We had an excellent weekend on Lundy this year, we were fortunate to have good weather on the island and smooth crossings on the ferry. The excellent weather allowed us to do plenty of climbing, although unfortunately on the first day this was curtailed due to side effects from sea sickness drugs! As we hadn’t done much climbing this year we enjoyed some of the islands easier classic routes which we had missed previously.
Having abandoned the Dolomites due to unexpected snow, we headed to Arco which is just north of Lake Garda. Arco is best known to climbers for sport climbing, however it turns out there is also a huge amount of big multi-pitch naturally protected routes. For the most part these seemed to have fixed protection, either threads or bolts. But it was occasionally necessary to place gear. For the first few days we climbed routes just north of where we were camping which were 3-4 pitches. These were enjoyable routes, and more importantly they were out of the afternoon sun! On the last day we headed further up the valley to climb a long multi pitch route called La Bellezza Della Venere. The route climbed 300m in 9 pitches, and was excellent throughout. It was slightly marred by some rude Germans behind us who were getting angry with the party in front of us who were not as fast as they wanted to be. We enjoyed a relaxed day on the rock, in the sun, with beautiful views up the valley while chatting with the party in front of us at belays.. Read the full article…
While there is lots of excellent single pitch sport routes in the Costa Blanca, it is also an excellent destination for bolted multi pitch. This year we didn’t climb as many multi pitch routes when compared to last year, but the quality of the routes that we did climb was excellent. Carillo-Cantabella, Leyva After landing at Alicante we headed down south to Leyva, which is a spectacular mountain crag above a forrest filled valley. It is more famous for some of the harder routes, but there is an excellent mid grade route called Carillo-Cantabella. It is a five pitch f5+ with two pitches of f5+ and the rest being slightly easier. The bolting on the route was excellent, and the climbing was interesting with a technical sequence though the crux and un unexpected steep corner at the finish. Marin On the last day of the trip we headed to Marin which is 45mins away from Alicante airport. This was an excellent destination for quality lower grade short multi pitch routes, as the crag had a plentiful supply of 2 pitch bolted routes between f4 and f6a. We climbed the class f4. Read the full article…
It isn’t often that a long easy rock route is quite as striking as the like of Espolón Central on Puig Campana. From the valley the climb follows the obvious ridge of rock up the centre of the rock face, which looks improbable at the grade of Hard Severe from the valley. We set off on a beautiful misty morning which gave us a beautiful inversion at the start of the walk. We had a bit of a navigational error at the start which meant that we had an unnecessarily hard time getting up onto the plateau, however we made good time up to the crag and found other teams in front of us on the route. By the time we had geared up the first pitch was free, and we didn’t need to queue again for the entire day. The climb started as it meant to carry on, with excellent well protected climbing which was interesting but not too difficult. The first five pitches gain the rocky spur at the base of the main ridge, then the next nine pitches headed straight up the main ridge. This section was the. Read the full article…
When I booked onto the Avon Mountaineering Club’s winter Lake District trip I was very optimistically hoping for some winter climbing to be in condition, optimistically hoping for some winter walking and just hoping for some good weather. Unfortunately winter had other ideas and there was barely any sign of winter in Scotland, let alone the Lake District. However, what I was not expecting was a forecast which involved a light breeze and a cloudless sky. This forecast led to George persuading Becky and me that we wanted to go rock climbing, on a mountain crag in the Lake District in January. Initially we were unconvinced, however we did eventually relent and agreed to head up to Gimmer to climb two classic rock routes. When we woke up we were presented with a cloudless sky, beautiful sunrise and a frosty ground. We sorted our gear out in the Old Dungeon Ghyll car park, and it did feel a bit strange packing to go rock climbing in the mountains with ice on the ground. We soon warmed up on the walk up to Gimmer before cooling down again when we headed into the. Read the full article…
You can take a British climber out of Britain, but evidently you cannot take the British ethic out of a British Climber. While staying in Ailefroide over the summer we were surrounded by hundreds of immaculate, sunkissed granite slabs which were well bolted, after a few days on these slabs we decided to return to our routes and climb a very traditional route which was staring down on us from above the campsite. The route we headed for was the Fissure d’Ailefride and was an eight pitch chimney on a north facing wall which only briefly receives the sun in the evening. It was mostly traditionally protected, however there were bolted belays and there was the odd bolt at some of the harder sections. It had been recommended to us not to take a bag, which turned out to be very worthwhile advice! The Fissure can be seen in the above photo splitting the crag up the middle. While walking into the crag we were feeling very British, and were slightly bemused to find a French couple just starting the route ahead of us! It wasn’t long before you had to. Read the full article…
Having decided not to head over to Chamonix due to the weather we were keen to get to another summit and have another big mountain day out before the end of our holiday. Unfortunately due to the weather this was put back until the day we were leaving. Despite the plan to leave we were both drawn to an amazing looking route at the head of the Ailefroide valley which climbed the Sagnette. The route was 15 pitches long, well bolted and involved about 10 abseils to get back. Due to our desire not to finish in the dark, and to finish early enough to make a good indent into the journey that night we had a very early start. After a hideous alarm call we drove up the valley in the dark and discovered that even if you turn up before dawn you still have to pay the park entry fee! A hasty walk in enabled us to overtake two other parties and arrive at the route without anyone in front of us. The first few pitches were very cold in the shade, however the climbing was excellent. It. Read the full article…
As the weather has remained excellent in Ailefroide we have stayed here to focus on multi-pitch rock rather than heading off somewhere else to do more alpine climbing. Palavar les Flots, 12 Pitches, 430m, 5c We started with the long but relatively straight forward classic of Palavar les Flots, which is a 12 pitch 5c which climbs the dominant arête above the campsite. The climbing was relatively sustained all the way up at 4b-5a which made for an enjoyable day out, the crux pitch was notably harder than the rest of the route but had an enjoyable sequence up the slab. Despite being stuck behind a slower group of three, we made quick time up the route and we were at the top by lunchtime. After lunch on the top, we made the long abseil back down to the valley. By the time we were back down at the base of the route we were in the full heat of the afternoon sun, so we made a hasty retreat to a hotel in Ailefroide for a beer and some ice cream. Little Palaver, 8 Pitches, 300m, 5c Next to Palavar. Read the full article…