Tremadog climbing

Crag: Upper Tier/Two Face Buttress, Tremadog
Routes: Falling Block Crack (S:led), Gwynedd/Mistook (VS 4b:sec), KMA (HS 4a:led), Madog (VS 4c:sec), Olympic Slab (VS 4c:sec), Stromboli (HVS 5a:sec)
It hasn't been the most successful of years, rock-climbing wise, as the focus has been on multiple mountains instead. So this was a nice opportunity to get onto a rather obscure part of Tremadog that I hadn't visited before, Two-Face buttress, which is hidden below the Upper Tier, its lower pitches buried in vegetation. We kicked off on the more familiar terrain of the Upper Tier, however, where I led the easy Falling Block Crack for the second time. This goes to a small bulge around the block, which gives a few bridging moves to an easy finish: a nice, simple route to begin with. Vic led Mistook, which takes the curving finger crack to the right. I did the eliminate start (Gwynedd) at the same grade, but had to take the Mistook crack towards the top to retrieve the gear. KMA was a gap for me: it takes the obvious line on the left of the crag. The start is awkward: smooth rock with a puzzling move, few obvious holds, squirming up the broad crack to eventually gain projecting holds and a big ledge. After a move left round a tree, the route continues via some nice bridging to an upper rib. Quite enjoyable, and the sun came out giving wonderful views over the Rhinogs, estuary and Criccieth as I brought up Vic and Ceri. Madog takes the smooth and awkward jamming crack to the right, with a delicate and tricky finish (if you take it direct). After lunch, we hopped over the fence and abbed down to the tree below Olympic Slab. This takes an immaculate steep slab of perfect Tremadog rock, protected from crowds and polish by its inaccessibility. It is short, but harder than I expected: quite technical for a few moves. It goes up spikes to a very thin crack, which is delicate up to some small holds, then another crack, a tad easier, to the finishing groove. Very well positioned, with an exposed feel, despite its brevity. We then moved the rope and abseiled down the other side of the buttress where Vic led Stromboli. This is the archetypal 'route of character'. Again, only short, but with a big feel, packing a lot of climbing and variety in to 25m or so. It goes easily to a great undercut traverse, which requires some thought on a single 9mm, with very little for the feet and a precise sequence to gain a good hold at the end of the overhang. This gains an easy slab up to the impending double-overhang of the headwall. This is the second hard move, and probably the crux, up an overhanging groove, nudging upwards to gain an enormous hold with nothing for the feet until you find a perfect little ledge on the right wall. Hauling up gains the final slab and another hard move up right, to pull over to the belay. It started spitting with rain the second we all finished, then rained properly as we descended: excellent timing.