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Halfway through my porridge breakfast the sky darkened with thick black clouds, and within moments the heavens opened and rain hammered relentlessly down on the lean-to roof outside. Things were looking far from ideal for my proposed climbing plans for the morning!
Five days previous to this I'd had a look at a route called Killa Gorilla, a F7b, whilst out climbing along Magical Mystery Tour at Berry Head as part of my training for our Portugal Deep Water Solo trip. The route looked fantastic, with a long and super-steep rising traverse into the entrance to the Great Cave leading to a fingery crux near the end before the finishing jugs. It was then that I got all psyched to try and climb the route before we flew out to Portugal in just one weeks time. I decided if I was going to climb my first 7b, I wanted it to be on a route that inspired me and was on my home turf.
Killa Gorilla fitted the bill perfectly for me. The race was on!
Over the weekend of 14/15th September I managed a couple of sessions down there trying the route in the mornings before work. I made pretty good progress on the Saturday, making it up to the final crux, but failed to unlock the right moves to victory. On Sunday, with some of the finishing holds chalked up, I had a couple more goes on it, but inadequate rests, a broken hold, and lack of time put an end to any chances of doing it that day too.
Time was running out for me with our flight booked for Thursday, and on top of that the weather was conspiring against me too with rain forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday!
Not only was I getting fed up of falling off the route all the time, but I was getting extremely frustrated as my likelyhood of climbing Killa Gorilla before we flew out to Portugal seemed to be quickly slipping away from me.
Monday was the only option, and with a forecast of sunshine and showers it would be the best chance I'd have before we flew out.
However, as the rain poured down outside my heart sank, and I started thinking that it was 'game over' for my attempt on Killa Gorilla. Then I got angry, and remembering the forecast of strong WNW winds and showers, I got even more determined to try and climb the route that morning - the crag would be sheltered from the prevailing wind and rain, and any sunshine should dry the rock out pretty quickly I reckoned.
After breakfast I walked the dog, and it wasn't long before the sun started to shine down on me again. Things were starting to look a bit better for the attempt!
Once down in the Great Cave I discovered that the rock was indeed very dry providing superb climbing conditions. Excellent!
It wasn't long before I'd traversed around to the big ledge near the start of Killa Gorilla with my dry bag of gear. I climbed on up the long way around to the last few holds on the route to check out that broken hold and re-chalk it if neccessary. Luckily the hold was ok, as only a small part had broken off, and it was still useable. I lowered down onto it, and the other crimp, and climbed back up to the finishing jug, just for my own peace of mind that I could do that move and hold onto the holds okay.
Back at the big ledge I made sure that I had a good half an hour rest before my first attempt on the route that day. This had been my downfall the day before, and I wasn't going to make that mistake again! This gave me plenty of time to visualise the climb and the moves on the crux I'd need to execute correctly. During this rest period I chose to listen to some tunes on my MP3 Player, something I'd not done before climbing a route, in the hope this would help me relax and put me in a positive mindset before the ascent.
At about ten to twelve, and with Bonnie Tyler's 'Holding out for a Hero' still playing in my head I started to climb the route, now that the tide had come up enough. I climbed quickly and relatively smoothly through the first fingery bit of climbing, before heading up the line of jugs through the ever steepening roof ahead of me. I made use of a couple of semi-rests to shake-out a bit and help me relax some more, prior to my arrival at the corner just short of the final crux. From here I made the strenuous move out rightwards and matched on a thin slot, but my foot popped and I took a wild cut loose swing. Managing to hold the swing, I didn't waste time trying to get my feet back on, and instead lunged out rightwards to gain a couple of jugs on the very lip of nowhere. Once I'd got these holds I swung a heel hook back on and had a quick shake-out whilst I eyed up the next fingery crux holds. I tried to reach up to the righthand hold but couldn't reach it as my body was too bent in the middle. I quickly re-positioned my heel hook further away, which then allowed me to reach the hold. I wrapped my thumb around it too for extra grip, then launched up to latch the lefthand crimp. Yes, I was almost there! Don't blow it now! Focus! I re-positioned my feet again and set up for the dynamic move to the finishing jug. One two three, bang! I got it! Yes!!! I quickly matched on it, before blasting up through a few more jugs to a more vertical and less strenuous position. I'd done it!!! I'd climbed this amazing route; my first F7b!!! I let out several massive hoots for joy and punched the air! Yeahhhhh!!! Woohooooo!!!! I was SO happy man!!! Yes!!! :D
Climbing Killa Gorilla really meant a lot to me. Obviously being my first 7b in pretty much my back garden was extremely special to me, but added to that was the fact that I'd done it on the last possible day before we flew off on holiday, which had added a lot of pressure. The relief I felt on completion of the route was overwhelming, and in fact a bit emotional really.
Overall though, I was just filled with emense joy and satisfaction. And that sure felt good!!! What a perfect day!!! :)
Really amped and looking forward to Portugal now! So excited!!! :D
Sunshine, jug-fest climbing over the beautiful Atlantic, what could be better?!?!! :D
PS: I think listening to music prior to climbing really worked for me and I'll be trying it again whilst I'm away climbing in Portugal too! ;)
One of my DWS trips to Berry Head recently was undertaken by open canoe with my partner Elisabeth. We paddled the canoe around Berry Head from Breakwater beach in Brixham, in beautiful sunshine, to access the multitude of climbing areas more easily from the water, and to make it quicker to get from one spot to another. This worked really well, allowing us to step right off the canoe and onto a route without all the faff of down-climbing and traversing into the base of the routes. It also allowed us to climb a hell of a lot of routes in just the afternoon that we had available, as well as giving us a great platform and series of angles for some quality photographs! I climbed all the best routes at the White Rhino area, plus the Wave and the awesome Cod Tympani, as well as parts of Magical Mystery Tour, while Elisabeth had a nice climb along some of the nicer parts of Magical Mystery Tour to get back into her climbing again after a bit of a break from it for a while.
It was while bobbing along past Magical Mystery Tour in the canoe that I noticed a really steep line that climbed through a series of roofs off the hanging block in the middle of the traverse that looked like it might go. It looked fantastic and I wasted no time in getting straight on it! Swinging onto the black rock of the block from the right I heel-hooked up and made a big reach up to the next hold above. After a few more really steep moves I gained a huge jug in a recess for a bit of a shake-out. The climbing was a little pumpy because I had to spend a some time searching for holds and chalking them up a bit en route. From here I moved up through another roof and onto a less steep white-ish wall, before climbing the final bulge to arrive on the Guano covered ledge at the top of the route. Woohoo, what an amazing climb - almost as much horizontal as vertical climbing - steep as!!! :D
I have a feeling this route might be a first ascent, as it doesn't appear in any of the climbing guides to the area or on the UK Climbing website.
I climbed this route on 2/09/2013, and feel it to be about F6b, with the left-hand start to be about 6b+, and I would call it 'Guinness' after the contrasting black and white rock, and because it is also the name of our much-loved dog! :)
We had a brilliant day canoeing and climbing our way around Berry Head, and decided this is the way forward for DWS climbing and the accessing of new routes! :)
Photos: New route - 'Guinness', 6b/6b+.
Over the last three weeks since my last blog post, I have spent a great deal of my time deep water soloing at Berry Head due to the really good run of sunny weather we've had. Making hay while the sun shines, so to speak! Some long trips along the classic Magical Mystery Tour and plenty of climbing on the steep routes at the White Rhino buttress were undertaken to help improve my power-endurance, prior to our Portugal DWS trip in a few weeks time. The fact that these routes are my favourite climbing spots at Berry Head is an added bonus!
During this time I hooked up with a few climbing friends to guide them along Magical Mystery Tour, and of course the superb Rainbow Bridge. It was on one of these trips along Rainbow Bridge with Gil Wood and her friend Gary, that I had another crack on the 7a+ crux pitch, having almost given up on it the year before because I got fed up of falling off the thing all the time. Anyway, because I was expecting to fall in I was actually super-relaxed climbing it, and just focused on doing the next moves rather than trying to get to the end. This approach worked really well, and I made it all the way to the last big sloping block before the crux finishing jug, just a few metres from the rest at the bottom of the finishing groove, before falling off. This positive progress inspired me to give the route a really good go this season, in the hope of finally sending it and gaining the full Rainbow Bridge tick! I installed a knotted rope at the Crystal Cave so that I could try the crux pitch repeatedly, without having to swim all the way back to the Great Cave and climb the first few pitches each time. This way I only had to swim a few yards back to the Crystal Cave, where I could change into fresh shoes and re-chalk for another go! This worked great, as the moves were much fresher in my mind for a second attempt after I'd fallen in, and in fact on my first visit after installing the rope I shocked myself by actally climbing right through the crux to latch the finishing jug and on into the corner rest on my second attempt of the day! :O Holy moley, I'd climbed the 7a+ crux of Rainbow Bridge!!! All I had to do now was climb the easier 6b/6b+ finishing groove to the top. Surely it couldn't be that hard?!? After much too short a rest, and with immense pressure on myself to 'HAVE to climb this now', I set off up the groove, finding the climbing to be quite technical with poor footholds on the most part. This all resulted in me getting mega-pumped out after a lot of faffing about to get through the bulge, up the vertical cracks, and past the small crimps near the top of the groove, and I finally fell off after failing to latch the huge juggy pinch at the top of the groove. Dammit!!! To say I was rather annoyed would be a massive understatement!!! I was furious with myself!!! Now I had to do it all over again!!! Grr!!! On Thursday the 5th of September I returned for a re-match with the Rainbow Bridge crux pitch! I started off climbing smoothly along the first few easier pitches, focusing on my feet and trying to take the majority of my weight on them, which allowed me to gain the Crystal Cave without really getting pumped at all. After successfully making it across the crux pitch again after utilising a nice rest at about the halfway mark, I made sure I had a good rest in the niche at the bottom of the finishing groove before setting off for the top. This strategy worked really well for me, and this time I made it up through the groove and latched the juggy pinch, before climbing the last few steep moves to a good rest at a large thread. From here I traversed off to the right and climbed the broken corner to the top of the cliff, topping out whooping for joy with a massive smile on my face - I'd finally done it! Woohoo! I was SO happy!!! :D To get the full tick, I then down-climbed Eight Ball and climbed the Rainbow Bridge extention, through The Wave and all the way along the 6b section into the zawn, finally stepping off onto the Terminal Zawn white ledge at the official finish of the amazing Rainbow Bridge! I was SO chuffed and it meant a lot to me to have finally completed it! It sure felt good! Yipee! :D
Looking forward to our Portugal DWS hols more than ever - super psyched for it now!!! :)
Photos, top to bottom: Whoomze got der Keys to Me Beema, 6c, Crossing the Tea, 7a, Cave Woman, 6c, and Cod Tympani, 7a+
