Port Ysgo

Saterday after our 14.5 mile hill run (Phew!) we decided to pack a lunch and hit the road to somewhere new - Port Ysgo on the lleyn penninsula - naively we decided to take the scenic route via Bala lake and Porthmadog - 3 hours later and with the sun thinking about setting we arived at this idilic costal bouldering venue - not a sinner in sight! The rock is a jet black Gabbro and with the sun beating down on it all day it was hot to the touch. Luckily it holds the chalk and the problems are visable from space! makes onsighting a bit easier i suppose. I'd seen some footage fo the bouldering here in the Stick it! bouldering vid years back and always fancied a go at popcorn party and Fast Cars, both V6. With the sun so low i decided not to go searching to these problems and instead got stuck into trying a few problems before tucking into our picnic.

View from the Picnic boulder

First up was the obvious chalked Beach Boys Arete, V4 - there is a picture of Mark Katz climbing this in the guide so i gave it a go as a warm up - great problem and managed to flash the lower start at V5.

Beach Boys Arete, V4

Next i tried a nasty celler-dweller steep crimp fest V7 that took two goes but probably wasn't worth it - not much to look at and the moves felt more like a fight than a climb. Next up was a great slopey V6 that i managed to flash aswell! Not much of an achievement , i know, but i was happy with it especially as i was constantly rolling off the hot slopers at each move. Pictured below...

After these problems we tucked into our picnic and i couldn't resist the urge to at least go and look at fast cars and popcorn party - one look at fast cars and i was jumping for the slopey rail and campusing up the arete to the jug, and shapr pull and lock-off later and i had flashed another V6 - this time in my trainers! (thats a first!) I always did like the look of that problem on the video :)