The Welsh Slate Quarries

Slate is a technical rock with most roots not requiring much power though good footwork and finger strength is essential.

The gear is a mixture between natural gear and bolts, the natural gear rages from bomb proof to very suspect. This is because slate splits very easily along lines cleavage. The bolts also range in quality from roots that have been re bolted with new resin bolts, to ones who’s bolts have been around and abused for over ten years.

All that aside, slate is one of those places that can offer all year round excellent climbing. In the winter the rock heats up very quickly and in sheltered areas creates its own microclimate. So in January with snow on the mountains you can be in shorts and t-shirt on slate. But beware the first sniff of rain and slate has the friction of ice!

The photographs of me climbing are very rare; Nick Robertson a good friend of mine took these of me on Seamstress Slab. The first two are on “Stack of Nude Books” an E4 6a that goes up the left hand side of the slab. The second two are on “Seams The Same”, which is a ‘soft touch’ E2 5b that goes up the centre of the slab. There is a HVS 5a that is next to ‘Seams The Same’, which gives a gentle introduction to Slate. For the more adventurous climber then Heading The Shot is a Sustained E5 6b that is on the right hand side of the slab.

There are slabs like this all over the Slate Quarries giving a good day out and enough routs to please every one.