It's monday and I've got sunburn... but only on my one arm, and it's localised in 1 single area right where my folded up shirt sleeve sits. That'll learn me for not wearing suncream I guess. Infact that was a pretty big oversight this weekend, that and the lack of pegs.
I've been away new routing on the Lleyn Penisular again. After the last trip I had some decent photo's of the crag to work from so Soames and I had a D-day style planning session, down the pub to work out which lines when where from the original guide and what rock was free of routes for us to try some more lines on. In the end we identified several new route possibilities at the cliff. Added to this we have made a decent topo of the crag with most of the existing lines still on it. It's just time to get back there and finish them off!
We actually had a late start on the Saturday arriving at the crag around 2pm. This late start I'll contribute to life just getting in the way but the main reason is bloody shed pullers clogging up the roads at 30mph. Armed the nano-photon torpedos is all I can say. To add insult to injury they don't even pay road tax, despite the fact they are on the road.
It was wet when we got there, or at least more of the lines we'd planned to do were wet so Soames headed for a little bay at the end, which isn't in any guide book and I'll name quarry 5.1 (as it's just after quarry 5, but not big enough to be a seperate quarry in it's own right). Here we did 2 lines the first being "how is this my fault" going at around E1 5a. It took a thin slanting groove line sporting 3 bolt thread. Now this section of cliff has got a few bolts on it, well threads and no hangers really, but there doesn't seem to be any reason for them to be there. I think they've been left over from someone trying to develop the quarry as a bolted venue or someone practising bolting.
Soames headed up the line first, but as he'd attained the groove he backed off and relinquished the lead to me. It was still damp and greasy. Trying to keep a good style I pulled the ropes and set off re-clipping Soames's gear until I reached the slung bolt hanger (a nut wriggled over the bolt nub). I removed it, intending to do the route free of bolts because all the other routes are on natural gear there. The final groove proved to be quite hard (5a climbing) and above a nest of little brass offset nuts and other tiny pieces of gear, but it went really well until I grabbed a thank god jug to finish. The top section eased to about 4c.
The second route Soames put up was called "Diamon little supergirl, tra la la la" and went at around VS 4b. It took a rib next to "how is this my fault" up to a small overhang. This took some gear, although the gear was interesting and relied on the stability of a rather large and slighty loose block. Then Soames went on to do some significant gardening to unearth the final little groove which actually had some footholds on it. It's a cracking little line!
Sadly the weather which we'd been watching throughout the day get worse and worse finally threatened some immenient violence. Instead of attempting another line and possibly getting caught out in the rain, we set off back to Eric's for some chips, pickled eggs and some beers. The pickled eggs were not my idea.
A few weeks ago I woke up in Eric's climbing barn, clear headed and smiling. Stuart pointed out that it was so nice to not have a hangover for a days climbing. This sunday morning however, I did not wake up without my hangover. It seemed hell bent on killing me. Eventually I stomached some breakfast and we got on our way again, back to our cliff. The weather had perked up too!
Arriving at the cliff we very quickly realised that the line we were going to attempt was actually not the simple little proposition that it had seemed on paper. In fact it look bloody scary, not to mention quite long. The plan was to try and traverse the cliff from left to right in a complimentary route to Interstella Ella. Eventually after drinking as much water as I could and stupidly no putting on any suncream we set off braving the adder infested grass to reach the base of the cliff. I opted for the first pitch which would see us up to a metal bar. I just hoped that there would be some gear along the way. In the end the route ended up being 5 pitches long and covering somewhere near 180 metres of ground. We spent 4 hours cleaning it on the lead and finding our way and then it took us and hour to recover once we'd got down. If there was ever a route to sit on the summit and smoke a fine cigar after, this was it.
A few weeks ago I woke up in Eric's climbing barn, clear headed and smiling. Stuart pointed out that it was so nice to not have a hangover for a days climbing. This sunday morning however, I did not wake up without my hangover. It seemed hell bent on killing me. Eventually I stomached some breakfast and we got on our way again, back to our cliff. The weather had perked up too!
Arriving at the cliff we very quickly realised that the line we were going to attempt was actually not the simple little proposition that it had seemed on paper. In fact it look bloody scary, not to mention quite long. The plan was to try and traverse the cliff from left to right in a complimentary route to Interstella Ella. Eventually after drinking as much water as I could and stupidly no putting on any suncream we set off braving the adder infested grass to reach the base of the cliff. I opted for the first pitch which would see us up to a metal bar. I just hoped that there would be some gear along the way. In the end the route ended up being 5 pitches long and covering somewhere near 180 metres of ground. We spent 4 hours cleaning it on the lead and finding our way and then it took us and hour to recover once we'd got down. If there was ever a route to sit on the summit and smoke a fine cigar after, this was it.
Pitch 1 followed a rising traverse below flat iron (in the opposite direction) before breaking through a gap in the overhang. It then took a blank slab to belay off an iron rod backed up by a nut. All in all this pitch had good climbing and decent protection seeing as it was a traverse. The belay was a little bit crap though. Soames lead pitch 2 which went right from the belay to gain an decent ledge and a neat rockover move. There was some gear, but most of it wasn't really up to much. Soame then made the sensible decision of belaying in the decent crack he found. I then lead p3 which was the long one. I took the slab under ther overhangs sticking right beneath them. The climbing was slightly harder than on ther slab, but the gear was much better. I actually wondered out over a massive hollow flake at one point and had to scamper back across it! Then the overhang dissappeared but I carried on along the traverse line. Here the gear worsened considerably and I ended up pulling off 5a/b moves protected by a series of microwires along way off. I was go glad to actually get to the decent ground above and belay.
Soames in seconding this pitch choose to take a slightly easier route up and over the slab I gone straight across. This was a good decision as it kept the grade consistant for the whole line rather than a really hard bit. I'll incorporate this into another route if I can though as the climbing is really good. Soames lead pitch 4 which was almost a reverse of the 2nd pitch of interstella ella. The pitch was actually pretty hard going the other way and Soames avoided the interstella ella belay by staying high at the finish. I then lead p5 which carried on traversing across what would probably be the schmoo pitch. The rock quality was a little crappy to say the least. In the end I had to clean out loads of grass and turf out of the final cracks to carry the line on it's logical end.
What a route! As I said we'd spent a considerable amount of time on it and finished dehydrated and tired. I even got a localised sunburn on my one arm. In the end we settled on the grade of HVS 4c for the route because there was some pretty serious sections of bad rock but with easier climbing on. A lot of the route traversed too so you'd need to protect your second. In interesting point Soames threw up was that we better get out and climb some classic VS's and HVS's somewhere to make sure our grading on the Lleyn is in keeping with the rest of Britian.
Soames in seconding this pitch choose to take a slightly easier route up and over the slab I gone straight across. This was a good decision as it kept the grade consistant for the whole line rather than a really hard bit. I'll incorporate this into another route if I can though as the climbing is really good. Soames lead pitch 4 which was almost a reverse of the 2nd pitch of interstella ella. The pitch was actually pretty hard going the other way and Soames avoided the interstella ella belay by staying high at the finish. I then lead p5 which carried on traversing across what would probably be the schmoo pitch. The rock quality was a little crappy to say the least. In the end I had to clean out loads of grass and turf out of the final cracks to carry the line on it's logical end.
What a route! As I said we'd spent a considerable amount of time on it and finished dehydrated and tired. I even got a localised sunburn on my one arm. In the end we settled on the grade of HVS 4c for the route because there was some pretty serious sections of bad rock but with easier climbing on. A lot of the route traversed too so you'd need to protect your second. In interesting point Soames threw up was that we better get out and climb some classic VS's and HVS's somewhere to make sure our grading on the Lleyn is in keeping with the rest of Britian.
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| The Evershifting Schmoo (HVS 4c) in WHITE & Interstella Ella (VS 4b) in RED |
1 comment:
been looking forward to this !i see you underplay your lead of the first pitch !and third pitch!!! nice climbing buddy look forward to getting out with you soon!by the way like the route name ,pretty sure i understand ,hey but thats what you get for escaping with a cave troll ! he he he ,climb safe cu soon
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