Search for a Scramble
Clogwyn y Person Arête
Approach by walking and scrambling up the path from the open wooden bridge crossing the river by the A4086 about a mile up from Gwastadnant.This is the downstream of two neighbouring bridges.
Following the path up into Cwm Glas, past the imposing crag of Cyrn Las with the excellent Main Wall climb brings you up to the right of the arête as seen in the photo. The normal grade two route follows the right wall of the gully on the right hand side of the arête pleasantly and with some interest up to the obvious jammed boulder, which can be seen from afar.
From here one can forge ahead straight up until the first barrier. For the first couple of obstacles, well worn rightwards traverses lead to suitable weaknesses in the defences. The crux is easy to recognise when you find it - a shallow chimney that seems to offer little for the feet. Jugs above, judicially applied pressure with the possible assistance of a toe jam on the right will overcome this without great difficulty. Above this point, the main difficulties are over, unless like us, you take another traverse to the right and find yourself faced with an awkward mantelshelf onto a restricted platform - easier without a rucksack.
My recollection of a previous ascent is that the easier route is to the left at this point! Eventually, easy ground leads up to join with the main Crib y Ddysgl ridge, from where a circuit of Cwm Glass is possible to the right or a traverse of Crib Goch and descent of its North Ridge is possible. If the latter is taken, take the scree to the left before reaching the end of the ridge - easily previewed from the Clogwyn Y Person Arête during the ascent on a nice day.
In summary, this is an excellent route mostly on clean rock, with interesting route finding. Given the serious position of the hardest moves over a significant climbing crag on the right, I would suggest that all but the most confident parties should carry a rope, even if it may not be needed. A Grade 3 alternative start over the nose to the left is possible with a steep descent into the gully, but I won't describe it, as I haven't done it!
The only report I've had of it was from another climber who described it as being at about V Diff, so he maybe didn't find the scrambling route.
The two reviews suggest that this route is harder than grade 2, perhaps 3.
Fair enough - grades are subjective and difficulties compare differently for different peiople and types of climbing. I thought grade 2 fair, but then again, there are grade 3 routes that don't seem a lot harder and. for that matter, there are v diffs that don't seem any harder than grade 3 either. On the other hand, I've found grade 3 routes that are much harder than this one in poor conditions (I'm thinking of Sentries Ridge - very slippery in the wet in December). But anyway, looking at UKC:
On reaching the arête proper we tended as far right as possible before ascending a long steep pitch that was a good grade 3 bordering on a moderate climb. Keeping to a rightward line we soon arrived at the pitch others have referred to as the crux (v-groove). This is definitely a moderate climb but if you can stretch to reach a good hand hold at the critical point, it’s not as difficult as it appears to be from below. In any case it would seem to be avoidable, as we saw a couple ascending an easier pitch to the left at the same time.
We continued to the top of the arête, taking just about as challenging a line as possible, which involved solid grade 3 scrambling with a few climbing moves thrown in. There may have been easier grade 2 options but we weren’t looking for them. Overall this was a highly enjoyable climb/scramble on superb rock. Finally to answer another question raised on this thread, yes, it is perfectly possible to solo the route, even when taking a tougher line, as we proved.
This route is a lot harder than a grade 2, or at least you can certainly make it a lot harder. We began with a direct climb up the front of the Parson’s Nose, the middle pitch turning out to be a particularly challenging V Diff involving a tricky incline traverse on a near vertical rock wall.