Headed out this morning with Steve and Andy to find a new route rock climbing in the Wye Valley. There is a cliff on the other side of the river in Chepstow with no recorded rock climbs on so far and so our aim was to put a new route in the Wye Valley.
The cliff is just over the river from Chepstow and access is bared by the fast flowing tidal river with large steep mud banks. We battled our way across the river in an old canoe and gained the other side with the use of an ice axe and lots of mud. We hacked our way up to make a belay on a large bramble covered ledge and i started off on the first pitch which was quite full on. There are many cliffs in the Wye Valley to go climbing on but none quite like this with the committing approach and adventurous nature of the climbing. No one had been on here before and it was good to be out rock climbing in the Wye Valley on something new and different.
We completed the first pitch of the route with me taking a few falls on-sighting the obvious break line leading left to the cave and the union jack. There was a lot of large loose rocks that came off and one chest sized rock right at the start that i immediately pulled on and fell off. The routes needs cleaning more but there are now hand holds in the break that allow climbing under and around the roof. Its protected by many cams and next time we go back we are going to solo it at high tide as this is a better option then falling in the fast flowing river with a large rack on!!
I got well over half way along the pitch before running out of cams couldn’t safely set up a belay so i came back toward the half way point backed off. The route so far is called “Anchor to Anchor” and around MXS 5a in its current state but it will clean up a treat.
Photo’s of Andy and I were taken from the canoe by Steve Winslow – thanks Steve.
If you want to try rock climbing in the Wye Valley then get in touch.
