Reaper Buttress Guide

Take the easiest line up the face via plenty of horizontals. Start on the nice blob of rock which is uphill and L of Saraband.

A bit harder. Start 2m R of BMUS. Up via small flake then R-ish.

The LH crack on the small pinnacle 20m further uphill from Reaper. On the L side of the Saraband pinnacle find a corner with some hollow sounding rock (alternatively, start one metre down the hill to access the short hand crack). Up this past some fantastic sidepulls, then aim for the LH crack which maintains interest to the top.

Up the R side of the buttress. At the head wall head directly up the crack to the right of the arete

Up the R side of the buttress. The DF up the top crack is reachy 24, the 22 way is to climb the breaks R of the arete. Start just R of S.

Not too bad really. A tricky start to easier climbing. Start at the obvious chimney bounding the L side of the main Reaper Buttress. Probably best to start up left and move right to below the line and good gear with belayer spotting (or stick-place a wire). Move up to and up the chimney to ledges at 25m. The climb originally continued up very easy ground to behind the Reaper buttress (50m abseil down Josie's Climb) or descend the awkward gully or find the abseil bolts for Reaper from the ledge on the right.

Tough around roof onto wall and into crackline on L. Start 2m R of the L arete of the west-facing wall, above Armpit.

The overhang and wall R of AW. Start just R of AW.

Spectacular. Start 3m R of The Sting. Use holds on arete to gain hanging corner and to ledge. Over roof to join crack and arete.

A flawed route with no need for the chipped holds. Back to the front (main) wall. Up Armpit then access diagonal rampline rightwards past a bolt. Cross Reaper and finish up headwall just right of arete. No reliable gear before the bolt (needs replacing) and route is quite runout on the headwall.

Start beneath the major crack in the middle of the face. Easily and best climbed in a single pitch, use extenders or double ropes for rope drag mitigation. 25m rap to the ground from the end of the second pitch.

1. 15m (21) The steep crack up to the base of the major sickle crack. Trad belay.

2. 25m (22) Follow the L-curving sickle crack to the top. Double bolt belay.

From the cave at the end of the sickle (of Reaper) traverse 2-3m right and pull over bulge. Follow right leading flake until it ends (ignoring the RBs just to the right), then move right and up past FH and very old piton.

A link up of Reaper and the Direct Finish. From near the finish of the Reaper sickle line (about 5m before you get to the DRB), go up past 2 ringbolts and trad to final FH and (bad) piton on Reaper Direct Finish. This is best done as one mega pitch from the ground. There’s no anchor: the Taste Sensation rap chains are 8m to the right (33m rap), or if you want to lower off to strip the gear it’s ok to reverse to and thread the last ring.

Climb Reaper to the prominent chalked jug in the middle of the diagonal on pitch 2. Step right and ooze up the unlikely seam past a FH to gain the upper traverse on Taste Sensation. Step right again and climb the excellent face above passing a second FH, and staying R of the last FH of Taste Sensation. Rejoin Taste Sensation at its final crack, to chains (33m).

From the 1st belay of Reaper, go up then traverse 4m right into exposed terrain above Incest (past bolt), then head up over bulge to gorgeous hanging slab (2 FHs) to roof. Now traverse R and finish up Wild Oats.

From Reaper's 1st belay, head up Reaper 2nd pitch for 5m to where it curves left, then traverse 2m right to below FH. Pull over bulge and up crack to break. Traverse 5m left along break, up L to blocky flake, up to a FH, then back R to a short crack and chains (33m). Best done in 1 pitch from the ground.

Taste Sensation to the big horizontal, then near the left end of this don't go up L to the blocky flake of Taste Sensation, instead launch straight up into Grimstone's finish. Best done in 1 pitch from the ground.

From 1st belay of Reaper, follow Girl Germs to the roof, then pump up the power to pull the lip and onwards to glory. Can do from the ground in one big awesome pitch and lower off Taste Sensation chains with 70m rope.

From the 1st belay of Reaper, drop down then traverse R across Incest to the first ledge of Wild Oats.

There are some old bolts in the impressive but blank sweep of stone below Reaper's first belay. Details unknown.

Best of the lot - cheekily described as the Serpentine of Arapiles which is a bit of a stretch but it does have a lot of climbing on it. Incest into Taste Sensation Direct. 70m rope gets you to the boulder beneath Reaper.

Back at ground level, 15m R of Reaper and 2m L of the weakness of Wild Oats. Head up delightful techie seams onto slab, make sure of your pro, then slight runout leftwards to 2 prominent bolts. White marbled slab then up the burly hanging corner. From here the original stepped left to the first belay of Reaper but you can also continue at same grade up past another FH to join Taste Sensation.

Up Incest to the pair of bolts, then directly upwards past a bolt and peg to roof (shared with Wild Reaper Connection to the left). Step right and pull through bulge. Easier climbing leads to the top.

An enjoyable long pitch if linked, but do two pitches if the second is any chance of dropping the crux near the ground. Start as for Wild Oats.

1. 18m (20) Boulder problem start then boldly up thin seam to belay at stance level with Reaper belay. Note this pitch is given 21 under the Fine Arts description.

2. 22m (19) Up crack then break left. Straight up past shattered rock (avoidable) and spaced pro to finish up thin crack near arete.

Descend by making a roped traverse left, either 5m to (an easy) reverse mantle to the chains of Taste Sensation (33m rap) or 15m to the DRB of Berserk (25m rap).

Start as for Wild Oats. (... although there is a lonely FH 2m L of Red Parrot. Not clear if this is the start of Fine Arts, or whether it starts further L as for Wild Oats? Clarification welcome.).

1. 30m (21) Climb directly to the ledge from the RH start, not much pro.

2. 15m (23) Traverse L a few metres then up to R-curving flake which leads to ledge.

3. 20m (23) Walk R then climb the steep East face of the buttress, just L of the arete.

Start under the SE arete of the Reaper Buttress, 2m R of Incest and 6m L of Red Parrot Chasm.

1. 25m (20) Bouldery crux start up weakness, then step R (going straight up is the scary 21 first pitch of Fine Arts). Join twin cracks to ledge. Still quite runout though easier.

2. 25m (15) Up to horizontal then head L around arete for about 10m and up the main crack.

3. 20m (-) Traverse easily off L, or don your crampons for the summit.

The monumental chimney on the R side of Reaper Buttress. The smooth crux section can be done either by stemming on the outside or grunting on the inside, but either way the pro is a bit skimpy.

Start as for Jilted then halfway across the traverseline, bust straight up slightly overhung face. Yet to be equipped.

Back wall. Approach via Skyline Walls, Dreadnought Gully or Josie's Climb. Very steep start past bolt then rightwards along lip of roof (BRs) to a tricky exit (cam or small wire).

Back wall. A mini Slopin' Sleazin'? Unconventional moves up an interesting feature left of Jilted. Start as for that route to its first BR, then head straight up to 2nd BR and span left to the base of unlikely arete/groove feature. Climb this to good pocket (BR), then continue past undercling to top.

If you follow the instruction to Chaconne in Lou's guide, you'll probably find this instead. On the small pillar in front of Reaper there's a wall facing the same direction as Reaper Wall. Up the diagonal seam on R side of the face to hard move onto arete and up. TR'd a DF which is better and slightly harder.

On the small pillar in front of Reaper there's a wall facing the same direction as Reaper Wall. The steep crack on the L side of the buttress. Surprisingly better than it looks, although it does look bloody awful.

Up the R side of the buttress. The DF up the top crack is reachy 24, the 22 way is to climb the breaks R of the arete. Start just R of S.