Another week goes by and another venue on Clegir is revealed. The Bends Crag is a series of clean walls and arêtes situated above the Llanberis bends. It was first looked at by Martin Crook and Paul Pritchard in the mid 90s. The lads picked off the easier up lines (all of which proved to be excellent) and spent a bit of time attempting the obvious hard project wall on the left side of the crag.

About 10 years later Chris Davies went for a look and toyed with the project wall but left empty handed. Fast forward a few more years and Mark ‘Hosey B’ Dicken had a sniff around and climbed the first half of the traverse.

Then last week Si Panton made a trip with the idea of traversing the crag (unaware of Hosey’s previous work). His approach to the crag was watched by George Smith who maintained a binocular link from his house on Fachwen hill, texting direction hints: “Left a bit” in the process.

Si climbed the full traverse in both directions, marvelling at the quality of the climbing. The Bends rates V5/6C+ left-to-right and slightly easier, V5/6C right-to-left.

Last night Si returned to the crag with Andy Godber, and Neil Dyer dropped in randomly having seen Si’s van parked in the lay-by.

Andy climbed the wall just left of Central Arête at V4/6B+ and Neil tackled the slightly gripping wall 2-3m right of the same arête from a sitting start; The Decompressor rates V5/6C.

Neil then got stuck into trying the steep project wall. After several attempts he worked out a useable sequence and snagged the diagonal finger rail high on the wall, making a further slappy move from this to the top.

Barotrauma V8/7B+ is a top quality, but fierce problem, which is sure to both frustrate and delight would be repeaters. Start on holds in the groove on the right, then reach over leftwards to a diagonal edge and bridge up before committing fully to the steepness and making a hard snatch to the aforementioned diagonal finger rail.

Lastly, Si linked The Bends traverse into the superb flying arête of Iron Lung to give an excellent and pumpy V6/7A.

To reach the crag there are two options: 1. from the lay-by closest to the Pen Llyn end of the Llanberis bends a slabby crag is visible up to the right. Cross the road carefully and climb up some rocky steps to reach the tussocky hillside down and left of the slabby crag. Bear left and trend up leftwards for about 150m (feels like further because of the rough terrain) to reach an opening and the crag. 2. It is possible to drop into the crag from the old military roads running down from the Clegir road; a greater distance but a bit more civilised, assuming you don’t get lost.

If you check the news item below and follow the direction link the crag is marked as Crook's Area on the Google map.

To view a bigger version of the topo click here.

Relevant links:
      Clegir boulder news item with Google map link