What a great meet! There was good weather, convivial company, an upgraded Trevaylor campsite at Botallack with new owners [hot showers now free] a friendly pub close by with delicious food, and the three extensive climbing areas of Bosigran, Sennen and Chair Ladder within easy reach by car. Although a regular club venue in earlier years, Paul and I hadn’t climbed here since 2016, so we started at Bosigran with its friendly non-tidal approach, and then the following day went to Sennen where we were joined by Gordon and Julian [who were offered the use of an abseil rope which we’d missed, allowing them to avoid the long scramble round as the tide was coming in, and doing more climbing than we managed to do]. Then drinks outside in the sunshine looking at the Sennen lifeboat station having its roof repaired after Storm Eunice had ripped it off in February. Hugh and Leon arrived that evening to join us for a group get-together in the nearby Botallack pub, together with Nathan and Sarah who were visiting local tourist sites.
On Saturday, six of us decided that Bosigran was the place to go to, and Paul and I drove there before breakfast to secure a parking place for our motorhome in the convenient layby. Then various routes were successfully climbed, and gear was retrieved by a friendly stranger on the one that proved too hard. I joined up with Hugh and Leon to do a 4 pitch V Diff, but due to slight confusion with the route description, Leon wandered off-route thinking the ‘top end of grade’ chimney was definitely more challenging than expected, to be told that he was now on a VS. Time was passing, and I was beginning to wonder whether a benightment was on the cards, and started looking for possible abseil points/escape routes. But the Dowling brothers showed their true grit, got us back on route, eventually hoiking me up the correct chimney, and after the ‘delightfully exposed’ [ie scary] trough we arrived safely at the top. After retrieving rucksacks and some accidently dropped gear we walked back to the vehicles at 7pm – a proper ‘right full mountain day’. That evening we had ‘open house’ in the motorhome, with much reminiscing about previous Castle adventures and members.
On Sunday Paul and I drove back to Sheffield, ostensibly to avoid bank holiday traffic [but really also because we were completely knackered] leaving Leon and Hugh heading for Sennen, and Gordon and Julian setting their sites on Commando Ridge, hoping that the thick sea fret would keep others away [I learnt later that they had only one couple ahead of them, and ended up successfully completing this 660 foot climb in warm sunshine].
So thank you Gordon, Julian, Hugh, Leon, Nathan and Sarah for making this such an enjoyable and wonderful meet.
Vanda [and Paul]
Paul’s pictures:
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