Big Routes at Ty Powdwr
Big Routes 13th-14th June 2026
Attendees – Harry Potts, Will Fitzmaurice, Mateusz Wasilewski, Luke Cullum, Mich Harrison, Lynne Williams, Phil Mitchell, Aaron Polley
With Harry, Will and Mat looking ahead to their upcoming Cervinia trip they had used the car journey to plan a scramble link-up around Ogwen and Luke was persuaded to join to make 2 ropes of 2 when needed. If the Big Routes challenge wasn’t enough, the ante was upped with tales of a previous day out by Mich and Andy Stratford including 10 scrambles – could this be bettered?
An early start meant the routes were quiet up until descending Bristly Ridge against the tide in the early afternoon, however everyone was friendly and seemed to be having a good day. Route taken was
Idwal Cottage > Ordinary Route (Idwal Slabs) > Idwal Continuation Scramble > Cneifon Arete > False Gribin > Dolmen Ridge > Glyder Fach Summit > Bristly Ridge > South Buttress (Tryfan)
Here the teams split with Harry and Luke tempted by food and beer taking South Ridge (Tryfan) > Tryfan Summit > Idwal Cottage but not before finding the ‘tricky’ final wall of South Ridge to be considerably more than that and have some extremely difficult moves for a Grade 3 scramble. Will and Mat looking to utilise all of the daylight and eyeing up the 10 route target went for another lap of Tryfan East Face via Nor Nor Buttress Variant > Tryfan Summit > South Ridge > Idwal Cottage arriving back at the hut just after 10pm. Mich and Andy were relieved on hearing they hadn’t been outdone, but the day inspired some ideas for the future...
Mich and Lynne went on a Sea (Tremadog) to Summit (Pant Ifan Upper Tier) trip ticking 5 routes including the VSs Quatre Fois Direct, Madog and Gwynedd. Company at the crag was a group of friendly teenagers experiencing abseiling with a less than friendly instructor
Phil went on a long ride along the testing roads of Snowdonia all the way down to the Moelwyns and enjoyed the traffic free climb up to Llyn Stwlan above Tanygrisiau
Aaron needed to get a ‘training’ run in so did a 33km/2,600m route from the hut all the way along the Glyderau to Tryfan, where he threw in some scrambling for good measure, before returning via Ogwen and over Elidir Fawr
Feeling as though the day held more activity for them Phil and Aaron, for his first taste of slate, spent the late afternoon sport climbing at Bus Stop
On Sunday there were some sore bodies from the day before and recent injuries, but that didn’t stop everyone getting out and climbing something
Will and Aaron went to Twll Mawr to climb The Desolation of Smaug (6c), which at 6 pitches is the 3rd longest sport route in the UK, and managed the first 2 long pitches with the remainder on the cards for another day. Harry, Mat and Luke went to climb The Big Easy (4a) in Bus Stop due to the thematic name, although Harry didn’t think it delivered on either promise. Lynne and Mich went to the Moelwyns and climbed Kirkus’s Climb Direct (S 4a) at Clogwyn yr Oen which is well worth a visit and proves there is quality across the whole of Snowdonia
Luke Cullum
