Sea-Cliff Climbing in Pembrokeshire
It’s been a busy spring so far, with lots of people coming climbing in Pembrokeshire, and this last week has been no exception, with it being half term… We started off on Sunday running workshops on the BMC Pembrokeshire Climbing Festival. Mini workshops on sea-cliff skills such as abseiling in to hanging belays, ascending the rope and hoisting stuck climbers was the order of the day. With a great bunch of people along for the day it was socialable and fun!
Learning skills for sea-cliff climbing in Pembrokeshire, on the BMC skills workshops
The next day 11 year old Tom and dad Charlie were looking to develop their skills for sea-cliff climbing in Pembrokeshire. They’ve set themselves the challenge of climbing the Old Man of Hoy and some other Scottish sea stacks later in the year. Keen to learn some new skills and push their grades we headed to Carreg y Barcud. An amazing day and very inspiring watching Tom climb E3, do some abseils, ascend the rope and hoist his dad up a climb!
Learning some vital skills for sea-cliff climbing in Pembrokeshire
Julian and daughter Abs have been out with me a few times before when they’ve been down in Pembrokeshire, so it’s always nice to get out with familiar faces. They wanted to experience some multi-pitch sea-cliff climbing in Pembrokeshire, and for Abs to lead some trad routes, so St Davids Head it was! We had an amazing day ticking off some classics, watching the Porpoises swim by, and helping Abs develop her lead climbing skills!
Me showing Abs the ins and outs of a hanging belay, out at St Davids Head – one of Pembrokeshires lesser known climbing spots!
For the next 2 days I had Steve with me for some climbing in Pembrokeshire. He’s already an experienced climber, having 50 years experience, but hasn’t done heaps of sea-cliff climbing, so was keen to have a local show him around and take responsibility for the safety of the day! First up we spent a day in the southern bays of the Porth Clais area, going from crag to crag climbing the classics, abseiling in to routes, Steve seconding some harder lines and leading some for himself! Great day and top effort from Steve, we really did climb a lot of routes!
Steve on his first ever hanging belay – despite having been climbing for 50 years!
Steve wanted to get on some of the classic multi-pitch climbs out at St Davids Head, what a treat for me getting out here for the second time in a week! Craig Coetan gave us the option of accessing many routes easily, with a big abseil in to a good ledge system. We linked together different pitches to give ourselves a couple of quality multi-pitch routes before a leisurely lunch in the sun watching the Porpoises pass underneath. Steve was keen to get on the lead again so we headed to the South Buttress, where we passed the afternoon climbing some lovely routes!
Steve enjoying the amazing sea-cliff climbing in Pembrokeshire out at St Davids Head.