Year of publication 1960 - Fell and Rock Climbing Club
Year of publication 1960 - Fell and Rock Climbing Club
Year of publication 1960 - Fell and Rock Climbing Club
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G. Oliver 33Phil Gordon was leading, balancing delicately in a line slingwhile he endeavoured to insert a pebble, the size <strong>of</strong> a thimble,into the crack above him. Having succeeded in this, hethreaded another sling through it, tested it warily with hisweight <strong>and</strong> then pulled up to st<strong>and</strong> in it. A few minuteswatching this daring display made me glad that I was on a'free' climb <strong>and</strong> I turned my thoughts to the next move.Above the niche the left wall bulges slightly so that asemi-layback has to be made facing right. Knowing thatseveral people had fallen from this section I tackled itcautiously. After the first move no good h<strong>and</strong>holds came tolight so I had to be content with an uncomfortable righth<strong>and</strong>-jam high above my head. Using this I straightened upon a sloping hold on the right wall <strong>and</strong> then better h<strong>and</strong>holdswere within reach. The route seemed to relent on the last fewfeet by presenting the fingers <strong>of</strong> my groping left h<strong>and</strong> with amagnificent jug, <strong>and</strong> a final pull brought me to the top <strong>of</strong> theCorner into a pleasant green bower known as 'the valley.'The 120 feet <strong>of</strong> climbing had taken me forty minutes, but each<strong>of</strong> my two companions was up beside me in half that time.It was still early in the afternoon, but the ascent seemed tocall for a celebration so we returned to camp <strong>and</strong> spent ourtime sun-bathing <strong>and</strong> eating. The weather report for themorrow being favourable, we arranged to visit Cloggy <strong>and</strong>with an early start in mind we soon retired to bed. The newday dawned bright <strong>and</strong> clear but we did not wake to see it, <strong>and</strong>,in spite <strong>of</strong> our good intentions, it was midday when we finallycrossed the rack railway at Cloggy Station, <strong>and</strong> 1 o'clock whenwe reached the crag.The huge frowning cliff looked almost friendly today, thenormal wet streaks on the rock being completely dried out.High up on the wall <strong>of</strong> East Gully we could see the deepcrack marking the line <strong>of</strong> Octo, one <strong>of</strong> the earlier Extremes onthe crag which we thought a good route to try as an introduction.With the normal collection <strong>of</strong> hammer, slings, rope<strong>and</strong> so on, Eric <strong>and</strong> I began the scramble up the gully to reachour route, while Don took up a suitable position for his role <strong>of</strong>photographer. The last 70 feet below the actual rock climbingconsisted <strong>of</strong> almost vertical grass which was really fearsomewhen tackled solo in rubbers.
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