Rainbow Slab - Llanberis slate

Access
Drive out of Llanberis and cross the lake to reach the slate museum. Leave the car as for Vivian Quarry at the Gilfach Ddu car park and walk up the steep incline. After the winding house the incline levels off and the path bears left: cross the fence and follow the path rightwards, down across a small stream and past Colossus Wall to the Rainbow Slab. Logistics
Accommodation in Llanberis, ranging from hotels and B&B's to campsites. Pete's Eats is the tradional climber's hangout for meals, while The Heights is the climber's pub. Period
Summer. The crag dries quickly after rain. Climb
High rockovers, technical face climbing, small crimps, very little friction. The protection varies considerably from one route to the next, and very few are to be considered sport routes as most require a mix of bolts and tiny, run-out wires. Notes
At its peak during the second half of the 19th century, the slate mining industry dominated the economy in North Wales, employing almost 17000 men at quarries dotted around the country including the immense sites at Blaenau Ffestiniog, Bethesda and Llanberis. Entire hillsides were transformed irreversibly as Welsh slate was exported worldwide, but with the advent of cheap roofing tiles the industry showed the first signs of decline at the turn of the century, and then collapsed after the Second World War.

 The Dinorwic quarry above Llanberis was the second largest mine in North Wales and when it closed definitively in 1969 it left behind a wasteland of vast proportions. The entire area was abandoned for years and it wasn't until the early 1980's that climbers ventured into the complex system of mines to explore this vertical Eden, discovering fantastic crags such as Vivian Quarry, the Seamstress slab, Bus Stop Quarry and of course Rainbow Slab.


Johnny Dawes e Paul Pritchard, taken from the film Welsh Connections


Bibliography
"Llanberis slate" by Ground Up Climbing Media (2011)