Llanymynech

Perhaps I have had my head in the sand but I had only heard about Llanymynech quarry this year. I dont understand how I have missed out on this venue for so long. Yes its 'just' a quarry but it had some of the best quality of quarried limestone climbing I have tried (to be fair I havent yet climbed in the quarrys at Portland which are meant to be good....). Whats more Llanymynech is only about 1.5 hours away so possibly the closest decent crag.  The Clywd limestone guidebook (2005?) would have you believe the crag has limited climbs-fortunately UKC shows theres actually tons of routes here on a number of different walls.

 

We decided to focus on the grid iron wall for some warm up routes and then to the main attraction of Llanymynech-the red wall.

 

Grid Iron wall

• 49 and counting 6a
• Ba ba black sheep 6a+ (felt stiff through the roof section for 6a+)

Red wall

• Dead man's fingers 7a (onsite)
• Ratpure of the deep 7a+ (nice overhang at the start)
• Lobster on the loose 7a (massive rock over at the second bolt)
• Crab stick 6c (pleased to onsite this at the end of the day)

Me leading ba ba black sheep, 6a+

Paul making easy work of the rock over on Lobster on the loose 7a

 

Paul moving through the roof at the start of rapture of the deep 7a+

The climbing on the red wall was great, technical, fingery and on good quality rock. It was good to get on long routes (28m) which felt like they just kept on coming. The only downside was worn out finger tips very quickly! Highlights of the day were onsiting dead mans finger 7a and onsiting the last route of the day with tired arms - crab stick 6c (Pauls route on the next trip!).

Brean in Somerset

Brean down in Somerset is a good winter venue I have heard about many times. It is a long 2.5-3 hours away but we were not dissapointed; a great selection of routes next to the beach and in the sun it felt like we were climbing on the continent. Moreover, we had the place to ourselves :)

Paul leading Coral Sea 6c

After a nice warm up on the a couple of easy routes (the only routes below 6c on the crag) we got to business on the main route attractions:

• Coral sea 6c
• Chepito 7a
• Tide rising 7b+ (hoping for the rp next time?!)
• Bikinit atoll 6c+ (a first 6c+lead for Paul!)
• Kraken 6c 

  

  Me leading Chepito 7a

  I was pleased with my efforts on tide rising- and I would hope that on a cooler day I could stick through the two-third height crux.

Showing tide rising line to the left, 7b+

 We warmed down on a route that wasn't in the guide but on UKC is called a heavy road at 6b (felt alot harder than this but perhaps we were tired by this point). Overall I thought this crag was great and theres so much more to come back for and I can't wait!

Wheres your spade? View from the crag



Ban Y Gor

It almost seems to be too good to be true, good weather for the second weekend running. Next destination on the list was Ban Y Gor in the Wye Valley-it looked like the best place in the area to climb in the shade with temperatures in the high 20s forecast.  The access to the cliffs within the Ban Y Gor woods was better than we anticipated, and the crags were impressively overhanging and quiet!

View through the tees from Ban Y Gor

With few photos in the guidebook it was tricky to work out the routes especially as it is made up of several crags along the footpath in the woods. The routes were great and different to the limestone I have climbed on before- which is perhaps why they seemed very hard for the grades.


A new route, possibly pink panther?!

The overhanging routes looked great and  I enjoyed the onsite of Gordonzola, 6b+- much less intimidating than it looked, and victimisation, 6b requiring a huge powerful move over through a roof.  Harder routes such as Duhka 6c, and  Blable North, 7a highlighted my poor footwork and lack of trust on the lichen covered rock.  The twelve routes we did were great and included a variety of different climbs, but next time I will be back to tackle more of the tougher overhanging routes.


Gordonzola, 6b+

Cheeky days annual leave with Jon

Masson Lees is up for auction and there are rumours of it being sold for land-fill so I thought it was time to get back and try some of the routes remaining on the overhanging wall. I was with a new outdoor partner Jon, we've said for ages we'll go out climbing so nice to finally get out together. I'd forgotten how nice the rock is even on the red wall at Masson Lees, although very dusty.  It was nice to get a 6c (red and ribbed for your pleasure) onsite early on (fourth route) because I forgot to look at the guide! After 6 routes we got on the bet tpart of the quarry-the overhanging wall.

Jon tying on ready for his pocket rocket onsite

We couldnt get on the overhanging wall without ticking off the onsites of Eye Eye, 6b+ and Pocket rocket, 6c. The wall was a bit damp and very dirty but i gave Exo 6, 7a a go and came agonisingly close to the onsite- just missing a crucial two finger pocket having passed the crux! To be fair on this wall who knows what the current grades are given the chunks that kept falling off!  Nice one Mason, 7a+ took my fancy and had some great moves on it but had to be the worst route we went on as the top looked so dodgy and lose. In the pocket, 6c+ was desperate and seemed a different route to that I climbed a year ago.

We did 11 routes in Masson Lees and decided to head to Halldale quarry to tone it down, or so we thought...

It was my first time at halldale and it was pretty big, but Jon look us straight to Spectre wall. Looked pretty intimidating to me and the bolting was rediculously spaced! We did  Spectre, 6b+ which was a great line going through the roof. I'm hoping if felt so hard because it was our twelveth route! After that it was time for a burger.

The spectre, 6b+