Nomad

Bolt belay added to top of route. Both are resin bolts.
Themeninblack - 06/Jan/08

Probably the second best route on the wall after This Won't Hurt. Steady climbing to a hard crux high up and a goey finish - well worth doing!
Lee Proctor - 07/Mar/09

Climbed this yesterday, after T.W.H and T.S.S. Its about 3 or 4 years since i did this climb. What i remember about climbing it before was really having to plan and work out moves because i didnt want to fall onto some of the gear. This in turn led to me getting pumped and fighting, especially near the top. Topping out was as stressfull as anything as by this time i was pumped stupid, but more than that i didnt want to blow the climb as by that time i was on bigger holds but ones that looked like they could brake.What brilliant and vivid memories i have of crawling over the top chuffed to bits. Its a great great shame that in this climbs present bolted form no one will experience this, especially as now you just grab a big ugly lower off and lower down. It is also a great shame the wall now has bolts all over it which affects the way the routes are climbed. More than once yesterday i found myself thinking "oh i cant use that hold as its near a bolt on another climb" this did not happen when the wall was as it should be, a wall of great trad climbs. I think rockfax need to change their top 50 climb ratings and star ratings as the climbs on what was a truly brilliant wall of trad routes, has now been reduced to a wall of 5, not too bad, not memorable, do them all in a couple of hours sport routes which llanymynech has many. Would it really have hurt to have left this wall unbolted?
nick bullock - 19/Jul/09

Hi Nick. I found your comments interesting. Life is full of choices and I guess the first ascentionists made the choice to retrobolt their own routes. You new these routes had been bolted – I told you before you did them, but you still chose to repeat them. To use an analogy it’s a bit like going to see a movie adaptation of great book you had read. You would probably walk into the cinema with an expectation that the movie could never do the book justice and then having watched the film have your expectation affirmed! I never did any of the Nomad Wall routes before they were bolted. I have now done them all and from my perspective they are all excellent sports routes with “This Won’t Hurt” being one of the better routes of this grade in the UK. Using my analogy again it’s a bit like me seeing the movie without reading the book first and thinking it was an awesome film. These routes have changed but your original experience of them has not – those memories you have will last. The memories I have on those same routes are equally as valid although different from yours!
Lee Proctor - 20/Jul/09

Hi Lee,

it was good bumping into you the other day, cheers for the info. Yes i knew the Nomad wall had been bolted before i went there, in fact i knew it had been bolted before meeting you, so yep it was my choice to climb the routes in their present form. Since climbing Nomad in its origional state i always wanted to return to try the others. I feel it a great shame i will not be able to experience the same feelings as before and i do think the wall has been ruined. I have put up a route or two myself but i do not think in an imotive subject like bolting a three star trad route i would have the right to choose for everyone. I do not feel any animosity to Gary, he has put up some amazing routes in his time, but i think he made a mistake on this one. In your book anology i would say i can read the book or watch the film or both... unfortunately it is no longer up to people which they do on the Nomad Wall. i know you can say they could still be climbed on gear but that is really not a sensible argument as who in their right mind, when on their limit is not going to clip one of the many bolts. It is also not committing to set off up a route which has a line of bolts ready to clip if push comes to shove. The climbs that you and people now climb are no-where as good as what they were. I feel i can say that as i climbed one of them before the bolts and although you feel content there are loads of folk out there that have been robbed. Nuff said for now.

Anyway, i like your shouted comment as you walked by, it made me grin... as this time i was not pumped out of my brain and not concentrating and scared and not in fear of a big fall! see you around Lee.
nick bullock - 21/Jul/09