UKC

Having an epic on Lundy

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 Bob Peters 24 Aug 2018

The scene of many a drama. Inspired by the 'Intimidating Crags' thread.

What was the most hair-raising epic that you got away with on Lundy?

Also a nice chance to scare the hell out of anyone going to the puffin isle for the first time this year (it's really lovely and you'll be fine).

 

 

 Ian Parsons 24 Aug 2018
In reply to Bob Peters:

Would I be correct in guessing from your name that you know all about this one?

https://rockandice.com/climbing-epics/when-a-rescue-needed-a-rescue/

 DerwentDiluted 24 Aug 2018
In reply to Bob Peters:

Wrong abseil point, 60m free hanging abseil, no prussiks (left behind in bramble villas). Hot hands, bit of wee came out, frantic forearm crossing hand gestures to mrs D not to follow making me look like a demented X factor fan, mad scramble through gorse and guano back up to move belay. Found right spot some few 100m to Rt, much easier. Watched somebody massively peel off Rampart avoiding serious injury somehow, more wee came out. Got to Shamrock, felt like a breeze after all that.

Post edited at 16:56
OP Bob Peters 24 Aug 2018
In reply to Ian Parsons:

very correct.

 Tom Valentine 24 Aug 2018
In reply to DerwentDiluted:

Shamrock was my first route on Lundy. If it had had an overture like that it would also have been the last.

 james mann 24 Aug 2018
In reply to Bob Peters:

What about easy days out with your old man at Pendeen Bob? Could be quite exciting!

 

James

 Sean Kelly 24 Aug 2018
In reply to Ian Parsons:

I have heard this story first hand from Frank. Incidently I was told that American Beauty was a serious route to get to, but found the abseil ok if a little long.

Sean

 james mann 24 Aug 2018
In reply to Sean Kelly:

American Beauty wasn’t approached by abseil but through the sea caves below grand falls road. Dave Garner said that he much preferred by abseil when he repeated it last summer. 

 

James

 John2 24 Aug 2018
In reply to james mann:

I have to say, I thought American Beauty well overrated when I climbed it. A couple of pleasant but non-memorable moves on a vegetated slab.

1
 Dave Cundy 24 Aug 2018
In reply to Bob Peters:

When i was too young to know better, me and a mate abseiled in to the start of Immaculate Slab.  Some friends were on it, so we waited on a platform at the bottom of the abseil, watching the gentle swell.  The second set off and we traversed in to the belay.  I dumped the rope on a small ledge, turned around and watched an enormous wave break over us!   By a miracle, i found a hand jam and held on while a few bathtubs of water poured over us.  My new rope went for a swim and i had to climb back up the ab rope, piss wet through.  Only the Lord knows how I avoided being washed away that day.

Lundy.  It stands for four-star adventure   I love the place...

OP Bob Peters 28 Aug 2018
In reply to james mann:

How he's made it into his 8th decade is genuinely beyond me.

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 petecallaghan 30 Aug 2018
In reply to Bob Peters:

I'm heading to Lundy with my club in a week or so. Here's a snippet of an account I wrote the last time I visited in 2016:

 

Scott and I had hatched a plan to climb The Devils Chimney HVS, Lundy’s tallest sea stack, an experience described by the guide book as a ‘serious adventure’. It is tidal, and there are few easy routes to climb out so we considered The Fifth Appendage E1 as our escape route. Given the mist and damp made climbing unlikely we opted to head out and scope the options, hauling our gear just in case we could find a dry crag.

En route we found the ‘Earthquake’ area, a deep and extensive fault system that opens from a discrete recess into a narrow chasm that appears on the brink of dropping into the ocean.

Further north we discovered that Beaufort Buttress was dry in places and managed to squeeze in a few routes, before retracing through the mist back to the pub

At last the day arrives and the weather clears. We make a last minute change to the plan, opting for Hobs Lane E2 instead of The Fifth Appendage. The latter has to be accessed from the boulder beach at dead low tide, leaving no margin for error or delay. Hobs Lane in contrast is accessed by a scramble and is non tidal. Low tide was early evening so we had a relaxed start to the day – we needed to be at the ab point at about 11am.

However, on arrival at the crag, the Hobs Lane approach looked horrific and we reverted to our original plan: The Fifth Appendage. Unimpressed by the insecure grassy chossy abseil approach, we used our nut keys to improvise a turf anchor and protect the traverse off the cliff edge onto the tall boulder slump down which we would ab’.

The towering tottering Chimney is less a stack and more a pile of loosely connected fangs, not long for this world. The route has a hard to protect start, loose blocks every other hold and spirals up from the gloomy onto the sunny side on better rock and some genuinely testing climbing, giving great views of the sea and cliffs through the twin clefts that split the stack in three.

Once off the ground, we climb well and after a couple of route finding challenges are on the summit 1 hour before dead low tide. However, at no point has the sea left the base of The Fifth Appendage.

Before the boulder hop, Scott drools over some impressive splitter cracks on the tower: diagonals as well as verticals. How does it manage to survive? Back to our escape route, we have to dodge the swell and scramble up to get on the start of the route.

Hop-hop-hop-leap and we’re on the stance. The climb starts and Scott disappears around the corner. Time passes and as the tide turns the boulders we hopped start to submerge. Time passes and I start to wonder, scoping nearby ledges for short term escape. The high tide layer is 5m above my head. Time passes, the rope goes out, the rope comes back, Scott reappears and looks shocked ‘its **** horrible … wet … horrendous’.

I cast a nervous eye over the remaining boulders and shout ‘we have to retreat NOW!’

Scott disappears, time passes, the boulders disappear completely, no rope goes out, over the wind I hear shouts of ‘take … slack … take’.

The only piece of pro I can see tugs down by 5cm with Scott’s weight on.

Time passes, no rope moves, and the tide rises. I consider escape to ledges above the high tide line when I hear ‘safe!’

The rock is greasy and insecure, I step gingerly around the blind bulge to peer into a flared greasy crack. Step down into the crack, the gear is in the next crack to my right, so I make very hard moves with under-clings and distant small footholds to gain the crack. Full body tension is required to keep me on the rock, toes on tiny holds, fingertips in the under-clings, my back and stomach muscles straining to keep my position.

‘Don’t fall, the anchor isn’t good’ – I give Scott the look this news warrants. The gear is high in this crack, make a difficult step up to remove it, then step back down again and more hard moves to gain the next thin rightward crack. A repeat Paddington Bear stare for Scott, then up the crack to easier ground and finally to the stance. Do I want to lead the next pitch? No I want to be off this cliff. Scott leads out on thankfully much more relaxing climbing. No way was P1 E1.

Back to the start, Scott retrieves the ab lines and we pack the gear in the sunset, revelling in the experience. 

 danm 30 Aug 2018
In reply to petecallaghan:

Does that go down as a near miss then?

It appears that the Fifth Appendage has a bit of history for this sort of caper! I posted about my "experience"  on this route in the most intimidating places thread: https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rocktalk/most_intimidating_place_to_climb...

In the pub, a mate who is also going on Saturday mentioned that he only climbed the route on his fourth attempt, and he is a pretty solid E5/6 leader. I feel a lot better having the definitive guide now, at least there are escape options!

In reply to danm:

I’ve abbed in to climb Fifth Appendage on two separate occasions (no mean feat in itself, requiring a 50m abseil down vertical grass, then a further 40m abseil on your climbing ropes if you don’t have a 90m ab line). Both times the start was being lapped by waves in spite of it being low tide, so we escaped up one of the HVSs. Both of them were hard, bold and quite shit.

So my advice is not to do that.

 

 

 petecallaghan 30 Aug 2018
In reply to danm:

> Does that go down as a near miss then?

Ha! Rumbled ...

> It appears that the Fifth Appendage has a bit of history for this sort of caper! I posted about my "experience"  on this route in the most intimidating places thread: https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rocktalk/most_intimidating_place_to_climb...

 

That made me laugh till I cried..possibly a little hysterically 

 

 

 Kevster 30 Aug 2018
In reply to danm:

I thought route finding on fifth apendage was tough, as was the climbing. If it's any help, I thought the start of devils chimney was harder and more serious. I also thought the ab off the stack was excellent and not unlike the one off the old man of hoy. Do it just for the ab! But that's lundy and written guidebook descriptions. It's all part of the fun.

Have fun! 

 Tom Valentine 30 Aug 2018
In reply to Kevster:

I think i broke out a bit too early from the corner/groove on Fifth Appendage  and did find it hard going for E1 5b but as we started the second pitch in rain our pressing concern was to get up and see how our mates were doing on The Ocean.

Normally they wouldnt have welcomed the offer of a top rope but on that day you could say they were grateful.

In reply to petecallaghan:

I am reminded of my observation in the logbook about Fifth Appendage - “similar to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but harder and not quite as well protected”. It’s not your average E1.

 

jcm

 Rob Exile Ward 31 Aug 2018
In reply to Bob Peters:

Back in 1974 I seem to remember the top pitch of Ulysses Factor being pretty scary, loose and a long way up. I told my mate that if he led it I'd stop going on about how he wimped out leading the top pitch of Concrete Chimney.

(He did but I didn't.)

 GlennWatson 01 Sep 2018
In reply to Tom Valentine:

'Grateful' would be a bit of an understatement Tom.

Looking at the logbook it seems that The Ocean is a bit out of fashion these days.

 

 

 Tom Valentine 01 Sep 2018
In reply to GlennWatson:

Well re-wilding is in fashion so The Ocean should get the thumbs up in some quarters 

 Kevster 01 Sep 2018
In reply to GlennWatson:

Theres a reason for that, you can ab the final and best pitch, garden and climb as you go & without the adventure of the rest of the "package". A bit like sport climbing, but different.

In reply to Bob Peters:

Its quite a long story.. but to summaries.. 

First day ever on Lundy. Had too many beers on the ship celebrating. Unaware we put gear in the hold. More beers whilst waiting for rack to appear in the campsite. Went for a 'causal climb' late afternoon in Landing Craft Bay. Did some routes, one of which we couldn't top out. Back to base. Ab lines in the sea. Shit. Forge line up choss and veg in the dark without a torch. Lost friend wearing a cycle helmet. Friend stuck half way down a cliff in the dark. Tempted to abandon friend. Others did and got lost on the way to the campsite with no torch and no shoes (couldn't find shoes). Karma. Eventually met outside the pub. But it was already shut.   Next day we went to the slide to relax a bit! 

Post edited at 11:06
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 Tom Valentine 01 Sep 2018
In reply to Kevster:

Presumably you wouldn't have the audacity to tick the box in the UKC log, you charlatan!

 Mick Ward 01 Sep 2018
In reply to Bob Peters:

> What was the most hair-raising epic that you got away with on Lundy?

Finally got there only in the last month (shame on me!) and far too old for epics and all that malarky. But bumped into a great pair of guys who gave me loads of good advice.

On their first day, they left their climbing stuff in the hold of the boat. When eventually reunited, hours later, made a mad rush for somewhere (anywhere!) Abbed in. Pulled the ropes. Had to bail. No head torches. Arrived back at the campsite at midnight with mad, staring eyes. Gear spattered all over the crag.

As one of them wistfully recalled. "It was a steep learning curve."

Mick

 

 Kevster 01 Sep 2018
In reply to Tom Valentine:

Without wanting to hijack too much, yes, we climbed the entirety of the ocean, on sight. I will admit to not "walking" in however.

 

 Tom Valentine 02 Sep 2018
In reply to Kevster:

I don't think walking in is expected on that particular route.

In reply to Bob Peters:

Went to do Redspeed but thought better of it, so traversed back to the Slide and Pete set off up Satan's Slip. Due to a colossal miscalculation of pitch length it became painfully obvious, as he neared the crux, that he was going to run out of rope. Not wanting to worry him, and reasoning that the gear in the halfway break would have been welded into place in time-honoured O'Sullivan fashion, I untied, stripped the belay, and we climbed simultaneously until Pete reached the stance. Pete was blissfully unaware although he did remark that he did notice a silence falling over a busy slide as he climbed past the crux!

 nastyned 02 Sep 2018
In reply to Bob Peters:

Not an epic, but I managed to climb a poorly protected HVS at Knights Templar rocks when I thought I was climbing a V.Diff. It did seem a bit stiff, but I persevered in the expectation better holds and gear placements would appear.


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