…or so says ukclimbing.com. I arrived for my first time at Caley with Rob and Peri and was surprised to see only one other car parked in the layby. Rob confidently announced we were in the right place and set off beating a path through the metre-high bracken. I tried to keep pace with him while Peri swam her way through, using her bouldering mat as flotation. After 10 minutes or so of this with Rob occasionally saying "I've definitely seen that boulder before" we realised we'd come to the roadside boulders rather than the crag. Undeterred, Rob assured me it was only a short walk to the crag and that there was definitely a big path that would get us there. By this point Peri was disappearing behind us into ever deeper bracken and giving increasingly desperate cries for help. 20 minutes later we finally emerged from the bottom of the bracken at the layby where we should have parked, approximately 200 yards from where we set off half an hour earlier. With no sign of Peri, we gave her up for dead and headed for the crag. By the time we got there, Simon had already completed an onsight lead of The Scoop (VS 4c **) with Carmen, while Dave and Gordon were working their way through Holly Tree Scoop (D *) and Square Chimney (HVD *).
By the time I was geared up and setting off up Pedestal Wall (S 4a **) Peri finally emerged at the top of the crag muttering something about the source of the Nile. She then spent the rest of the evening getting a comprehensive guided tour of boulder problems from friends (Dave and Roman) who actually knew their way around. I managed to make Pedestal Wall into a bit of an epic by doing it "old school" (i.e. missing an obvious cam placement) to get rather far above gear. After a bit of faffing I finally did the excellent exposed finish.
While everyone else was getting through a decent number of the lower grade routes, Rob suggested he have a go at leading Noonday Ridge (E1 5b ***). An hour later, he was almost ready to go for the crux move (12 feet off the ground). By using an ingenious method for joining two nuts together he had been able to tease some solid gear in to protect the crux. Despite valiant efforts to to do it free, it seems he had used too much energy up placing, removing and re-placing four different bits of gear. In excellent French Free style, he negotiated the crux move and made easy work of the dubiously green slab above. With my hands now frozen solid I cruised up the crux cleanly (yeah right).
So only a couple of routes done on my first visit, but at least I now know how to get to the crag!
cheeky git 🙂
more pictures from Simon …. http://climbing.me.uk/Caley/index.html
"increasingly desperate cries for help"
ooh you big fibber!
"With no sign of Peri, we gave her up for dead "
Ha! Lucky Joe Simpson never went climbing with this lot, they would have cut the rope after a mere five minutes and then shot him in the head just to make sure. ;-D
But the bouldering was utterly fabulous, and there were even some problems I could do.