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| Wreckers Slab VS 4b - The route follows up the center of the largest slab to the cliffs highest point |
So for my first post i'm going to blog about a route I did with Rob Steer just after that massive storm we had up on The Culm coast in Cornwall.
The route (Wreckers Slab, VS 4b) is a poorly protected, loose, crumbling Cornish slab (wow i know right sounds amazing!). However it is almost one of the longest and most wild routes in the south west and for that reason makes it seem much more appealing! A climb for the true glory hunter, or if you hate climbing around other people or on good rock.
So after walking for 40 minutes up the coast and over far to many hills the huge monolith comes into sight. That is where the approach changes from mildly enjoyable to scrambling down a crumbling cliff and lowering yourself down a rotten nylon rope, but eventually we got to the bottom. Once down you get a full feel for the angle of the slab, which is quite kicked back even if it doesn't seem that way from every other vantage point (which is a relief!).
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| Rob Steer leading the first pitch |
The first pitch (4a, 45m) crosses above an overhang on minimal gear to a corner, up which leads to a belay. The next pitch (4b, 35m) starts by breaching some overlaps and up onto an immaculate slab to some (more) pegs. After dancing up this for a further 20m you reach a wide ledge with a leaning pillar belay. From here you're supposed to surmount a wobbly pillar and onto the slab (45m). However the pillar looks as if it is long overdue a tumble down the cliff so we opted for the jamming crack to the right which leads to the grassy slabs and the top. All the pitches were long and runout, the rock had the structural rigidity of cornflakes and there were more rusted pegs than in all of Gogarth but WHAT a route!
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| Me moving through the overlaps |
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| Rob seconding the last pitch |
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