New Route on the Needles!!

Returning to the Isle of Wight to climb the chalk cliffs for a second time was an exciting opportunity.  Last time was back in 2009, climbing the famous ‘Skeleton Ridge’ armed with home made warthogs, a certain keenness to get past the wrong tidal states that our guide book warned us would be dangerous and of course …….buoyancy aids.  This time however things were different! In tow was the BBC team from ‘Coast’, two members of the British Geological Survey and Ian Burton (cameraman from ‘Asgard Project’ and ‘On-sight’), so one could say that it would be less of a jolly and more about getting something done that would be good for the cameras.  The plan was to climb the second chalk fin of the Needles via a new route, to gather a chalk sample from the top and return this sample to the geologists in order that they could finish the geological survey map of the Isle of Wight.  Science meets new routing.

My climbing partner for this route would be Andy Torbet, one of the presenters from Coast.  This worried me at first, climbing loose ground on a new line with a muppet off the tele, but after meeting him for the first time this was clearly not the case. Andy was ex-forces, built like a bull and full of banter.  He was a climber and professional diver, more interested in adventure and exploration than the make-up and ‘ow does my bum look big in this’ tele type.  We had done a bit of climbing together in the Avon Gorge to make sure that we were operating smoothly and we could tell the difference between an ice-axe and a cam and now the table was set to quest south to find some esoteric chalk cliffs.

We travelled down on Saturday evening with another guy from the BBC, Alistair Rickman who was in charge of rigging and safety and we headed to the luxury of a Premier Inn in Southampton.  Early the next morning we travelled to Leamington to meet the skipper of the boats that we would be using to land us on the chalk fin.  Jason, the skipper, had been born at sea and was very close to being amphibious.  At the helm of a boat he was unbeatable, which was a good thing when you were leaping from the vessel onto wet slippery chalk and trying not to have your leg taken off by the boat crashing into the chalk or by missing the cliff altogether and sinking into the sea complete with heavy climbing equipment.  As we loaded the haul bags onto the boat we could not have asked for better weather – an October heat wave was burning our faces and only a small amount of sea mist that was soon to be gone.  The water was reasonably calm as we made our way out of the harbour and onto the more choppy water of the Solent and we headed off towards the lighthouse at the end of the Needles.

The first stage to this ‘Science meets new routing game’ was to recce the second fin and to try to find a line that would fit the bill.  I was told that Andy would be the one leading the climb for the cameras and I had to find a line that would be possible for him to climb without killing him but also something that would make good TV.

Mick Fowler has made the only known ascent of this fin back in 1988 and details of this are hard to find but we had a small description of his route on the south face and wanted to go and have a look at the north face.  As the boat approached the north face of the second fin, the rock……chalk, looked a little chossy, all in shadow with very few cracks or features, and only a smattering of grass tuffs.  A classic north face then.  You could climb this face but using dry tooling methods or by aid climbing.  However, this would be out of the question for Andy and being in the shade all day might not be the best for the camera.  Instead we went on round to the south face, into the sun and what a different kettle of fish. Good looking chalk, sun, features, no real cracks but there were lines that stood out.  The fin is around 30m high and maybe 65m long – very different to the huge ‘Skeleton Ridge’ on the mainland fin which towers off to the east but the access to this fin is not the easiest.  The plan was that I would climb the fin, build a belay and bring up Alistair and together we would rig all the ropes necessary to have the cameraman jugging up and down the ropes filming.  Meanwhile, Andy would stay on the boat to keep him fresh for the cameras (to show on-sight fear) for his first climb on chalk the next day.

After timing the leap off the boat and building a belay Alistair joined me at the base and I set off traversing across the base of the fin and up a slight groove that I had spotted.  The bottom of the climb was wet from the waves of the sea crashing in and it was like trying to roller skate in a ball pit.  Once at the groove, I started climbing upwards now steadily – protection from spikes of rock, placing of pegs and worthogs. The rock is unpredictable; holds sometimes just snap off (small or large), careful climbing was needed trying to push on the holds rather then pull, which is hard when the rock is nearly vertical.

At the top, and after bringing Alistair up, we set about making something strong enough to have several people hanging off it at the same time.  On normal rock this would be easy, but up here when everything you touch simply crumbles away or just falls off in massive lumps, the task was made more difficult. Luckily there was a large rounded lump on the Western side of the arete and we could just about get some static rope over this and drop it down around a few edges to hold it in the right place.  I backed this up with a few pegs driven into the best chalk I could find.  The stage was set. There was a line that could be climbed starting from a small ledge on the western arete that came around onto the south face and up to the top.  The ropes hung down the face in a position that Ian Burton the camera man could jug these ropes and get the shots he needed.

The next day saw myself and Andy gearing up with all the kit and both wearing helmet cameras to capture the action.  I had explained and demonstrated to Andy how to place the relevant protection but also that the best bet is not to fall off and to treat everything with care.  The sea was running a reasonable swell today and jumping off the boat onto the small ledge was going to an exciting start to an exciting climb.  I jumped first and Andy followed.  We built a belay and prepared the ropes.  Andy drained his bladder forgetting that he was wearing a helmet cam much to the amusement of the BBC staff.  Andy set off on a rising traverse line that then heads straight up towards the top.  A few cracks on the route allow rock gear to be placed as well as winter climbing kit but chalk still broke off left, right and centre making the climbing feel airy.  Andy climbed the route in fine style and topped out on the second fin at around midday. The route is not that hard – maybe Severe – ish standard but deadly if you get it wrong and pull on something you shouldn’t.  However, the situation and location is definitely three stars, so a grade of MXS is fitting.  Andy brought me up and together we collected a large lump of rock and deposited it into the rucksack that I was carrying.  We abseiled off and got back on the boat and headed across to another boat that was waiting with Andy Farrant and Pete Hopson both from the British Geological Survey to give them the chalk we had collected and wait results.  The director ‘Dan’ was on the other boat and was keen to get a shot of us giving the piece of chalk across to the geologists from boat to boat and ……… action, cameras rolling.  I turned to Andy “where was the chalk lump?”.  S**t, it was still on the belay ledge.  We had left it there while making the jump from the chalk fin to boat in order to lighten us while we did it.  So….back to the fin, again.  Paper, scissors, stone, seemed to be the best way of sorting out who would be making the dangerous jump onto the chalk and, yes, I lost!  Andy said that he would do it but would be calling me a girl for the rest of my life so it seemed worthwhile that I should go again.  Once collected we tried again and gave the chalk to the geologists and waited for the results.

It appears that the Needles are made of ‘Portsdown Chalk’ which, believe it or not, is harder than most types of chalk and would therefore lend itself to climbing in a more conventional way rather then hacking it to bits with ice axes and crampons. So if you are looking for a chalk climbing experience head over to the Isle of Wight and have a go at our route “Brittle Bone Coast” MXS and then have a go at “Skeleton Ridge”, it might be the hardest chalk you get your hands on, if there is such a thing.

The full film will be shown on the BBC ‘Coast’ programme next year so check it out !