Out again today in the Wye Valley rock climbing with Steve Winslow. Again we were out in search of adventure, something naughty, something bold. I was feeling a little worse for wear after yesterday finishing a 110km sportive race in the surrey hills, then drove home and rather then eating good food, i decided to drink beer and work. Getting up at 7am this morning to go climbing felt….lets just say i felt a little wobbly.
Either way rock climbing had to be done and we were the boys to go and try. The evening before i had told Steve about this crag that i had cleaned the year before and after a couple of beers this crag was now the best crag in the world and Steve was super keen to check it out. Crag X is in the Wye Valley and its super steep. When you abseil in you are 6 meters away from the base of the crag and getting to the foot of it, isn’t the easiest thing in the world as its the top of a tiered crag with a bloody great big drop below you. Once on the ledge at the bottom you can crane your neck northwards, look up at the crag and think ‘its not that steep’, until you start climbing. Holy shit its steep.
The photo above is Steve jumaring out of the crag to get the rack to lead our route – look how steep it is!!! Anyway enough about how steep this crag is. The routes on it need some cleaning and brushing but the crack on the left was reasonably solid for Wye valley standards and it was obvious (to me) that medium to large gear would be perfect to protect it with. Steve hadn’t spotted this and abseiled back down all racked up with only a couple of small cams, no hexs and one rock 10. Brave boy i thought, no instead Steve placed a jumar in the crack sideways as the first runner, then started the route, pulled a hold off and fell back down to the starting ledge – good start. So reset the switches and Steve began again. Steady, steady up the crack looking for small wire placements in the wide crack – he found a few and asked me to check them out on the way up to see if they were any good. They were ok, medium to large cams would be much better and a whole lot safer.
At half height you make a move left from the crack to the worlds biggest jug and then up again to more jugs and gear, still steep but nice moves, much better protected then appearances would suggest from the ground. A mantal move puts you on a ledge from where easy climbing leads to a tree and a sloping grass bank to finish.
I don’t think the route gets any stars yet but will clean up to be very nice. “The Adventures of Nervous Boy” E1 5b one of the best routes in the Wye Valley? Depends if you can find the crag??
If you would like to go rock climbing in the Wye Valley then get in touch here.
