From Ivy Scar main cliff, head North, and take the immediate L fork uphill. On a bend in the path, after less than a minute, an obvious small buttress is located at the side of the path. A rather broken, yet entertaining scrambling route starts here - it provides a more adventurous alternative to the main zigzag path from the Ivy Scar fork to the path beneath De Walden rocks. Some bits may be just about worth Diff, but Moderate more accurately describes the general nature of the route. The route links up a series of short crags and most difficulties are easily avoided.

Tackle the initial buttress directly, taking care with the friable rock. After a couple of initial steep moves, it soon eases. Continue up the buttress to join a minor path at the top, which heads up the hillside. Follow this until a gently inclined slab appears on the right. Climb the slab easily, soon trending left to finish up its LH arete.

Now descend a few metres leftwards crossing the aforementioned path to reach a series of very short rock steps. Scramble up these directly with short leftwards slight descents in between to reach subsequent steps.

The final slightly more imposing rock step looms above. This will be climbed later. First, make a longer descent leftwards across rather more prickly ground to the bottom of a larger, more difficult step. Climb this carefully on small holds. At the top, make a slight descent rightwards to reach the final short steep step, climbed on big holds to finish just below the benches at the base of De Walden rocks.

Route 1 on De Walden rocks makes an appropriate finale (also about Moderate) - finish to the left of the line marked on the topo, directly over the gendarme for maximum interest and exposure.

Feedback Always Hide βeta

5 users have logged this