Ban Y Gor - The Escarpment
Well
youve finally arrived by whatever access route and youre wondering
what to The
crags are easily divided by two main section with the Escarpment perhaps being
the baby brother to the main Crag. This is in no way detrimental to the Escarpment
as with the passage of time since its development it is the Escarpment that has
remained most popular with climbers. This is probably more due to its size and
less imposing atmosphere than anything else, together of course with its very
easy access making it ideal as an evening venue. But what can you expect? Well, throughout its entire
length, the escarpment never exceeds 18m in height and for most of its length
the routes are in the 10m - 12m bracket. Short technical walls punctuated with
bulges, overlaps and roofs are commonplace in its central section whilst on the
fringes, most notably Mandela Buttress and Crawl Buttress, steep walls abound
with some excellent technical face climbing. As
to the grades, well the majority of the routes here are in the E1-E5 grade but
climbers operating in the VS/HVS category should not be deterred. sections of
the escarpment have a number of very worthwhile routes of this grade and climbers
wishing to push their standard further need only look nearby as that first E1
may well be within spitting distance. A
final word on protection. Most of the routes here have some form of fixed protection
and many of the routes are complete sports routes. Other useful forms of protection
include that large Friend for the dreaded break (and for belaying!) and a chunky
rack of wires |
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