20/04/07

Oxley Departs...

After over 20 years of being the prime new route activist ,with over 700 new routes to his name, Pete Oxley has left for pastures new. Just for fun we have compiled a tick list of all of Pete's Dorset new routes should you wish to emulate him! Dcweb wishes Pete and Jan all the best for their new future in New Zealand(if only the rock in NZ knew what was about hit it!) On the new route front Pete left us with a couple of new deep-water soloes in the 'Leave My Sole Alone' area. Full details are here>>

Marti Hallet on the first ascent of 'Coprophobia', Dancing Ledge

On the bouldering scene, Ben Tyrell has added some lines at the New Cuttings. Based on and around the old trad route of 'Loco' The fact that a large swathe of Ivy and brambles had to be cleared speaks volumes about these trad routes. Ben Stokes previously climbed many of the problems and recorded them on dorsetclimbing.net, although that information has been lost. Ben Stokes is happy for the new names to stand, and hopefully a bit of publicity will ensure that they stay shrubbery-free this time around. A photo-topo of the problems can be found here>>Also on Portland a few isolated new routes have been established with two 'newbies' in Dungecroft Quarry(Cheyne Weares), courtesy of Tom Beaumont. These short routes can be found 50m past 'Truly, Madly, Steeply', the right-hand line gives 'Crazy Old Hippies'(F4+), while the left-hand line is 'Ultrasonic Shoulder' (F6A+)

On the mainland Marti Hallet added a new route called 'Coprophobia' to the right of 'Mariana's Trenchcoat' on the lower wall at Dancing Ledge at 6b+. The aforementioned Mariana's Trenchcoat has been confirmed as a worthwhile route, but clip the second runner on the new line to avoid a runout through an unstable section! At Winspit Tom Beaumont has added a new line in the West quarry to the right of 'Autumn Leaves'. 'Flux Capacitor' is F5+, although early repeats suggest it may be easier than this grade. After a team were spotted top-roping the infamous 'Korean Route' on the Quarryman Wall it has been decided that in the interests of continued access to the quarry that this route should be de-bolted. If this route was on your 'hit-list', then sorry, the work was carried out this week by Scott Titt and Steve Taylor!