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Stonehenge,
Sedgewick Motorway Bridge, Saltdene
Sea Wall, Fort William, Eastbourne
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| Stonehenge
This stone circle is absolutely amazing and
there do appear to be some brilliant problems. The picture shows a druid ceremony
back in February 2000. It is slightly blurred as it was taken from a distance, the area was closed off for the ceremony. Druids, yeah right, we
believe that they were simply students taking the piss.
So all you have to do is fake a druid ceremony, so you can
get close enough to boulder. No problem, just don't use too much chalk, as
that is vandalism. |
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This is below the motorway on the main Kendal
road in the Lakes, it has long been used by locals when it's raining cats & dogs.
It stays dry even in magnificent blizzards & howling rain storms. Parking is found immediately next to the bridge down a
small lane, marked as a dead end, from the Sedgewick 'falls' junction off the
A6. The main problems are forearm pumpy traverses & the walls have several 'join
the dots' problems. Can't say who put the dots up. The variations on holds are huge as you can guess but the marked
problems go something like this:
White dots L-R-L 6a, V4
Tiny Yellow dots 7a, V10. soc.
Large 'satellite' Yellow dots L-R-L 6b, V5
Jug Green Traverse 4c, V0
Circus Award 6b/c, V4. Climb the wall to gain a small 2 finger runnel on the
outer underside of the walkway & swing out for the top. Definitely take a mat
for this one though!
Further left again is a small overhanging buttress of natural rock which is
good when dry:
Riverglance 6c, V5. Traverse on small yellow crosses, soc.
Yellow dot traverse 6a/b, V4. soc
Super Tweak : Low ledge & roof traverse R, 6b, V5. soc
6a/b, V5. On the top tier & balcony path there is a tricky L-R-L un-dotted traverse
And finally, the only E7 on a motorway
bridge!!
ZION TRAIN E7 6c. Make a truly frightening
50m free lip traverse of the motorway bridge from one side to the other. soc
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Not the Mecca of southern climbing but somewhere to
go and climb a wall without the cost of traveling
to an
indoor venue etc.
Saltdean is about 5 miles east of Brighton and sports
about 20 climbs on the south facing wall under the local
cafe.
Grades are all about 4a to 5c depending on the size of the
cracks that last winters storm damage has left
Follow the underpath further to the east to
it's finish,
then jump down to the beach to find the chalk climbing
area, noticeable by its numerous ice axe indentations. This
is also a good area to boulder if you don't mind the chalk.
Note : This is a bird nesting area.
Climber on Petrol Burps 5c. (Liz Otterson 95)
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Pic shows the main wall area. Climber
on "lifebuoy 4a", recently re-pointed
but still about the same grade. Note
the railings which make a good belay. |
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| The old fort at Fort William is a good bouldering
arena. In some ways better than the leisure centre down the road.
The blocks and concrete are amazingly solid. |
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| The fort offers an entire training ground. There is
even a campus board. A complete traverse of the fort is quite
tiring. The best problems are on the various arêtes. The main
problem is the tourists, especially the ones from Asia minor. The
beach also offers some very good skimming stones, but not as good as
the yacht club in Ballachulish. |
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Martello
Towers,
Eastbourne
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These towers were built to defend against Napoleon.
The one pictured left is number 70. The concrete has been battered
off the walls by the sea, leaving the brickwork showing. This is
surprisingly strong, and even offers possibilities for gear,
although falling on such gear is not recommended. The seaward side
of this tower goes at HVS 4b, but the crux is getting down without
leaving anything on top. Down climbing would be very dodgy,
especially getting over the lip at the top.
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