Thursday, November 20, 2008

White Magic

With proper winter conditions still seemingly a few days away Jon, Paul and I headed south with our winter climbing kit. For Jon and Paul it would be their first taste of chalk climbing. On the first day we headed to the extraordinary feature of the Tube (95m Grade IV), the relatively ammenable classic of the area.The initial wall as usual felt steeper than it looked but lucky the route is relatively well travelled so there are decent footholds. The tube itself is pretty steady with the crux provided by a large piece of metal plate that needs to be crossed halfway up. For anyone competent with their axes (solid at WI4 or Scottish V) the Tube is very highly recommended, we all agreed it would make the UK's all time esoterica top ten. The White Cliffs really are one of the most striking bits of adventure on offer to climbers in the UK. Some of the lines would compare with anything around, heres a pic of the grade VI Channel Holes, remember the whole cliff is close to 80m high so those caves (and roofs) on the top pitch must feel pretty airy. One for a future visit.
Oh, and we stayed down for a further day managing quite a little adventure. More of that tomorrow...!

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