Open Project of The Month - December

....And so a year of Open Projects comes to a close. I (or anyone else for that matter) have yet to bring closure on any of these puppies, but now at least they're out there, tried and in the public domain. When I started this project it was as a slightly broken man, I thought of the  big unclimbed lines I knew of and really wanted to do, despite being way out of my league.

Well I've been trying them, and maybe they are not out my league... we'll see what next year brings. Enough of that, that's for a post later in the month.

This months project is a Christmas gift; I found it in March and have been saving it as something special, hopefully to be realised as a team effort. However, December arrived and arrangements with wads failed to come together. So off I went; two mats, a pair of wellies and a Dream...

Nantmor Mon Amore!

Now Nantmor has been well explored in the 90's, with many padless classics developed over the back of Craig Bengham bach. I myself had been on a wander many moons ago, and found a bit, but not a lot. However, with a bit of spare time and Googlemaps, I became curious about a cluster of large looking boulders on the fringes of Coed Caedafydd. Last March I bailed up through the woods on a reccy, cautiously as they were felling at the time, and strenuously, as the woods were so full of storm blown timber, that I had to use my hands as often as my feet (the woods are on a steep slope). This time I used Bing as then I could see the OS maps, and subsequently the appropriate public footpath...

Park at the Coed Caedafydd picnic spot, which has parking for 5-6 car (luxury in Nantmor) and walk up the road towards Gwynant. Take the first signed public footpath on the right. Go uphill through the field, through a wall, then zig steeply rightwards up through the woods to another wall. Through this to a big white boulder, then steeply upwards to arrive at the view above.
20mins from car, wear wellies.

This spot has a crag and numerous super boulders, The rock is rough and faceted, similar to some of the ash boulders in the pass above wavelength. This means little crimps and complex slopers, as well as a little bit of scrittle. The landings are very Ysgo/Crafnant, and lots of mats are a good Idea, as well as going as a team, and a bit of patioing. As well as huge pebbles, there are a myriad of corridors, tunnels and caves to explore and develop.
The rewards are boulders like this:

The Dai Koyamada boulder- 

Perched in the middle of the field, a Highball mat for scale..

Close up showing the clear space underneath, including lots of tiny sharp pockets, a starting flake, and space to bivi 8 people...

View from the side showing my attempted pad stack. the landing needs work and not one for this solo trip. I instead went left of this shot to tackle the big hanging slab. This gave Pull Test F6A+! ish and my first climbing outside since I did my shoulder in. 

The landing was a little comical, and my numerous falls in establishing this line generally had me sliding off the red mat into the undergrowth on the left. The lip of the slab was at about diaphragm height and severely undercut, the scoop on the left provided a flatty and a slopey pinch with which I had to rock it out with extreme prejudice. However, once I'd eventually managed this I refused to fall off again and gibbered up the thankfully easing slab.

After this bit of excitement, I went looking for slightly safer fare, and picked on a couple of boulders at the front of the field.

Nkosi Arete F5. sit start on the Africa ish like flake this is the FA onsight, hence the pop of scrittle..

The Brawler F6A. Pull via pockets into the start of the flake system and follow it to the top. Straight up from the starting pockets was about F4/5.

So here it is, an area about the size and situation of Sheep Pen, and about as easy to get to from Llanberis.

Enjoy....