I returned from the Culm last night, it was a rather epic drive back after a great two days climbing. Why so short, well with the wonders of the met office we realised our weather window was up. Llion had to be back for thursday and it looked like rain all day today. So we popped the roof of his camper back down and headed North.
Our time down there was far from perfect, damp rock due to the conditions was beyond our control but having climbing several classics it seemed like a productive trip compared to the wintery scenes in North Wales where some of my friends have been out climbing with tools.
Sharpnose for the uninitiated is probably not your typical crag. It is tidal, requires a scramble or abseil approach and has long and demanding routes that are pumpier than first appearance. Yet to me they somehow felt nice and to all extents and purposes a cragging venue. Yet I’d imagine that if you are not used to exploring deep forgotten zawns on remote sea cliffs then you’d be out of your depth pretty quickly.
It strikes me as a great summer venue as there are southerly and northerly aspects to each fin. Which are by all accounts pretty unique formations to climb on. Whilst there is a HVS down there in the main you need to be climbing E1+ to get the best out of this venue and you probably want a nice breeze and some sun to dry the rock.
For us the base of all the routes were very damp, as there was a 6ft+ swell and little in the way of sun or breeze to dry the rock. As such the starts felt like taking your life in your hands until you reached drier rock above. The climbing is wild and unrelenting in places but superb. I can’t wait to head back down to climb Fay the classic E4 on the middle fin in better conditions.