Giant's Cave Buttress Area Alles traditionelles Klettern 9 Routen in Sektor

A fine technical traverse from the final belay of Giant's Cave Buttress to the yellow railings, passing an in situ thread. Just as serious for the second. Feel your way through pitch black darkness for ages trying to escape up the cave (and then realise the final gate out is locked), or scare on-lookers by swinging over the railings and abbing down onto the ramp below.

A sleeping giant, snubbed by previous guidebooks, and here given a makeover. The route is a coherent linkage of variations on the Buttress. Protection is fantasy in places. Start as of Giant's Cave Buttress.

1. 5a, 25m. Gain a ledge containing a small gangly hawthorn up and left of the belay. Climb a flake crack to a white patch under a small overhang (peg); then break out left up a grey wall to good holds right of a small ledge. Carry straight on up a shallow groove (hidden peg) to a ledge (on Giant's Cave Buttress) and the belay ledge just above.

2. 5a, 25m. Climb rightwards through the overhangs behind the stance using a right-slanting crack. Continue more easily up short walls, keeping right of the arête. When 5m below the final stance of Giant's Cave Buttress, traverse horizontally left to a sturdy ash tree.

3. 5b, 30m. Step left from the tree and climb a fissure past a mini cave, continuing to a pocketed break (in situ thread). Don't escape right (onto Giant's Cave Buttress), but trend slightly leftwards up the fine, steepening rib past luxurious finger pockets for the left hand (peg) until a tricky sequence over a bulge gains a small grey slab. a final delicate move up the slab gains a ledge. Continue easily, at first up a small groove, to the top, using Giant's Cave Buttress at will.

A long diagonal line leading from the base of Giant’s Cave Buttress to the top of Liverbird Buttress. An esoteric route with sections of climbing, interspersed with scrambling and more vegetated ground. Not the highest quality climbing, but an interesting mountaineering type adventure if you don’t mind a little scrub bashing...

Go through the gate from the road and take the path on the right, as if heading for Giant’s Cave Buttress. Start where a toe of rock pokes forward from the wall in a little buttress. This is the first obvious clean bit of rock on the path, around 5m along.

P1 Climb directly up the little slabby buttress of rock with sparse gear (4a). Continue in the same line on easier ground to belay from several small trees. 20m

P2 Move left for a couple of metres into a slabby sort of vague gulley line. Climb this in a diagonal up and left, runners in cracks on the right. Continue easily up more vegetated ground in the same direction, towards a little easy angled buttress. Scramble up this on a narrow area of rock. Walk across the top of the Buttress and go up the easily angled Lizard Slab for a few metres to nut, spike and small tree belay near the top right corner. 40m

P3 The objective is a tall tree, seen directly above. To the left of Lizard Slab is a steeper slab, Crumbling Slab, the right side of its base guarded by brambles. Traverse left for a few metres under the brambles to the left side of Crumbling Slab. Climb the slab using cracks and the sharp left hand arete (Crumbling Arete), 4a. Move off the slab onto the arete where it flattens, taking care as the rock here is especially loose. Walk along the top of Crumbling Arete to a rock tower, Pigeon Tower. Climb the tower enjoyably on mostly good large holds but with no convincing gear. Continue up the same line more straightforwardly, over a smaller easier angled outcrop. Walk left for a few metres to belay from a cluster of trees. 40m

P4 Walk left past brambles (causing inevitable rope drag), keeping close to the cliff edge to stay on rock. Clamber up a muddy slope to reach some rock (for hands, at least) and runners. Carefully traverse left, then slightly downwards on dirt ledges to reach a cracked rocky block (runner). Continue to keep left close to the cliff edge to stay on rock, on a slightly rising diagonal, to reach an obvious big ramp. Scramble up the ramp (runners in cracks in the wall on the right) to reach plentiful nut belays in the wall near the top of the ramp. 40m

P5 Continue easily to the top of the ramp, until it is simple to escape up and rightwards. Clamber up a short steeper vegetated slope to reach the railings at the top. 15m