Saturday saw a team of cheerful locals descend upon Porth Ysgo – the conditions were perfect (cold, extremely dry and overcast) and much fun was had by all.

Dave Noden confounded all notions of what is possible by climbing the oft-discussed 8B prow – an old project line on the super smooth block immediately opposite the recently climbed Knee Deep at the far right (looking out to sea) side of the main bouldering area.

Originally the prow was conceived as a ridiculous campus slap from a slopey horn to high slopers – and was jokingly known as the 8B prow. A low pebble level revealed a sloping foot at the base of the block – this formed a good launching point for a hard to land dyno. After many attempts dave finally stuck the top sloper and mantelled out.

The 7B grade offered for Brâncuși’s Kiss is strictly a ball park guess!

Dave also snuck ahead of Matt Lewis with a flash of the sds to the slopey arête feature just to the left. The Bird rates 7A.

Si Panton was down re-checking problems for the new North Wales Bouldering guide and picked off a couple of neat sitting starts which although not previously documented have probably been done before. The sds to Problem 14 in area 3 gave a satisfying undercut slap at 6B. Immediately opposite, Forgotten Crack 6B+, the attractive thin crack (started from a match on the low positive section) proved a little harder, but equally as good.

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