28th March 2010
Cribba Head
Harder – VS 4c – Second (repeat)
Bottleneck – VS 5a – Lead Dog
We scouted out Pednvounder Upper West Buttress, but with all the rain recently the VS ‘Burning Bridge’ which we wanted to do was wet, particularly on the slabby crux section. That and the fact that the base was protected by vicious brambles and thorns pursuaded us to move across to Cribba Head. The Beach was not an option with a large swell smashing into the bay and having had past experience of Joe trying to drown me on the belay we left.
The two VS’s we climbed are two of the harder (as the name suggests) VS’s in Cornwall. Harder is an leaning pillar of rock tucked in the V of two walls. This means it is well protected with two good cracks either side, but it also makes it a powerful route. If you get your bridging right its easier, but me and Joe took a tougher approach and stormed it head on with arm and hand jams.
This is probably why Joe felt the need to test my new double ropes on their first outing, lobbing off a foot or so from the ledge. To be fair it was cold and the cracks were damp, making it hard to remain in place a put gear in. Still, Joe’s CAM held and he proceeded to clean it on the next attempt. Mind you it brought on a sweat which is testiment to how much effort is required on this climb. I think 4c may be a little on the low side. I led this route a while back so I was prepared for the effort. It still caught me a little off guard, but its a great route and worth a couple of stars in the guide IMO.
Now Bottleneck is a different kettle of fish. It could just as easily be called Hand Mangler. I stared long and hard at this one, thinking the crux was the chimney. Well it is, but what I didnt realise was that between me and that, was a v difficult move up onto the face. It took me ages to get going, which sapped a lot of my strength and by time I was placing gear in the chimney I was finished. Queue my turn to fall onto my gear. Arms busted and legs shot I gave it one more go but again by time I reached the chimney and tried to move up i was shattered.
Joe took over and after his introduction to the early move, he managed to move up into the chimney. This proved hard as well, but Joe made a brilliant effort to pull through and finish the climb. Much better than his photography which demonstarted a sort of foot fetish.
I hate chimneys and knowing I needed to remove the gear I decided to make one last effort. I made it into the chiney this time, which is just wide enough for a person. Not being the suplest of people I squirmed and inched my way up finally hauling myself onto the ledge with the last of my energy. In hindsight, I think I should have done this one first, although it was hard whichever way you look at it. I noticed on UK Climbing, ascensionists have given this HVS 5b which I think is more realistic. There are deffinitely a couple of 5a or harder moves there. The face is reasonably protected and the chimney has some low down and higher up so HVS would be about right as well.
I’m glad I climbed it, but my hands werent. It is a real shredder, because most of the holds are jams. There were a few winces when I showered later.
Still a brilliant days climbing and we’ve been saying we want to do HVS’s. So here it was. It adds a lot of confidence to know you can lead and climb something like this even if on this occasion I ran out of steam.
