Climbing the Bomb Rocks at Charnwood Lodge

Since the 2006 Countryside Right of Way Act a large section of grassy upland has now become open to the public near Charnwood Lodge. A rocky outcrop there known as the Bomb Rocks offered the potential for
some bouldering on some potentially unclimbed boulders and the setting of routes. Even though today was overcast and autumnal we still went out and had a crack.

From the south the Bomb rocks look like the picture above. The Boulder on the right hand side was the most obvious one to climb given that it was the largest (about 15 feet) and nicely pointy at the top.The south face of it offered an easy climb with horizontal cracks for fingers. I couldn't find much low down though for a sitting start. I name this South Bomb and from a standing start its a VB but I don't know what its sitting start is - because I couldn't do it.

From the East the boulder is easily climbed. Hand holds and foot holds line the ridge. The only downside was that even after all the millions of years since this igneous (lava bomb filled) rock set it still had quite a lot of sharp glassy bits in it. I name this East bomb and its a VB.

From the north the boulder offers a little bit more potential. From a sitting start and not using the easy hand holds on either edge of the boulder. Its not too difficult maybe a V0. So I name this route North Bomb. 

And here I am climbing North Bomb. To the south of this boulder there is another nice warm up boulder. It lacks height but it has some great holds.

Just when I thought I thought I had seen all the climbing that was there to see I wondered over the top of the rocks to the north west and came across this little beauty of a cliff. 

This is the cliff from the south west. Plenty of scope here.

This is the cliff from the north west. Though it is sloping back it must be about 16 feet high. I couldn't resist having a go climbing the pinnacle on the end (central in this picture). The first time I came off. Not able to find a good enough hand hold on the left to allow me to reach for the final hold on the right. So on a second go I found some comfy places to stick my feet and trusted that they wouldn't budge (even though my left hand was unreliable) and with a quick push of my legs I found the top of the pinnacle. So I call this Charnwood Pinnacle and its probably a V1.