Ladies and Gentleman i give you.....the Diamond!

Any man who has had a good look through 1997 Rockfax North Wales Limestone guide will have noticed on page 127 a photo of North Wales climbing legend Steve Mayers on a spectacular looking project up a seriously overhanging piece of limestone. I for one certainly did! The crag was called the Diamond, a fairly well known but rarely visited cliff on the impressive Little Orme. On this cliff were a collection of existing routes which were very impressive in their own right. George Smith and Mayers left a series of testpieces here up to 8a+ but the development came to an end in 1991. Steve had got close to the project shown in the photo but injury prevented him from finishing it. I was always intrigued by this cliff and so i made a few visits about 5 years ago, walking in at low tide and marvelling at this bit of wall. The existing routes impressed but the projects were what took my eye and the Mayers one in particular stood out as as being fantastic. I was inspired! I returned to have a closer look with Danny and Mule. I dogged up the old bolts for a quick look. Jesus it was steep, i wasn't used to such consistent steepness. Anyway the seed was planted. I returned a while later with Neil Dyer and Miles Perkins and with the petrol drill in tow we re-equipped the line. I came back to try the moves on the route a further 3 times. The most successful of these was with Si Panton when i managed to work out and do the crux, a fingery long stretch followed by a hard cut loose. Not long ago when i was climbing strong and at my lightest i returned with Inspector Mawson but was perplexed when neither of us could manage the crux sequence again. On the way out our dingy sunk and we had to swim to shore. And this was the problem with this crag. At low tide you would get maybe an hour if you were lucky walking in and out. It also had to be a low tide (spring for example). This gave you a few days a month to climb there, just not long enough to complete stuff at your limit. Then enter stage left came the motivational machine that is Pete Harrison. The man who rebolted LPT set about establishing a Via Ferrata into the crag making it a similar deal to LPT (say 3 hours before and after low tide). Pete showed me his masterpiece and i was buzzing with excitement, maybe now my dream of climbing this route could finally be realised. Getting to the crag was no longer an issue! Another pain in the arse fact about this place is that its bird banned from 1 March through to mid August. This means the Diamond season is short, effectively from August until it gets to cold to climb. So yes a pain in the arse it is but is it worth it? yes is the answer. Left of my project are two more lines which both look in the 8c/9a region and both are stunning. When you think how worked out every other crag in Britain basically is there must be scope for more development here. I have now managed to have my first full proper sessions on my project. Its going well, each time the links are getting longer. I'm buzzing off this route right now. Climbing on that wall is a joy. The best sport route in North Wales? Myself, Tommy and Pete H have also rebolted Boat People 7c, Never Get out of the Boat 8a and Skip of Fools 8a+. The rest of the climbs could do with being re-equipped and i'm sure they will be as people start going there. I would like to take this opportunity to ask Steve Mcclure or anyone else for that matter not to do my proj. I've put the hours in (and bolts and resin) and i want to finish it. Thanks. Exciting times! From here on in i will be on a strict regime which will be based on making as much progress as i can on this line. Tommy has bolted up the yellow wall proj and Pete has bolted the cool diagonal line. Please respect these projects too as many hours of time and effort were put in to equipping them. Information on the Via Ferrata will soon be up on the limestone Wiki here: wiki

Tommy on Boat People:


My proj



Tommy bolting the yellow wall:

Pete Robins checking out a 8c/9a proj,this line only has one bolt in it thus far, mega:

Pete Harrisons project:

The approach: