Great Gully on Craig Yr Ysfa comes with quite a reputation and is one of the few routes at the grade in this area that I've not climbed yet. As with almost any 'gully' climb, the drier the conditions the better, so having not seen a drop of rain since arriving home from Ireland, today seemed like as good a day as any. The next hurdle was finding a partner willing to accompany me on this 270m odyssey. I put out a few feelers and within a few hours, we were a team of four. It's graded 'V.Diff', but the grade is not really comparable to any other 'Classic V.Diffs' as the terrain is mostly, wet vegetated 'traditional' climbing. You'll need to be adept in 'back and foot' technique, be willing to 'use your knees' and be okay about clawing at clumps of heather - and don't wear your best jacket!
Retracing my steps from a few days ago, we passed Amphitheatre Buttress and located the base of the gully. So far, so good. It was actually a relief to get into the shady confines as the sun was scorching hot!
Although the route gets a mention in the famous book 'Classic Rock', there isn't much rock to climb to start with! Steep angled vegetation of considerable depth was the bulk of the route initially. This theme continued between sections of slippery moss covered rock.
There were signs of other climbers... This was all that remained of a peg belay.
Every now and then an old sling could be found buried in the greenery.
A rusted wire even lay on the floor at one belay!
Climbing in two teams made for a very sociable way to climb a route like this and we were able to share belays and swap various bits of kit as we made upward progress. We had various guidebook descriptions - one of which recommended climbing the mossy chockstones to the left of this (only slightly more appealing, damp chimney!). Whatever the differences in descriptions, once you're in the gully, if you head upwards, you're pretty much going the right way.
The climax comes at the final pitches! The infamous 'Cave Pitch'!
This really is astonishing, when you consider that this was first climbed in 1900! It involves climbing up into the back of the cave, then traversing out to a huge chockstone - from where escape finally become possible.
The rock is green!
Stu led the pitch and Tarquin and I donned headtorches for a little extra help!
It was a solid lead by Stu, without a headtorch - you can see Tarquin's headlamp (but not Tarquin!) approaching the belay in the photo above!
Anthony lead up next and I followed at the back, cleaning up all of the gear along the way. There is a lot of tat hanging down to haul up on, but I was pleased to be able to climb it 'free', without pulling on any of it.
This is the view back down...
Scrambling up into the sunshine made for a great finish. It was still scorching hot as we sorted the gear and drank the last of our water. It had taken two hours to get to the climb and just over three and a half hours to climb the route. Amazingly, the temperature had been just right and although we encountered plenty of insects en-route, there were no midges to bother us.
All that was left was the walk down to Ogwen for a cold drink at the tea shack.
I'd been trying to climb this route for years, so was super pleased to have finally have had the chance and with such good company. It's climbing, but not as we know it! It's a good route to 'have done', but I can't see me racing back for another go!
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