Climbing in Cornwall

28th and 29th August 2004

Martin, Gareth and Stuart drove down to Cornwall on Friday 27th August, arriving at the campsite at St Just just after midnight. Over the 2 days that followed, we climbed at Bosigran and at Chair Ladder. Martin had his first taste of multi-pitch climbing on this trip (and it was awesome)!. Cornish scenary and cornish granite were also quite marvellous!

Climbs that weekend were:

1. Doorpost (HS) at Bosigran. 200 feet in 3 pitches. Climbed by Martin, Gareth and Stuart.
2. Paragon (HVS) at Bosigran. Climbed by Gareth and Stuart.
3. Ochre Slab Route I. Pitch 1 only (pitch 2 was like a river). Climbed by Gareth, Stuart and Martin.
4. Flannel Avenue at Chair Ladder. 185 feet in 4 pitches. Climbed by Martin, Gareth and Stuart.

Martin somewhat stupidly left his camera in the car on day 1. Happily, Stuart donated copies of a couple of his 35mm pics, one of which was from the Saturday.

STOP PRESS! Stuart went to the Scilly Isles in 2007 and coincidentally flew right by Chair Ladder in the helicopter and took some great photos, clearly showing *exactly* where we climbed! See bottom of this page.

Click on the thumbnails for full sized photos....

Saturday 28th. Bosigran. Martin climbed his first multi-pitch route with Gareth and Stuart, "Doorpost" (HS 4A/4B/4A).		Pictured to the left: Martin commencing on the 3rd and final pitch of Doorpost, climbing with a rucsack in preparation for climbing the Penon in Spain later this year.
Sunday 29th. Chair Ladder at the extreme South Western tip of England, less than a mile south of Land's End.	Approach was via a steep gully.		We abseiled down the last 10 metres of the approach....
	The rocks at the base of the cliff were covered in plants of a rather striking purple colour! This went nicely with Martin's Scarpa Marathon shoes :)	Considering our options....	Martin's finger.... with Gareth and Stuart in the background
		It's Martin, ready to get it on!	Stuart went to check out the route we were thinking of climbing as it looked suspiciously wet from where we were standing. Ironically, Stuart got soaked by a wave on his way over. Neither Gareth nor Martin laughed about this.
Stuart investigates....		Gareth and Stuart by "Suicide Pool".	Martin traversing back across the wall at the back of Suicide Pool
Still planning our route....		Stuart (aka Monkey Boy!)	Top views every way you looked. Very atmospheric with the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks too.
Martin's foot! At the top of the first pitch of Flannel Avenue (HS) although we reached it by climbing the first pitch of Cut-Off by mistake (which was fine because it was excellent!).	Gareth coming up the first pitch of Cut-Off en route to Flannel Avenue		Gareth leadnig through onto pitch 2. Shame about the contrast. Cool pic in other respects!
Gareth belaying Stuart from the top of pitch 2.	Stuart on his way up...	Martin's foot makes another guest appearance...
Martin coming over the top of the third pitch....		At the top of pitch 3 on a relatively roomy ledge. Martin is connected via the blue sling to the cam wedged in the break. At 150 feet high, you're putting a lot of trust i the equipment and its placement!
		Gareth starts his ascent of pitch 3. Gareth? Or is that "Sheep Boy"?!
	The weather was a tad variable. "Look over there" said Martin. "I think that's heading straight for us!".	And sure enough....! Luckily after a jolly good soaking lasting 5 minutes, the storm moved on...
At the top. Watching the hill walkers watching the rock climbers (that's us btw!)		Team Crimp!
And look how pretty the moors are!
Self-portrait!

2007 - Photos taken from a helicopter by Stuart

View of the cliffs we climbed

Closer view of exactly where we descended and then climbed out

And Stuart even annotated the photo! The dotted line shows where we scrambled and abseiled down and then walked across the foot of the cliff. The solid like shows our route back up.