Eridge Green

It has been a while since I last blogged, largely due to the amount of work, climbing and decorating I have needed to do, but I thought it was time for a quick update! I have been largely climbing at Eridge Green this summer, as it a crag where I still have a fair amount left to do (both established lines and potential projects!)

After what might have been the wettest June I can remember on the sandstone, in July we finally got some climbable conditions. I headed to Eridge with nothing in particular in mind to climb. I ended up underneath the classic highball Hypersonic (7B+) and noticed some potential holds just to the right of this line. Admittedly they stopped before the top of the crag, but there was definitely some climbing (or bouldering at least) to be done before that. I set about trying the moves and worked out that it was basically a two move problem – pull on a left hand pinch and right hand side pull, make a big move up to a right hand pinch and then pull through to a small but positive crimp ledge level with the pocket on Hypersonic. Simple… or not. These two moves proved to be quite intricate, but when it came together it made a nice, albeit little, problem at 7A+. I feel it finishes in a logical place (the ledge is a clear feature in line with the pocket), but I would like to take this problem higher, if I can find some holds! I named it Patience due to the month of rain we had before this.

After this came a surprise. Deep in the woods of Eridge, while looking at a completely different climb, I stumbled across a rounded arête with a ‘gritstone style’ ramp feature. At first glance I wasn’t sure if it would be possible to climb – but after some inspection I found some small crimps and a shallow pocket on the bottom of the ramp. It was on! After a few contorted sessions where I tried a huge number of ways to climb this line I finally found some nice beta involving a high right heel which I could sit on to get through the crux of the climb. The allowed me to put up my favourite new route of the year so far. I named it Joshua, in honour of my friends newly born son, and graded it around 7B. Since then I have shown a couple of people this problem, and after a second ascent (using completely different beta) the grade and quality of this line was confirmed.

My final addition was a small problem near Joshua. This is a slightly contrived line in that it eliminates the arête and holds to the right of the arête (I am not normally a fan of eliminates, but it seemed to make sense on this problem). This boils down to two quite technical moves separated by a nice no hands rest. Considering the dark canopy of trees it is under it felt right to dub this one Lord of the Light at 6B+.

Hopefully we can have a dry autumn and with some colder temps send some harder problems!