Mellow Expeditions - @jackgorham1

This week’s feature comes from @jackgorham1 who talks us through one of his most recent climbs down in Cornwall. Himself and 2 of his friends covered multi pitch trad routes both at Bosigran and Lands End. Here’s what he had to say about it! 

The first route is called ‘Commando Ridge’ and was first climbed in 1902! It starts with a precarious down climb, followed by an abseil to the bottom of the route, which is only accessible at low tide. When we got down there the beginning of the first pitch had already been submerged by the sea, so instead we managed to climb to the beginning of the second pitch.

The climbing on the first few pitches were technically quite easy but the fact that it was slightly wet made it feel pretty sketchy. Then, about half way up it started pouring with rain which made it very slippery but kind of hilarious. We climbed a few more pitches in the rain and then we were able to bail off a few pitches from the top after a bit of down climbing.

The climb at lands end was extremely picturesque, the sun had come out, there was nobody about and there were amazing views of the ocean around the most westerly point of England. The climb, named ‘Land’s End long climb’ was considerably harder than the grade indicated which made for an exciting few hours. A combination of slabs, crack climbing, chimneys and the fact that it was eight pitches made it feel like a little alpine climb, which was good practice for bigger trad routes I’m hoping to do in North Wales!