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Sunday 23 October 2011

Alberta Rose

Pete Harrison has sent over some info about his new route:
I finished my most recent 'do something creative whilst the weather's shit' project - the Detritus Wall traverse which provides airy access to those intriguing routes out above the sea. Of all the things I've done over the last couple of years this is definitely the thing I'm most proud of. It's been so fulfilling to go out there by myself after work and do such a bizarre thing, trying not to think about the consequences of a mistake and the resulting 40 metre plummet to the sea with rope, drill, batteries, bolts, gear and god knows what other shit hanging off me dragging me down like a stone. Then getting back safely to the pub car park and seeing the fat fuckers doing their chain-pub thing makes me feel priveledged to be able to spend time in the hidden corners of the Ormes!
Anyway I thought it was a fitting use of the last of the DMM Eco bolts, which Dave Lyon gave to me last year after having been holding onto them for the last 15 years waiting for the next classic. What a great design they were.

Dave's efforts back in the day make mine look like childs' play. During 'a bit of a bad patch' he thought it'd be good to go out across Detritus Wall by himself with a single 9mm rope, a sky hoook, a drill and some ironmongery. It took him half a day to do what took me eight - to get to the top of what is now Ocean of Emotion. I found it quite harrowing at times and I had all the old kit ahead of me to aim for. Dave wouldn't have had any of that. Fucking loon.


Pete has called his route Alberta Rose. He has provided some more in depth info about the area:
Detritus and Atlanta Walls
Access to the these walls is actually simple - no harder than accessing Gogarth uper tier and easier than The Diamond. You can walk straight to the abseil point for all the routes on Atlanta Wall and the first three routes on Detritus Wall. A simple 30m abseil reaches good non-tidal ledges with bolt belays on the Detritus Wall routes, or a thread-belay for the Atlanta Wall routes. All the routes have good bolts - stainless though-bolts on Dave Lyon's Detritus Wall and Atlanta Wall routes, stainless 'petzl long-lifes' on a couple of the left-hand Atlanta Wall routes, resins on Alberta Rose.
Atlanta Wall gets sun from 2pm in August / 3.30pm in October. Detritus Wall gets the sun from 2.30pm in August / 4pm in October. Both walls are more exposed to the wind and get more sun than The Diamond so are more reliable for good conditions. Climbing here on a sunny afternoon is pretty hard to beat. Stormy October/November may be memorable for less pleasant reasons, but yesterday was primo climbing conditions and weather. Atalanta wall faces due West, Detritus Wall faces NW.

The in-situ handline across Detritus Wall is very airy but well bolted. 'E' is reached by abbing down to a non-tidal ledge from the first set of double rings about one-thirds way along the traverse. Ocean of Emotion and Alberta Rose are reached by abbing to a non-tidal ledge from the end of the traverse.
You can gear up for the routes on Detritus Wall at the start of the traverse, but I find it better to take the packs in to the end of the traverse for Ocean of Emotion/Alberta Rose and leave them hanging from the line - careful with the wallet and car keys!

Either take an ab rope or a lighter option is to take a clip stick as a fail-safe for getting out. If go with the clip stick you'll need to know how to rig a single line retrivable abseil if abbing in on gri-gri's, or bring a normal belay plate.

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