UKC

I know abseiling is more fashionable, but who has been through the hole in the wall from half way down the lighthouse steps? And what's it like?

In reply to alan moore:

I did Mousetrap twice 'back in the day' and scrambled in both times - I don't recall any issues - I'm not sure we had concerns about the tide. Abbing in seems like an odd idea.

Chris

In reply to alan moore:
Using a 100m static, we used anchors back towards the wall and the rope came up short of the bottom. Bit of a ballache building belay 1, and rapping on the half ropes from there. I'd be keen to do the scramble next time I go.

In reply to Ed Booth:

The new book implies that you can abseil off the end of a 60m and scramble down, but surely the origonal entry from the lighthouse steps makes more sense?

In reply to alan moore:
It depends what route you're heading for, for Primate and Hysterisis the scramble down is probably best, although you have to be careful to pick the right line to scramble down, I didn't find it an obvious route.
For Mousetrap, you can get across the zawn except at high tide or rough seas.
The ab into the zawn is quite straight forward, a 60m ab plus a bit of a scramble or 80m to the bottom of the zawn and you can access Mousetrap at any state of tide and quite rough seas.

In reply to Ed Booth:
You ab in from the same place as for Red Wall left hand side, 60m rope is ok, 80m rope is better.

In reply to alan moore:

I scrambled down, and have no memories of it being anything other than trivial. At high tides/swells you wouldn't be able to get across to the bottom of Mousetrap as other have said.

In reply to alan moore:

It's a walk down from the lighthouse steps. Abseiling down that side's never been fashionable, surely? I think there's some issue about getting across from the lighthouse side to Mousetrap at some states of the tide, maybe, so at those times some people abseil down the other side of the zawn?

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

No, the guidebooks abseil approach is from the Red wall side.
Scrambling in from the steps seems to make a lot more sense to me, tide permitting.
Thanks All.

In reply to alan moore:

I did Mousetrap about 10 years ago, the scramble down the steep grass and boulders was more scary than anything on the route, there was no obvious worn path or descent line, maybe we were just unlucky and picked the steep loose bits..

In reply to alan moore:

I have gone through the gap to do Hysteresis and it was OK, you could get down to sea level OK you just needed low tide to make it across to Mousetrap Zawn. I have also used the abseil from the top of left hand red walls regularly to access Mousetrap zawn. This is really easy with a 100m abseil rope.

In reply to alan moore:

We tried to approach using the scramble from the lighthouse steps thus autumn. It would have been easy and successful had the tide not been in.