11th June 2025

Cligga Head
C-Land Super – VS 4c – Alt lead

On a windy, grey evening with storm clouds approaching, it was kind of surreal to encounter a burlesque dance class, whooping away in an industrial unit in the middle of no-where. But it did bring a broader grin to both Chris and my face, than the one which was already there, having found a little gem of a VS at Cligga.

Fortunately the trials that Mike and I went through the previous week when exploring the crag, meant we knew exactly where to ab in to start this route. It also helped that we could use the ab rope as a belay anchor, so we were set up pronto and ready to begin what was another typical Cornish sea cliff adventure, especially for Chris who had the waves getting closer and closer as I climbed.

I was surprised to find that it was the initial opening moves up to the huge overhang and then across to the base of the main chimney , that were the most tense. There is good gear in the initial crack, but to avoid rope drag this needed to be extended by about 5 ft. So any fall would have put me right back at the start. This is a delicate section. Small footplacements and slopers for holds means you need to approach it carefully.

But once in the chimney, you get all the advantages of bridging, right up to the final escape out of the chimney, on a brilliant jug, which looks like it will snap off at any moment.

We also managed to beat the rain which was moving steadily towards us from over St Ives way. It was a real quick hit and was quite satisfying to know we could work this efficiently when we needed to.

So we hit all the ticks:-
It was scary
It was technical
It was grey and a bit forbidding
We had a laugh
and we had cheese and biscuits for dinner.

Job done!