UKC

I had a brilliant trip to the Welsh alps this weekend. Looking for more route suggestions of similar grade.

I hadn't been away climbing for well over a year since having our son but booked this in a while ago and loved it.

Drove up on Friday night and parked at Ogwen Cottage. Walked up into Idwal and soloed ordinary route in my approach shoes with my bivi gear on my back. Continued up instead of doing the slimy descent and slept up in Cwm Cneifon. Slightly wild night as the wind picked up and kept changing direction. I forgot my hip flask too.

Did Cneifon Arete first thing on Sat morning. Great route, 15mins bottom to top. Felt just the right amount of exposed out on the arete with the wind blowing pretty hard.

Descended Bristly Ridge and up and over Tryfan and back to the van by 11:30. Good weather if a bit windy on Sat, even got a ray of sun on Friday eve as I topped out on the slabs.

Now I'm thinking about the next trip, maybe heading back to N Wales or into the Himalake-District. Long arete scrambles and easy climbs at about Diff... Slanting Buttress Ridge route on Lliwedd might be a goer? Cwyfry Arete is another possibility? Not too familiar with the Lakes, I'd like to hear your suggestions.

Hope you had a good weekend.

G

In reply to George Fisher:

Slanting buttress ridge route is really good. I found route-finding on it was way easier than on any of the E Face of Tryfan routes

In reply to Ross.Cooper:

Thanks, anything on it that's going to be a stopper given good weather but no rope?

In reply to George Fisher:

I wouldn't imagine so if you're comfortable soloing at that level and with exposure. I seem to remember no loose rock...

In reply to George Fisher:

I'd say the route finding on SB is the same as tha E face Tryfan routes from the number of people I've seen get lost on it. Its also a lot more sustained and arguably scarier to solo onsight than OR. Buy the Steve Ashton scrambling guides and work through the 3's.

In reply to George Fisher:

Cwyfry Arete has quite a lot of loose rock high up on the ridge. It's also worth noting that the pitch immediately following the descent off the table is really rather steep and exposed for the grade, and to my mind was perhaps harder than anything on the VDiff Table Direct start. There was an earlier thread where some guy recounted having an epic on it soloing in big boots.

In reply to Offwidth:

I've only done them on ropes, but I'd definitely agree that SB is a notch harder and scarier than Idwal Ordinary or the Cneifion Arete.