UKC

Hi there,

I've been sport climbing for a couple of years and have just bought a bouldering pad to get into outdoor bouldering when I can't find partners.

I spent a fun day at Stone Farm on Monday but I also learnt that southern sandstone in winter isn't exactly wonderful so I was thinking about heading to Portland next time. I can't find any real info about how many problems there are and what grade range exists?

I know there is the Rockfax mini-guide but I don't want to buy it only to find there are 10 problems all V8 or above. It's a 4 hour round trip for me in the car so I need a good amount of low to middling grades to make it worthwhile.

Would some wise bouldering soul be kind enough to give me an idea of the number and range in Portland to help me decide? I guess views on the quality in February/March would also be helpful although it would have to be pretty bad to rank lower than seeping mossy sandstone!

Cheers

Ok, so the moment I post this I notice all the bouldering problems logged in the UKC 'The Cuttings' Crag info...

Would still like views on quality in February/March and any other info you think would help

In reply to Sannan75:

I've been getting down the Cuttings boulderfield quite a lot this winter.

Looks ugly but when you're down amongst the boulders there are some good problems to go at. It generally dries quickly so if you have a few hours of sun after a day or so of rain there will be some dry lines.

There are a lot of problems in the lower grades. However, I'd very much recommend you buy the mini-guide as it's a bit hard to navigate around the boulderfield. There is also some bouldering at the New Cuttings (generally harder lines) and on Neddyfields - this is easy to find from the main Rockfax. I prefer the boulderfield though.

In terms of specifics, the Warm-up boulder has about 8 lines V0-V2 and is where I always go to, erm, warm up. Sunset slab boulder has a bunch of easy warm ups. Decent landings, you'd be OK with one pad I'd have thought. The Cracked Boulder has a beautiful V0 crack problem - I'd give it 2-3*. Fine with one pad I think. The stand start lip traverse on this boulder goes at V2 and the sitter is a tough and fun V4. May be more difficult with one pad. Lemon Jelly is a good V3. The best problem I've climbed down there is Relativity at V6 on the Lightning Strike boulder. You'd probably want more than 1 pad on this one though.

Hope that helps.

In reply to RockSteady:

Thanks RockSteady, exactly the sort of info I was hoping for

I've bought the mini-guide now, will look to get myself down there in the next couple of weeks and will use your suggestions as a great starting point, cheers!

In reply to Sannan75:

The bouldering around Portland Bill is very good too - some of it above sandy beaches with a short walk-in, and a cafe 50 metres away.

In reply to Sannan75:

I hope you enjoy the MiniGUIDE, I've added the grade ranges to the page here for future reference - http://www.rockfax.com/climbing-guides/miniguides/portland-bouldering-cutti...

We'd be grateful if you could leave a review once you've had a few sessions with it. I think Ben's done a cracking job with the version 2.

Cheers, Paul.

In reply to Paul Phillips - UKC and UKH:

That's a great addition to the page Paul and I'll be happy to leave a review once I've used it a couple of times

In reply to Sannan75:
The Mini-guide is great, but don't skimp on the printing. I did it 2 to a page on a black and white printer running out of ink and it always took a while to work out if I was looking at the right boulder.

I had a great day out playing on the lower grades week before last, and it was perfectly dry after less than a day of sun.

In reply to Twilton:

Thanks Twilton, good to know it drys quickly and I was wondering about the printing, how well do the red route lines show up in black and white?

In reply to Sannan75:
glad to see some others coming to Portland for bouldering, Ben has done a really good job on the guide.

I recommend the Valley boulder and Sharkbait for some good v2s