Craig y Gesail, Midas Buttress, Tremadog

Submitted by: Paul Stott
Crag: Craig y Gesail, Midas Buttress
Comments: I climbed at Midas Buttress again last weekend & was reminded about the email exchange with your Web Manager in September 2011. I don’t think the information I sent in ever made it to the new routes section. The small tree close to the start of the route seems to have disappeared in the intervening 5½ years.

Note from Web Manager: Apologies for this not being added at the time.

Touchdown

Date of ascent: 02/11/1969
Length/grade/stars: 25m HVS 5a
Climbers: Paul Stott, Alan Stockwell, Chas Ryder

Start location:

The start location & description are pretty much as for route 40, ‘Touched in the Head’, though the line is more like that shown for route 41, ‘Touchstone’ on the page 77 photodiagram. I suspect there is little or no difference between routes 40 & 41 (both climbed & claimed in the 70s).

Pitch descriptions:

25m: Start in the middle of the wall right of Touch & Go at a tree very close to the rock. Climb steeply into a groove. Up this to the traverse of Right Touch. Continue up on small holds to a spike & finish slightly left to arrive at a large perched block at the top of the crag (abseil slings in situ at time of writing, though I’m not sure I’d like to use them).

Additional info:

We called it ‘Touchdown’, due to one of the party touching the ground on the rope stretch when falling off the lower moves while seconding. Grade seems to be about HVS 5a by today’s standards, though I’m sure we originally gave it a lower grade.