Dunes Buttress All Trad climbing 37 routes in cliff

Tackles the hanging corner on the left side of a narrow grey/black buttress (Cow Cragg) immediately left of Lawrence's second pitch.

Start at belay/rap station near the Lawrence traverse.

Start as for Withnail and I. Climb the steep grey wall above to gain the arete proper of Cow Cragg passing a FH on its left (if you move right here it is about grade 20 and still worthwhile). Continue up the arete to join Marwood at the top.

Some think that the excellent climbing on the upper pitches makes up for the atrocious start; others strongly disagree.

Start between Dreadnought Buttress and Dunes Buttress at a shrubby rib.

1. 35m (9) Up the rib with vegetation issues (persevere: the climb gets better). Traverse right and belay near the beautiful ferns at DBB

2. 35m (13) Bridge steeply up the chimney.

3. 30m (13) More excellent chimneying on great rock.

A varied route which parallels Lawrence to its right and features some interesting rock flutings.

The cruxes on this and the variation are runout on average gear and the rock is a little fragile in places.

Start at the first belay of Lawrence.

From the first belay of Lawrence climb a short right leading crack to a small stance. Climb the vague groove and buttress above passing the rap station for Forbidden Fruit on its left. Higher up the buttress narrows and is marked by a crack on its left. Climb the compact grey wall to its right to gain an atttractive orange groove near the top. Finish steeply on jugs and belay in a cosy niche.Scramble easily to the top of Dunes Buttress. A righthand variation was done at 21 by Ingvar which climbs the wall directly above the Forbidden Fruit anchors to rejoin the original route at the compact gray wall.

The shenanigans on the first ascent suggest they were certainly consuming something forbidden...

Start: Start 2m L of Semi-detached.

1. 25m (23) Up wall, traverse right to gain diagonal flake sytem and follow this to ledge. There is protection but it won't stop a groundfall from the crux.

2. 20m (26) Scary face with fragile rock to crux past 2 bolts. Apparently you need double thumb sprags.

Serious start but finish is worthless. This original probe at the Forbidden Fruit face got Kieran an invition onto the FF team.

Start 4m L of Saracen.

1. 25m (22) Tough poorly protected start to dubious flake-block, then up R to jugs. Easier runout section up to overlap, over bulge and move L to join Saracen. Belay at good ledge on L.

2. 10m (22) The crack on the R side of the yellow wall, through the bulge then R to easy finish and go across to rap anchor for Sandpiper.

The first and third pitches are good. It's best to run pitches 1 and 2 or 2 and 3 together, then you get two good, long pitches followed by an easy pitch off.

Start below and L of the big overhangs, on the lower section of Dunes Buttress, at a layback crack.

1. 35m (16) Up the corner for 6m, then swing up L past overhang onto slab. Trend L into bushy territory, then R into dirty groove to Arab's 3rd belay.

2. 12m (-) Step L and up to small stance. Best to keep going up the next pitch rather than belay here.

3. 33m (16) Go 2m R then up excellent grey crack. (A grade 8 variant established by the three Gledhills on 14/1/68 goes straight up the deep crack into the chimney on pitch 4).

4. 34m (-) Ramble onwards, veering left at spacious sloping ledge

Veer up R from the corner and easily over small roof. Tough moves to a rest on the R, then out the main roof being wary of a captive loose block. Rap off as for Sandpiper.

Start as for Saracen.

start 5m left of sandpiper (2m right of Top Cat). Climb rightward up slab to corner (left of prominent nose). Follow diagonal line, crossing Sandpiper. Continue rightwards to steep overlaps (crux). Finish as for Arab pitch 1. Fun!

Start at a large chimney at the foot of the buttress, then traverse left until at the base of a short overhanging wall easily noted by large white jug, crux, then once past this, up on difficult and sharp layaways through small roof, then arriving at the rap station (26m).

Start: The overhung arete at the base of 'Dunes' buttress, up the offwidth chimney on the right.

Climb Arab p3 for 4m then step L and up. Stay out of Saracen and traverse R along the lip of the roof, to join a thin crack, straight on up the face, and take the roof by the R. The original route has a poxy independent first pitch starting 10m L of Saracen but you're far better off approaching via Arab as described.

Start at Arab's second belay.

1. First pitch of Arab.

2. Directly up face from double ring anchor to roof, climbing over the roof to the right a bit at the giant horn. Belay just after roof.

3. Climb up to the summit on the face keeping 2 meters to the right of Sacana corner when they connect mid-way.

2m L of Dunes is a R facing corner. Start by scrambling (or roping) up this to the top of the huge flake.

1. 25m (16) Grey slab to strenuous chalked wall, then head L up stepped ramp to a belay ledge on the arete. (The original avoided the overlap by going way off R - this better direct way was done by Keith Lockwood and Geoff Schirmer 4/2/78).

2. 10m (-) Step L then up over worrisome blocks and belay under orange corner. 2b: Variant 15m Straight up arete with reasonable pro and rock.

3. 15m (16) Up orange corner then R under arching roof to arete.

4. 25m (-) Up the line then L onto wall and belay under steep little crack (which is pitch 5 of Dunes).

5. 32m (-) Traverse L, ignore scrubby crack, and take the balancy grey slab then join the final corner of Dunes.

Definitely bold but the climbing is rubbish. Start at Arab's 2nd belay.

1. 15m (-) Climb the arete R of Arab's corner to a ledge.

2. 20m (21) Continue up the undercut arete, which gets rather runout.

A spectacular journey. 1. 20m Wall right of Sandpiper, continuing up slab/chimney, to good ledge. 2. 25m (crux) Break through overlap as for Arab, step up right, then follow the line of right-facing edges. (This line is left of an obvious yellow stripe of rock). Continue up wall, trending slightly left, to major horizontal break. Don’t touch the loose boulder sitting on the belay ledge. A dramatic, technically interesting pitch. 3. 20m Up black wall (left of Dunes) to the Oasis. 4. 20m As for Dunes, pitch 3. 5. 20m Move right to yellow corner, step up right and follow black rock direct to the summit.

This is the original version. Dunes Direct (described separately) is now the usual way to go.

Start up the L-facing corner of a huge flake leaning against the east face of the buttress (crawl through behind the flake from the right or scramble easily up from below).

1. 36m (-) Up the corner then trend R up slab to the base of a short chimney facing R into the gully.

2. 6m (-) Up the chimney.

3. 40m (9) Traverse L, step down, and go a bit further L. One tricky move up then continue straight up easy wall to the Oasis (the big ledge between 2 huge boulders).

4. 27m (-) Traverse L to ledge, then up the short steep crack with good jugs, and up the clean corner above.

5. 10m (-) Short corner then easy finish.

A good four pitches with the first, second and fourth having quite absorbing sections.

Start as for Dunes.

1. 30m (13) As for Dunes up the corner and slab but then skip the pitch 2 chimney over on the right by going straight up the slab, pulling L onto ledge then up the flake and wall staying R towards the arete (Sep 88, Kieran Loughran and Meg Sleeman).

2. 25m (11) Drift left up excellent steep clean exposed juggy climbing. Belay on spacious sloping ledge a bit before the Oasis.

3. 22m (10) Head up L to the L end of the Oasis ledge and surmount an undercut slot (not kid friendly! Maybe try further L with kids). Continue to an overhung but very juggy bulge, and belay 5m above this on a good ledge.

4. 23m (12) Ledge hop up to a very nice vertical juggy wall, then up a slippery polished corner crack (again, not kid friendly). At the top of the corner move about 5m R to find an easy way to do the last few moves to the top.

Up the steep jam-crack through the V-cleft lip, then nice flake/crack to small ledge. Step L and up short corner.

Start on the L side of the Oasis (which is 3-4 pitches up Dunes or Eskimo Nell).

The usual offering from these two! The ugly offwidth roof/corner on the L side of the boulder. Finish up EN pitch 5.

Start on the Oasis on the L side of the big boulder which Eskimo Nell pitch 4 crawls under.

This is just the original first pitch of Dunes and should probably be deleted.

Variant first pitch that avoids the greasy start of the original, but is quite runout. Squeeze through behind the block L of the original start to a ledge. Up the L side of the block and up the slab with very little gear to join the original first pitch at the corner/overlap

Wonderful climbing up the right side of the Dunes Buttress, with virtually every pitch offering something of interest.

1. 35m (10) Up surprisingly tricky left facing flake/corner (consider starting up Dunes instead if this might give you grief). Continue up slabs above and belay below chimney around the corner.

2. 40m (9) Easily up chimney. Step across the void from top of chimney onto the face proper and continue up to large ledge (the Oasis).

3. 15m (1) Crawl R through hole, belay beneath chockstone in chimney on the other side.

4. 40m (9) Pull up onto the chockstone with difficulty. Follow the deep crackline above to the top (or for a slightly easier finish trend a bit left for the last bit).

The arete right of the first pitch of Eskimo Nell. Not a great choice of placements on the first half. Take a pink (0,5) Tricam (seriously) and Metolius 0. Start just left of the arete right of the initial crack of Eskimo Nell. Follow seams just left of arete (crux, fiddly gear or long stick-clip) to bolt and onto a narrow ledge. Move right to the arete and up arete into a broken area. Don't veer off but finish steeply up the arete. Rap anchor (not lower-off).

Not bad, seems hard for the grade. Start around R from Eskimo Nell in the gully. Jam and undercling the diagonal crack on the left wall of the gully and continue more easily to first belay of Eskimo Nell.

Start as for Eskimo Nell RHS.

1. 46m (13) Climb ENRHS then continue up ramp for some distance to belay below a corner, immediately right of the crack of Icecream Man.

2. 25m (-) Bridge undercut corner and follow line to the R side of the Oasis.

3. 46m (-) The initial chimney of EN pitch 4, traverse 7m R, then straight up over bulges.

Start and finish have poor pro. Straight up (was originally brushed very clean but may have grown back). Finish up shallow corner L of an orange nose.

Start: Start 10m L of 'Brontosaurus' at L end of ledge.

Walking off is very scenic and enjoyable, but if you want to rap off there are double rings a few metres right of the topout of Eskimo Nell, then another set on the northeast end of the Oasis ledge, and chains atop Drifting Sand. Rap 1 30m , rap 2 45m.