After visiting Lundy for the first time last year I have been looking forward to heading back to the island this year. Since getting back from the alps the excitement had really been building as I got back to full climbing fitness and started reading the guidebook and creating a very long and ambitious ticklist. As my last few days at work dragged on I found myself spending more and more time looking at the forecast charts and getting over excited as it looked like a stable period of high pressure was building, and this weather didn’t disappoint as we had 4 days of sunshine!
We had a very successful trip where over the course of 4 days we climbed 14 routes with 26 pitches, 32 stars and which totalled 714m of vertical climbing. The highlights of the trip for me were:
- Quatermass – A committing 3 pitch E2 with fantastic sustained climbing
- Redspeed – One of the best pitches of climbing I have ever done
- Devils Slide – Onsight solo with a serious amount of exposure at the top
Day 0
We drove down to North Devon on the Friday evening so that we didn’t have to get up early to make the drive down to catch the ferry. We left Bristol in good time and decided to make the most of the evening light by heading to Baggy Point and soloing a few routes. We started on the super classic Shangri-La, a three star Severe face climb which was a route I remember eyeing up early in my climbing career, however due to bird bans and improving never got around to climbing. It was a brilliant route, which would be amazing for any climber who leads S/HS due to the fantastic exposure and positions, combined with good rock with exemplary gear. This was two firsts for me, my first sea cliff solo and my first solo which wasn’t on a grit/granite outcrop, it felt very odd/committing abseiling into a route without any gear or ropes, however the climbing was very straight forward and I was just able to enjoy the experience (and take photos).
After the first route we headed over to another crag at Baggy Point and soloed Ben and Marion, which were my first two sea cliffs I ever climbed (and the start of an obsession) back in 2012. It felt very weird being back on these routes without a rope after a few years, but the climbing was enjoyable and we were soon at the top and looking forward to some beer and dinner.
Day 1
We woke up to some unexpected drizzle and low cloud, however thankfully on the very calm crossing to Lundy the weather started to improve and the sun came out. The crossing was very enjoyable on the calm sea in the warm sun, which was very different to last years outbound crossing! When we got to the island we quickly headed up the hill and straight to imposing Deep Zawn at Jenny’s Cove. This was a very intimidating & deep sawn, due to the cliff tops was very hard to see the bottom of the cliffs from the top which made it a very intimidating crag to abseil into.
Our aim was a classic three star (will become a theme of the weekend), three pitch E2 called Quatermass. As I abseiled in I realised that we were in the right place, but as I was descending towards the bottom of the face the rock was getting wetter and wetter. Ignoring the concern in the back of my head I carried on and Andrew headed down and we were committed. I started up the route and immediately forgot about my concerns and was just able to enjoy the climbing due to fantastic gear, unfortunately towards the top of one of the tough sections my foot slipped off a greasy smear. On my second attempt I just about made it and was soon at the first belay and able to enjoy the stunning position and the imposing zawn. Andrew headed up the second pitch, nominally a ‘just’ a short 5a pitch however this turned out to be a sandbag with a tricky 5b move before sustained 5a crack climbing to the top of the pitch. The third pitch cut up the final headwall and followed a very thin crack, this was extremely intimidating from the bottom, however once committed and off the ledge the climbing was superb. There was just enough gear to make the pitch safe, but with a runout at the top which certainly got the blood flowing. I was very happy to get to the top having climbed a fantastic route in reasonable style.
After this we decided to head to The Flying Buttress for a quick route on the way home, to save abseiling we soloed down The Flying Buttress and scrambled around to the base of a three star HVS called Double Diamond. The start of the route was fairly wet, and the route finding was quite tricky as there were a few cracks and it was not clear which one to follow. Andrew did a good job at leading the pitch quickly and we were both soon at the top where we headed back to the lighthouse after a very productive first day’s climbing.
Day 2
We decided to spend the entire day in the Devil’s Slide area, this area if normally incredibly popular however we were very lucky as we only saw two other teams all day. We were very surprised to be the first group at the slide and due to this we decided to go along with out vague plan to solo the Devil’s Slide, a classic 5 pitch HS. After an easy abseil we were at the bottom of the slide looking up the slab, and before we knew it we had started up the route. The first two pitches are straight forward ungraded climbing which allowed us to warm up and get our slab legs out before the first crux pitch which involves a move out of a white scoop which felt fairly exposed with the 60m drop below. After this section we were soon at the top of the third pitch and at the start of the traverse pitch below the headwall. The climbing was technically very easy, but with 90m of exposure below my feet the dainty tiptoeing along the slab certainly got the adrenalin flowing. After an easy pitch we were soon at the top with massive smiles on our faces and enjoying the sun.
We then went on a three pitch adventure linking up three routes from VS to E2. We started on a VS traverse called Dexter which enabled us to get around to the back of the Devil’s Slide and to the base of another classic single pitch E2 called Redspeed. From the ground the line of Redspeed looks very intimidating, steep and unlikely to go at E2. I was soon leading my way up the route and having a brilliant time with yet more fantastic technical climbing, with unbelievably good gear. I was soon at a rest before the crux, and after arranging some good gear I headed off up the sequence. Frustratingly, the same thing happened again and my foot slipped off a greasy smear! On my second go I managed the crux sequence and soon ended up in a sort of rest in the corner, after a few minutes I had recovered as much as I was going to and then had to work out how on earth to climb up to the ledge. After a few aborted starts I successfully cracked the sequence and was elated to get up to a good rest ledge. An easy corner crack lead to the top of the route where I was again very happy to have completed a very tough E2, with brilliant sustained climbing in reasonable style (it would have been nice to have done it cleanly though…). Andrew then lead a long 55m pitch up the Devil’s Spine, a neglected but great VS which looks horrible and green however the dirty rock doesn’t detract from the climbing.
After some lunch we headed back down for our final route of the day, an E1 called Satan’s Slip which is known for being very exciting for the leader. I lead the easy but poorly protected first pitch (should have soloed it really) before creating a comfortable sitting belay in the sun. Andrew made good work of a scarily bold pitch of climbing up the slab and seemed very happy to get to the well protected VS corner on Albion. As a second a lot of the atmosphere of the climb is lost which is a shame, but there was still some enjoyable moves up the slab as I tried to imaging the fear of the lead.
At this point we were pretty tired and decided to go and enjoy the sun and walk up to the north of the island to enjoy our surroundings, it is a holiday after all! After a relaxing walk we headed back to the lighthouse and went to the pub for a sunday roast.
Day 3
After the previous days climbing I woke up feeling pretty achey, but we decided to stick to the plan and head to another three star classic E2 called Venus Flytrap in the morning as it was a non tidal route. The intention was to then head up the island to a classic E1 which was very tidal.
The climbing on Venus Flytrap was a bit more spicy than the previous routes as the guidebook was spot on, the gear was good where it mattered. However, this meant that on some of the easy climbing there were some serious run outs, once which would certainly have resulted in a ground fall from 20m! After some cruxey sequences, and a long runout I was soon next to the first overlap having placed some good gear, little did I know this would be my last good gear for a while. I pulled up and began the strenuous but reasonably straightforward traverse along the second overlap, expecting to get to the final crack and be able to place some bombproof gear. However to my dismay it was impossible to see the crack before making the final committing sequence, with some blindly placed gear I set off up the crack only to get spat back out. Unfortunately this time I can’t blame the fall on my foot slipping, nor can I say I successfully managed it on my second attempt! It took me a long time, and lots of falls but I eventually dogged my way up the crack to the belay and was absolutely knackered.
Once Andrew got to the top it was already low tide, which meant that we had to scrap our plan. In order to make the most of the low tide we headed to the nearby Old Light crag to climb an E1 called Asafoetida. After carefully placing the ab rope in the right place to enable the third pitch to be safely climbed we headed down the 70m abseil which we just made on rope stretch. I headed up the first easy 4c pitch in my approach shoes which turned out to be a bad idea as it felt more like 5a and the gear was pretty poor… Andrew had some route finding issues on the second pitch and climbed some of the HVS to the left and some of the E2 to the right (but the grade sort of averages doesn’t it…), despite this the climbing was enjoyable and I soon had the pleasure of leading the final pitch and was very glad of the abseil rope to pull on up the final loose and choosy gully.
We decided to finish by quickly climbing the classic VS of Eclipse, which is normally only accessible at low tide but thanks to an exciting belay 6″ above the sea and the very flat sea we were able to climb both of the pitches despite it almost being high tide. The first pitch looked very improbable for VS 4b, however the climbing was as straightforward as the grade said and was very enjoyable. The second pitch was a bit more interesting due to a misleading description. I climbed up to the spike on the arete and made an exposed move, however I took the description of an exposed move too literally and made the most exposed move I could, which was right onto ground which was neither a slab, nor 4b. I made a very exciting traverse with almost no gear which felt more like E1 5a which ended up in the corner of the Black Hand. This would have been ok, had I not forgotten to take the cams off Andrew after the first pitch and then not gone back to get them because it was “only VS”. At this point I was 15m away from the last good gear and facing an exciting swing into free space, thankfully I had a single cam which Andrew placed on the first pitch which I was able to move up the jamming corner with me. I was soon at the top, feeling like I had got a bit more than I bargained for from an end of the day VS…
Day 4
Having had a reasonably adventurous day on Monday we thought we would get a classic E1 in before we had to head back to the boat on Tuesday morning, however having abseiled in we found the rock soaking wet. I decided to give the first pitch a go, but having traversed right to the base of a right facing corner the rock got no dryer. I gave the corner a go, but the climbing was hard for 5b and very poorly protected and after a bad fall which resulted in a semi inverted swing shoulder first into the corner I decided to call it a day. At this point we were at the base of the crag having abseiled in, which meant it was time for another first for me as we had to prussic out.
When we finally got to the top we decided to call it a day as attempting another route would have been a massive rush and we wouldn’t have enjoyed it. On the walk out we saw Nick and Alex on the final pitch of Quatermass, which looks very impressive from the other side of the zawn. We headed straight for the pub and spent the afternoon sitting in the pub beer garden with a pint before the ferry ride home.
Summary
The weather couldn’t have been better on the trip and over the weekend we climbed some of the best routes I have ever done, I am now looking forwards to heading back next year with an even longer ticklist and some unfinished business. The final list of routes over the four days was:
- Shangri-La – S 4a – *** – Solo
- Ben – S 4a – *** – Solo
- Marion – HS 4a – ** – Solo
- Quatermass – E2 5c, 5a, 5c – *** – Alt Lead
- The Flying Buttress – Mod – * – Solo
- Double Diamond – HVS 5b – *** – Second
- The Devil’s Slide – HS _, _, 4a, 4a, _ – *** – Solo
- Dexter – VS 4c – Lead
- Redspeed – E2 5c – *** – Lead
- The Devils’s Spine – VS 4c – * – Second
- Satan’s Slip – E1 _, 5a, _ – Alt Lead
- Venus Flytrap – E2 5c – *** – Lead
- Asafoetida – E1 4c, 5b, 4c – ** – Alt Lead
- Eclipse – VS 4b, 4b – *** – Alt Lead
- The Fifth Appendage – E1 5b, 5b – *** – DNF
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