October Climbing Update

For the last few years I have had the aim of one day climbing the classic Berry Head HVS route; Moonraker. After pushing my climbing grades this year and spending a good part of the summer Deep Water Soloing, I finally got to the point where I felt ready to tackle this famous route. On October 17th the conditions came together, and Elisabeth and myself made the decision to turn that dream into a reality. Moonraker is 200 feet of serious and committing climbing, accessed by a traverse in through a huge cave which naturally adds to the excitement and adventure of the route. With swell crashing about in the cave, we ended up with wet feet before we'd even started the climb. The first pitch went well, and I managed to avoid getting too pumped by blasting through the steeper sections. Pitch two was easier climbing, and we stopped on the belay for a small snack while we soaked up the beautiful view in such a unique and awesome setting. There was no turning back now that the tide was coming in - it was a one way ticket! The third pitch was much longer than the other two, but much straighter due to it following a natural crack system. By now I was pretty relaxed and accustomed to being on the route in that environment, and as a result I cruised the final pitch to the top, emerging from the shade into glorious sunshine. I'd finally done it! Woohoo! Fantastic! I was so happy! Elisabeth made it to the top easily too, and we celebrated our achievement together whilst admiring the glorious vista from the summit, and sharing the experiences we'd had on the route. We both agreed it had been a superb day, such an adventure, and much easier than we'd been led to believe. Wicked!

Three days later, and full of confidence from the successful ascent of Moonraker, we headed over to Torquay to climb another classic route; Gargantua, which is graded E1, so a little harder. This line is super-exposed; following a 140 foot arete up the main cliff at Daddyhole, but I was feeling on-form and super relaxed about the whole thing so it didn't really phase me too much. Abseiling into the base of the route gave me a sneaky peak at what was in store, unlike on Moonraker. I led pitches one and two straight through to the second belay in the exposed and bottomless niche, and found the climbing to be absolutely superb with some amazing movements and holds. The first part of the last pitch was a little tricky with delicate moves on small holds, while also being very exposed. Thankfully I reached better holds for the final few overhangs to the top, and I let out a woop of satisfaction on reaching the grassy belay at the summit. The thing with this route was that I enjoyed it much more than Moonraker, mainly because the climbing was much nicer, but also because I enjoyed the actual 'in-the-moment' climbing more than the satisfaction of actually completing it. This could have been because I was so much more relaxed and focused on my climbing?!? At any rate, it was super-fantastic and I loved every minute of it. As a reward we had a rather nice sunset to boot. Magic!