Grade: XS 5a
Length: 150m
Location: Opposite the needles, on the edge of Alum Bay, Isle Of Wight
Rock: The best quality Chalk
First Climbed: Mick Fowler sometime in the 80's
Approach: 90m abseil direct from the ancient fortress at the top of the headland. Descend just to the east of the ridge.
Description: Only accessible at very low tide, and I mean at very low tide. The first pitch goes up a wall towards the right edge of the last tower on the ridge. The bottom can be very slippery! Belay on pegs. Follow the crest of the ridge for 80m till you hit a steep 8m wall. Climb this past a few more pegs to easy ground and the top.
Notes: Mick Fowler described this route as 'very friendly'. It isn't technically very hard but isn't a normal rock climb, and if things go wrong it can cause a lot of problems.
Me and 2 friends tried to climb this on 28th November 2004. When I say tried I mean it went a little wrong and we when we eventually finished it was with a little aid, in the form of an RAF helicopter.
The problems were as follows:
1) We were on a tight schedule having driven all the way from Leeds, meaning we couldn't wait for little things like the tide to be right. This meant we spent 8 hours sat on the beach waiting to be able to get onto the route.
2) When we finally got on the route is was about 3pm, leaving about 1 hour of daylight. This wouldn't have been a problem apart from the lack of headtorches. We had one, but the batteries were pretty much dead.
Once on the ridge we climbed very quickly having recieved a phone call whilst at the top of the first pitch that let us know it was already dark in Leeds. We got as far as the last steep section when it get very dark. After much discussion and arguments about where the route went we decided to stay put until the morning and finish it at first light.
Having already called the coast guard, to let them know we were climbing that day, we thought it would be polite to inform them we were going to stay there and finish in the morning. This was just in case anyone saw our kit and thought about trying to rescue us. But anyways, as it turned out the coastguard will not let you sit on a sea cliff over night, even if you ask nicely. What happened next was a long, drawn out but quite amusing series of events.
Firstly a lot of guys turned up at the top of the cliff and spent over 2 hours trying to throw ropes to us. They couldn't work out where we were. But they did manage to shine their very powerful light in such a way as to create the perfect silhouette of a naked women wth huge breasts right across the needles.
Eventually they figured out that they couldn't get to us with ropes, so an RAF helicopter was called in. This took a long time. As the helicopter approached it perfectly lit up the rest of the climb, at this point we were tempted to ask tehm to hover still for a minute while we quickly finished the route. But we thought this would be seen as wasting their time.
So we put all our kit in the bag and got ready to be lifted off. Selby went first, then Tom, then me.
Now you cannot put the big helicopter style harnesses on whilst wearing a rucksac, and I wasn't leaving our kit behind. So as the commando helicopter dude attached me on and pushed me off into space I clipped the bag to my harness. This proved to be a bit of a problem when I tried getting into the helicopter. A bag with 100m of rope, a rack, 3 ice hammers, loads of cameras and other gubbins weighs a lot, and when its hanging 4ft below you banging on the underneath of a helicopter it weighs even more.
So we were carried to a field on the top of the headland where we were met by a convoy of land rovers. They escorted us down to the fort, where there seemed to be a party going on. It turned out two coastguard crews had come to help, meaning about 15 land rovers and probably over 40 men were waiting around for us, it was now 2200. After a short discussion about how silly it is to get stuck on a sea cliff we were escorted to a takeaway for food and let on our way. We ended the day with a pint at the ferry terminal before the last ferry back to the mainland.
--- Laurence
Length: 150m
Location: Opposite the needles, on the edge of Alum Bay, Isle Of Wight
Rock: The best quality Chalk
First Climbed: Mick Fowler sometime in the 80's
Approach: 90m abseil direct from the ancient fortress at the top of the headland. Descend just to the east of the ridge.
Description: Only accessible at very low tide, and I mean at very low tide. The first pitch goes up a wall towards the right edge of the last tower on the ridge. The bottom can be very slippery! Belay on pegs. Follow the crest of the ridge for 80m till you hit a steep 8m wall. Climb this past a few more pegs to easy ground and the top.
Notes: Mick Fowler described this route as 'very friendly'. It isn't technically very hard but isn't a normal rock climb, and if things go wrong it can cause a lot of problems.
Me and 2 friends tried to climb this on 28th November 2004. When I say tried I mean it went a little wrong and we when we eventually finished it was with a little aid, in the form of an RAF helicopter.
The problems were as follows:
1) We were on a tight schedule having driven all the way from Leeds, meaning we couldn't wait for little things like the tide to be right. This meant we spent 8 hours sat on the beach waiting to be able to get onto the route.
2) When we finally got on the route is was about 3pm, leaving about 1 hour of daylight. This wouldn't have been a problem apart from the lack of headtorches. We had one, but the batteries were pretty much dead.
Once on the ridge we climbed very quickly having recieved a phone call whilst at the top of the first pitch that let us know it was already dark in Leeds. We got as far as the last steep section when it get very dark. After much discussion and arguments about where the route went we decided to stay put until the morning and finish it at first light.
Having already called the coast guard, to let them know we were climbing that day, we thought it would be polite to inform them we were going to stay there and finish in the morning. This was just in case anyone saw our kit and thought about trying to rescue us. But anyways, as it turned out the coastguard will not let you sit on a sea cliff over night, even if you ask nicely. What happened next was a long, drawn out but quite amusing series of events.
Firstly a lot of guys turned up at the top of the cliff and spent over 2 hours trying to throw ropes to us. They couldn't work out where we were. But they did manage to shine their very powerful light in such a way as to create the perfect silhouette of a naked women wth huge breasts right across the needles.
Eventually they figured out that they couldn't get to us with ropes, so an RAF helicopter was called in. This took a long time. As the helicopter approached it perfectly lit up the rest of the climb, at this point we were tempted to ask tehm to hover still for a minute while we quickly finished the route. But we thought this would be seen as wasting their time.
So we put all our kit in the bag and got ready to be lifted off. Selby went first, then Tom, then me.
Now you cannot put the big helicopter style harnesses on whilst wearing a rucksac, and I wasn't leaving our kit behind. So as the commando helicopter dude attached me on and pushed me off into space I clipped the bag to my harness. This proved to be a bit of a problem when I tried getting into the helicopter. A bag with 100m of rope, a rack, 3 ice hammers, loads of cameras and other gubbins weighs a lot, and when its hanging 4ft below you banging on the underneath of a helicopter it weighs even more.
So we were carried to a field on the top of the headland where we were met by a convoy of land rovers. They escorted us down to the fort, where there seemed to be a party going on. It turned out two coastguard crews had come to help, meaning about 15 land rovers and probably over 40 men were waiting around for us, it was now 2200. After a short discussion about how silly it is to get stuck on a sea cliff we were escorted to a takeaway for food and let on our way. We ended the day with a pint at the ferry terminal before the last ferry back to the mainland.
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