UKC

Hi,

I was wondering if people had any suggestions which 7b on Portland should i tackle first? It will be a project but so i want one i can sink my teeth in to.

Sam

In reply to samparsons:

Ariane V at Wallsend

In reply to samparsons:
There are so many good ones.

Short or long? What kind of route are you after? Bouldery?

Hear amazing things about ariane v but never done it myself

In reply to sam.sam.sam.ferguson:

My 2 favourite routes are Superfly Guy and Haute Cuisine, i like techy face climbing i guess.

In reply to samparsons:
I know you asked for 7b, but Zinc Oxide Mountain is really good (and only a little harder).

In reply to samparsons:

Twangy Pearl (7b) Beyond my meagre abilities, but belayed a friend on this as his first 7b and it looked brilliant.

In reply to samparsons:

Heres a list of good 7bs i've done on Portland; not neccesarily easy ticks but all good quality:
Stay Golden (7b) at Wallsend is excellent; sustained. Also Sweet Smell of Success and Frazzled are great routes but a but a bit harder!
Spare Rib (7b) at Coastguard N, quite bouldering and nice little runout at the top
Twangy Pearl (7b) is good - bouldery
Want Out (7b+) at the Cuttings is good; meant to be hard for 7b.
The Bad Seeds (7b) at Wallsend
Full Fathom Five (7b) at Coastguard

In reply to samparsons:

As others have said, Twangy Pearl is brilliant.

Others to consider for someone who also likes crimpy routes...

Ryme Intrinseca
Choco Loni
Montreal Protocol
Imbolc (might be 7b+)

In reply to samparsons:

I thought i'd have a stack of reccommendations but I just checked my logbook and was surprised to find I have only ticked 2 7b's on the whole of Portland! (delusions of grandeur I guess)

As above, Want Out is a good, technical climb but hard in the grade, the other route I have ticked is Spanner Eyes at Blacknor north, another fine route and a bit easier than Want Out, plus it gives you a good reason to do Englands Dreaming 7a+ right next to it, a real stunner.

I've also been on Twangy Pearl and thought it was pretty decent, I do plan to get back and tick it one day, it does have quite a bouldery crux from memory, so might be a bit tough for a first 7b.

As Sam says above, what sort of style would you prefer?

Personally I thought Zinc Oxide Mountain was a country mile away from 7b, it took me years to get it ticked! But it is one of the best routes on the island and well worth an attempt regardless, you'll love it.

In reply to Dandan:

Worth pointing out that Zinc Oxide Mountain is currently bird banned due to peregrines nesting.

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/modules/RAD/viewcrag.aspx?id=1002

Has anyone been down to look at Stay Golden or the other Wallsend routes this year? Walking past them late last year mud slides appeared to have made large parts of the cliff fairly inaccessible. There don't appear to have been any ticks logged on many routes there so far this year.

I guess Choco Loni also might be unclimbable now due the mudslide between battleship main and far south?

In reply to RFWilkie:

It seems most people weren't aware of that restriction, (myself included, I climbed there last weekend) although to be fair there are no signs on the crag, but equally no signs of nesting birds either. Perhaps further investigation showed the birds had moved again and the RAD is not updated?

I'd be interested to know about the conditions at Walsend too, i've not been down for years and some of the routes look mighty enticing.

In reply to Dandan:
I heard through word of mouth the ban was lifted as the birds had gone...but if the rad says its banned then its banned I guess

In reply to samparsons:

Twangy Pearl and Want Out.....

In reply to samparsons:

unstuck on you (flowstone shuffle) - not eliminate at all like is suggested and has some great moves over the small overhang. I thought it deserved more stars, great route (and easy to put a rope on for some TR practise from nearby easier lines.