North West Face Route, The Glyders, Snowdonia
Grade 2 Scramble
It's not uncommon to find myself in Snowdonia the night before a course with a
couple of hours before darkness. I often use these opportunities
to check out scrambling routes that I've not been on before. I really rate
Steve Ashton's guidebook 'Scrambles in Snowdonia'. For me it's
everything that a guidebook should be. It's got photo-topos, good
descriptions, fits in your pocket and a waterproof cover. Even
though the photos in my 1992 edition look dated it doesn't matter because it gets me to
the bottom of routes and off at the top. Of all the scrambles that Steve
describes in Ogwen I realised that I'd never done North West Face Route
(2) which goes up the rock buttress west of Idwal slabs. The book always
seemed to suggest that it was a less satisfying alternative to things like
Idwal Staircase (2) but I'd often seen parties topping out on the grass
plateau half way up the route and they always seemed happy enough. On this
particular day I arrived at Ogwen Cottage at seven O'clock in the evening
after a day of doing very little physical activity. A few people were
drifting down the path to Cwm Idwal and although rain was forecast for the
next day, the weather looked fairly settled for the evening. I grabbed a
headtorch, guidebook and map and motored up the path into
Cwm Idwal. The idea was that I'd see how high I could get. It's often
surprising how little time a scramble can take if you're really going for
it but I would be happy to nip back down the same route if need be.
Following the path around the east side of Llyn Idwal takes you
underneath Idwal slabs. The right-hand side of the slabs is bounded by a
black and hideous-looking gully with water running down it. This is the
line of Idwal Staircase (2). Going past this a few metres takes you to a blunt
rib with a grass furrow running down it. This is the start of North West
Face Route. An initial scrappy section climbing up the furrow takes you
onto the good quality rock
between the furrow and the slabs. Whilst the bottom of this section is
scrappy, it quickly improves until you're on interesting rock that demands
a certain amount of thought. The holds are fairly well-worn and the line's
obvious. There are plenty of options for hand and footholds and before
long you meet a gully coming up from below. Some easy scrambling takes you
to the grass slopes at the top of this first buttress. Over on the right
is another buttress with some fine scrambling. Walk over to that and after
a tricky move at the start you reach better holds and so to the top of
this. In front of you, high on the rocks is a long quartz band. A devious
line takes you up under the right hand end of the band to a huge sloping
quartz ledge. You really feel the exposure standing on this ledge as it's
sloping and there aren't loads of hand holds. You're sort of balancing
along it hoping that you're boots grip. After the quartz ledge careful
route-finding weaves a way up and diagonally left to meet Seniors Ridge
coming up from below.
From the top there are endless possibilities. You might choose to drop
down into Cwm Cneifion and continue up the Cneifion Arete or continue up
Senior's Ridge to the top of Glyder Fawr. Given that the light was
starting to fade at this point I descended the Direct Approach to Senior's
Ridge (2) which is fairly scrappy and not recommended in descent unless
you've been there before. On the way down under Suicide Wall I met a group
of rock climbers who had just finished a route on the slabs. The light
started to really fade as I reached the gate at the end of Llyn Idwal and
was gone by the time I arrived at Ogwen Cottage.
A very enjoyable route. Perhaps not a classic, some of the difficulties
can be avoided (particularly on the middle buttress) but worth doing
nonetheless.
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