Roof climbing is strenuous work!

Today I headed down to Swanage to do something a little different. Brad was originally meant to come down with me, but he was not feeling to well, so this gave me the chance to try out aid climbing!

Whilst looking on UKClimbing.com I noticed a couple of aid climbs at Hedbury Quarry. Both climbs cross a small roof section quarried out of the cliff side. The climbs were only a few feet off the ground so I could do it in relative safety on my own.

As I parked up in Langton Matravers the rain was pouring down. I waited a while for it to ease before making the walk down to the quarry. Once I found the roof section I were to climb, I set my gear down, got comfortable and watched the Sun come out.

First I set up a three way anchor for my rope on the left side of the quarry, then placed my first two bits of protection and bounce tested them with my home made aiders. I slowly made my way across the roof section, placing a new piece of gear, bounce testing it, then transferring my weight to it and clipping the rope in.

Overall, it took me a couple of hours or so to make it about two thirds of the way across the roof. I eventually came to a section which I could not find any gear for. I figured I needed a rock 7 for this crack, but I had none left!

So I called it a day, and it took me about 10 mins to head backwards and pull out all my gear.

It was a good experience to try some aid climbing, and climbing a roof crack was certainly more strenuous than I thought. A good day out though!

The Sun is out (roof section on the right).

The bit of the roof section I got stuck at.

My view hanging from the roof.