Page 31 - 2021 AMA Summer

Ihad arranged with Anthony to climb The crag is hidden on this approach
Amphitheatre Buttress (AB) on the high
Craig yr Ysfa at the back of Cwm Eigau in the Carneddau range. I was rather looking forward to it. 3-star Classic Rock climbing catching the sun and moving fast enough to avoid the midges. Then Ian, my outdoor education teacher, friend and neighbour messaged; “Fancy Great Gully (GG) tomorrow?” My stomach churned with the idea of moss, slipperiness and general looseness of the classic Welsh Gully climb. I thought of ways to scupper the new plan. I am climbing with Anthony. He wants to do AB. It would be rude to change plans. But I knew what Anthony would reply. I was right. He messaged straight back, “Sounds fun to me”. Then there was hope. Stu messaged asking whether I was free to climb. There was suddenly hope. Stu would see the madness of the plan but no, he cheerfully replied that he would be up for some slippery thrutching. I would have thrown the towel in and left the three of them to it. Yet, it had been dry for weeks. This was my last unticked Welsh Classic Rock climb. The planets had aligned and we were four.
You have two options for accessing Craig yr Ysfa. The long beautiful walk up Cwm Eigau, a stunning walk on what would be a sunny wind free day or the blast up the dam road from Ogwen to Bwlch Eryl Farchog (Saddle of the Watching Knight). We opted for the latter and toiled up in the heat discussing the benefits of e-bikes and e-scooter to make light of the road.
but the path down from the bwlch has improved through use so only a mild bit of heather bashing was required.
Now at the bottom of the gully, Stu confidently took his bag off and we all peered up. We quickly decided it was further on. It is always prudent to start on the correct route for a stress free day. A few minutes later we were around the corner and at the bottom of Great Gully. We knew it was the right gully as it was like a Black Hole with the light sucked into this 800-foot-deep cleft carving into the mountain side. It was dry in the gully. Well, as dry as a deep gully gets. Up through the thick grass seeking out the rock underneath or just pulling on clumps of it got us to the bottom of the 11 pitches. The Ground Up guide description burned into my brain: “a route of tremendous character, old fashioned in every way and all the better for it. Do not be fooled by the grade, this is a beast in all but the driest conditions.”
I flaked out Stu’s new Beal Joker rope and thought it was going to look a little older by the end of the day. We slime-d our way up. Features such as the ‘Door Jam’ and ‘The Chimney’ came and went in the technicolor of fluorescent moss. Approach shoes seemed to give the best purchase but you always felt you were a nudge from coming off. This “fun” brought us to the climax. Pitch 11 - The Great Cave Pitch - only 11m of climbing but there would be a
Deep in the clutches of the gully
long way to descend if we couldn’t make it. The gully had finished unsurprisingly in a Great Cave! The left wall was smooth and had an old rope hanging down from a large chockstone which would crush us all if it went. We briefly dallied with Mark Reeve’s Rockfax variant of climbing the right wall but we had the first ascension- ist’s description. First climbed in 1900 by Archer Thomson, Simey (surely Slimy) and Clay. They made them tough then. Archer Thomson’s description for the last pitch ‘By utilising a small foothold on the left wall, the climber effects a lodgement on it, and then reaches its sharp upper edge by a struggle on which he becomes near to defying all the laws of anatomy. A novel expedient is to lay the palm of the right hand on the block, using the arm as a pivot, perform a pirouette to the south; the climber lands in a sitting posture with one leg thrust up to the roof to maintain equilibrium.’
We changed into rock boots and were glad of the tat to grab to get around the first chockstone without any pirouetting. A shuffle along a small ledge and we emerged from the clutches of Great Gully, into the sun and a simple scramble (well apart from the unmentioned boulder problem up a short wall) up to the plateau. Someone was just finishing the 3-star Pinnacle Wall oblivious to the pleasures of Great Gully yards from them. I won’t be going back anytime soon but memories are formed from adventures and I added to the memory bank in Great Gully.
Looking down the undercut chimney through a jungle
Great Gully
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 31