Rockfax Description
A good scramble which is loose and adventurous in places - care is needed throughout. Roping up is recommended. Park below Clogwyn y Grochan and walk up the road until you can go up towards the stream. Cross just below the cliff in a small bay and make your way up to the base of a series of rock steps by the right side of the stream bed.
1) Climb the steps, then aim for a rib by a small pinnacle before continuing to below a steep and intimidating section.
2) To the left of the buttress is a sentry box. Climb this, then head up and left and then back right, making your way to the crest of the ridge by the first large pinnacle.
3) Carry along the crest to the next steep wall/impasse. Skirt this on the left and make your way up and right to a col just below a second pinnacle.
4) Descend the scree runnel down and to the right for 30m, into a small gully bed. Climb the left side of the quartz buttress in the direction of the lowest pinnacle on the skyline. If dry, move onto the smooth water-washed slabs. If wet, avoid the slabs by keeping right up some heather/rock.
5) From the pinnacle, take a vegetated rising line heading left and up through an often-dry gully bed to an easing in the angle above.
6) Follow the right side of the water course up to a wide short wall. Pass this on the left. More stomping up heather leads to broken rocky steps between heather. Climb these and the heather to the bottom left-hand end of a large buttress, close to the stream you have been following up.
7) The scrambling now improves but loose rock is ever present. From a boulder at the left end of the buttress, climb an indefinite rocky rib on spikes, with a difficult exit onto easier ground. As the exposure increases, the difficulty diminishes as you head up and right along a vague ridge that leads up to the Great Tower.
8) At the Great Tower, skirt right around the base of green looser rock to a runnel/gully that leads back up and left to the crest. The gully has one hard move in the middle. It is best to tackle this more or less direct. At the top of the Great Tower, follow the rocky rib up to the grassy summit of Esgair Felen.
Descent - It is possible to go for a further 1km to the summit of Glyder Fawr, or just head northwest from the top of Esgar Felen where a short steep descent leads to some boggy ground. From here, contour to a fence-line where you can pick up the path down Cwm Padrig back into Llanberis Pass at Nant Peris and back to your car. © Rockfax

UKC Logbook Description
Route 48 in the new 2017 third edition of Steve Ashton's Scrambles in Snowdonia. Begins down the pass from Bryant's Gully, but ends in the same place on the spur of Esgair Felen. A much drier outing than Bryant's Gully, it is a relatively interesting means of connecting the two valleys using Glyder Fawr (although nowhere near as good as Bryant's). First recorded in 2017, but this line and variations of it will have provided entertainment to scramblers for generations.

Ticklists

Scrambles in Snowdonia - Steve Ashton , Snowdonia Mountain Walks and Scrambles - Mark Reeves

Feedback

There is no feedback for this climb.

Logged Ascents

36 users have logged this

Guidebooks for Glyder Fawr

Not all climbs appear in all guidebooks 26 users have this on their wishlist

Please Login to view more details on the logged ascents

Voting
High Grade-3
Mid Grade-3
Low Grade-3
High Grade-2
Mid Grade-2
Low Grade-2
High Grade-1
Mid Grade-1
Low Grade-1
Votes cast 2
Votes cast 1
Style of Ascent
Soloed
Alt Leads
Lead
Not Set
Onsighted
Repeated
DNF
Not Set
Route of Interest
Bryant's Gully

Grade: Grade-2 ***
(Glyder Fawr)

Loading Notifications...