A55 Sport Climbs: North Wales Rock Climbing - Tapa blanda

In recent years there has been an enormous amount of activity in developing the sport climbing crags and new climbing areas along the A55 expressway corridor in North Wales between Llanddulas and Penmaenmawr. Sport climbing is becoming increasingly popular in the UK, partly because British climbers are becoming seduced by the delights of bolt clipping in the sun in Europe and have come to enjoy the convenience of sport climbing, the easy route finding and technically challenging routes that are relatively safe when compared with traditional ones. The crags in this guide are all easily accessible and it's a fun area. There is much good climbing here, much that is new and it will repay full day visits as well as dipping in and bagging a few routes on the way back from Anglesey or Snowdonia. This new edition has 117 new routes, eighteen new boulder problems, and six new crags. With 280 routes ranging from F3 to F8b, its popularity is assured.

Michael Doyle was born in 1950 and brought up in Newcastle-on-Tyne. At the age of 18 he joined the RAF and discovered climbing in 1969. He spent much of the next seven and a half years in the air force in North Wales, British cragging and ticking off the great classics such as Cenotaph Corner and Diagonal. During this period he took full advantage of the highly subsidised opportunity for expeditioning in such places as Kenya and South America. Following the development of Penmaen Head between 2006 and 2008 a permanent taste for crag development ensued - which Michael claims is possibly more addictive than climbing itself!