We headed up to the French Pinnacle on the north side of the gorge for the morning. After stomping up the gorge's steep sides we reached the pinnacle, and settled down underneath it.
The first climb we chose was Mariette Route (VDiff). It follows the left arete of the pinnacle, then steep moves up a crack lead you to the summit. After climbing a lot of slabs in Fairy Cave, the steepness of the route was a little unnerving at first, but there was good protection all the way up and I was soon sun bathing on top.
After belaying Brad to the top, we had to think about getting down again. Being a pinnacle we can't just walk off, so an abseil was in order! We managed to wrap the rope all the way around the top most part of the pinnacle, then carefully lowered ourselves over the edge to weight the rope, then abseil down.
After a short break Brad lead Burial Route (Diff) on the east face of the pinnacle, followed by another abseil.
After a spot of lunch, the second part of the way was to be spent on Shoot Gully Walls high up on the south side of the gorge. But in an unfortunate turn of events on our decent from the pinnacle, Brad slipped and twisted his ankle. So there was I carrying his bag as well as mine to the bottom of the gorge!! Got some beers on the tab for that one ;-)
After mooching about a bit amongst the tourists, we made a move home about 4pm.
Hopefully we will be back to Cheddar soon. It's a great place to climb, and nice to go somewhere different for a change. You get a similar feel to climbing in the mountains as its so steep there. There's nothing quite like it anywhere in the south.
 |
| Morning sun touching the top of the gorge. |
 |
| Making progress up Mariette Route. |
 |
| Looking southwards. |
 |
| Looking down the gorge from the top of the pinnacle. |
No comments:
Post a Comment