Sea Cliff Climbing Skills
The weekend just gone I had Hazel back with me, looking at gaining a host of new sea cliff climbing skills. She’d spent a weekend with me in North Wales already, and is prepping for some upcoming trips with her climbing club, the FRCC, over the summer. Keen to be able to lead others and look after people in serious terrain, she wanted to learn new skills!
Hazel leading a steep VS while gaining new sea cliff climbing skills in Pembrokeshire
We spent the first day at Newton Head, where we could introduce sea cliff climbing skills in a friendly setting. We were joined by Alastair again, a friend and climbing partner of Hazels. They both led some lovely climbs and pushed their grade, whilst we looked at solid abseiling skills and abseiling in to a hanging belay. Another vital sea cliff climbing skill is ascending the rope, if for whatever reason you couldn’t climb out. We looked at using a gri-gri/ascender set up but also prussiks on their own.
Ascending fixed ropes – one of the many vital sea cliff climbing skills Hazel learnt this weekend.
We popped to Saddle Head in the afternoon and put all these skills in to practice, where we abseiled in to a hanging belay, Hazel led us out on the classic “Sea Mist” and then hoisted a stuck Alastair out from the crag!
Hazel leading Sea Mist, a classic HS at Saddle Head.
Day 2 saw us out at the sublime Bow Shaped Slab. I was keen for Hazel to lead this super classic! The sea was running pretty big, so a well placed hanging belay was needed. Hazel and I swung leads on the great climbs here, whilst I made her hoist me every now and then! After getting in a good amount of practice on the sea cliff climbing skills needed to be a safe leader in this terrain, we actually had to rescue a pair of stuck climbers! Goes to show how vital these skills are, and how many people don’t truly have the skill set to be climbing on the sea cliffs independently safely…
Pembrokeshire Rock Climbing at it’s finest, the Bow Shaped Slab…
The culmination of her newly gained sea cliff climbing skills, leading me down, then up, Bow Shaped Slab before hoisting me up the final section…
Monday saw me at TYF, running the coastal crag sign offs for their SPA holders. I had trained them in the necessary sea cliff climbing skills to look after groups on single pitch sea cliffs a few weeks ago. The skills ranged from personal abseils, hoisting stuck clients and ascending the ropes. Their staff had obviously been away practicing since I had trained them, and all put in solid performances. Good effort guys and have a great summer working!
TYF guide Rachel getting assessed in her sea cliff climbing skills, rescuing an unconscious Matt here…
Big swell hitting as Rachel is rescued from Porth Clais.