23rd June 2010
Trewavas Main Crag – West Face

Bending Chimney – V Diff – Lead
Cornel – HS 4b – Lead

This was the first of what will hopefully be many evening sessions at Trewavas. With the amazing weather we’ve had recently the crags are bone dry and in great condition…. in fact it’s better when they’ve cooled down a bit.

As this was Pete’s first experience with double ropes, we started on a classic V Diff. Bending Chimney is the most prominent feature of Trewavas. You can see it from the coast path as you walk in and it is striking. its also great fun to climb. The bottom section is straight forward with a tricky move across to the bottom of the final chimney. But its the main chimnet that is best, squeezing up and emerging through a slit in the slab above.

We had set up an abseil to make things quicker for descending and after showing Pete how to use a prusic and watching him test it fully by releasing all control (which nearly took both of us over the edge – we were tied in so we wouldnt have gone far) we dropped down to start climbing. However….. without ropes its hard, so I had to walk back up and fetch them.

Cornel is a bit harder and hard to protect in the top section without a big CAM. Mine was just big enough, although a backup of a chock helps. Remember your seconder needs small hands to retrieve it though as it sits back very deeply in the crack. The climbing though is good, some bridging and an akward mantelshelf to finish with.

All in all though a good session. Next week we’ll try the East face and some of the slightly longer routes.