Devonshire Trad

At the beginning of the summer I created a list of local trad routes that I wanted to try. I wrote the list to encourage me to get on routes I had been putting off for a while, to eliminate my standard excuse of “I’m not mentally prepared for leading this route today” and because I quite like making lists.

Daddyhole:

Zuma E4 6a

Suicide Blonde E6 6b

Meadfoot:

Clotted cream E4 6a

Clotted Cream at Meadfoot

Telegraph Hole:

Crinoid E1 5b/E2 5c

Anstey’s:

Lumpy Universe E2 5c/E3 5c

Sanctuary Wall:

Sacrosanct HVS 5a/E1 5a

Incubus E1 5b

Call to Arms E4 5c

Long Quarry Point:

Black Ice E3 5c

Chudleigh:

Tendonitis E4 6a

Black Death E4 6a

Dripdry E4 6b

Major Tom E3 6a

Lowman:

Aviation E1 5b

Interrogation E36a

After a summer of free-time, good(ish) weather and an abundance of climbing partners my list now looks like this:

Daddyhole:

Zuma E4 6a

Suicide Blonde E6 6b – Seconded.

Meadfoot:

Clotted cream E4 6a

Telegraph Hole:

Crinoid E1 5b/E2 5c

Anstey’s:

Lumpy Universe E2 5c/E3 5c – Trad at Anstey’s?! You have to be joking.

Sanctuary Wall:

Sacrosanct HVS 5a/E1 5a

Incubus E1 5b

Call to Arms E4 5c – Agh, scary!

Long Quarry Point:

Black Ice E3 5c – Slabs, ugh!

Chudleigh:

Tendonitis E4 6a

Black Death E4 6a

Dripdry E4 6b – Tried, failed, ran away.

Major Tom E3 6a

Lowman:

Aviation E1 5b  

                        Interrogation E3 6a – Shocking, it's a classic, get on it.

The last route to cross off my list was Zuma at Daddyhole, a perfect cool crag for a warm afternoon. It felt good to get stuck into the route after thinking about it for some time; there were handholds and gear and even a rusty peg for company.... then the pump kicked in. My control and poise disappeared in a desperate sprint for the rest, too pumped to place gear or even contemplate the largeish fall that would see me landing on my belayer’s head. Luckily I made it and relaxed on the ledge placing gear to my heart’s content. 

An easy bit of climbing followed, enough to tempt me to believe that it was all over and the final stretch would be a jug-pulling romp to top with more gear than I could shake a stick at. It wasn’t. I managed to get wrong handed and increasingly pumped above a move I couldn’t reverse with only the stubborn determination not to fall off now keeping me on. Somehow I made it to the top and collapsed on the grass vowing to work on my endurance so that next time I won’t have to make the choice between placing gear and holding on.

Project On!

The summer of being-a-climbing-bum has given way to the autumn of having-to-work-like-a-normal-person. I’m working at The Quay, the new climbing wall in Exeter, which means that I now spend 99% of my life surrounded by climbers. This is all well and good until I have to make conversation with non-climbers...

The Arch at The Quay

Conversation with a climber:

Climber: You been up to much recently?

Me: Yeah man! Been getting on the trad’s, cos trad’s totally where it’s at, you know? I got on this route up at Wintour’s at the weekend, mainly jug pulling with like good gear but then there’s this fierce crux. You gotta get this slopey sidepull like this and yard up to this crimp, and I was pumped out of my skull man!

Climber: Narly dude!

Me: Yeah and there’s this, like, fierce mantle at the top and your only gear’s this dodgy RP and I brought my mate up and he was all like “Send it!”...

Conversation with a non-climber:

Non-climber: You been up to much recently?

Me: Yeah I’ve been climbing a fair bit...

Non-climber: Cool, was it good?

Me: Yeah.

Non-climber: Great... (long awkward pause)

With four days off work and a poor forecast Anstey’s seemed the place to be. I thought it was about time to find a new project (in much the same way that an alcoholic thinks it’s about time for another drink) and Tuppence seemed to be the most popular suggestion.

The session went well in my opinion, I got about halfway up and there were only a couple of moves I couldn’t do. I’m going to bask in some unfounded optimism safe in the knowledge that the pessimism will kick in 3 months down the line when I still can’t do the same two moves. Project On!

Cider Soak

After approximately 25 sessions at Anstey’s Cove in the last 4 months, about 100 hours of climbing, resting or belaying, a variety of conditions from blazing sunshine to horizontal drizzle and one too many fumbled clips I redpointed Cider Soak 8a***

It’s been a regular fixture on my climbing week over the summer: turn up at Anstey’s, warm up on the traverse, put the clips in Cider Soak, work some moves, do some links or try a redpoint, fall off, eat dried apricots, try again... all in all a very enjoyable experience.

It doesn’t go down without a fight though: first redpoint attempt of the day and I clip the third clip with relative ease (the technical crux), don’t get too excited at the break (the psychological crux) and fight my way through the top sequence to the finishing jug (the physical crux). I pull up some slack to clip the final draw... and fumble the clip, my fingers start to peel off the jug and I grab the draw in desperation. Bugger. So close but yet so far.

Second go I don’t make it past the pocket, third go I smack my elbow into a bolt on the way up then fall off reaching for the break. I consider stripping the route and calling it a day... one more go.

This time I’m at the finishing jug before I know it and I clip the draw like a model climber on Gresham’s Masterclass DVDs. It’s the perfect end to a fantastic summer’s climbing in the South West with a great bunch of friends.

Sun, Sea and Swimming

Today I did what any self-respecting Devon climber should do on the first sunny day in August – I went Deep Water Soloing. I’m very much a beginner at the whole DWS thing, I’ve only been twice and haven’t even fallen off...until today. But John suggested Rainbow Bridge (one of the finest DWS traverses in the world?) and I had no excuses: the sun was out, the tide was high and the bird bans were but a distant memory.

We made the obligatory phone call to the Coastguard to say we were deep water soloing as onlookers have the tendency to phone in. I would have thought the difference between someone having fun by the sea and someone in danger are quite obvious, for example when deep water soloing I climb, fall off and swim to the next bit of rock whereas if I was in dire need of rescue I would scream, wave my arms or just look dead.  But who can tell what goes through the mind of non-climbers!

Rainbow Bridge

We set out from the Great Cave with the sun behind us, glinting off the quartz crystals in the rock. Route finding is pretty easy, keep the sea below you (this is important!) and head sideways, if you’re lucky follow the path of chalked holds. The traverse leads through some awesome terrain from wild overhanging sections on jugs to intricate technical sections on tiny crimps, we got as far as the crux before we greased off the slopers into the sea SPLASH! 

I can’t remember the last time I swam but luckily I remembered how to and crawled back onto the rock a bit further along. Well that was the easy bit over with, now we had wet shoes, dripping clothes and no chalk... onwards. It wasn’t long until I was back in the sea SPLASH!

I swam to the ledges at the end of Rainbow Bridge and tried to recover some strength, I was amazed at how tiring I found the traverse being unaccustomed to continuous climbing for over an hour (possibly the last two days of training and plugging away at Cider Soak didn’t help).

Oz Wall Traverse

We carried on with the next part, Oz Wall Traverse, before escaping up the hillside with aching arms. At the top we met a woman who had seen us climbing and was going to call the coastguard... WHY?!

Back at the bags we relaxed in the sun before John suggested Magical Mystery Tour and we were off again.

Magical Mystery Tour

This traverse heads the other way from The Great Cave and is a few grades easier but with tired and aching arms it didn’t feel it. Much wild swinging on good holds followed together with a quick swim across the Green Grotto just when I had dried out again. Towards the end of the traverse is a move that involves falling across a gap to good holds on the other side. I stood and looked at it, composed myself, looked at the gap again, took a deep breath, poised myself to fall across the gap and... bailed out in mid air SPLASH!

At the end of the traverse we scrambled up the hill to relax at the top in the sun having completed around 750m of climbing/swimming, not bad for a mornings work.

Ken Palmer on his Barrel Traverse (F7C)
© Kafoozalem (UKC)

I’ll definitely be back to complete the parts that I swam past but I think it will be a while before I consider Wizard of Oz an epic link up of all the traverses completed by Ken Palmer last summer (excellent write up of the route here).  

For now I can relax and enjoy one of the many reasons I got into climbing; the feeling of a tired body and battered arms after a good day’s climbing.

3 days, 5 crags

Life as a climbing bum is going well: long days climbing with good friends, getting heckled onto routes, falling of projects and embarking on sea cliff trad adventures.

      ·         Tuesday:

Lowman – the windiest place on the planet – a nice trip up Aviation and then run away to...

Chudleigh – An escape from the wind and drizzle and an important stop on a tour of the best crags Devon has to offer for a visiting Northerner in the group.

Jerome’s attempts to persuade me to lead Interrogation had failed, as well as Interrogation SuperDirect, Blood Lust and a number of other Lowman horrors, but I gave in when he switched tack to Black Death. Black Death may not be the most inspiring name but it's an awesome route and, upon completion, you gain free admission to the Black Death Climbing Club. What more could you ask for?!

      ·         Wednesday:

Anstey’s Cove - The drizzle (or mizzle?) was forecast for the morning, so Anstey’s seemed the obvious choice, after all it’s always dry at the cove, right? Wrong! But lessons were learnt:

        ·         Cocytus is really hard in the rain,

        ·         It’s nearly impossible to get psyched for working a project route when you’re cold and wet and the damp’s seeping through the rock,

        ·         Empire of the Sun is the perfect route for getting more and more tired – I’m told this is called ‘training’?!

        ·         Just when you’ve taken all the quickdraws out of every route the sun will come out.

An enjoyable scramble along The Long Traverse to have a look at Sanctuary Wall rounded off the day perfectly.

      ·         Thursday:

Lower Sharpnose – With the sun shining and agreeable tides Sharpnose is an awesome and inspiring place, 3 fins of rock 25 to 30m high and about 2m wide jutting out into the Atlantic. Long routes, big holds (in places), good gear (in places) and rusty pegs. We abbed in and started up The Smile; holds and gear abound but it just keeps going.

My turn to lead next and Wraith was suggested, “an excellent wall climb” not overly reliant on two fairly rusty pegs. It was excellent, the gear and good(ish) holds give you no excuse to stop and ponder and with the crux at the top it’s an all or nothing effort. I sat in the sun at the top belaying with a grin on my face, good times indeed.

Unfortunately it was 3pm I was late for an evening climbing appointment the other end of the county. I left my mates contemplating scary E5 propositions on the middle fin and jogged back to my trusty van.

Sanctuary Wall - 2 hours later back at Anstey’s Cove I met John taking an evening out from his busy schedule to contemplate Madness, a route name that tells you all you need to know! Madness is a traverse of Sanctuary Wall, a loose, intimidating and absurdly steep sea cliff. The first pitch consisted of alternately hand traversing and teetering along a sloping ledge, with the odd bit of gear or rusty peg for protection. At the hanging belay we tried to think up excuses for not doing the last two pitches, we settled for a combination of potential rain, darkness and fear and escaped up the final groove of Call of the Wild.

It was a good end to three awesome days’ climbing, sitting at the top in the evening sunlight, surrounded by gear and a palpable sense of relief, tired and hungry but truly content.

Update

In the last week and a bit I have:

       ·         Bought a van

I don’t know much about vans but this one has wheels (4), goes along at a reasonable speed and plays nice music at me in the mean time.

       ·         Quit a job  

The last day was celebrated as all important times in life should be – with cake and beer.

       ·         Converted said van

As the old saying goes: “Give a man a power-tool and he’s happy for hours”. Thanks to Justin, the van now has a bed, somewhere to put stuff and locks that work!

       ·         Climbed

6 days on, feeling a bit tired now.

       ·         Planned trips

I don’t really do planning, but I have found people to travel with, places to see and routes to climb. Good times!

To Do List - Lemmings

·         Get up

A bit of a challenge, my aches and pains from a couple of days of climbing have united to create an overall sense of tiredness and a general feeling that it’s best to stay in bed today.

        ·         Eat

Ugh it’s breakfast time again, that meal comes around with a startling regularity. Maybe I should mix it up a bit, start the day with a roast dinner or a good chocolate pudding?

       ·         Buy sparkly shoes

Ha! I am a girl!

       ·         Climb

Back to Anstey’s again today, like a homing pigeon with a masochistic nature. It’s a lovely scenic crag, overhanging limestone looking over a quiet bay, with just the tweeting of the birds and the blood-curdling screams of coasteers throwing themselves into the sea (strange race the coasteer, must be related to the lemming).

Looks like the pocket on Cider Soak has dried out; good news as I can spend the day falling off a route I might be able to climb one day instead of falling off routes I have no hope of doing or falling off routes I have already done.

Climbing today is a bit of a challenge, it’s one of those days where every time you look down there’s a spare leg hanging in space doing nothing, you can put it on the rock but next time you glance down another leg is floating about. It’s an endless battle to keep the majority of limbs attached to the rock and it’s one that I inevitably lose. Despite this I manage to link a few moves and almost clip the third bolt before wimping off and going for the shiny quickdraw shaped hold. I could climb past the bolt to a good hold but I’m sure it’s easier to get stronger than to get braver.

I think I’ll leave the red-point for another day or preferably another person... Why can’t it work the same way as football? I could be an Adam Ondra supporter and every time he onsights another 8c I get to spend the afternoon in the pub celebrating my team’s success, starting fights with Sharma supporters and growing a beer belly... I think it might catch on.