Shark Buttress Scramble ^{Grade 3}

An exposed, technical grade 3 scramble with short sections of diff / v.diff climbing.
Strongly recommend climb main buttress in pitches, and take a rack of nuts & slings. Best done when the rock is completely dry.

Start from Ogwen Cottage or either of the two car parks further east along the A5 by Llyn Ogwen. Head up the path by the waterfalls up to Llyn Bochlwyd. Go clockwise around the shore of the lake and note the cliffs of Glyder Fach above.

To the left are the fluted columns of the Chasm face, then further right and lower down, a prominent, large triangular buttress, the lower left side of which is the smooth, steep Alphabet Slab. (This buttress holds the scrambles Main Gully Ridge and East Gully Ridge.) It’s bounded on the right by a huge deep gully, which reaches the bottom of the cliff, and broadens out into a wide amphitheatre at the top (East Gully).

To the right of this is a steep, compact, blocky buttress, known to climbers as Hawk’s Nest Buttress and to scramblers as Shark Buttress. Head up screes for the bottom of East Gully (dark and dank), walk a bit further right and scramble up easily to the lower left side of Shark Buttress. Get out the rope and climbing gear.

The first pitch goes diagonally right and up across the lower part of the buttress. Steve Ashton calls it ‘exposed and unprotected’ – it’s exposed all right, but there’s a crack for a nut and the final move can be protected with a sling. Head for a niche on the right side of the buttress – the move into this is quite vigorous, using a layback slab.

Belay in the niche. Make an exposed move stepping out from the niche onto the rib on the right (facing in) and climb this, now moving up towards the gully on the right of Shark Buttress. Before long, the gully steepens, so climb up into a small slot to the left and belay here (nut anchors). Getting out of the slot is a struggle – although only about 3 or 4 metres, it’s worth belaying again above and bringing up the second.

There is a cleft between a pinnacle on the left (facing in) and the main body of the buttress. Climb into the back of the cleft and struggle up the smooth flakes on the back wall until you are standing on the top one facing a smooth 2 metre wall. Place protection in the vertical crack to the right.

Now make a very exposed step to the left and step up on to the top of the buttress, continuing easily to a belay right below Shark Pinnacle. Walk round the pinnacle and climb it if you wish (as per the front cover picture of the previous edition of Steve Ashton’s book) – it’s ‘mod’ in the climbing guide but though delicate, easier than what you’ve just done - great photo opportunity! Continue more easily up the dirty corner to the left of the buttress in front of you (it’s possible to move together or dispense with the rope altogether now – depending on confidence).

Head for the huge and obvious Perch Pinnacle and overcome a steep, broken little wall to the left of it & then scramble right under the pinnacle and out to its right hand side. Scramble ad lib up the ridge – now grade 2 – and eventually it becomes a narrow arête (Dolmen Ridge route joins it here) and abuts the main mountainside – there are still some good bits of scrambling ahead which can be sought out or avoided at will. Before long it comes out on the top of Glyder Fach, just in front of the summit pile.

The quickest way down is to head left and descend the steep screes to the right of Bristly Ridge to Bwlch Tryfan, thence back to Llyn Bochlwyd and the way you came. Otherwise, any of the descents from either of the Glyders can be taken. By the fastest route, allow 5 hours at least for this outing. The picture shows the niche belay for the first pitch.