A good climb with spaced protection. Not particularly recommended for a fledgling 5.7/8 leader, but a good romp otherwise. The grade was recently bumped to 5.8+.Climb up to a right facing shark fin flake. Small gear is possible here, though testing it too vigorously is not recommended. Move up to a ledge, place some good gear, then continue up the face past a bolt to a fixed anchor on a ledge. Rappel or climb any of the routes above to top out.

Playing the Slots

Tea in the Sahara

In the Pines

A Major

Making Babies

Hailstorm

Tricycle Parade

The Chalk Stops Here

Poprocks & Coke

Orbital Mechanics

Wavey Good-Bye

Snake Skin Slab

Crack of All Trades

The Allie Direct

Hush, Mama Thrush

Say Goodnight Dick

Ladyslippers

The Flake

A-Sharp

Sticks and Stones

Gates of Eden

What's up, doc?

STP (aka Highlight)

The Slip

Dogzilla

In the Pines Direct

Orgasmic

Steel Feathers

Frogs in Space

Harvest Moon

A Minor

Life's Areola

On the right side of the middle section of the cliff, is this diamond-in-the-rough.   

  Locate the ramp-like feature roughly 20 feet off the ground with a blocky--usually wet--start.  Gain the ramp and make some tedious, and slippery moves up to the small roof.  Place some gear, move up over the small overhang using some finger holds to a stance that forces you move up through additional finger moves with slippery feet.  This yields a surprisingly fun finger crack that takes you to the top.

Climb the easy off width to ledge (often wet), step left for a single pitch of more off width or belay. Step further left to a giant flake. Climb the right side to a left facing dihedral with ok gear (5.7),or at base of dihedral break left for a bolt (5.7)and the top.

The lefthand side of the A cracks. Follow right leaning cracks and flakes, and then finish on A Minor.

Crux is the step from the ledge above chimney to the slabs.

Climb the face to the right of In The Pines, moving past some fun and interesting undercling flakes. At the bulge, I'm 99% sure you stay with the underclings and move right toward the scrubby trees and back over to the 2-ring anchor.Note: I have only ever top-roped this route (it shares an anchor with In The Pines, and is a worthwhile extra pitch) and I doubt there is any decent gear. It's listed in Rakkup as a trad route, so who knows!

After the pin... the chalk stops... crimps and pressure toes

Begin 10 feet to the left of Tea in the Sahara on the rib of rock on the left side of the major corner system. Climb up the rib and into the corner itself passing two bolts. After some stemming, laybacking, and chimney moves (first crux) eventually step out left (a bolt protects this move) to the top of the widening crack and gain the top of a large flake. From the top of the flake, step up and slightly right to a small platform and then back up and left to a larger ledge under a small roof. Move up off the ledge via a shallow corner system (bolt) that leads to easier climbing up a low-angle arete. Move up the upper arete headwall, beginning on the left side and then back to the right for a few strenuous moves (passing two bolts) before topping out on the left side and up to the fixed anchors ( two ring bolts).

From the top of "The Flake" straight up past pins and bolts (same start as Orgasmic), continue straight up past a small overhang, past a small pine tree (stay right of Frogs in Space), to thin face moves at the top.

A very nice--albeit short--dihedral climb.   

  It doesn't get much more obvious than this--climb the tight and steep corner until it is possible to escape left.   

  Be thoughtful with your gear placements on this route, as schist has a tendency to spit things out!

Difficult to protect on lead, but a good beginner toprope. Follow thin cracks up the face, then left to the arete, and then back right to the face.

Large beginning crack to left of Wavy Goodbye, follow crack to right into finger crack on the traverse.

I didn't find one particular crux as the whole route felt the same.

Pull the opening bulge straight up and over the high first bolt.  Thin hands and a fun-to-unravel sequence leads to a solid stance to clip the second bolt.

 Mellow but nevertheless enjoyable ground leads to a thin right-leaning seam.  Access the seam using good body positioning and balance as the grade picks back up.  

 Follow and use the seam to gain access to the face above.  Choose your path wisely through the crux (directly up and over the first bolt on the face) on razor sharp crimps and feet that get progressively smaller.  

 Make the next clip from a delicate stance and you’re home free.  One more bolt and a blocky run out to the anchor.

 If you’re in the lichen at any point, you’re off route.

Start on the lowest part of the flake, then follow a series of crimps without using the edge until a dynamic move to the top. Good to warm up the fingers.

Climb a blocky dihedral to a ledge. Then continue up either on the slab face on your left or using the flake on your right.

 Straightforward and fun.

What a fine line, and perhaps one of the earliest routes at LWB.  Start 10 feet to the right of "Tea in the Sahara" at a thin crack.  Follow this until you reach the right side of the roof (same roof as the one for "Tea..."), pull this, then move slightly left into the upper left-facing corner system.  

  The route ends at a two-bolt anchor on a nice, spacious ledge.  Walk off is to the climber's right, or rap with two 60 meter ropes.

There are a few ways to start the climb, all which have their challenges.  The direct way is straight up a funky crack, puling over a slight bulge onto a ramp.  The ramp ends at the left side of a roof. I found the crux to be the traverse under the roof to it's right side, where you gain some sweet flakes up a left leaning thin ramp to a two bolt anchor.  The climb is steeper than it looks!  Expect a good pump if you don't use the rests.

Starts just left of the arete between wavey goodbye and a-minor. Climb the arete to a small horizontal ledge beneath the handcrack of “say goodnight dick.” From here, move left to finish next to the wavey goodbye corner. Poor protection, often done as a top rope climb 

Follow the obvious right leaning crack up the short face making use of the sharp pockets and other features to the right.  Interesting rock with great holds seemingly molded to the human hand at times. 

  This is a really fun climb, just wished it was longer.  Could be a high ball (I would suspect it going at around V1/2 if you stuck to the crack), but the landing is a slab that goes for about 15 feet down hill, would be sketchy.

Pull two bulges, mostly 5.8 territory and then up to the blank face which will lend you a few (or more if you are shorter) good 5.10 range moves. Once you catch and mantle to the big bar on the right you are through it. Easy climbing to the top. 

  Peckman's guidebook has it at 11-, was told they changed it to 5.9, I'll keep it at that. I'd say it warrants a 10a/b rating just because of a couple moves, but I'll leave that to the consensus.

Climb the "wet corner" of In the Pines to the ledge, then continue straight up the crack and right-facing corner to a 2 bolt anchor. Can be climbed as 1 or 2 pitches splitting it up by using the bolt anchor on the ledge.

From the top of "The Flake", straight up past pins and a bolt (Orbital Mechanics shares these opening moves), then right to a small inside corner.  Follow this up and right to a good stance below a bulge.  Some people belay here, making two short pitches instead of one long one (the FA was done as two). Up over the bulge onto thin face moves, past a bolt (originally a fixed pin placed on lead) and continue to the top. 

Steel Feathers climbs the steep wall equipped with several well-spaced bolts (3rd hanger is missing) directly to the left of "Hush Mama Thrush".     

  A bouldery start gains a nice series of flakes, a high-step off a frighteningly hollow flake leads to several hard and balancy moves above the hanger-less bolt.  Gain a "thank god" flake/ledge, mantel, then either continue straight up (minimal gear, and 2 more bolts), or move right to join with the upper section of "Hush".  Though following the last couple of bolts and sparse gear keeps the route independent, stepping right to join HMT is equally (if not a better option!) nice.   

  The route ends at 2 bolts shared with HMT.

Just another roof 3 star climb at lower. follow crack and corner system of sticks and stones, below roof move right and take it as a left facing corner. climb another crack onto the face of the wall. Gets dirty up top. 2 bolt anchors.

The route begins at the far right end of the cliff band on a broken face below the obvious right-facing, crescent-shaped flake.

The polished finger/hand crack that dominates the right side of the "A"-shaped rock at the height of the climbers trail. 

  A tricky start to gain the crack then cruiser to the top.  This route may feel a little pumpy if you are not using your feet wisely!

Pull onto the block forming the Making Babies (5.5) chimney. Climb slabby shelves to large flake system, pull on some face moves to top out. Very scarce protection. Mainly a free solo with a weighted belt. Bring micros and ball nutz.

The most popular and among the most accessible climbing area in Bolton. This area is busy on weekends and apres work during the summer and fall.Some great and very lead-able routes are located here. A-Minor, Tea in the Sahara, and Sticks and Stones are just a few examples of routes here that take great gear. If you plan to lead a route here during a busy time, make sure no one is setting up a TR above you--it's not pleasant to have a rope dropped on your head while above your gear.Most routes can be top-roped easily with one 60-meter rope and a 50-foot length of static line except for a few routes on the center of the cliff. Anchors at the top of the cliff are plentiful using either bolts or large trees.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Lower West Bolton