York Alpine Club Blog

Wye valley. Day 2. Wintour’s Leap…

All three parties arrive at the crag at different times and/or park in different places but end up  meeting at the foot of the same route – Zelda – a 3 pitch 3 star classic. Carmen has nearly finished the first pitch when we  arrive, so we decide to jump on the route too as there's no real queue. Dave & Peri arrive to join the queue slightly  later, which pretty much wards off any other interested parties. The route goes well, with me forgetting I was on a trad  route due to all the in situ pegs. We'd made the mistake of hauling a load of gear down the crag, so we'd brought half of  it up the route with us to dump back in the car. With this done, and a couple of pies eaten, we head back down for the last route of the day.

Arrive to find Dave & Peri are still on Zelda, having had a wobbler each on the first pitch (their words). After a stern  talking to herself, Peri had another go at getting round the initial nose and was well into the first pitch when we arrive.  After a hunt around the foot of the crag, we finally spot out route, Cheetah. Rob leads up the first pitch and after a bit  of a wander about to get some more crag swag, he arrives at the belay. I follow on up.

I hesitantly set off leading the second pitch. Initial faffing with the gear to avoid rope drag gets me onto the route  proper. I needn’t have worried about being a bit rusty with placing gear, because that was pretty much it as far a gear  went on that pitch! The pitch meanders around a bit, and with very little polish on the rock, route finding is not that  easy. After a few extra meanders of my own I get up to a tree and nice reassuring sling gets slung around it. Almost half  way. The promise of a peg leads onto the wall above, so I head on. After a few meters of climbing, there's no sight of this  peg, or any other gear for that matter, so it's not really that obvious where I'm heading.

For psychological reassurance, I put a friend sticking out of the only bit of a borehole that'd take it, knowing full well  that it won't hold a fall, and carry on climbing. After a few meters more, a mantel onto a ledge, with the rope trying its  best to stop me, leads to the elusive peg, and the first solid bit of gear in 10 meters. Phew! The rest of the pitch goes  in a similar vain the first half – nice climbing with no gear (I wish I hadn't used that micro wire earlier on). The route  goes past (through) a hawthorn bush on the left, and even though it'll add some more rope drag, I have that as my final bit  of gear. A couple of big pulls as the guide describes and I arrive at the belay somewhat relieved.

My guide had it as VS, but the new guide has it as HVS 5a, so I'll claim that as a new trad high point…

meanwhile … Pete and John E went climbing at Shorn Cliff and it was overcrowded , so they went for another MTB ride around Symonds Yat, where John did the decent thing and took the fall on behalf of Pete. Lithos

More Pictures ….

After arriving at the campsite late, and finally getting to the pub via a random walk in the dark, the weekend begins…

The YAC June meet to the Wye valley was based around the Beeches farm campsite, 1 mile drive down a footpath and sited  pretty much on top of Shorncliff. A basic campsite with nice views across the valley – one of those sites that you hope doesn't become more popular than it currently is.

After a night of heavy rain as the BBC had predicted, I woke to the usual campsite sounds of people preparing breakfast.  The sound of a stove being put together but this time accompanied by sounds of puzzlement, the occasions "hmm?", and  "erm?", a large amount of hissing and eventually a large 'wooff' followed by all manner of expletives as Peri tried to  remove her eyebrows. As this sounded quite close and not fully in control, I thought I'd better get up… quickly.

Once the fireball was put out, and I got dressed properly, it was pottering around as normal for a few hours as people  waited for the weather to settle. The bikers eventually headed off in the right direction. Simon & Carmen, shortly followed  by Dave & Peri, headed for Shorncliff, and Rob and I had another brew. Rob then realises all his kit is locked in Dave's  car, so we head off to the crag to get the keys. Following our nose, we get there to find the others mid-routes, get the  keys and head back. 2 brews, 2 pies and a few (rain) showers later, and we're off the crag for the 2nd time.

As a re-introduction to trad climbing after a long break, I headed up a nice severe, Gargoyle, to start the day off. It was  slightly off-putting having local scrotes hurling rocks down the crag just along from us, but luckily nothing came down the  route. Ab down and onto the next one – Rob's lead on the Wye valley classic (apparently), Tiger's Don't Cry, retrieving left gear and crag swag in the process. I follow on making a dogs dinner of the last move to top-out. By this time Rob's warmed up, and I'm tired out, but it's my lead. A V Diff, Acoustic, does the trick.

A quick wander along the crag to find other routes reveals the source of the nasty wif we'd been getting all day – a dead  deer just below the footpath. The decision is made to head back to the same sector for Rob to bag some E1's. The first, The  Bone, is a really nice route (from a second's perspective),the second, Pooh Sticks, is ok (once again I cocked up the top  moves on the latter).

Throughout the day we'd been catching site of the others and by the sound of it, a good day was had be all. Dave and Peri  alternating leads on Acoustic, Inconclusive Victory (HS), Gargoyle and finishing off on Wolf Whistle (HS). There was talk  of finishing off Dirty Harry, but I guess that was already taken. Simon and Carmen had a good days bagging stared HVS &  VS's, finishing off by hoovering up a few routes in our sector and a swing on the rope we'd left on The Bone. A late finish  to head back and fry up all the food we had, followed by a quick jog downhill to the pub to meet the others.

Note to self – get some non-grey clothes so I don't blend into the rock.

More Pictures ….