Y Garn mountaineering

Peaks/Crag: Y Garn, Nantlle
Routes: Eastern Arete (VD:led p.1,3,5)
Crag: Clogwyn y Garreg
Routes: The Magic Sod (D:sol), In Search of Perpetual Motion (D:sol)
If yesterday was the outcrop day, today was very much the traditional Victorian mountain day. A complete contrast, variety being the spice of life. Left Llan Ffestiniog at 7am for a run from the house all the way up Cwm Teigl to the top of Graig Ddu quarry and back. Quite a steep finish. Back for breakfast and shower, before meeting Alwyn in Rhyd Ddu at 9.15am. After being rained off Y Garn last September, we found ourselves in light drizzle again as we started the steep and possibly illicit walk-in from Bwlchgylfin. Eastern Arete is fairly obvious - there's only two real lines here, and I began the first pitch in a cold wind. After an easy chimney I entered a vegetated and muddy groove. Unpleasant, so I moved on to the arete - more like HS - and finished up that to a loose short wall. Alwyn led a short pitch, before I led a much better third (with very cold hands) up a steep but positive crack to a sloping ledge. An easy corner then leads to short, slabby wall and an easy horizontal ridge. Much better rock on this section, which continued for Alwyn's pitch up a hidden crack right of the ridge which led up to another easy horizontal section. It remained cold and windy as I finished up the final obvious groove before scrambling led to the summit. Hardly classic climbing but a nice esoteric route in a fabulous isolated position above Nantlle. The ridge really does finish on the summit and it has a genuine mountaineering feel. After lunch on the summit (last visited for about two seconds during the fell race in 2008), glad to be out of the cold wind, we ambled down the ridge towards Rhyd Ddu before branching off along the track back to the Bwlch. It was still only lunchtime, so I jogged around Llyn y Dywarchen to little Clogwyn y Garreg. I nipped up the obvious slab above the lake, only later finding that it was a named Diff! I then walked over the little knoll to find another easy 20m slab in a lovely isolated hollow overlooking Moel Eilio and Craig y Bera. Reminiscent of the Red Slab in Cwm Graianog. Finished off by taking the subsidiary slab (left), moving right to gain the arete of the Dywarchen slab to give a better, cleaner route to the top.