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ARTICLE: Hostile Terrain - Trad Adventures in North Devon & Cornwall

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 UKC Articles 23 Oct 2018
Some of the South West's secrets are worth keeping...Devon's honorary Brummy Stu Bradbury takes a look at some of the more esoteric offerings of the South West's North Coast. Be warned: this article should come with a public health and safety warning, so tread lightly...

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 Tom Last 23 Oct 2018
In reply to UKC Articles:

It’s been a big inspiration watching Stu and Lee’s seemingly endless series of adventures of late. Most people would be happy with a single one of these sorts of routes in a lifetime (we’ll that’s not true, most people would steer clear altogether) but a half dozen or so in a single summer - well, hats off fellas. 

 BALD EAGLE 23 Oct 2018
In reply to UKC Articles:

Wow top effort Stu! And a great + inspiring article, definitely putting the A into adventure for those brave (or daft!) enough to try one or two of those routes...  Cheers Dave

 Mark Kemball 23 Oct 2018
In reply to UKC Articles:

Nice one, but I should point out that Stu is not a Brummie but a Black Country man (like myself).

It's been great hearing about all your adventures Stu, but I think I prefer to stick to the Culm - much more solid.

 Stu Bradbury 23 Oct 2018
In reply to UKC Articles:

"Honorary Brummy" How Vert Very Dare You!!! I'm from the much more picturesque city of Wolverhampton I'll have you know! : )

This kind of stuff is usually a quiet & private pastime and often these kind of things just go under the radar as they are not cutting edge grades & are very much driven by the pure need for searching out adventures & dealing with private fears & risks So I would just like to say a Big Thanks to all those that have shown interest in our escapades which prompted me to put this article together in the first place & a particular Thanks to Lee for his ongoing enthusiasm.

North Devon & Cornwall has a much smaller Trad scene than say, North wales or the peak but we are a tight knit community & I am very proud to be part of it, thanks for adopting me. 

Post edited at 11:54
 james mann 23 Oct 2018
In reply to UKC Articles:

http://tv.thebmc.co.uk/videos/sea-cliff-climbing-essentials-5-rock-quality/

Ace article Stu! This film gives Stu’s approach to dealing with the variable rock quality on sea cliffs. 

 

James

 James FR 23 Oct 2018
In reply to UKC Articles:

Fantastic article, "the situation had my full attention" is a great line!

 d_b 23 Oct 2018
In reply to James FR:

It is the only way to describe climbing on certain types of rock...

In reply to Stu Bradbury:

> "Honorary Brummy" How Vert Very Dare You!!! I'm from the much more picturesque city of Wolverhampton I'll have you know! : )

 

Oops, that'd have been my fault there - I'd got it from the following headline from Javu:

"Pixies Loving Bold Brummy In Impressive Blackchurch E6 Action 8 June 2014"

Having scanned further down the news page I also noticed the following asterisk:

"Bold Brummy - Stu will no doubt soon be in touch to tell me Wolverhampton (from whence I believe he hails) is not the same as Birmingham"

Classic Henderson...

Whilst we're on topic Dave, it's worth giving a shout out his own website Javu, for what could be seen as the predecessor to this article - Rubble Trubble - written by Clark Alston. For those morbidly curious visit: http://javu.co.uk/Climbing/Articles/RubbleTrubble/index.shtml

 Sean Kelly 23 Oct 2018
In reply to UKC Articles:

I'm now sitting in a darkened room after reading this Stu! I believe that both Jimmy Jewell and 'Smiler' Cuthbertson were also Wolverhampton born. It must be something in the water over there!

Sean

In reply to UKC Articles:

Terrific article.  I've shared a link to it with friends more accustomed to cream teas than climbing to show that, to borrow a phrase that was originally about Everest*, there are other Cornwalls in the lives of men.

T.

I know I've seen that phrase, 'there are other Everests in the lives of men', somewhere but I'm blowed if I can remember where.

 Carless 23 Oct 2018
In reply to UKC Articles:

Excellent stuff!

I shall have to make a return visit - been a long time

 Andrew Barker 23 Oct 2018
In reply to Pursued by a bear:

It's "There are other Annapurnas in the lives of men". The last line from Annapurna by Maurice Herzog. A great read.

P.S. what a brilliant summer ticklist.

Post edited at 17:21
In reply to Andrew Barker:

That's the badger! Thanks for correcting me.

T.

 Michael Gordon 23 Oct 2018
In reply to UKC Articles:

Superb! A great account of some proper adventurous routes. 'Fight or Flight' looks like quite a find. "Who Needs Cocaine?" - a route name for next year?

 kingholmesy 23 Oct 2018
In reply to UKC Articles:

Great article!

Inspired by Stu’s efforts, I repeated The Urge on Sunday and can confirm both it’s seriousness and quality.

For anyone interested, adjacent to Chimney Sweep is Crocker’s route Terry (E5, 5b, 5c, 6a, 5c).  A bit more conventional in style and one of the best routes I’ve done.

Fight or Flight looks absolutely awesome!

 Southvillain 24 Oct 2018
In reply to james mann:

I can attest to the quality. I had three great days out with Stu last year going up and down the N. Devon and Cornwall coast, and one of which involved doing `Zinfandel' on Bude Pillar. As I put my foot into a pretty friable corner I kicked a host of rock out, a piece of which landed on Stu's dog...I'm not sure he really forgave me for that.

 Stu Bradbury 24 Oct 2018
In reply to Southvillain:

Haha! No Worries : )That's the Culm coast for you! He's obviously got a thick skull!!

 Derek Ryden 25 Oct 2018
In reply to UKC Articles:

We did a route at the Valley of the Rocks crag in the 90s, at which time the line of what now appears to be Chimney Sweep was blocked by a delicately wedged block the size of a minibus. Is it still there, and if not, who trundled it??

 broc 25 Oct 2018
In reply to Stu Bradbury:

Fantastic article! One of the best I've read on this site. 

Is Breakaway on the to do list?!

 Stu Bradbury 25 Oct 2018
In reply to broc:

Haha! believe it or not I don't go out of my way to climb loose rock! if routes have unpredictable rock then I try & deal with it as best I can, I have had some pretty big falls on snappy rock over the years & luckily managed to get away with it, this style of climbing has a strange attraction, If you sit down & ponder on it for too long its obvious that its not sensible, yet the drive to use all of your mental & physical skills to push things as close to the line as possible is strong & has its rewards, managing fear is the key, without the ability to "keep a lid on a boiling pot" their is no way you can stay in control physically...Is the body taking the mind on a journey or is the mind taking the body!          

With regards to "Breakaway" its not on my tick list, my personal motivation comes from being inspired by strong natural lines & I still have some great looking new routes up my sleeve yet ; )

Glad you enjoyed it, All the best. Stu.

 Ian Parsons 25 Oct 2018
In reply to Stu Bradbury:

Stu. Comparing your photo of Lee leading the first pitch of The Chimney Sweep with a very poor old phone-camera shot looking up the route in 2012, I'm fairly certain that there's been a substantial rockfall in the interim. The long, orange, roof-capped niche in your photo, some distance above Lee and just under the belay ledge, wasn't there six years ago - probably explaining your difficulty in figuring out the lower part of the route! Did Lee manage to go straight over the roof, or skirt it on one side or the other? I presume the missing section succumbed to a winter storm - possibly the fate that befell Derek's wedged block [which I don't recall seeing, unless it was above the wide crack]. It would be interesting to hear what the state of play was when Kingholmesy repeated Terry - which shares the same first pitch - in 2016.

 kingholmesy 25 Oct 2018
In reply to Ian Parsons:

Sorry Ian - I can’t remember! The photo of Lee sitting on the first belay looks familiar. I recall climbing the corner above him in that picture then going rightwards with feet along the break that you can see at the top of that photo.  My only other memory of the second pitch of Terry is pulling rightwards onto a large shelf at the end on the pitch that had some large loose blocks on it - I think I pulled onto the shelf skirting under the right hand side of an overhang but can’t really remember.

BTW - I also repeated your route Pierrot Le Fou at Carn Gowla in 2016, which I thought was excellent.

Cheers, Luke.

 Stu Bradbury 25 Oct 2018
In reply to Ian Parsons:

Yes Ian their has definitely been a big rock fall but it is under the 2nd pitch which you traverse above to reach the 2nd belay in the niche. The first pitch reaches the belay by skirting around to the right then moving left just above the rock fall to get to the first stance if that makes sense.

 

 Ian Parsons 25 Oct 2018
In reply to kingholmesy:

Hi Luke

Yes; that shot of the first belay is similar to Don Sargeant's FA picture in the guidebook, which shows Martin moving out of the corner that you mention. I can't quite decide by comparing the two images whether any of the ledge has gone; the missing section is obviously out of sight below it. The shelf with the loose blocks at the end of that second pitch [on Terry] is visible in the background of the shot of Stu getting to the base of the wide crack - gained, as you say, by emerging from under the righthand side of that overhang behind Stu's dangling red cam. Under The Weather.... arrives at and belays on another ledge just down to the right, then climbs up over those grassy blocks and a short corner crack to a belay beneath its top pitch.

Thanks for your kind words about Pierrot Le Fou - you clearly had a good year - but I think you're mixing me up with a Mr Parnell; he's the ugly one!

 kingholmesy 25 Oct 2018
In reply to Ian Parsons:

> Thanks for your kind words about Pierrot Le Fou - you clearly had a good year - but I think you're mixing me up with a Mr Parnell; he's the ugly one!

Ha - sorry!  The dangers of reading things on my phone while not paying enough attention!  Terry was fab though. Do you know if there’s any info on what else (if anything) has already been done Wringcliff Bay?  The only stuff I’ve seen is what’s in the Littlejohn selective guide.

 Ian Parsons 25 Oct 2018
In reply to Stu Bradbury:

Yes; that makes sense. As I recall the bulging crack mentioned in the description arrived more or less at the belay position, probably about where that leftward-pointing block is visible on the lip. I bet that lot made a splash when it landed; quite an impressive distance up the cliff for big waves to be hitting, if that's what happened.


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