Bethesda local, James Lillie has developed a superb new block close to his house in Gerlan, up above Bethesda. Interestingly the boulder can be clearly seen on Flash Earth: www.flashearth.com/ Latitude: 53 degrees 10’ 53.4” N Longitude: 4 degrees 3’ 1.8” W just west of the Glanrafon road on the far side of the stream. There is no parking up here so leave your car down in Gerlan and walk up the road; cross the fence and stream to reach the obvious clean block. Access is tolerated but please be on your best behaviour and make sure that no litter is left.

The front face has a trio of up lines. Big Thumb V5/Font 6c in the centre, Little Thumb V3/Font 6a just to the right and a V5/ Font 6c going direct from and using the iron hook. James also did a left-to-right traverse starting round to the left on a jug and climbing onto the front face; Sawn Off Fucked Thumb rates V7/Font 7a+. This was subsequently extended by Adam Hocking at V8/9/Font 7b/c, all the way across the front face past and again using the iron hook to finish round the prow. Finally, Dave Noden added a V5/Font 6c sitter to the left end of the boulder. The right hand prow remains an obvious project, and there is potential for some hard sitting starts.

Stop Press: Access to the Thumb Boulder has temporarily been withdrawn as there is a young foal in the field. Please respect the farmer's wishes by staying away until further notice.

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