Madeline's Skirt

From camp Derek you need to access the front face of the floating buttress. We did this via two pitches starting from the upper right hand side of camp Derek. A rough corner and awkward offwidth finishes with a traverse left and scramble across grassy ledge to reach the bottom of pitch 2. Quest upwards through a series of slabby bulges and ledges following whatever gear you can find to a large ledge at the foot of the floating buttress. A large horn in the middle makes a good belay for the final pitch. The crack system straight up is loaded with loose blocks, so traversing up and left towards a half vegetated crack going straight up is the more appealing option here. Once at the bottom of this crack system a fiddley handjam traverse takes you into an offwidth system which will provide you a way to attain to the top of the buttress. The angle kicks back at the top so watch your rope drag! Solid gear and lots of options, long and steep, rack up double nuts and cams 0.1 to 3, a nut tool racked front of harness for leading, also options for larger gear if you’ve hauled it up with you. You'll need some tat for descending and 60m double ropes. Descent back to camp Derek is 3 abseils on tat slung horns. Please assess the safety of any old rappel anchors and remove old tat, replacing it, and taking the old tat down with you. *(initial line unsuccessfully attempted, should go to the top if you fancy a fight)