UKC

In this month's Crag Notes Wil Treasure casts his mind back to the leafy delights of Shorn Cliff in Gloucestershire. "Every crag has its aroma. It's been my grounding on a lonely runout: lean in and take in the scent. Smell the rock. On the limestone, you've got the herbs, the garlic, and the flowers and I loved it."

Thanks Wil, it's great to be reminded of Shorn Cliff days ... an excellent venue for an HVS/E1 bloke like me.

A favourite memory is of a club outing to Shorn Cliff. On a previous visit Johnnie 'The Incredible Unc' Holland had dropped a friend, and it had disappeared down a hole between the boulders at the foot of the crag. Today he'd brought his fishing rod, but his efforts were unsuccessful. Later in the afternoon Johnnie had departed, and I looked down the hole ..... too small for Johnnie, but possibly OK for a thin fellow? Belayed by Eddie, I squirmed my way down. After perhaps ten foot further progress looked unlikely, but there was the missing cam at my feet.

We didn't tell John, but at the next Club Dinner there was a large parcel waiting for him. When he reached the centre there was his long-lost gear, and some good advice: 'Look after your friends well .....'

Oooh, this takes me back - it was my regular crag in my early days, being do-able in a (long) day from London, and where I pushed my grade from VS to E3! Love the concretion picture. I met Matt Ward there too.

Great stuff. Brought back happy memories of Shorncliff.

In the early 90’s, I was a Sunday morning climber. Throughout the seasons, nipping out early, as often as not, crunching down the forestry road to Shorncliff, knock off a route and home for elevenses. So Shorncliff remains a place of early morning sounds and smells for me.

After a couple of years basic training at Wintours Leap and then getting spanked by the grades and the steepness at Symonds Yat and Wyndcliff, Shorncliff, with its gentle angle and deep, incut pockets came as a nice surprise. 

Some of the routes were only five years old, clean, unused and unpolished at the time. The only approach paths were at either end of the crag so you had to bash through head high nettles to get to the great slab in summer.

State of Independence was the first route I did there. I remember faffing for ages beneath the bulge, having never seen rock that blobbed and hung in loops like petrified chewing-gum before!

I also remember seeing Tony Penning around, making everything look easy, with arms like a gorilla!

Thanks for bringing it all back again!

I had a 50 metre rope, snake silently off down a similar hole. Tried to dig it out but never got it back.

That made me really miss Shorn Cliff, and determined to dig out my old HVS/E1 ticklist for the crag and get cracking with it this year!

Worth retelling the tale of a novice climber who joined our club in the early 90s. On an early outing for him to Shorn Cliff; he followed 2 of the more senior members up One For All, at the top they went about setting up the ab and gave him a long long lecture about how much care you need to take abbing.

They then proceeded to throw both ends of the rope down the same side of the tree!

Yes, abbing can be a problem at Shorn Cliff. For the uninitiated, the slope above the crag is absolutely terrifying being very steep and earthy and often ankle deep in fallen leaves. Mostly, you want to ab from the nearest tree to the top of the route to avoid any traversing across that slope. 

My worst memory of climbing there was of tossing the ends of the ab rope down. One end of the rope passed down one side of a stout branch, but a loop of the rope somehow managed to flick up the other side of the branch and loop itself over a broken twig from which no amount of pulling from above would detach it, such was the friction generated by pulling from above around the sturdy main branch. In the end we threw down the rest of the rope and set off across the deadly slope until we found somewhere to scramble down. I seemed to be about half a mile, but I expect it was only about 100m.

Glad to see people have the same affection for the place as me. 🙂

In the past few years I think I've only had a single evening there, and I've done almost all of the starred routes before, so I'm left with the more spidery and overgrown offerings now, but I live a long way away these days.

I'd forgotten about the gear swallowing base. I don't think I ever had a bad rope tangle, but I'm sure I lost a couple of nuts in the undergrowth. That said, I think I found many more,so it was a net gain!

Thanks for the lovely reminder of a lovely crag. I've only had a handful of hugely enjoyable visits many years ago. Life has sent me ever further northwards so may never return to add to my fond memories.

I love that limestone will take the bins out. Am local to Shorn Cliff and reckon this image will stay with me!