28th October 2011
Carn Barra
Weasle – VS 4c – Lead
Axis – VS 5a – Lead
A glorious Friday provided a perfect setting for a trip to Carn Barra. I thought I’d go for a couple of stiff VS’s having seen how well Tom and Dave climbed on our last outing to Pordenack Point.
This turned out to be a good and bad decision. I wanted to lead both, but adding the extra dimension of seconding and removing gear is a lot tougher than maybe I’d factored in. Carn Barra is a stunning setting. Golden granite and solitude are typical and the quality fo climbs is second to none.
Weasle is a low tide, low swell climb. Rising from right to left its two main features are overhangs which have to be negotiated with exposed and slightly wild moves out onto the face. Its a brilliant strenuous route and has risen to one of my favorite. Negotiating the first overhang is a bit heart in mouth until you find the better holds – its well protected but is exposed enough to get the heart pumping.
The top crack is brilliant. I did the left hand variation which is a little harder but more fun and continues the line of the main crack. Because of the angle of the crack, footwork plays a big part and some of the moves can be a bit baffling. Despite a short spell of confusion on the second overhang, Tom worked it out and negotiated the top wall. For Dave, unfortunately a stuck chock (which is still there) , put paid to a clean ascent as he spent a considerable amount of time trying to get it out and in doing so blew his arms. In the end he pushed himself to finish on spent muscles and no grip. A great effort.
Axis extends the strenuous nature of Weasle, but is steeper. The short bottom wall is difficult and not really protectable. With my knee I decided to give it a miss and solo’d up the first part of Dialectic. As it turned out I too ran out of steam on this one. The crack was a bit wet and short slip half way up cost me the onsite. It also caused me to faf around for 5 minutes trying to put in gear when the correct choice was to move on. I’m going to come back soon and complete the climb in full, bottom wall and all.
Both Tom and Dave clearly found this one easier than Weasle, because they both cleaned it – although I had to ab down to retrieve some left gear. Still it gave me another opportunity to climb the crack again which I did. By this time we were rapidly running out of daylight so a nice slow walk back along the stunningly beautiful and quiet coastpath capped off a great day out.