an impressive bit/crag to take a picture of? I’m left with the suspicion that there’s a lot of it but that it’s perhaps not very good for one of the usual reasons (too small, too many holds, bad rock, no landing) when you get up close. Or perhaps the ratio of worthwhile to worthless is very unfavourable. It’s like everyone who goes there tries to trick the next person into doing the legwork. If huge potential means shit loads of mediocre fair with mostly huge walk ins then I understand why things are as they are, but that’s not what folk come away saying so I’m left wondering…

[Fiend]

Spotter is photo-bombing / trying to resist grabbing a quick feel.

Potential yes....

Given that this sort of thing has been said for years, why has nothing been done?

People are too lazy to step off the beaten track - you might know this from how much off-piste Peak you find.
The tracks around The Rhinnogs aren't well beaten, if they exist at all, and go on for a long way.

The only other pictures I’ve seen have been underwhelming. If there’s such a shed load of it, how come nobody can find an impressive bit/crag to take a picture of?

Similar to above. Very few people have explored it, and almost all of the previous main developers have a purely trad attitude up there (Martin, Terry, Norman, John, Don etc), so bouldering gets the briefest of passing mentions.
Also a lot of the potential would seem to be on hillside craglets or jumbles where good photos are less likely.

People don't even go there for the routes, there's a lot of good stuff that is well-documented, half of the routes I've done there have hollow stars but would be polished to a sheen if they were in The Peak or even 30 mins up the road at Tremadog.

If huge potential means shit loads of mediocre fair with mostly huge walk ins

I don't know about the actual quality and I didn't specify whether it was good or not, all I know is that most of what have climbed there has been great. I can confirm the huge walk-ins though. This is even more problematical than it sounds on paper due to the roughness of the terrain away from the limited number of tracks. I suspect some of the landings could be as rough as the approach terrain, not that that stops people in more accessible areas.

It really is off-piste. I do want to go back a lot more, I will keep my eye out for sensible blocs if so.

[Bonjoy]

Cheers, sounds interesting. Bring back some enticing recce pics if you go again. I'll try and get my fell running missus interested in scoping it out for me.

[tomtom]

It's because it's miles from where many climbers live. Having lived in Aber for 6 years - I went climbing in the Rhinogs twice - both times quite scary and dirty from no traffic (mountain experience etc..) but there is loads of bouldering potential. Generally seems to have long walk ins and well off the beaten path.

[Plattsy]

How long is the long walk in?

[tomtom]

Stuff I looked at was 40 min to an hour... Boggy no paths etc..

[Pantontino]

As I said in an email to Fiend this week, if I lived a bit closer I'd have given it the full scrutiny by now. The pics below were taken from the Roman Steps path while out hillwalking with my wife and kids. I was twitching to run across and check these small escarpments out but was given the hard word. That was three years ago and I haven't been back yet. There is a lad from Barmouth who has explored a bit and he confirmed my concerns about the rough terrain - if you haven't walked in the Rhinogydd before you'll be in for quite a shock when you go off piste: basically it is a series of leg swallowing man traps covered by heather!

[Pantontino]

And in case you were wondering: scale wise the good looking faces are probably quite highball, i.e. i think they're bigger than they look in these pics.

[Pantontino]

Big G has been (of course):

http://www.northwalesbouldering.com/newsitem.asp?nsid=570

[dave]

That stuff looks like it'd be great if it was in the peak.

[Pantontino]

...or Yorkshire.

[Pantontino]

There's a bit in Michael Allday's blog:

http://michaelallday.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/a-few-fas.html

[petejh]

I've done some problems there when I spent a week house/dogsitting for a friend who lives in the Rhinogs. I'm only an occasional boulderer but I'm interested in anything exploratory/new. I had an explore of the northern Rhinog and found some good terraced escarpments all around 4-8m high on the slopes to the north-east of Foel Penolau/Diffwys. I took more pics than this but lost/deleted them all, all were similar looking to these though. I did 5 or 6 probs in the area in these pics including the face and aretes of the block in the second pic, all the things I did were around V1 - V4 in old money. There was one impressive isolated prow which looked like Voyager above a really shitty landing - jumble of blocks - which I thought would be worth crowbarring out the way it looked so good. Told a few people about the place and even gave grid refs but nobody can be arsed, lazy bastards (actually that's not true in one case, 10 times up Snowdon's a bit of a walk!..). It'd be nice if some good probs were developed to go and try, perhaps next time I have a bouldering phase I'll go back...

The location for this is in grid square 37 65, and you park either at the farm at Cefn Clawdd to the south-east, or try going up the track to the north east to 'Moefreyn' but I didn't try that way. From Cefn Clawdd it was a 35 min uphill walk sans pads, and there's no real path after you leave the track and turn north.

[JohnM]

I explored the northern Rhinogs quite extensively this weekend.  There are 100s/1000s of outcrops and large boulder fields however I didn't find anything that I thought would be worth bouldering on.  The best thing I saw was the outcrop Panton showed in the picture above which is quite highball but does have a reasonable landing.  The rock tends to look good and forms some interesting features but little of it seems suitable for bouldering and not just because of the landings.  It reminded me of Cwm Trwsgl which has a large boulder field and looks like it should be amazing but the rock just doesn't seem to lend itself to bouldering.

The thing I look for in these harder to access places is either a good circuit of easy to mid-grade problems or one outstanding hard (for me) problem that is worth the walk in.  However, I found neither.  I will hopefully get back soon and climb on the Silver Screen at Craig Bodlyn and explore the southern part as well before I completely write it off!     

[JohnM]

Just to add it is the kind of place that you walk through or go to do routes at and when you look around it is easy say "loads of bouldering potential" as others have above but when you actually walk right up to the boulders or outcrops you realize they are not as good as they look and that you would never carry a pad in to climb on them!

[SA Chris]

Stuff I looked at was 40 min to an hour... Boggy no paths etc..

Scottish roadside then

[Wood FT]

Is the highball in Si's photo worth going to do then in your opinion(s)?

[JohnM]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154664211800500&set=a.10153220532260500.1073741834.889805499&type=1&theater

Another angle of the face in Si's photo.  It might be worth doing something there and the walk in from the forest car park is not too bad.  However, there isn't really any strong lines on the outcrop.  It is split by broken cracks or featureless walls.  You could force a line up the center of the face which would be very hard in the lower half.

[thekettle]

I explored this area without a pad in 03-04 when living in Llanbedr (10 minutes from Cwm Nantcol). Climbed many routes but didn't find many attractive boulders, as others have said they look promising from a distance but often disappoint. Here's a pic of Dol-Dal Owen, under 10 minutes from the road (in the Meirionydd guide).
http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=64297

[Bonjoy]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154664211800500&set=a.10153220532260500.1073741834.889805499&type=1&theater

Another angle of the face in Si's photo.  It might be worth doing something there and the walk in from the forest car park is not too bad.  However, there isn't really any strong lines on the outcrop.  It is split by broken cracks or featureless walls.  You could force a line up the center of the face which would be very hard in the lower half.

I don't seem to be able to open that. Don't have permission I suspect.

[JohnM]

Sorry, I need to host it somewhere else but I have changed the permissions so might work now.

The lines in your pictures look good thekettle.  I am sure there are plenty of amazing problems to be found in the region covered by the Merrionydd guidebook but I just don't think it will be the mecca some people think it could be.  The ratio of good bouldering lines to the amount of rock is very small.  However, if there is an area I don't mind hiking around without finding much it is this one.  It feels so wild with stunning scenery.

[Fiend]

Well there's some answers for you Bonjoy

One thing I would say is that the potential is probably better with a combination of an old-skool exploratory approach and a modern approach with regards highballs / weird landings / patioing / tight lines / pit problems etc etc - pretty much how it seems to be in the esoteric Peak stuff.

On the other hand if the quality doesn't match the quantity, maybe it makes the few lines recorded so far that bit more special.

[Bonjoy]

That sorted it cheers. Looks good. A place to bring crowbars and your strongest mate.

Fiend - As suspected. It does sound like a advanced extraction techniques might liberate some plums mind you.

[Fiend]

Liberating your plums is always rewarding in such remote places.