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| Braichmelyn Boulder | Snowdonia National Park |
The climbing on "Braichmelyn Boulder" is good practice for crimp strength and trad climbing. The boulder itself is in a peaceful location, being set amongst gnarled oak woodland. The bouldering problems range from V1 to V8 and the quality is good.
I began by warming up on ‘The Ramp’ (V2), which has a crimpy start and juggy finish. The footholds on the bottom half of ‘The Ramp’ have mostly small, positive edges, which give you confidence as you move upwards to slightly better footholds. I then climbed the stand-up-start of Brachmelyn Arete, which was a neat problem and has a tree-grabbing finish! Brachmelyn Arete also has a sit-down-start, which is given V6, and has a difficult start with micro footholds.
I then tried ‘Central Wall’ (V5/6), or what I thought was ‘Central Wall’, but it turned out to be the sequence to the second part of the Braichmelyn Traverse (V8). I only realised this when I got home and re-watched the DMM Braichmelyn bouldering video. The climbing was therefore difficult, with crimpy extended moves.
Overall I ended up wiring some good sequences that were crimpy, dynamic, and technical. Because of the crimpy nature of most of the problems, I was eventually shut down with tired fingers. It was a good session and I enjoyed climbing on the crimps, but I also got an insight into looking for positive edges for feet. Already I can’t wait to go back as there are several more problems that I would like to try: ‘Shooting Star’ (V6/V7), ‘Spring Juice’ (V7), and ‘Arete – Spring Juice’ (V8).
The grid reference for Braichmelyn Boulder is 632 661
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| Afon Caseg | Snowdonia National Park |