North Face

The routes are located on the lower right side of the north face. The quality of the rock in this area is nothing short of unbelievable: extremely compact and well-featured.

Type:

Face (Alpine)

Aspect:

North

Access:

The lower Cleddau wall from the Homer Tunnel has been climbed to gain the foot of the buttress, but is a devious route.

Reference

Title

Grade

Length

Quality

Bolts

Gone

Natural pro

Link to edit content

Mise en Scene

17 , 19 , 24 , 20

155m

Start just left of the green corner, amble leftwards to bolt on arête then back right to obvious break.

#	Ewbank	Length	Trad
1	17	45m	Yes
	Start just left of the green corner, amble leftwards to bolt on arête then back right to obvious break.
2	19	45m	Yes
	Go right from belay to shallow corner, traverse back left then angle up right up a steep ramp with natural pro to a roof. Traverse left under roof (a little loose). Clip bolt above roof then up right to belay.
3	24	25m	Yes
	Go left off belay up thin wall to mantle then take the left of two hanging corners to belay.
4	20	40m	Yes
	Not completed, 40m until easy ground.

Brian Alder, Pete Griffin, Gwilym Griffith Jones, Polly Stupples, Ben from Australia, Apr 1996.

Sewing of the Seam

Four pitches. 18, 18, 20, 17. Follow the seam which forms a left-to-right diagonal between the two bolted routes. Gear is run-out at times but the crux is well protected. Pins were used for the first ascent.

Keith Riley, Rob Wigley, Jan 2000.

El Braveth

19 ,23 ,23 ,23 ,20 ,17

160m

Six pitches, mixed protection, crux on fourth pitch. Attempted by various people between 1991 and 2009. The name is an acronym of the first letters of the last names of all involved in various stages of the first ascent.

#	Ewbank	Length	Bolts	Trad
1	19	40m	1	Yes
	Start at the bottom of the largest snow patch. Up to bolt on slab then right into corner that leads up and right to triple bolt belay on ledge.
2	23	25m	2	Yes
	Step back into the corner and up to the overlap that forms a continuation of the great roof line. Crank over with a bolt and traverse up right past another bolt and some gear to a double glue-in bolt belay on ledge.
3	23	25m	5	Yes
	Step back left into the corner and up to bolts that lead up a slab rightwards. Pull the small overhang on jugs to double bolt belay.
4	23	20m	8	No
	Climb the dyke feature, angling up and right.
5	20	10m	2	Yes
	Straight up past two bolts. The trick is to get standing on top of the flake above the last bolt, then you can climb straight up to belay.
6	17	40m		Yes
	Traverse 4m left to corner and up to the top of the pillar. Run out and a bit grassy. Single ring anchor.

Sarah Adcock, Kester Brown, February 2009

Project

19 ,

18m

Pull through broken corner to ledge, then tentative slab and crack climbing past three bolts to belay.

#	Ewbank	Length	Trad
1	19	18m	Yes
	Pull through broken corner to ledge, then tentative slab and crack climbing past three bolts to belay.
2		0m	No
	In progress.

Paul Rogers, 1997.

Project

16 , 21

Three pitches (16, 21, 19/A0). The third pitch traverses right under the big roof. A good potential line extends up a weakness above pitch two.

Kester Brown, Danny Wood, 2006

Biggs Marron

Six pitches of aid through the big roof near the Cleddau Buttress, then up gullies to the ridge.

Barry Biggs, Reg Marron, Feb 1975.

Vindication

II 19 , 20 , 24 , 25 , 22 , 20

145m

“Hairier than Murray’s back. The rock is coarser than Cradock. Fantastic route guys and great rigging job" – Homer Hut book. A six-pitch sport route on immaculate rock. Take 15 quickdraws and belays, and two 60m ropes. Can be climbed at grade 22 A0 if you pull through the grade 24 & 25 crux moves on pitches three and four.

#	Ewbank	Alpine (Commitment)	Length	Bolts	Trad
1	19	II	15m	5	No
	Scramble up the the basre of the pillar forming the right side of the big roof. Double bolt belay to start.
2	20		30m	6	No
3	24		15m	6	No
4	25		35m	8	No
5	22		30m	8	No
6	20		20m	5	No

Murray Ball, Nick Cradock, Milo Gilmour, February 2009

Cleddau Buttress

The route starts on the northern slopes of the buttress, gaining the crest after 100m. A bit grassy on the lower half, but a real adventure through a series of steep cracks in the centre of the buttress.

Harold Jacobs, Murray Jones, Jan 1967.

Cleddau Buttress

V WI3

From Homer Saddle weave along the ridge which can almost border on being alpine enough to require a rope. An exposed traverse under Moir’s Mate leads to good bivvy sites. Cross a narrow band under the Mates Little Brother then out across the slopes running down from the upper cirque to the buttress. Conditions on the bottom half of the buttress tend to be similar to summer with grassy sections leading up to a slab. Traverse down and into a gully on the edge of the West Face. From here the route continues up a series of iced up grooves. Steep rock with ice runnels and good rock pro. The descent via the southern edge of the West Face is straight forward. The original ascent was a three day round trip.

Geoff Gabites, Ken Hyslop, June 1975.

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