Climb Guide > Guides > Tremadog > Craig y Castell > Creagh Dhu Wall
Climb Guide > Guides > Classic Climbs > Creagh Dhu Wall

Creagh Dhu Wall

Grade MVS - 4a 4b
Length 170ft, 52m
Location Craig Y Castell, Tremadog
Rock Dolerite
Attitude South West
First Climbed J. Cunningham, W. Smith and P. Vaughan. 12th July 1951
Approach From the centre of Tremadog village, head west. Park on the main road opposite a lane on the right, just past a path on the left.

The crag can be seen high on the hill side above the turning. Walk up the lane, past a school, and through a gate. Just after the school play ground there is a gap in the wall, and a path leads across a field, through some trees, and up a scree slope to the crag. Creagh dhu wall is easy to find at the left side of the main crag, by a large corner.

Description
1) Go up the main corner groove on broken and mixed terrain. Follow the right side past the overhang. A tied sling can be clipped in a left sloping crack, which is followed until a move left leads to a foot traverse on the slab round the corner. Go across the slab then up to the tree and belay.
2) Drop back down to the slab and hand traverse the large break to the arete. A couple of harder moves then lead to a small blank ledge. Move a little left to a good crack which lands you on a good ledge, block belay (careful for loose blocks).
3a) Step left above the blocks to a sloping niche. Pull into the polished niche (crux), then out right and up to the top.
3b) Go straight up from behind the blocks, up a delicate groove to the top. Not much gear, but better quality rock. Slightly harder at 4c.
Account We had climbed it the previous year in perfect warm, sunny conditions. It was a good climb, but we did not consider it to be anything special. After climbing it again, we thought it was superb.
 

We got back from Craig Bwlch y Moch just before neighbors at half 5, and had pizza for dinner. I managed to persuade James that we should go and do a climb, instead of sitting around watching tele and skimming stones. We decided on Creagh Dhu Wall as it was not too difficult, easy to find, and we had climbed it before. We had no torches of any kind, and thus realised that we would be climbing in the dark, with reduced visibility.

When we got to the bottom of the climb the sun had just gone down, but it was still possible to see. This made racking up and starting easy. James lead the first pitch quite slowly (pic left), it was getting darker all the time. The picture below shows me after the traverse on the second pitch. If you look carefully you can see the horizon above my head, a slight orange tinge. I lead the rest of the pitch very quickly with no more gear. This was so that I would have a better chance of seeing the belay blocks, and setting up a sound belay.

Exchanging gear for the third pitch was quite hard, but our eyes had adjusted quite well, and the cloud cover had parted slightly allowing the moon to shine.

James lead the third pitch quickly and proficiently, but he found it very hard to set up a belay. When I eventually climbed the light was mainly coming from the street lights, and a security flood light at the school.

We were now faced with trying to find a path back to the bottom. We remembered that it was to the right of the crag. By following the sound of gravel and small trees we were on the path. At one stage James thought he saw the path go down towards the edge, as the edge was impossible to see, we decided to remain heading slightly up. There is an obvious large step down at the top of the decent path which we could recognise by touch.

Unfortunately the decent path was covered by trees. So visibility was less than nothing, we could not even see the ground. As the path is steep and covered by brambles it was quite uncomfortable. After a lot of searching we found our rucksacks, but could not see any loose bits of gear. James had an idea, to use the flash on the camera as a light. We had been in total darkness, under the trees, for about an hour and a half. The flash caused blindness and disorientation for 5 minutes, and did not help find gear at all.

The scree slope was the final hurdle. It was fairly easy to cross, and not much slower than in the day time. The lichen stands out very well. But at the bottom we could not find the path through the trees. It was not possible to just go straight through as there was very heavy vegetation. After several abortive attempts we recognised the narrow passage, and quickly got back to the car. It was now 2230.


Porthmadoc and Tremadog at night