07/09/07

Lulworth the Place to be...

The Lulworth Boudering Topo,
Dan Kennard just after the crux of the Dragon, V7

Finally the weather relented, and an unprecedented period of activity took place at Lulworth Cove. Firstly the man of the moment, Gav Symonds, stepped up to produce the much sought after link-up of 'Windows of Opportunity' into 'Adrenochrome'. Gav declined the use of a rope on this, the ultimate deep-water solo, and completed the line in 'ground-up' style, shortly followed by an on-form Dave Pickford few days later. That inveterate traveller Jon Biddle also made an appearance on these shores to produce 'Skillfish', a counter diagonal to 'the Walkin' Dude' at E2 5b. Over at a long neglected Church Rock Marti Hallet added an excellent sustained 7a, in the shape of 'Oh Blow You!' to the left of 'Blow Daddy-O'. Whilst in the area Marti also did the logical link up of Jugmaster Funk into House Nation to produce 'B-Boys Rock', although this may have been done before and left unrecorded. At the Amphitheatre Roofs the trad campaign continues with 5 new additions in the last month(bringing the total of new routes at Lulworth to 9 this month!) Once again on perfect rock, Rob Kennard and Jon Howell added 'Recursion', HVS 5a, 'Plwmp', Severe, 'Ouzo Envy', VS 4c and 'Lesbian Spank Inferno', E3 6a at the east end of the crag in a single day. Not to miss out, Alex More and Ian Gamblin added 'September Sessions' between 'Evening Slab' and 'Lulworth New Order'.

Elsewhere a couple of deep water soloes have been added. Steve Woods ventured down to Bird's Nest Bay, Subluminal to tackle the crack above Thomsons Chimney to give 'Dark and not so Long', F4+, and at Portland Steve added 'Doyouthinkhesaurus', F5+/F6a at Hidden Quarry. Ben Stokes was also active in this area, where he climbed 'Salty Sea Dog', F7b, a neat looking extension to 'Sugar Daddy' at Deep Zawn. John Leonard also added a low tide traverse beneath 'Penny Lane' to give 'Cold Feet', E1 5b.

On the dry land stuff, Steve Taylor returned to his newly developed crag at Godnor South and cleaned up an old aided trad route to produce 'Breakover Crack Direct', E1 5b whilst the Cuttings saw a couple of new routes in the shape of 'Flying Peach', F6c and 'Grapefruit takes a Whipper', F6b+ in the vicinity of the Rift area, by John Leonard and Steve Muncaster, respectively. Also at the Cuttings, Paul Johnson continued the trend for link-ups with 'Lup Dup', F6a+, starting up 'Mind Meld', into 'The Sod' and finishing up 'Little Sod'.

Finally you can now download a beta version of the Lulworth Bouldering topo here. Why a beta version? Because we aren't really sure about any of the grades, so feedback would be appreciated!