Realistically it's probably not the best route in the world. In fact it's probably the second worst.
It did have a nice finishing mud arete though
And some entertaining gear - this is part of the belay - there was no crack before I placed the warthog.
How we laughed...
Then after a very long drive we arrived at Beachy Head which amongst the memorials for jumpers is one of the UK's greatest lines - Monster Crack.
Having climbed Monster Crack and most of Sunday Sport (Beachy Head's hardest route) I thought I had the hang of the place. But trying to be cautious I thought I'd do the shorter Albino or Vaginof - the two grooves on the far right of this shot (Monster Crack is far left).
After a long time and lots of collapsing brain cells and chalk I failed on both lines - I wasn't happy!
We then failed on the mile long walk out, as the tide was in. To escape we climbed the world's worst route (so bad there are no photos) - 450ft of 70 degree grass topped by 15ft of mud. At least I thought things couldn't possibly get worse...
...unfortunately they could when our planned third day of adventure ended shortly after breakfast when I filled Jon's diesel car up with petrol. It was time to give up before I really got us into trouble.
3 comments:
Hello Ian. As i see you would love to climb in the fantastic sea cliffs of Portugal. We have also good rock, do.
Nice loose adventures!
Paulo Roxo
Hi Ian,
I do a lot of chalk climbing at this time of year in Dover and Saltdean. I've just read this post and am inspired to pay a visit to Devon. Are the Ladram Bay stacks generally best suited to Dover-style climbing and protection in spite of being Sandstone?
Cheers,
Lee
Lee, Ladram isn't great for ice axe stuff, - the 'rock' is much more crumbly than chalk and just breaks away in clods. Where it is more solid it's much better as a super adventurous rock climbing spot - having said that the occasional use of an axe axe could be helpful - I think a pitch on The Reddlemen on the main cliff is a full ice axe thing.
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