General

Lion Rock’s Hind Paw Buttress is located about 100m below and to the east (right) of the foot of the main cliff. To reach it, start below The Arete then take a faint rough path down a few paces before traversing east. After traversing for a while the path steepens until a scramble down a short gully leads to the base of the buttress. Occasionally there is a fixed rope to assist descent of the gully. The climbing on this cliff is rather more relaxed than on the main face. There is shade at the base of most of the routes.

A very old rope sling was found in the region of The Cat’s Claws. However, no details of any early climbs are known and the information below only covers recently climbed routes.

The routes are all long (approx. 30m) so make sure a 60m rope is used and knots are tied in the ends if you intend to lower people rather than lead / second.

Access

Access to Hind Paw Buttress is gained from beneath The Arete on Lion Rock, from which it is possible to scramble across the hillside and down an access gully to reach Route 1.

Routes

Download the latest PDF guide for the crag here 

The routes are described left to right (when facing the cliff). The first route encountered is just right of the base of the approach gully. All sport routes have lower-offs at the anchors.

1 – Jellylorum – F4+
A short and easy warm up. Start below a slab just right of the descent gully. Follow the bolts up the slab. The lower-off has rope/slings which will be replaced with stainless steel carabiners.
F.A. Paul Collis, Christophe Torresse (March 2010)

2 – Sex Kitten – F6b+
Start a few metres right of the previous route below a short steep wall. Climb the wall strenuously to reach the ledge (crux) to briefly share a few holds with the next route on the right. Move left and follow the thin crack until it runs out, where difficult moves on the slab to the left lead to the anchor.
F.A. Paul Collis, Dan Hannah (March 2010)

3 – Fangtastic – F6a+*
Start below a steep slab just right of a wide crack. Climb the wall then left up into the crack and onto the top of a pinnacle. Step up onto a steep wall then a tricky move leftwards leads onto a ledge (crux). Follow the pleasant leftward trending crack to the anchor.
F.A. Paul Collis, Christophe Torresse (March 2010)

4 – The Cats Claws – HVS 5b
Start at the base of the buttress, just left of the bolted start of Stephen and Stitt’s Day Out. Climb a groove into cracks and then onto a large ledge. Climb the steep wall above using a crack until difficult moves enable one to get established in the base of a somewhat vicious hand crack to the left. Continue up more easily to a two bolt anchor. Use the lower-offs to the left or right but take care with rope length.
F.A. Richard Cunliffe, Jim Gray (March 2010)

5 – Stephen and Stitt’s Day Out – F5*
Begin at the bottom of the buttress below a short rib. Climb the rib then move up leftwards then back right to a nice slab. Cross it rightwards then climb a steeper blunt arête onto the upper slab. Go up this to a crack which is followed to the anchor.
F.A. Paul Collis, Richard Cunliffe (March 2010)

6 – Project
Just right of Stephen and Stitt’s Day Out a project has been mostly bolted. The line takes the right side of the blunt arête until it briefly meets Stephen and Stitt near the top before moving right to finish up a steep wall.
As of September 2011 the bottom bolts had not yet been placed and it is not known whether further efforts to develop the route were made.
Projectors: Danimal Hannah & Gianfranco Bigazzi