Avon Route Guide

Suspension Bridge Buttress

A splendid piece of rock which has got the best concentration of HVS-E2's in the gorge. This is the most public place one can climb in the Gorge, with an ever present audience on the bridge during weekends in summer.

Suspension Bridge Arete HVS 5a**	An historic route, having once been the gorge's first extreme. It's a bit shorter now, but still quite tricky. Easy moves past spaced gear up the slabby wall to the left of the buttress lead to a grassy ledge. A few paces leftwards bring you beneath a shallow chimney. Float up to this and arrange a satisfyingly solid thread, then head up the chimney. Wobbling up the outside of the chimney is more exposed but easier than the normal grovel up the inside. There's not too much gear until the huge thread at the top of the chimney. After this romp up rightwards to the easy finishing groove and big abseil post belay. Having made yourself safe bow to your admiring fans on the suspension bridge! Abseil descent. Fantastic route. OW (on-sight) Great climbing, really well protected by threads. I led this as my first HVS lead. The middle section is a little run out, but you are above a bomber thread and there are some pretty good small nut placements, as well as some pretty poor placements available. Afer this continue climbing on pockets to a large thread, and a couple more thuggy moves and you're done with the hard part. SH
Suspense HVS 5a**	Really rather good. The climbing is straightforward to start with, but gets a little harder in the middle. Leaving some good gear at about 40', the moves get longer and more balancy as you run it out. It feels bad, but really you're safe (I think!). Loitering near a very vague gear slot around the hardest section is unwise, you can only get pumped, and the placement is in fact utterly crap. Get the good thread above the hard section and it's all over - you can breathe again. A pleasant route, but the name says it all. JB (on-sight)
Baby Duck E1 5b**	Another Suspension Bridge Buttress classic, this route has a bit of everything; exposure, tenous moves and run-outs. Set off up the wall directly below a line of pockets just left of the shield. Place a few wires and friends before arriving at a solid thread below the pockets. Don't miss it. Climbing the pockets gets harder and more scary until some good wires protect a traverse out right on the ill defined ramp line. This leads to another, easier groove which takes you to the top. Belay as for Suspension bridge arete and ab off. OW (on-sight)
Beginnings * E2 5c	A really good route on the buttress. The start is fairly anonymous, basically being the same as the Arete and Baby Duck. It all gets interesting about 6ft below the shield, which looks ominously blank. Place good gear and launch on to the face, a fantastic flowing crux sequence leads to hidden pocket holds. There are two carrot bolts here, which need wires choking on to them - slide the nut up a wire then trap the bolt head with the nut. Even if the wires are pre-prepared this is bloody hard to do one handed and the results look about as secure as a kick in the teeth! Ignore this minor detail and plough on up the shield which is fairly sustained with little good gear until you reach the ramp of Baby Duck. After that it's easy. Belay as for the others. OW (flashed)
Limbo * HVS 5b,4b**	The best route on the buttress and a real pleasure to climb. Solid rock, excellent gear and some top notch moves make this the best route of its grade in the gorge, well that's what I think. Its quite hard for HVS and the moves out left from the pocket line certainly feel a lot harder than 5a. The climb overall is steep, and hanging around on the crux move leads to some seriously pumped forearms. The second pitch is not worth the effort. Better to traverse off left to the ab bolt at the top of the first. A superb climb! (Possibly E1). CS (on-sight)
Earl of Perth * E1 5b,5a,4a**	The crux of this route can be seen from the road as a big black scar in the middle of the butress. An excellent route, well protected at the crux, and enjoyable until the end. 1. 80ft 5b Start directly under the black scar, and climb easily to a large ledge. Arrange a good thread and move into the overhang. Make a few strenuous moves on large positive holds, arranging solid protection on the way up. Follow the overhang leftwards (friend 2) and step out to a small ledge on the right. From here trend easily rightwards and belay on a few pegs. 2. 70ft 5a Climb past a peg and enter a shallow groove that is climbed to the top. The quality of the gear is variable, and there is plenty of vegetation, but the climbing is never hard. Belay on a large vegetated ledge on some pegs and good wires. From the last belay traverse leftwards towards the abseil bolt above Suspension Bridge Arete. SvZ (on-sight) A superb route, the best on SBB in my opinion. I would thoroughly recommend running the first two pitches together for a really enjoyable long (40m ish) lead. The crux is getting through the black bulge and then out right. A good nut (7?) protects these moves. BM (on-sight)
Hell Gates * HVS 5a,5a,4b**	A great route, quite hard in places and with consistent interest. The first pitch goes straight up to an obvious cave in the right centre of the face. The original line avoids a steep section of rock below the cave by going right, but the direct is better, although more strenuous. Take a huge sling for the huge thread on the steep bit. In the cave, which goes quite deep into the cliff, sign the Hell Gates Club book (if it's not too soggy), then gird yourself for the next pitch. A peg or so protects the steep moves out of the cave, which are exposed and very strenuous. When balanced above the lip, search desperately for gear. There is some, but it's not brilliant. Continue on up, with progressively easier climbing, to a ramp which takes you to peg belays. Traverse off leftwards to the ab bolt above Suspension Bridge Arete (quite a laugh, about 4b), or ab from the pegs (foolish perhaps). Wicked route. JB (on-sight)
Hieronymous * HVS 5a,4b,5a	This climb is extra hard for an HVS. The first pitch starts easily enough as you go directly up to the right of Hell Gates. There is plenty of protection available, but there are only limited footholds, so it is strenuous to arrange. By the time you get to the crux you will be well knackered, there are a few options available which enable you to avoid a small hawthorn tree. Kicking away some vegetation eventually revealed a small foothold which is the key. A short climb up a smoothish face then puts you at the belay, by which time the rope drag will be pulling your harness off. The second pitch is short and largely unprotected and finishes with a horrible move onto a very prickly ledge. Don't be tempted to run pitches 2 and 3 together as the rope drag will do for you. The third pitch is a nightmare, climbing the crack up the face directly. All the moves are thin and unbalanced and gear is tricky to place. Take some friends and hexes if you can. The crux comes about ten feet from the belay where handholds, footholds and balance all conspire to swing you outwards. Don't fall off here as the brambles will flay your legs as you drop. The last few moves look easier, but I don't know as I fell off then escaped rightwards. On the whole this climb is probably best done by someone good, in winter when there is a minimum amount of gardening required. Bloody hard all round. OW (lead with fall)