Cenotaph Corner | E1 Trad climb on Dinas Cromlech

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Perhaps the most famous and celebrated trad route in Britain, taking on the obvious challenge of the open-book corner of Dinas Cromlech.

The route was named by John Menlove Edwards, prior to the first ascent. Around 1948 Peter Harding, one of the most talented and bold climbers of the day, was repelled by its initial hard section at 20ft.

Next up was Joe Brown. Joe was operating at a different level, and he made it most of the way up, before retreating from the niche before the crux, having dropped his peg hammer on his unfortunate belayer Wilf White. He was back in 1952 to complete the route with two points of aid, and it is his name that remains most associated with the route today.

He recounts the first ascent struggle in The Hard Years:

In August 1952, Doug Belshaw and I left the hut and went to Cenotaph Corner for another attempt. Compared with the first attempt I now had superlative equipment and a keener eye for running belays on which to protect myself. I avoided using pegs up to the point I had reached before, but pulled on a sling to overcome the first hard move at 20 feet. I found the climbing just as difficult as ever and tore my trousers from knee to ankle in the crack at 70 feet. Getting into the niche at 100 feet was absolutely gripping - very much harder than I remembered it from the previous occasion. The exit crack jutted out above. I tried an assortment of pegs; none seemed the right size for the crack. I buckled half of them and thought, Oh, damn it, you’ll have to bridge up across the bulge to gain a little height and bang one in higher up, where the crack appeared to be more regular. To make this move I stuck a peg loosely into the crack and pulled sideways on it. This movement was as hard as any I had done in my life. The last thing I expected was to be able to stay suspended in so fantastic a position and hammer in a big wrought-iron peg above the impending rock. The peg remained there for eight years. I leaned away on the crack and pressed my feet against the left wall to raise myself. I pivoted up almost horizontally. In this shattering position I knew that I would be down in seconds. I was climbing in socks and vainly tried to hook my feet on to rugosities below a large patch of moss, oozing with water. Until then I had forgotten that the conditions on the cliff were bad and the corner was very damp. There was a large jug-handle hold above. If I used it, releasing a hand from the crack would swing me off. But I had to use it or fall off in any event. Grabbing the jug-handle I swung back into a vertical position. the wrench drained the strength from my overworked arm. I got another hand on the jug and pulled with all the strength I could muster. I shot up like a missile from a catapult and thrust a foot firmly on the big hold. The exclamation “Phew” was never more appropriate at that moment.

It is not recorded who made the first free ascent.

By the 1960s, the character of the route had changed significantly, with good cracks appearing which had once been blocked by debris:

For those who did the route in the following years what they experienced was nothing like climb that it had been in its first 10 plus years. The route is the natural drainage line from the grassy bay above and soil and mud had been washed down into the crack. This over the ages had become solid like mortar. The crack that Joe climbed was shallow, only allowing the first inch of the finger’s entry, and the easy protection was not available in the same way - and was not the manufactured nuts until well into the 60's and certainly not the camming devices that followed in the 70's. I think it was after this ascent that Chris talked with Joe Brown who had just made his second ascent of the Corner. Joe said even at this time (1963) the route had changed drastically from when he first did it. [7]

A piton above the niche, possibly Brown's, survived until July 2024.

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdWj3qmu5M

[2] Harding, PJR (1950). Llanberis Pass. UK: Climber’s Club

[3] https://climbing-history.org/library/7288/llanberis-pass

[4] https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rock_talk/ron_moseley_and_left_wall-127598

[5] https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/dinas_cromlech-4/cenotaph_corner-3195

[6] https://www.climbing.com/culture-climbing/cleaning-up-climbing-history/

[7] https://theclimbersshopjoebrownblog.co.uk/blog/cenotaph-corner-70th-anniversary-of-the-first-ascent

[8] https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/destinations/the_wishlist_cenotaph_corner_e1_5c_dinas_cromlech-16579