Tuesday 20 October 2015

Flying Buttress (V.Diff) - Dinas Cromlech

"An essential, if somewhat polished, classic", begins the guidebook description of todays climb. 'Flying Buttress' in the Llanberis Pass is indeed a well known low grade classic, where a head for heights is well recommended! With the sun hanging ever lower in the sky, Dinas Cromlech was going to be catching the sun for the longest possible time, so with only an afternoon available, it was the place to be. Before all that, during the morning, we managed to nip out along the track to enjoy the autumn colours, which are still looking superb in Coed y Parc.


The hike up to Dinas Cromlech looks intimidating from the road, but it actually only takes twenty minutes to reach the crag. Those in the know, follow the path left (looking up) which is much faster and much more pleasant than thrashing directly up the screes.
We climbed the route in 3 main pitches (with one short shuffle off the pinnacles). It's been ages since either of us had climbed the route, so it actually felt new to us both! 


The climbing might be straight forward, but the positions and exposure are anything but! It's easy to see why its so popular with airy belays like this!


From the top, it's a short, steep scramble back to the bags. The photo makes it look like night fall, but we were back in the van before six, well before headtorch time...

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