UKC

Climbs 109
Rocktype Sandstone (hard)
Altitude 63m a.s.l
Faces S

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Usual grotty quarry bollox :). © Fiend

Crag features

Well used local bouldering / training venue. A bit like Stoney's Minus10 wall but with better problems. Low level traverse is a neo-classic. Can be hot and midgy in summer, but can be used year round if the sun creeps in. [Jon Read]
 

An online photo-topo detailing many problems is available for £2 @ https://gum.co/VsnNU

Approach notes

Just in the woods behind Bridge of Allan. No access problems.

Anyone know if you can toprope climbs at this quarry? Is there easy/safe access to above the crag? Thanks.
drconline - 10/Nov/19
Very dusty at the moment due to graffiti removal for Outlander filming. Make sure you take a towel or something else to rub / whack away any large portions of dust. Be wary of ledges and pockets that could have dust in/on them as big risk of slipping right off.
dillanm - 23/Apr/19
There are quite a few videos online that are worth googling that show the eliminates / beta.
Burnsie - 06/Sep/16
If it's so eliminate that it's not clear what holds are in or out, it's just a personalised challenge or training sequence - once you start listing arbitrary challenges as named problems where do you stop? You know how hard it feels - make up your own grade :)
Andy Moles - 30/Nov/13
Agree about the eliminate nature of the harder problems. I've worked problems here and found I was using the wrong holds which is frustrating but symptomatic of manufactured crags like this - plus side is that its all good training :) I am trying to find time to do a Minus Ten/Pinches Wall (see Rupert Davies Peak Bouldering guides) style topo. Basically I will post some photos on UKC with all handholds/most footholds marked - then open the floor for debate on what holds you use for which problems. Once there is consensus, amend the descriptions to include the 'recipe' of holds used for the stated grade - intention is to do this for all the problems V4/6B upwards that are eliminate in nature. Not even entering the grade debate, I'm a shortarse and for example LH crack for me is hard due to reach - same old story :)
pebblespanker - 06/Oct/12
I was moderator's predecessor and at time the information in the database was taken from the SCWiki and then updated when Bouldering in Scotland was released. The problems not covered in BoS remained at the V grade. Having climbed at Wolfcrag alot, there was a notable change in my logbook when the moderator changed the remaining V grades to font grades a few months ago. So where is the justification for the grades in the database? Moderator's opinion, has there been new guide, or even general consesus, otherwise the answer is to describe the originally published / accepted problem in greater detail, adding another problem(s) with the grade to reflect the alternative version(s).
GrahamJ - 11/Sep/12
GrahamJ, I don't think this is the place for specific grade disputes, but since you raise it as an example Left Hand Crack illustrates my point nicely. It is probably best climbed as an eliminate problem, using holds in the crack only and reaching to the right (higher) side of the crack. This is probably easy Font 6a from standing (and with a sit start maybe hard Font 6a). A less eliminate version, reaching left at the top, allows an easier (and inferior) sequence and is perhaps Font 5. (The true non-eliminate problem is simply a jump from the ground without using the crack at all: a rubbish Font 3?). Which problem appears in the database? The grade is given as Font 6a, but at present there is a single submitted photo of the problem in which the climber is shown apparently doing the Font 5 version. What is the solution? Re-grade the climb for the easier/easiest version (and lose the better problem)? Describe the climb in greater detail, adding another problem with a lower grade to reflect the easier version(s)? Reject the photo? Rename the photo? Getting everything right becomes impossible, and I don’t envy the moderator (who I don’t know) his task. There will always be grade disputes (and there are plenty of grades in the current UKC guide for Wolfcrag which I might question), but I thought it worth stressing that a high proportion of the harder graded problems at Wolfcrag are eliminate in one way or another, that this is not always clear from the descriptions, and that confusion might be the result. The best solution is, of course, not to take the grades too seriously.
Wicamoi - 17/Jul/12
Got your e-mail, conversion on the low v grades to font is notoriously iffy even with the chart (which I am well aware of). The voting system is there so people can have there say on grade, not many people voting for downgrades on the problems you mentioned.....if I adjusted grades on things every time someone e-mailed me it would be a full time job with the grades constantly changing. So I don't.....
punkpunk - 08/Jun/12
Left Hand Crack at 6a? even from a sitter and holds in the crack only, it doesn't come close.
GrahamJ - 08/Jun/12
Wicamoi; Sorry but most of the easier problems here have been incorrectly put in the database. Explain how the holds on Classic Dyno Two Handed and Low Dyno could be confused, then explain how they get same grade? Moderator, get it sorted, I sent you email last month on this.
GrahamJ - 08/Jun/12
If the boulder problems seem stupidly easy for the grade given, it's probably because many of them are eliminate and you have used an 'illegal' hold.
Wicamoi - 02/Jun/12
Great Bouldering. Topo is available for free at http://wiki.scottishclimbs.com/wiki/Wolfcrag_Quarry
andyb.com - 10/Sep/06
The route to the right of the traverse is a bit tricky for small people like myself - I had to get a punty up to the first hold, plus you have to start off with your right foot and I'm left footed. All I'm saying is, if you're small fat chance in climbing it; if you're left footed, harder to climb it. [We can't remember if Jerry Moffatt ever used this excuse - UKC Ed.]
David Lee Baird - 09/Oct/02
Probably the best central belt bouldering outside Dumbie. Excellent in early season, dries quickly, sheltered from the wind and sunny aspect. JR\'s comments about neds misplaced - pretty harmless really as Bridge of Allan is very much leafy Mercedes Belt. Neds at Dumbie and Auchistarry are at least a couple of grades harder.
GFoz - 13/Mar/02
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