Cornwall is always a pleasure to visit, the climbing is superb, with a great mixture of easily accessible climbing coupled with more adventurous venues as well.
I’ve just had a great six day trip down there, with a combination of Nick’s fiftieth birthday party and two days guiding with Graham.
There were quite a few folk at the party who were climbing, or sea kayaking, and we all headed to Sennen on the Saturday in glorious weather to sample the climbing.
Emma and I climbed a few of the classic easier routes such as “Staircase” and “Banana Flakes” before I had a climb with the non-birthday Nick on “Slippery Slab” and “Swift Flight of Fancy” which certainly taught me about my poor jamming technique on the crux reach.
The following day dawned a bit drizzly and wet so the climbing kit was put away and the running gear put on for a coastal jog/run just south of Lands End. It’s a great stretch of coastline and we were able to check out a few of the climbs along the way, I had a quick solo of the classic Porthgwarra Face on the way back.
On the Monday we were keen for a quick climb on something a little more adventurous without bumping the grade up so we headed to Hella Point to climb Helleva Slab, which at Severe 4a is fairly straightforward climbing but just getting to the start involves some tricky climbing, scrambling and an abseil which all added to the experience.
[nggallery id=13]
For the next couple of days it was time to team up with a regular client Graham, who wanted to try some of the Cornish Sea Cliff climbing having been on Dartmoor last summer.
We headed to Sennen and Bosigran over the two days with Graham leading most of the climbing in his steady style with myself shouting tips and advice from the belay, as well as leading a few of the trickier pitches when Grahams arms were tiring.
I think we got around eight or nine pitches done each day up to about VS, with Graham having done loads of millage on the eaiser grades throughout each day before trying something a little harder during the afternoon.
We had a travelling day on Thursday, Graham visited Chudliegh in Devon and I went sport climbing at Torbryan, before we met up again on Friday for some Dartmoor Granite at Hay Tor.
It’s quite a different style up here on the moor, and it took a couple of routes for Graham to settle back into it before leading the classic Levitation at Low Man, a great VS 4b.
[nggallery id=14]
