Hard Rock and Rescues on Cloggy

I had never climbed on Clogwyn Du'r Arddu otherwise known as Cloggy before, but had heard of its aura, it's walls stacked with climbing history, positioned high within the Welsh mountains. I'd seen lots of pictures online, in guides and magazines, you can't fail to notice it's dominance driving into Llanberis. After getting pretty scorched on the cliffs at Gogarth, Piers and I headed back into the mountains and an early night before the slog up the Snowdon path to reach the crag. The crag looked stunning and became even more impressive the closer we got. I was relieved to see the buttresses covered in shade as the sun moved round, no sun burn for me today.

The stunning Clogwyn Du'r Arddu

We skirted round Llyn Du'r Arddu to access the base of the West buttress, our route the classic Great Bow Combination from Hard Rock. From below the buttress looked huge, but broke down into 5 pitches. I set off on the first 45m pitch, climbing a brilliant cracked groove till the cracks end where a few bolder moves up a rib lead to good sized belay ledge. The rock was solid and quite rough, with bomber gear.

Piers arranging gear on Pitch 2

Piers continued up the rib above setting up a belay below the crux traverse to access the slabs above. I stepped up from the stance to place a high first runner then started the traverse along a break with poor feet, which was surprisingly pumpy with little protection in sight. I rocked up onto a ledge at the end of the break, placed a solid wire, and headed up to the belay above.

Now for Piers to second the pitch, who also had our rucksack of shoes and water to just walk off after the route. The traverse was just as bold for Piers to second as there was little gear for me to place on the lead. After the start a step up with small holds and smear enabled the break to be reached. I had a good view of Piers crossing to this point, I was careful not to pull the ropes too tight to pull him off the wall. These moves were pretty tough, and once all other sequences were ruled out Piers committed to the move. But then he was off! I thought he had made the move. The ropes went slack, as he pendulums across onto the wall below out of my view, swiftly followed by the shock as the ropes take the weight. I shouted down to him,  he was ok. Luckily able to climb the few metres of wall to regain the end of the traverse, took a minute and climbed up to me. He had skinned the knuckles and cut his knee, but was keen to continue after a quick tape up.

The end of the traverse on Pitch 3

Piers swiftly dispatched the fourth pitch up a cracked slab to an impressive exposed stance on the edge of the slab. I had noticed climbers across on the Eastern Terrace shouting in our direction as Piers climbed his pitch. As Piers set up his belay, he was talking to someone else, before shouting down to me: 'you're going to love this.'

We chatted about what was going on as I climbed the pitch. Turns out a team were stuck, or were unable to progress further on their route; Longland's Climb, a classic VS with a sting in it's tail, as described in the guide, an intimidating 4c pitch blocking access to the top of the climb. We were unable to reach Yohan and partner from our present position with a gully and a buttress blocking the way. We told Yohan we needed to complete our route then abseil down if we were to provide any assistance.

Looking back down Pitch 3

We completed our route, which was cracking. It had been a while since I'd climbed on the mountain rock of North Wales, and remembered how much I love it. However my mind was now focused on how best to help the stuck climbers. Trying to locate the top of a route from the top of a complex crag full of gullies and pinnacles is a right pain, especially seen as it was my first time at the cliff. Orientating the guidebook photo, to try and match up which way to head proved useful, as did climbers from the other buttress shouting directions to us.

Piers at the stance at the top of Pitch 4

We hunted down a large block to use as an anchor and I carefully started to abseil down the top section of a gully, ropes over my shoulder and paying close attention to where I place my feet, not wanting to dislodge any rocks onto the crag below. I moved down and around a corner shouting to the party beneath me. I located them, some 10m below the pinnacle I was now sat on. They sounded surprised that I was there, I guess it had been about an hour and a half since we first made contact with them. I was lucky that the rope was just long enough to reach down beneath me. I made a belay at my position to back up my abseil rope as Yohan tied into the other ends of my rope. I gave him a tight top rope up this tricky section of the route as his partner belayed him from below. He was so relieved to reach a ledge just below me, the previous few moves had been a battle for him. I kept him on a rope until he had placed 3 solid runners as he moved onto the easier climbing above. He definitely looked pretty shaky and then let on that this was only his fourth outdoor lead! Hats off to him for his enthusiasm but he was definitely out of his depth on this route, and obviously did not no how to sort himself out in this situation.

I carefully climbed back up my ropes to reach Piers at my block belay. After stuffing gear into our bags it was time to make tracks and drive home. Walking out down the path I kept almost tripping over my feet as I was looking back around at the magnificent piece of rock behind me. Matching lines in the guide up with the features on the rock, I just wanted to climb more. I can't wait to go back again!

Cloggy - What a crag!