Tag Archives: Deepwater Soloing

Matt Cox completes Adrenochrome 8a (Deep water solo “Ground up”)

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Matt Cox (Sponsored by RedChili) has done it again, in between working hard, creating babies and not much climbing, has, after a few visits completed the Deepwater solo climb Adrenochrome which goes at the solid grade of 8a.

Not only did Matt complete Adrenochrome, a must do project of his, he did it “ground up” or I suppose sea up. Climbing a route “ground up” means to climb the route with out looking at the top out holds, abseiling to look at the route or top roping the line, the only way you know where and what the holds are like is from what you can see from the ground or as you climb the route, that means that as you hopefully reach a high point on each attempt you still have no idea what is coming up and on a 8a thats is a big task.

No matter how it did it, it is was ace to be there to watch him and put together a little video of the route in between my falls of a lot of other routes.

The deepwater soloing seasons has kicked off for me and kicked off strong, well I had a few wobbles along the way.

On-sighting the 2 classics, Animal Magnetism and Horny Little Devil, on the first session climbing above the sea this year has to be the perfect start to any DWS season.

Kicking off with the a low tide is never an encouraging start, we knew it was going to be that way but as we had the whole day we figured even if we ended up going for a swim until the tide we were golden. As the tide grew so did our confidence.

The Climbing

The first climb of the day was the Maypole, the classic warm up 6b a nice easy line with a slight sting in the tail, but as you are low and above nice (normally deep) water it’s a perfect intro.

A little traverse of the inner column at the end of the Maypole was another good little route, from there we went and checked out Horny little devil, after a few non starts due to fear we were away, 2 of the team were quickly in the water while I reversed and climb back 3 times and climbed out and around, the idea of possibly hitting the slab below during the first 4 moves did not inspire me.

Another go at the Mapole this time to get into have a look at Animal Magnetism. Another go at the climb, an incredible effort and solid climbing saw Roaly midway before the fear set in, his arms turned to stone and was shortly off the wall.

The tide was now high enough, yet I was still not as keen as I should be, the fact that I would most likely pull through the moves and find myself at the top was more worrying to me than falling off early on.

After a few ‘looks’ I again backed off and reversed the Maypole.

 

Turning point

A strong lunch and the promise to stop being a pansy saw me back round to quickly send Horny’, another send of a small 7a and I blasted around to Animal Mag’ to finish of the day on a strong footing that I should have started early in the day, but hey, thats deepwater soloing for you.

 

A little Cherry for the way home, we are athletes after all!

Deepwater soloing in Abercastle Harbour

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Pembrokeshire Coast National Park
Abercastle
Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire SA62 5HJ” type=”hybrid” map_style=”default” overlay_color=”” infobox=”default” infobox_background_color=”” infobox_text_color=”” infobox_content=”” icon=”” width=”100%” height=”300px” zoom=”16″ scrollwheel=”no” scale=”yes” zoom_pancontrol=”yes” popup=”no” class=”” id=””][/map][separator style_type=”none” top_margin=”20″ bottom_margin=”20″ sep_color=”” icon=”” width=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]

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[/fusion_text][separator style_type=”none” top_margin=”20″ bottom_margin=”20″ sep_color=”” icon=”” width=”” class=”” id=””][slider width=”100%” height=”100%” class=”” id=””][slide type=”image” link=”” linktarget=”_self” lightbox=”yes”]http://stevewinslow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_3238-1024×768.jpg[/slide][slide type=”image” link=”” linktarget=”_self” lightbox=”yes”]http://stevewinslow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_0958-1024×683.jpg[/slide][slide type=”image” link=”” linktarget=”_self” lightbox=”yes”]http://stevewinslow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_3241-1024×768.jpg[/slide][/slider][tagline_box backgroundcolor=”” shadow=”no” shadowopacity=”0.7″ border=”1px” bordercolor=”” highlightposition=”top” content_alignment=”center” link=”/climbing-coaching-bristol/” linktarget=”_blank” modal=”” button_size=”” button_shape=”” button_type=”” buttoncolor=”” button=”Develop you’re climbing” title=”” description=”Having a solid skills and abilities available to you will help you not only climbing but in everything you do.” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”up” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][/tagline_box][/two_fifth][three_fifth last=”yes” spacing=”yes” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]What a gem of a crag, a perfect place for anyone wanting to start climbing, deep water solo style (above the sea with no ropes).

Abercastle Harbour, up from St davids but below Fishguard is a small, sleepy village. Surrounding the edges of the harbour is ‘mostly’ solid rock, there are a few crags with slight developments.

Climbing at Abercastle is perfect for me at least as I love deepwater soloing, the DWS part had the most routes established, some great little with still enough space to sneak in a few more though (at least not noted in the guide anyway).

The climbing was sweet, the rock was perfect, solid and textured and the crag only at its max around 18 metres high was not intimidating. Most the crag tops at about 10 and the waters seems almost endlessly deep it breads confidence, with the sun shining and not fussed about getting wet, I tried a lot of different lines and I fell in, a lot.Had a great little blast around, climbing all the routes in the guide.

After a few falls, working my way through 4 set of boots, I finally managed to get a new route up, well one not in the guide any way, named it “A stags life” at the grade of 6c.

The climb sweeps in from the left from the “unconfirmed” (seems stiff to me, probably 6c) 7a line found in the guide but continues further left into the start of the cave then up the groove to finish after a few steep and tricky moves.

Climbing in North Pembrokeshire’s Abercastle Harbour

If you are up that way, its sunny and you either climbing solidly at the 6b grade you have a great time climbing easy routes with a couple of projects, if you climb harder and fancy an active climbing rest day this is a perfect no fuss location to get a great afternoon in climbing.[/fusion_text][separator style_type=”single” top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”30″ sep_color=”” icon=”” width=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]

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