Jim’s Cornwall Trip October
2007
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Click
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After deciding not to go away
over the Summer holidays due to the poor weather and settling in to our
new
house, we decided to head off to Cornwall during half term. The
prospect of
beach (for the kids and Diane), rugged countryside (for us all) and
lots of
Granite cliffs (for me and my mate Pete from Newcastle) was a big plus.
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| The YHA at Land’s End was
to be our base for the week and from a climbing perspective it is a
good
location, (I was amazed to find the drive there to be under 7 hours). A
short
drive to Sennen, 20 minutes to either Chair Ladder or Bosigran. These 3
cliffs
offer good climbing and 4 Classic Rock ticks. There would be enough
climbing at
Bosigran to last a week on its own. |
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The
first day there, we headed to Sennen Cove
and spent the morning on the beach. After a cold start the sun started
to warm
things up and that was enough for Diane and kids to be in the sea (I’m
the
sensible one). After a cup of tea and a
Cornish Pasty we all headed over to the cliffs to the South of the
beach area.
The approach to the main climbing area was too risky with kids, so Pete
and I
geared up on some higher rocks and traversed around to where we needed
to be.
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| Pete had not climbed ove’,
a nice Diff. Pete had no difficulty seconding it, so we moved on to the
Classic
of the cliff, ‘Demo Route’. This is given Hard Severe and can be done
as 2
pitches. The first pitch involves nice
moves up some flakes to an awkward crack which is followed
to its end. A
belay is possible on a good ledge to the right, followed by a step left
to
below a very prominent nose. Here you must summon the confidence to
pull over
the nose on undercut jams and hidden holds can be found further up. The
final
bit is a pleasant exposed slab. The granite on the whole of this climb
is
extremely hard and inspires confidence.
We did not take our cameras as we did not know if we were
going to be
near the sea, as it turned out it would of been OK as the tide was well
down.
There is an excellent photo of this route on the front of the ‘South
West
Climbs’ guidebook. |
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| Day
2 saw us driving up to
Bosigran to look at either ‘Doorpost’ or ‘Bosigran Ridge’ (sometimes
called
‘Commando Ridge’). I suggested Diane could go and do the ridge with
Pete, but I
think she was spooked by the crashing waves and length of climb (213
metres)
and she suggested I go instead. So Pete and I scrambled down the far
side of
the ridge to the start. This climb was recently on TV with Julia
Bradbury doing
it as part of an extreme challenge. While the climbing is only VD the
start
does pack a bit of a punch. Even with the tide fairly low, large waves
were breaking
over the rocks below the belay. We kept getting covered with some
spray. I had
to traverse around and out of sight on a small ledge. Once around the
corner I
had no voice contact with Pete, due to the crashing waves. The climb up
looked
very steep and offwidth, but every move up brought a jug and enough
protection
to keep things under control. |
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As Pete came up it was easy
to see a big grin on his face, the rest of the climb is really good
too, even
though some of it is easy scrambling and we finished much quicker than
anticipated. This meant waiting a long time for Diane to come and pick
us up.
They had hired wetsuits and spent a few hours in the sea again.
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Day
3 was spent visiting
Porthcurno and exploring the coast. We even found a huge shipwreck near
Sennen
Cove. We also managed a drive over to St Ives which I found to be a bit
too
touristy.
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| Bosigran still held a
couple of climbs that I wanted to look at, so we drove there again the
next
day. We did ‘Black Slab’ V Diff, as a
warm up as one of Pete’s friends had recommended it and were soon back
at the
base of the cliff. Our next climb Ken Wilson includes in his Classic
Rock book
and I can vouch for this route. It was ‘Doorpost’ the best route we did
on the
trip. It is 3 pitches long and every move is superb. From below it
looks very
exposed and difficult, once actually on the climb, everything comes to
hand.
The guidebook calls it ‘The perfect Cornish climb’. |
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The climb starts with a
rising traverse to the right and a good belay ledge. The 2nd pitch
takes in an
exposed rib moving into a twin crack system, again finishing on a big
belay
ledge under a roof. The last pitch steps out onto a face to the left of
the
roof and follows cracks and a slab to the top. The exposure is
sensational and
on the last pitch I took a photo looking straight down to the sea. The
waves
were crashing in to the rocks on the mainland and a sea stack situated
below
the climb.
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| We has planned to go to
Chair Ladder to do the last 2 Classic Rock ticks for Cornwall, but the
last day
brought rain and any chance of climbing was gone. So we visited a
couple of
museums including the Cable and Telegraph one at Porthcurno, very
interesting
one about the British Empires undersea cables and radio comms during
WW2. |
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I can
really recommend Cornwall for an off
season visit, being a bit further South it can be quite mild, even till
October. This way will also see far fewer crowds than over the Summer.
If the
weather is bad there are also plenty of other things to do or see. If
anyone
fancies a trip, let me know as I will definitely go back.
Jim
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