Back in March or so, Richard and I put up some easy bolted routes (hangers required) in the Central Slab Area at Stathams, so I suppose I should write them up! They’re good practice for those who like slabs.

There are some old trad routes up this way – mostly ‘R’ rated ones. I haven’t seen any topos of these, but as far as I can determine, the new bolted routes don’t infringe on them too much, although I think one crosses over one of the old routes.

Going left to right:

Ant Nation (27 m, grade 16) Four or five bolts that snake up the smooth slab. Ring-bolts at the top. Phillip Calais, Graham Lowental, Delphine Chabanne. March 2010.

Ant Attack (24 m, grade 15) Four or five bolts (I can’t remember!) straight up the middle of the slab. Ring bolts at the top. Phillip Calais, Delphine Chabanne. March 2010.

Formicidae (24 m, grade 14) Four bolts that meander up to the left and then back to the right. End at the Ant Attack ring-bolts. It’s a bit run out at the top, but it’s only about grade 8 and you can use some nuts or cams if you like. Phillip Calais, Delphine Chabanne, Richard Wainright. March 2010.

Why all the ‘Ant’ names? Climb it on a warm day and find out!

Also a new climb at Spring Grove Farm Cutting near Boomer Crag.

Bored for Cams (10 m, grade 16) Starting behind the bush, climb the face around the drill hole about 1 m to the left of ‘The Smell of Burning Cash’. You’ll need 3 or more size 3 and/or 3.5 BD cams. Size 4 Wild Country cams are perfect. Avoid using the bolts on TSoBC. For the belay, use the carrot bolts over the top, 1 m to the left and right, with long slings. Phillip Calais, Richard Wainright, April 2010.