Weekend excursions...

This post is long overdue, so here goes.....

Cabin Door

I've been on a couple of weekend excursions recently and thought I better get my head in gear and write something about it, otherwise it will just pass me by and I'll forget!

So, a few weekends ago now I went to Pembroke for the Range West briefing. Range West is a MOD live firing range, so to get recreational access for climbing you have to attend a briefing before you are allowed on site. It turned out to be the biggest attended briefing in history (I think!), with well over a hundred climbers.

Iron Age Fort

This is the first time I have been to Pembroke, and was fortunate enough to be invited along with a couple of new climbing buddies. The first day we went to a spot called Bulliber, which has lots of easy to moderate climbing grades. The nature of the rock turned out to be really juggy and fantastic to climb on. Just my cuppa! Mark and I did a couple of Hard Severe routes, and Martin and I soloed a lot of easier climbs with the odd severe or VDiff thrown in. I think I climbed about 18 routes that day - might be a record for me!

The second day we headed down to Cabin Door, a fallen slab lying on the beach with a window through the middle. The sun was out, but it was windy and it didn't feel very inviting. We climbed one route on Cabin Door before deciding it was too cold and headed over to Iron Age Fort.

Mark was taking lots of pictures for a magazine article, so I explored Arch Zawn below the fort. We climbed a very nice severe then headed back to the van. We grabbed a chippy in Pembroke before driving back home that evening.

Arete Route

The weekend after Brad and I went to the BMC AGM which was being held at Portland. Now, we don't often get over to Portalnd as it is mainly a sport climbing venue. But, I was keen to try out some bouldering whilst I was there and see how I compare to my indoor grades.

We arrived there on the Friday morning after travelling through heavy rain showers all the way from Salisbury, and were greeted with pleasant sunshine and dry rock! In fact I don't think it had rained at all there, and this theme carried on through the weekend.

Stairway Direct (V3)

We started off at Blacknor South with a quick route on the upper cliff, then decended to the beach and soloed and climbed some easy routes. Then we did the classic Arete Route before heading off to pitch up at the YHA.

The evening unfolded with dinner, and a talk from Steve Mclure and James McHaffie.... followed by a few more beers - luckily it's quite a steep walk back down to the tent.








Brad and I skipped the AGM itself and headed to Neddyfields on Saturday morning. I manage to do a few boulder problems and dispatch an easy route on the lower cliff, but it was quite windy this morning. Indoor I can usally flash a V3 problem, but have to work V4/5 problems usually. I sent Stairway Direct (V3) after a few tries, once I had the moves it felt stupidly easy - which was good as it means I know I could climb harder than that if I tried. I enjoyed the satisfaction of working a problem and finally sending it. I was quite chuffed!

Contre le Sexisme (V1)

After some lunch we headed over to Blacknor Fort for more bouldering, I especially liked Contre le Sexisme (V1). Some really good classic problems there well worth doing - recommend!

After two really good days of sunshine - and completely wrong forecasts - the heavens did eventually open on Sunday, and the ground turned to sticky/clay mud. Not great. After some procrastination though the sun did come out again, and we were able to send a few short flowstone routes on the upper quarries at Blacknor South.

Thus ended another great weekend!