Friday 6 September 2013

Open Canoe DWS trip and possible New Route











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+.

No comments:

Post a Comment