The latest Climbers Club guide to the ever popular Tremadog area continues the recent trend which has seen the CC produce a series of attractive, well received guides which more than match the recent glossy compendium guidebooks for north Wales, published by the club's commercial rivals. Author Steve Long has really pulled all the threads together and produced an aesthetically pleasing ,well researched and comprehensive guide to this beautiful part of South Snowdonia with editor Pete Sterling overseeing production.
Like previous north Wales CC guides to Llanberis and Ogwen,Tremadog is a larger book...in actual size...than the last guide.I guess the trend has been away from climbers actually taking the guidebook on routes with them as in the old days and instead climbing harder single pitch routes or photocopying the relevant pages before heading for the cliff. Apart from the actual size of the book it is also just about 100 pages longer than the last Trem guidebook..Not least I imagine,because of the expansive use of photographs and illustrations which overall are striking in their quality.
However,what really counts is what lies within....
Tremadog continues the welcome introduction first seen with Llanberis, of a comprehensive historical section at the beginning of the guide.After the preamble which includes notes of conservation,transport,camping,ethics,parking etc-the book gets stuck into the history of climbing at Tremadog. Interspersed with the historical notes are comments from activists such as Joe Brown, Johnny Dawes, Mike Lewis and Eric Jones amongst many others. This personal overview really works well and apart from being fascinating in itself really helps sell the area to anyone who has yet to visit north Wales's sun belt !
As to be expected with recent CC guides, when you actually arrive at the route descriptions they are comprehensively described and invariably set alongside sharp crag shots. Of course there is more to Tremadog than Tremadog ! The guidebook area stretches north and east towards the quiet hinterlands of Nantmor, Nant Gwynant and Aberglasllyn. Amongst these backwaters are crags and climbs which range from polished classics,vegetated esoterica to desperate pumpfests !
Scattered across the quiet rolling lands are some of north Wales's most beautiful climbing venues. The red rocks of Moel Dyniewyd,the lake side crags above Llyn Gwynant, the rugged little outcrops which sprinkle down from Cnicht and Moel Meirch and not forgetting the quiet crags which look out to sea beneath little Yr Arddu.
Another new innovation which I liked was the personal favourites sections which were scattered throughout the chapters. Here local activists like Simon Panton, Mike Lewis and Mike Raine offer their own favourite climbs as suggestions. The first ascents section which is normally to be found at the rear of CC guidebooks has been done away with and instead,first ascent details are given beneath each individual climb. The guide offers a graded colour code on route catagories and symbols detail factors such as bird restrictions,a vegetated route,abseil approach etc.
Overall this is first rate guidebook which has already stimulated my desire to return to an area which I have neglected in recent years. Job done !
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