09 April 2012

Things to do in the local area

Rock climbing in Snowdonia can be dated back to the nineteenth century; the National Park has some of the most varied rock climbing in the world. Tyn Rhos Snowdonia Hotel is only a short drive from the national park and offers an ideal location to explore Snowdonia and find places to go rock climbing.

Climbing was originally restricted to Lliwedd and the Ogwen Valley, over time skills and equipment developed so the stepper cliffs of the Llanberis Pass and Clogwyn Du’r Arddu became a more appealing challenge.

By 1960 the main lines on almost every cliff had been climbed, leaving climbers looking elsewhere for challenges. The relic sea cliffs became very popular, just a couple of miles inland from Porthmadog, with the advantage of often being dry when the mountains are too wet to climb. In the 1980’s local climbers were again craving new potential in the Llanberis slate quarries and on the limestone cliffs of the Orme at Llandudno.

There are numerous middle grade climbing routes located in the Llanberis Pass. One of the most well known routes is Cenotaph Corner, a corner crack on the Cromlech buttress.

Climbing in Snowdonia is mostly found in the north of the park; in the south Craig Cowach has some good climbing buttresses. The highest mountain in the south is Cadair Idris, it has buttresses with a great mountain atmosphere, such as Pencoed Pillar and Darker Angel.