Ogmore-by-Sea - Estuary

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Description

The climbing on the Estuary Wall is different to the other areas Ogmore-by-sea has to offer. The climbing offered is on a 100' long, and 20' high vertical wall, which is more like traditional limestone. The top of the wall peters into a gorse populated grass bank; hence much of the interest regarding this area is concerned with traverses. The landing is uneven and rocky along most of the wall, so bring a mat or two, although it's possible to do plenty of climbing here without ever getting more than a foot off the ground.

The buttress containing the Right Hand Traverse stays dry in all but the highest tides, and the rest is climbable up to an hour or so before high tide. A useful refuge if you are heading to Hardy's Bay or the Trench and get it wrong!


Ogmore Estuary Left Hand Traverse. Something like Font 6b/+

Estuary 1.JPG


Sitting start from crozzly edges at the right hand end, move slightly up, then traverse left at half height on the wall, following a line of obvious holds and feature at the same height. Go for the top where the wall runs out. Footwork important!

Ogmore Estuary Dynos

Estuary 2.JPG


1. 6b+. Start from the higher of the two juggy rails and lunge for an awkward slanting jug, right of a clump of grass. Eliminates holds in between, obviously.

2. 7a (at least). Start from the lower jug rail, then ‘bounce’ with a big reach or dyno to the same hold. I’m 6ft with a +3” positive ape index, and to latch the top hold I was at full stretch, but with my left hand still on the jugs. Feels like a long way, and I haven’t repeated it myself since the FA (sometime in 2007 probably). Landing leaves a lot to be desired, too. I have video evidence, although very poor quality.

Ogmore Estuary Right Hand Traverse
Closer towards the beach from the first traverse and dyno is a nice, vertical blankish wall which provides a technical traverse. At a guess, the grade is something like F6a-6b as a route grade. The fit can do laps!

The Yellow Walls

Estuary 3.JPG


A series of blocky, disjointed walls with a distinctive yellow lichen above the tide line. I’ve found one worthwhile problem, described below.
Yellow Prow (6a?) Takes a direct line up the highest, best bit of rock hereabouts from a sit start. I haven’t climbed this for years but from memory it starts from small holds then slaps pretty directly up, eliminating any big holds left or right for hands or feet, making use of a nice sloper at half height, and topping out. The grade is also a guess, I can’t remember!

The Slab (Easy)

Estuary 4.JPG


Closer to the car park again is this slab. If you are walking towards the estuary traverses, look right when you see some old posts sticking up out of the shingle and you should see it. Take a line direct up the slab. I think the rock was ok, and the climbing was easy. One for those who like to tick everything

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