Exploring the North Devon Coast for upcoming courses

10.07.2009

On yet another "sun and showers" day during July we decided to take a trip up to north Devon and explore some of the coast line in preparation for some upcoming courses during August.

We started by walking on the Coastal path north of Bude to "Cornakey Cliff" which is home to one of the north coasts classic routes, "Wreckers Slab." This route, full of history was an impressive achievement for the time, when it was climbed in 1959 by Tom Patey, Kieth Lawder and Zeke Deacon. At the time it was full of loose rock, vegetation and was poorly protected for the lead climbers who didn't have the modern ropes or protection that we use today.

Wreckers Slab is the longest single slab on the Devon and Cornwall mainland and rise's in three long pitches of 120ft, 150ft and 140ft. The climbing grade is given by the most recent guidebook as VS -, 4b, 4a. Which suggests that the climb will be fairly sustained and possibly poorly protected rather than having excess technical difficulty.

We had a great time on the first too pitches, finding good but well spaced protection all the way. The rock was fairly good as well, and as long as you tap tested some of the more suspect holds there wasn't any more loose rock than you would expect.

Unfortunately as we were just finishing the second pitch the weather took a turn for the worst and we were subjected to a typical summer downpour. We could see the rain approaching from outto sea and sped things up to try and get finished but no chance, we had to climb the top half in the rain, with many of the incut holds on the slab holding small puddles behind them!

After our thorough drenching we called it a day and headed to the fine pub in Morwenstowe to round off an excellent day.