UKC

http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=2478

A number of new sport routes have appeared at Independence Quarry, on walls to the left of the originally bolted wall.

A good sunny spot for spending the day, the climbs here are always quieter than the more well known sport walls of Trevor. I wasn't involved with the bolting but would be good to get user feedback for the crag page.

As a footnote, anyone bolting in this area should be mindful that the BMC and NRW consider this area to be under the same SSSI restriction as the rest of the Trevor area. I believe that its owned by the same landowner who requested that no further bolts be drilled in the area a few years ago and it went as far as a threat of prosecution to individuals. Worth being cautious.

In reply to Joss:

I climbed there a few weeks ago and wasn't massively impressed. The horizontal band of choss ruins most of the routes, though this could be rectified by more thorough *digging / cleaning. Some of the newer additions were pretty poor. It's not somewhere that I will be returning to. Maybe someone needs to get a message to Gary Gibson (who was bolting there on the day I visited) that further Bolting will get him in to trouble and for the sake of producing more chossy lines it is more than certainly not worth it.

*Best not to if it's an SSSI.

In reply to Sl@te Head:
Thats a shame Ian, I havent had a chance to see the newest routes yet. None of the newer listed routes on UKC are Gary Gibsons, the FA's are credited to a John Stringfellow and created this year. Perhaps the new routing has caught Gary's attention lately and hes getting mote routes in. A real shame if they are of a dodgy quality, as you say.

In reply to Joss:
Just been on Garys site and there are more routes listed on there. Seems its had quite some development over the last few months. I dont think it will be long before this gets the landowners attention as he lives at the end of the road there.

In reply to Sl@te Head:


Hm, Yes the band of loose stuff does detract but I thought John Stringfellow's new additions were really quite nice climbing and in quality terms as good as anything else at Independence (although that is not saying that much, I'll admit). Overall the crag is worthwhile because of the ease of access and its range of routes in the 6s.

In reply to colin struthers:

Ok, it may well be of interest for local climbers, but most will be disappointed if they've travelled from further afield like I was having driven there from Anglesey. I'd imagine that most climbers would only visit once.

In reply to Joss:

Horseshoe is a SSSI ?

In reply to Ian Carr:

This is what the BMC said about the Trevor escarpment:


Due to the site's designation as both an SSSI and an European Special Area of Conservation the landowner has been informed by the Countryside Council for Wales that he does not have consent to allow vegetation clearance, rock clearing or drilling on these rockfaces. Therefore until the situation is resolved please refrain from further new routing in this area.