Crafnant climbing

Peak/Crag: Two Tier Buttress, Crafnant
Routes: Little Cludge (HS 4b:led), Yew Tree Slabs p. 2 (VD:led), Pinnacle Wall Indirect (HS 4b:sec)
Rather like our bushwhacking expedition above Swallow Falls earlier this month, it is very disappointing to see these fine little climbs falling into disuse. I last climbed in Crafnant in 2002 with Tim (M a tiny baby in the cafe below) and remembered the climbs as short, clean and enjoyable. Now, however, the approach path is overgrown and even these good easy routes are not getting much traffic at all. Mick and I left in the early evening, and only had a couple of hours spare, so ploughed quickly up through the woods and eventually hacked out a route over to Two Tier Buttress. I led through thick grass and brambles to get to the clean slabs at the start of Little Cludge. This gives an excellent little pitch which really deserves more attention. Pleasant climbing up slabs to a break, then a steep finish, quite committing and thought-provoking for the grade. A juggy, vertical crack leads via a couple of small ledges to a little flake, then a tricky crux move as the crack steepens to gain superb, huge holds and an escape right to a nasty vegetated finish. From here I continued up the second pitch of Yew Tree Slabs to belay awkwardly within the branches of the ancient yew itself. Beautiful views out over this tranquil valley - like Gwynant, a useful riposte to those who think Eryri is 'less pretty' than the Lakes. Mick led through and made his way up a variation on Pinnacle Wall - the normal two-pitch version of which I've done before. Whether we followed the actual line of the Indirect variant is a moot point, but our version gave some nice climbing in any case. We went direct up the pinnacle on neat pockets, then up a licheny slab before moving right but climbing the arete direct quite delicately on small holds. An awful descent through nightmarish vegetation in the gully near Forestry Buttress (no hint of a path) meant we ran out of time as I had to get back to cook a family dinner. We both ran back down to the car at the far end of the lake.