For those looking for some beta, the usually dark and shady cliffs of Glyder Fach Main Cliff begin to catch the sun at 16:00 at this time of year and remain basking in sunshine until dusk. And this is exactly where we spent our Bank Holiday afternoon. It's been crazy busy in Snowdonia, with cars lining the valleys, parking in all sorts of crazy places, but by using the secret, we found a parking spot right outside Ogwen Cottage - closer than where we'd normally park! As is often the way in the British mountains, once you've left the car park, the crowds disperse and soon enough we were on our own, trekking up in the sunshine towards Cwm Bochllwyd.
Up at the cliffs, the views were fabulous and on the distant horizon, beyond Anglesey, we could see the profile of the Isle of Man.
The Direct Route, is one of the least direct routes you'll ever climb, with at least two long traversing pitches that weave their way up through the cliffs. It was first climbed back in 1907, proving that the old guys must have had a sense of humour - and some pretty bold climbing skills - the final pitch was no push over!! The first pitch (photo below) does (more or less) go 'direct' straight up, so maybe they thought of the route name too early on, before having to do the massive traverses around the harder sections?!...
The belays all involved a good sized stances with some great views and were all bathed in sunshine (which was good as there was a rather cold northerly wind blowing!).
Traverses such as these, ensured that the route was anything but 'direct'! - But they were quite exciting...
The final steep crack is a real sting in the tale and a very respectable lead for 1907, when they had none of the kind of protection that I had available to use! Good effort!
We first climbed this route in 2004 on a beautiful day in February. The forecast was for the clouds to lift off the summit during the day, so we set off towards the cliff and began climbing. As the clouds dispersed, the higher cliffs were revealed - all covered in rime ice!! We could still both remember huddling together to stay warm on the upper belay (and we weren't even going out back then!) Today, things were altogether more warm...
Rather than carrying on with the long srcamble up to the summit of Glyder Fach, we chose the faster option of the scrambling descent down Main Gully to the base of the cliffs and an easier walk out.
The sun was still fully on the cliffs as we walked away and we only encounted the shade as we reached the car park as the sun began to dip behind the hills.
No comments:
Post a Comment