Coastal shenanigans

I've just returned from a short trip away to the Culm Coast with my hero and mentor Dolph Lundgren and his long time spotter and stick fetcher supreme, Vixen.

We initially intended a trip north of the border to Torridon but with the horrendous looking blue sheet of epic rain, we had the luxury to change course to Bude, due to the wonders of a camper van which negates the need to worry about accomodation :)

Day 1
We headed down to Northcott which was a 5 minute walk from where we were staying and made a beeline for Red Quinnie. Mike had done this before but struggled to remember quite what he did for a short time. I pulled on and tried my hardest to flash it and made decent progress until the cut loose at the lip. He sprung into action and dispatched shortly after and I realised the error of my ways, changing to a solution and making the heel stay in to get it in a couple more goes.

We headed back towards the van and climbed the wonderful pinch problem which took me more attempts than Red Quinnie much to Mike's amusement!

The next stop was Hartland Quay which had a bit more of an interesting approach scramble. We went to the Carnage wall and had a chill for a few mins. Conditions were perfect and after we both did Carnage quickly, we had a play on Supercede, Tom's new problem to the right of Carnage. After working out the moves, Dolph destroyed it in 2 goes, although he looked like he was about to come off the last couple of moves to my utter terror! I struggled to get the crossover with the left hand and feeling lethargic, decided to go and check out Ache Ball.

We sped across and saw that the tide was coming in fast. I got psyched and had a few goes managing to do the moves in bits. Mike bailed with Vixen over the rocks as the sea closed in. I gave myself a short rest and knew I would only have 1 go today or face having to swim. It was smooth until the jump at the end and my heel came off a bit early and i missed. I pulled back on and climbed it from 1 move down and knew it would be done next time.

Day 2
Day 2 was a day of great vengeance. We headed straight to Hartland again, warming up on some fantastic problems in the Trench area. I went over to Ache Ball and we were shocked to see other people climbing! I managed to punter the start a couple of times before crushing it into the ground. It felt pretty easy but really suited my style of steep, decent holds, some heel work and a bit of dynamics.

The next stop was across the Quay and down a sketchy slab of rock using a fisherman's line. We had a good look around and came to the conclusion that Hartland roof really was this underwhelming looking roof above a bulge! I got some fuel while Mike tried the moves. I put my shoes on and flashed both the roof and what we think is Brutal Spoon next to it. The moves are quite nice through the steepness and very similar to the climbing at Breck Road on the majestic Orme. We don't have a clue how they were ever graded 7c+ and 7b+ respectively but assume either holds have improved or Si Young was a midget!

We went back to finish in the Carnage area and Mike got Corridors of power first go. I struggled on the start and after tiring myself out working it out, proceeded to drop it 2 moves from the end. I felt destroyed and my arms hurt so we got out of there as the sea gave us little time for error yet again.

Day 3

With the good forecast proving to be a big fat LIE, we stayed local and went back to Northcott Mouth. On a tip off from Tom, we found a well hidden line called J Lo which climbs amazingly. Needless to say Mike crushed and I had another epic on it. Luckily the tide was out and the rain heavy so I had time to rest and eventually got to the top!

The weather cleared up and we headed over to check out the project left of Red Quinnie. I lay on the mat feeling near to death with bicep tendonitus style pain in both arms. Dolph battled the wet and seeping rock to force a line through this section of roof and made a nice power scream on the cut loose on my recommencation all captured in glorious 1 megapixel cameraphone quality! I obviously got psyched and made rapid progress on the problem only to grease off the very temperamental hold twice in a row.

Mike pottered about climbing lots of good looking lines in a corridor whilst I continued my mental breakdown and furious drying antics under this low roof. As the tide came creeping up at us once more, I was facing a 3rd end of day shutdown in a row on a problem I should have climbed a couple of hours earlier! I pulled on feeling tired and clearly not rested but had the moves fairly dialled in by now and got to the crux which I cruised through it only for a foot to pop... I lost count of the screams but somehow held on whilst my feet failed to get back in contact until I eventually controlled it and shook my way to the top almost dropping the last 4-5 moves. Epic.

Once again it was an emergency scramble as the sea engulfed the Red Quinnie roof and another steep plod to destroy the legs.

It was a great way to end the trip, climbing the hardest problem in the worst conditions, aching all over and almost delirious with fatigue! I was inspired yet again by Mike's ability to work something out and dispatch it within a go or 2 (something I clearly need to get the knack of).

If anyone reads this, I highly recommend a visit down to the Culm area as the rock is amazing, with a disproportionately high number of classics for such a small climbing area.

I have zero photos and the 1 short video on my camera but am unsure how to get them off without a cable.