Boulders

The Upper Crag

The upper crag described in the SMC guide has some good bouldering at its base which has the added advantage of staying dry in light rain. If you don’t have the routes guide to direct you, look for the twin overhanging finger cracks of Short Sharp Shock and Double Clutching. The routes on the wall to the right are more like extended boulder problems and have easy finishes. The problems are between these and are described left to right.

1. Affront 6b (Font 6b+) Niall McNair 2002
An eliminate problem. Start at a large spike below Short Sharp Shock. Move immediately rightward and diagonally up on poor crimps to gain a rounded fin. Use this to gain the horizontal break.

2. Front Line 6a (Font 6c) Dave MacLeod 2002
Low down on the wall right of Double Clutching are two finger pockets. Start sitting below the left hand pocket. Pull up and gain a lump of quartz on the left. Finish with a slap to the jug rail.

3. Cats & Dogs 6b (Font 6c+) Dave MacLeod 2002
Start sitting below the right hand finger pocket. Pull up to the left hand pocket and make a difficult lunge to the jug rail to finish.

4. Prime Ape 5c (Font 5+)* D. Griffiths 1986
This bulging wall can be climbed all the way to the top past lots of easy ground. Alternatively, move right and climb down Fear.

5. Fear 5a* Gary Latter 1985
The juggy crack gives a straightforward short problem. Either jump off, reverse or climb easy ground to the top.

6. Raindogs 6b (Font 7a) Dave MacLeod 2002
Start sitting at a blob like pinch and sharp edge, just right of Fear. Pull on and make a difficult lunge for the jug rail above.

7. Singin In The Rain 6b (Font 7a)** Niall McNair 2002
This problem climbs the faint groove right of Fear. Start sitting at the base of the groove and move up with technical moves to better holds.

8. Quartzymodo 6a (Font 6b)* N. Brodie 1989
Highball. From good holds in the shallow groove, Climb the bulging wall above direct past a quartzy undercut. Pull through and finish direct onto a flat ledge. Escape left into Fear from the undercut if you can’t commit to the finishing move.

9. Sunburst 6b (Font 7a)** Dave MacLeod 2002
A long left to right traverse of most of the crag with some interesting climbing. Start below Short Sharp Shock. Climb this for a few moves to a horizontal. Follow this rightwards with a tricky section passing the crack of Double Clutching. Follow the long line of good holds across the wall past Fear and make increasingly difficult moves to a tricky crux pulling onto a slab to reach good finishing holds round the arete.