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Avon Gorge
Cheddar Gorge
Bristol Area
Wye Valley
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Main Area
The area to the right of the massive roof, comprising Morning slab, Evening
wall above, Central Gully to the right and Central Buttress right again.
Plenty of lower grade climbing is to be found, though most of it is highly
polished and bold.
Main Slab
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My personal opinion of this slab is that it is a complete bag of sh*te, and
pointlessly dangerous. There is little or no gear on most routes that
climb the upper part of the slab, they're all polished, and despite the
fact that they're all easy, are of insufficient quality to bother with.
Leave well alone. There are a few good routes on Evening Wall, though.
Alternative perspectives on this area would be most welcome ... |
Dawn Walk *
S 4a,-,- |
This climb is really quite crap. The first pitch may be worth bothering
with, but only if you're really desperate to do a Severe in the Avon Gorge.
If you do get as far as the first belay, ab off the tree. I once made the
mistake of following someone on the second pitch, carrying a heavy rucksack
including a spare rope. This is most inadvisable, as the pitch consists
of a high level walk across the top of Main Slab, with no useful gear (a
decidedly twisted and bent peg, backed up by Rock 1 - about 40' left of
the 2nd belay). Mega long falls (deck outs?) are a distinct possibility
for both leader and second. Thank God the climbing is so desperately easy
(it is polished, though). Anyway, the third pitch is quickly over at Lunchtime
Ledge, with little incident. If you've come this far, you really ought
to do Bob's Climb, which is far, far better.
JB (on-sight) |
Morty's Error
E2 5b |
Still not sure if this deserves E2 as the crux is well protected. Might be 5c
though... If you like technical slabby moves then this route is perfect. On
the other hand it's horrendous if you don't like soloing the first 30 foot
on 0lose rock... although this section is easy. Anyway, climb up to the
small ledge and get your first runner in (friend) ready for the start of the
harder climbing. Some typical balancy Main Wall type climbing leads past a
peg runner to a mantelshelf below the obvious overlap. Once you've stood up
you can reach left and clip the peg ready for the crux. This is the point
where you realise how easy the climbing has been up to here, and how much
harder it's going to get! There's a good peg but you can't reach it yet and
you haven't brought your clip stick with you! Pull up on tiny (mono?) crimps
until you can step up right onto the lip. Clip the peg (very carefully) and
then use the peg crack to stand up and reach for better holds. Over so
quickly... Now it's just typical slabby moves up to the Dawn Walk belay.
However one of the slabby moves was horrendous (did I do it wrong?) and made
me realise how far away my last piece of gear was!
SSJ (on-sight) |
Evening Wall
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The wall above Lunchtime Ledge offers several of the most polished
and popular Avon routes, but also several worthwhile low-grade climbs that
receive little traffic. The first route described starts from the Gallery,
a small ledge with a tree, easily reached from the left hand end of Lunchtime
Ledge. |
Aftermath *
VS 4c |
A pleasant route, with little polish and pleasant climbing, but the
occasional runout. Climb directly above the Gallery with ease, but with
little gear, aiming for a borehole in a corner. Once standing on a grassy
ledge, a big rusty rock anchor may be tied off, to protect the reachy crux.
Climb past a thread up another corner, by bridging carefully or by moving
left or right. A worthwhile route for those who happen to find themselves
on Lunchtime Ledge.
JB (on-sight) |
Bob's Climb *
VDiff -,- |
An absolute gem. This really is the best VDiff in the Gorge. The route
is on Evening Wall, above Lunchtime Ledge. Wander leftwards for the first
pitch, the second is the good one. You climb up above the belay on a fairly
steep wall with good wire placements, and well-below-average levels of
polish. At the top of the wall, go left of a roof, with the most amazing
positions you can get on a VDiff. The holds are large, but you have 200ft
of space below your feet - superb. The only real problem is finding a route
of suitable quality to get to Lunchtime Ledge. Find your way there somehow,
Bob's Climb is well worth it.
JB (2nd) |
Central Buttress
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Some dangerous stuff here [JB]....... |
Great Central Route ***
HVS 5a |
Starts at the two ash trees to the right of exhibition slab.
A rather tortuous route and easy to get lost on, which is not helped by
the repeated patter of bootied feet.
Pitch one: follow those pegs! An easy start leads to a quasimodo
style traverse right which needs thin fingers to get into the crack. Go
up the nose and belay on the platform above (the guide mentions pegs, I
found one bolt), back this up (?!) with a bomber size 1 nut and let your
second skate his way up.
Pitch two: Longer and easier even if there is bugger all protection.
Go round to the left of the pink wall and go up to an overhang, do a comedy
traverse left, pull over and head straight for the belay trees at the top
on the left (easy slab) Bring plenty of long extenders.
PH (on-sight) |
Central Eliminate
E1 5b, 4c |
A surprisingly good eliminate; at least the crux move is fantastic! Typical
balancy limestone climbing up to the horizontal break (lots of pegs and
nuts). Then take an enormous wide step left onto a smeary ledge (warm up
before you start, otherwise you'll need to leg-stretch half way up like I did
in order to reach far enough!) and then rock over with help from some small
crimps. You're now standing precariously on the exposed lip of an enormous
overhang! Wondering how on earth you just made that move, chill out for a bit
before carrying on up easier ground to the belay. The second (easier) pitch
also has some good moves.
SSJ (on-sight) |
Desperation *
HVS 5a |
Fun if scary. To the far right hand of main area (right hand of the
great central route (good route, FA gear on the second pitch) ledge past
the bush. Climb the groove easily and move up and left to the bore holes
(thread runner in there somewhere). Hardish moves to the over hang allow
a peg to be clipped and then go over the roof on the right and scramble
up the broken rock to the tree belays about half a mile back. To make this
route more interesting do it in freezing weather pausing at every placement
to throw gear at your belayer, inishing up with the coup-de-grace of lobbing
your belay plate to the bottom of the gorge and belay up your second using
an italian hitch while sitting in a damp patch of grass covered in bird
shit. Decend the path to the right just in time for the sun to set and
it be too dark to find your belay plate, crab, and size 10 nut which was
ejected 100ft higher up to the cry of "fucking hell, not again".Not a bad
outing really.
PH |
Centaur
E1 5a |
Good route, and not too hard, although you really need to keep your head!
Fairly easy climbing to start with, although there's definite deckout
potential by the time you get to the decent gear. Fortunately the crux (one
hard move) is well protected by a good nut and friend. Use a powerful layback
off the arete on the left to reach a positive hold high on the right. Then
precariously move on it and gain a good rest on the ledge above. The rest of
the pitch is obvious, although still bold.
SSJ (on-sight) |
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