9th March 2012
Carn Barra
Niche Wall – Hard Severe 4b – Lead
The bloody BBC weather site has been shocking recently. I dont know whats going on, but they used to be pretty accurate and now they are way off the mark. Today was meant to be bright, with light Westerly winds. Drizzly with gusty Southerly winds is what we got.
To be fair the drizzle didnt last long, but the wind direction meant another abortive attempt on Fox Promontory. Carn Barra was a lot more sheltered and Niche Wall was an obvious choice for me.
For a Hard Severe, Niche Wall is quite intimidating. I didnt help that the 8ft swell had soaked the lower section, which was not easy to protect. The guide book seemed to suggest tracking rightwards, where the holds seemed better, but they also seemed wetter.
I trended left and found pro tricky to place and not as re assuring as it could have been. That said, as soon as I hit the ledge the rock became drier and the whole nature of the climb changed. From here on it was great varied climbing, with a little sting in the tail if you finished more directly, which I did.
Top climb really and Pete and Tom seemed to concur, even if Pete managed to leave one of my cams in place so that I could have another go at climbing it.
We moved back to the gearing up ledge tyo the sound of thumping waves. With the tide pushing hard, only the Dialectic platform was out of range so Tom and Pete had a go at Dialectic. This had the desired effect as it raised the difficulty level substantially and introduced them to the steeper elements of Carn Barra.
Both made it up, Tom cleaning it first attempt. Pete had the added thrill of exploding surf which was sending spray up to the height of his head. Considering he was over half way up the climb this was impressive!
The rugged and intimidating atmosphere of the Cornish coast made this a memorable day and reminded me of the power of the ocean. The many faces of Cornish sea cliffs had shown us another mood. Brilliant.