27th July 2013

Mother Carey’s Kitchen

Crithmum – VS 5a – Lead
Joyous Gard – HVS 5a – Second
Rock Idol – E1 5a – Lead

Mother Scaries as Nick told me it is sometimes called is just that. Scary. You pitch up at the top of what looks like a shear cliff (it is) and abseil into nothing.

It helped that Nick knew the area because I would image it is hard work getting your bearings on a first trip. Today was to be a day of real highs and sort of lows. But mostly highs!

We started off on Crithmum, which proved to be a puzzling beginning. However hard we tried we couldnt match the guide book description with wht we were looking at. In the end I followed what I thought was the closest to the line described. The top turned out to be a real liability with loose rock and insecure holds. It turns out from online comments that Crithmum fell down around 2010 and the remains are graded at HVS not VS. I think this is more due to the precarious nature of the rock though.

Nicks lead on Joyous Guard was one of the most impressive of the trip. Strenuous with a really technical section high up, it was fantastic climbing. One of my favorite climbs of the trip to be honest. Moving out of the cave at the bottom gave a real sense of adventure and the suddenly appearing on a shear face gives this climb amazing exposure.

During the course of climbing Crismum I managed to chuck a whole set of nuts, krab included into the sea. My usual form in recent times. This seemed to cause me to completely lose my mind and led to an surreal moment back on the low tide platform where I frantically searched my body for the blue rope with the growing realisation that it was still at the top of the crag. In most places this would be a problem. In Mother Careys Kitchen it seemed a disaster.

Fortunately ‘Marine Boy’ Nick thought nothing of swimming across the bay to ascend and retrieve it, thus saving my bacon. This was after he had also found my drowned nuts. All he needed was a cape!

What Nick did sort out by his actions was my opportunity to climb Rock Idol – thank God he did. It’s an amazing climb which contains everything. From the bottom I was seriously thinking that I was out of my depth as the route soared up through the corner and overhangs.

But once on the route I found some rhythm and was progressing well until I arrived at the overhang. A crisis of confidence ensued which I finally overcame launching upwards and finding that the holds just kept on coming. It is a special climb and one I will not forget for a long time.

The day was capped off with fajita’s and ginger beer ( and a bit of Italian wine). All’s well that ends well despite my attempts to sabotage the day.