Grade 3 Scrambles:

These scrambles will involve pitches of easy rock climbing and rope protection is often needed. The scrambler will need a solid knowledge of rope techniques in order to build anchors, place progress protection and, if necessary, set up an abseil. Dry conditions may be essential. These routes are often hard to escape.

Milestone Buttress approach to Tryfan, the Tryfan Bach Approach on Little Tryfan and Cneifion Arete are classics at this grade.

Scottish Grade 4 + 5:

Scrambles at these grades should only be undertaken by the most experienced of scramblers with a strong background of mountaineering skills. The routes will be serious, exposed and involve climbing steep rock; it will often be necessary to climb sections rock at Very Difficult (VD) rock climbing grade. Ropes, mountaineering and rock climbing equipment are mandatory.

In North Wales, the West Peak via Bilberry Terrace on Lliwedd -on the Snowdon mountain range-is a perfect example of this grade - a long, inescapable route with 300m of climbing.

Route finding

Good route finding is essential to enjoy a safe day in the mountains. The route finding begins at home with your guide books, maps and the web. These tools will give you a good overview of not only how to approach, find and climb the route, but also the location of escape routes, timings and objective dangers.

These observations can help you in several ways: once you start climbing the route your whole perspective changes and becomes very foreshortened plus it is often hard to see very far ahead. The landmarks that you noted earlier can help stay on route in highly featured terrain or if the visibility deteriorates.

Locating the start of some scrambling routes can be fairly tricky. If you are nearby the scramble, and are looking for the exact starting point, look for signs of travel: small cairns and polished, clean rock are good identifiers.

How to deal with tricky steps

Scramblers working as a team can reduce the seriousness of a tricky step by careful spotting, grabbing and fielding. It should be emphasised that if a slip or fall is likely in an exposed situation, it is time to rope up and protect the climbers by construction a solid anchor and placing protection.

'Spotting' is when the second climber stands below the leader climber on the ground -or on a safe platform- with the aim the stopping the leader from falling. This can be achieved by keeping the leader pushed onto the wall or -if they do fall- by stopping them from going too far or hitting their head.

Once over a tricky section, the first climber(s) can offer others advice and if need be can give support by grabbing a shoulder strap or jacket thus stopping any slip becoming a fall. The grabber should always be well braced and well balanced whilst other members of the team can help by holding the grabber in position.

The grabber should avoid linking hands with the second scrambler as this reduces their grip and balance and can result in both being pulled off.

When spotting or grabbing becomes useless a rope can be invaluable; normally scramblers use 30m to 50 m of 9mm dynamic rope.