UKC

Anybody Know what the Access Situation is? It doesnt Appear on RAD.

Easiest way to Access the stacks through or around the holiday park in the Winter, Possibly with small inflatable boat?

I believe holiday park are a bit tetchy, and assume Access is easier in Winter away From holiday season?

Only Time i had a walk to Look, walked right over big peak, Which would be a real shag if actually going Climbing.

Cheers ta.

In reply to Choss:

Whoever it was you were close but no cigar. Kamin is at Sandy bay, not ladram

In reply to Choss:

Yeah, double checked and realised my mistake. Good luck.

In reply to Choss:

There's a parking fee for non-res's at the holiday park. We walked through the park then up the hill for a few hundred yards to a point where the footpath fence is close to the cliff edge then abseiled in (discreetly). This gets you onto the boulder beach. Try and time it for half tide (on a falling tide for obvious reasons!) There's a good platform below the seaward face of the Rock. Original P2 R out of the cave stance no longer exists. Traverse L to a line of reinforcing rods. Do not use any of the obvious biscuit holds and if it rains bail! We scrambled/waded out back to the pebble beach below the park.

In reply to Iain Peters:
hi Iain.

thanks.

i Take it thats for big picket?

what about the stacks in Ladram bay Itself, the razor, chocolate finger, lost world, et al?

if it rains i can imagine them Turning to some Kind of red brown goo.

worth taking some six inch nails?

In reply to Choss:

Hi Choss
I went to have a poke around the Ladram Bay sea stacks in April 2007 (I think) with my mates and parked in the Holiday Park. We managed to borrow a river canoe for the outing which caused much amusement/consternation from the assorted passers-by/dogwalkers on the beach as 3 of us paddled out to sea. You can see a picture on the following link:
http://www.avon-mc.org.uk/chairmans-best-bits-of-2007.html
Remarkably we actually made it into the next bay to the east, without drowning, where the majority of the stacks are to be found. However alas it had rained locally overnight and all the stacks were dripping wet and pretty much unclimable in that state but c'est la vie. We then spent the next couple of hours ferrying various girlfriends + mates back and forth around to the bay, poked and dithered around various rock pools and had a rather delightful time climbing absolutely nothing. In fact at low tide you could actually scramble around between the 2 bays but you did not have long. Anyway I always vowed to go back but never have so far...
Cheers and bon chance!
Dave

In reply to Choss:

I was down there in Oct and as said, you can pay to park in the holiday park. £3 if I remember rightly. Then it's a stroll down the slipway.

Your user name seems rather fitting.

In reply to mrchewy:


Cheers, that Sounds Nice and easy then. Did you actually Climb in October or just visit?

Was it deserted in October, hoping it will be in January.

In reply to Choss:


That's the Spirit!

Mick ("Pass me the stick-clip!")

In reply to Mick Ward:

We've moved on from nails Mick. sawn off quarter inch reinforcing rod these days! Hope my two warthogs haven't been washed away, and look out for the sea cabbage on the first pitch of BP.... it's the best runner on the climb.

Might be worth a call to the coastguard if you are intending to climb. We didn't and the RNLI sailed past, luckily just as we were leaving. There are some awesome walls on the main cliffs. Would give mixed climbing of the highest order of DP!

In reply to BALD EAGLE:

Hi Dave,

You've just booked yourself on our next assault. Hope the GoPro will work in a sand storm or mud avalanche!

In reply to Iain Peters:

I live just a few miles from Ladram Bay, and know the coast pretty well. We have kayaked to the stacks a couple of times from Budleigh Salterton and I've had the chance to inspect them on a few occasions.

Access to the main beach at the holiday park is obviously very easy. There is a couple of stacks in this bay, one of which you can get to straight off the beach at low water. At dead low tide you can get around to most of the other stacks to the East with just a paddle/wade (not Big Picket). In summer you could also hire sit-on kayaks if you fancy it from the holiday park which would make things easier. There is a lovely inaccessible sandy cove just a little bit East of the main pebble beach.

Some of the stacks don't actually look that hard to climb. Its the getting down again that looks dodgy! The rock is impossible in the wet, and sandy and crumbly in the dry. If you're still tempted, I'd probably inform the coast guard and keep a low profile from the holiday park - although there are no bans, I doubt they'd encourage climbing on the stacks.

In reply to Iain Peters:

let me know when you do it and i will get pics for the new Pat Littlejohn SWC book!

In reply to Iain Peters and Pylon King:



Ditto Mark! Give me a bit of advance warning next year Iain and hopefully I'll be available and can bring the cameras, tripod and camemeraman + assistant to film a new Bald Eagle Production!
Possible title? Crumbling Cliff-Hanger... Cheers Dave

In reply to BALD EAGLE:

Dave. I'm directing (from the car park!) You are cinematographer and climb leader!

In reply to The Pylon King:

Mark.

After this rain it may be have been washed away...if not probably in March/April on a spring tide. Aim is to attack via kayak. An intriguing crack has appeared on the seaward face. Possible new way up? We shall see....

In reply to Iain Peters:

Hey Iain directing, helped by my able assistant (normally bribed with the promise of a bottle of cava + finest chocolate) is my job! A cool, calm leader with nerves of steel and used to dodgy adventure routes, sea cabbages and crap runners is your forte I believe...

In reply to broc:

Our one attempt on BP was thwarted by rain. I got to the second steel rod on the LH finish before the rock turned to mud. Stu Bradbury and I rapped from a warthog, old nail and a blade peg hammered into the "rock". We all got a little wet traversing back to the main beach, but no hassle from the holiday park. In fact we had a brew in the restaurant afterwards.

In reply to BALD EAGLE:

Shes already on the List for next year Dave.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=693

In reply to Choss:

Aah good to hear and a most excellent, albeit adventurous, list by the way! Rather disappointingly I've only got about 6 of those ticks so I need to get my <chocolate> finger out...

In reply to Choss:

A friend of mine did Kamin No 5 recently, apparently body-belaying up the 2nd from a braced stance :P

We have done Erotica in Soar Mill Cove (a wonderful tottering pile of schist), and either the Ladram Bay stacks or Bantham Hand are next on the list :P

If anybody has any updated access info for Ladram Bay I can put it up on the crag page, otherwise I will update it once we have visited and done some of the stacks.

In reply to Iain Peters:

Yes the climbing of BP does get pretty intense on the second pitch, foolhardy really based on the state of it. We climbed it back in 2005 and it is an extreme pile of mud. We abbed in and jumared out and attracted very little attention.

In reply to Choss:

Everything was goppin as it was the day after that supposed storm to end all storms.