| zoom in | zoom out | fit images to window size |
|
|
Martin at the start of Wintour's Leap on arrival, at the top of Fly Wall
Martin and Paul did another day trip to Wintour's Leap, the third of the year. The weather was perfect and the rock in great condition. Martin led Zelda at last, having been hailed and rained off the route in March! Zelda is a Hard Severe, about 200 feet and climbed in two pitches, with an exposed and moderately intimidating traverse at the start of the second pitch. All went well for both Martin and Paul though and 2 hours and 50 minutes after Martin had started, both climbers were at the top.
Second climb of the day was Swallow's Nest. This is a smaller route, at about 100 feet, but a grade harder (Very Severe). It can be climbed in two pitches or one... we chose one. The bottom 10-15 feet are horrendously polished though, making the start of the climb very technical and much harder than the published grade, for those first few moves. Once past the very hard start, it got easier technically... but still hard physically, ending with an over-hanging crack which required some good old hand jamming to climb. The back of Martin's hand is still (5 days later) slightly yellow with bruising! Overall, Swallow's Nest was a great route to climb and is on our list of routes to repeat.
|
Paul at the start of the day.
|
Paul is the small dot, bottom left of the photo, taken by Martin with his phone from the stance at the top of pitch 1. The ledge below the stance makes the route look really easy but in fact the route doesn't go that way.... you climb direct up a steep (vertical) corner and then climb diagonally up and across the face to the stance, which is a small ledge. Paul has just climbed the corner and is about to start the diagnonal section. Zelda thoroughly deserves the grade, especially the balancy, no-holds-for-hands traverse around the "nose" at the start of pitch 2.
|
This end of Wintour's Leap is just like the Grand Canyon. No, really...!
|
Swallow's Nest (Very Severe)