Year of publication 1960 - Fell and Rock Climbing Club

36 LLANBERIS PASSThe following day was our last in the Pass and we had timefor only one climb. Cemetery Gate seemed a suitable one tofinish our holiday in spite of its rather morbid name. It is acompanion route to Cenotaph Corner, following its right wall,and, like the Corner, is graded Exceptionally Severe. It islonger, however, as the ground drops away sharply to theright of Cenotaph. We arrived at Dinas Cromlech beforenoon and found the whole crag bathed in sunshine, so Ericselected a belay among some thick bushes to protect his feet,rigidly encased in P.A.s, from the heat.Meanwhile I climbed the introductory section of moderaterock until I was brought to a sudden stop below a bulge. Afterarranging several runners on small spikes, none of whichinspired great confidence, I started up the bulge on finger andtoeholds. A foot above my outstretched hand was a smallshelf, but to reach it I had to raise my right arm while my lefthand took most of my weight, hanging on a wrinkle scarcelymore than a quarter of an inch wide. However, the hardestpart of the move turned out to be plucking up courage toattempt it, and in a moment I was pulling up onto the shelf.Twenty feet higher, the crack above brought me over anotherslight bulge to a belay. The angle of the rock at this pointproved to be too steep to allow me to balance on my stance,but by jamming a piton hammer in the crack and clippingmyself to it I achieved the desired effect.Eric then came up to join me and a short pantomimefollowed as we changed'positions. Eventually we got organizedand I continued up the crack which swept upwards verticallyfor another 60 feet. The holds were quite substantial, thesituation airy and exhilarating, and only the occasional loosehold marred the pitch. The crack ended at a narrow ledgefrom which my companion led through to the top of the cragup a thin flake which did not look particularly sound butproved to be solid enough.Re-united at the top, we had a short bask in the sunshine,and then it was time to return to camp to pack and preparefor the all-night marathon train journey back to Newcastle.But as we were leaving we knew that a return to Llanberis wasinevitable, for these steep Welsh cliffs throw out an irresistiblechallenge to the rock climber and mountaineer alike.