More Llanberis Pass bouldering news: last Thursday Si Panton completed the 30m traverse of the Thumb Boy wall in Cwm Glas Bach. This epic problem takes a right-to-left tour of the wall passing a series of mini cruxes before an extremely tenuous crux section at the three-quarter length mark. Si has suggested 7A+ for The Cockney Man-Witch, but is unsure:

“It’s tricky to grade as it does have some reasonable resting positions. Yet, it is also very easy to blow the crux; get anything slightly wrong and you’re off! I doubt it’s easier than 7A+, but it could be harder? I don’t mind what it settles at; it’s just ace!”

Start at the right arête and go up diagonally left to the cluster of holds on the excellent Cinnamon Girl, then drop down past the large sidepull/undercut (hard!). [A low level passage across this wall might be possible, but it will be much harder.]

Either way, continue more easily to the central shield. The difficulty increases markedly now and reaches fever pitch as you pass beneath Thumb Boy. This section is very drop-able. If you make it, keep going along the undercut break and top out up the crack on the left. When Si finally reached this point he was a very happy man:

“I was over the moon to get this one. It kept spitting me off, but I stuck with it and in the end it felt almost dreamlike when I did it. On the crux I was boning the holds as hard as I could but I felt strangely detached. It’s quite unique for the area, and very old school – a bit like doing the hard low traverse at West Vale in Yorkshire, or a harder version of the features traverse of the back wall at Indy.”

On the previous Sunday Gav Foster and Si also climbed the obvious route line just right of centre. You can read about Isabella Fortuna E4/5 6b on the V12 news site.

Earlier, during the summer, Gav also climbed the left arête of the striking highball pillar situated 50m up behind the Thumb Boy wall. The Golden Pillar of Tumbi, Tumbi rates a rather exhilarating 6C! Expect sustained monkey-up-a-stick moves and a considerable adrenaline surge as you approach the top!

To read a bit more about the brilliant Thumb Boy 7A!, check out the V12 Gallery. It was briefly mentioned in the 2004 NWB guide, but has been ignored since.

And lastly, to see a topo of the wall, go to the NWB topo section. As the topo shows the wall is about 100m left of the Gravestones; home to classics such as Moose's Toothpaste 6C+ and Nick's Sexual Problem 7B.

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