Daily Archives: August 10, 2026

Climbing

Cracking good fun

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10th August 2026

Carn Gowla

Supernatural – VS 4c – Lead

Some climbs were created to put a smile on your face and make you very content with life. Obviously this sometimes comes after you’ve been through the whole gambit of emotions…. fear, relief, uncertainty, bravado… beforehand

Hunting out the stakes. Make sure to use both of them.

Supernatural can do that. It is truly an adventure. Finding it can be tricky, despite the fact it is reasonably close to the car park; getting to the starting belay ledge is a mission in its own right; and then launching up 50m of amazing crack climbing (without running out of appropriately sized gear) to a loose finish.

Moving up from the belay

Dropping over the edge on the ab rope feels like leaving the world behind. Mike, on only his second visit to Gowla was loving it. After what had been a few years away from climbing, the two of us are racking up some memorable routes. This one though is in a different league.

Stood on the belay ledge

Beta – Some advice for the route. It takes a lot of medium sized gear. By that I mean Camelot Size 1 or larger (the red one) and medium Hex’s are useful. It is longer than you might expect. Also we flaked our twin ropes into a rope bag before descending and hung it of the ab rope once we got down there. This keeps everything a bit more tidy. And finally, watch the belay station at the top. Anything you knock off heads down straight towards your second.

It is steep

As far as the climbing goes, it’s amazing. I’m sure it felt harder than the first time I climbed it, but I am a few years older now. The crux was tricky, but that could be because I didnt sort my feet out very well. Mike did fantasticaly well and didnt seem overawed bythe route at all. In fact he had ‘the smile’ on when he hit the top.

A long single pitch route

What a buzz! And as usual we were accompanied by an amazing sunset to finish off with. What a year this is turning out to be.

For me, this was a bit of affirmation that I can still climb at VS with reasonable comfort. My hip is causing me to adapt my climbing style and technique regularly to avoid over bridging or high steps. Mind you it’s amazing what adrenalin will do for you at certain moments haha.