From Sandhurst to Sardinia

Pembroke Sea Cliffs and Sport Climbing in Sardinia

Bit of a non stop couple of weeks, starting with a week’s work at the MOD Adventure Training Unit in Pembrokeshire where I had five days instructing five Army Trainee Officers in the delights of rock climbing. Luckily all candidates were super keen and lapped up sea cliff climbing - as I wasn’t shouting at them all of the time… Then straight from work, it was on to Bristol and a horrid multiple stage journey through the night, that eventually landed me at the airport arrivals area of Olbia in Sardinia. Quickly hooking up with four www.rockandsun.com  clients who all looked a lot brighter than I felt. We jumped into our hire wagon and drove off to Cala Gonone. We checked into our apartment and with bags unpacked it was straight out for an evening’s cragging. A cool week of sport climbing commenced and It was great to get out and explore some of Sardinia’s quality crags and escape the UK while “return to winter” came back home. Well done guys and girls on all of your efforts, it was a cool couple of weeks! 

Carreg Y Barcud New Routes

Rock Climb First Ascents in North Pembroke

Yesterday I met up after work with Gavin, an old mate from my time at the Gloucester Climbing Centre. Gav' has an appetite for searching out new routes, and as he was working in Pembrokeshire for much of last year, has been putting up fresh unexplored lines. His effort have mainly been focused in North Pembs and when I got a message that he had his eye on something, we met up and headed to the crag. Gav' kicked off just left of Ethos, climbing an established route and then up left into adventurous unclimbed ground. Topping out on the new E1 5a - Woodcroft By The Sea. We then went on a bit of a wonder further left than any described routes in the guide book and came across a cool looking 15m high wall with a striking crack and flake cutting up the middle. This ended up becoming a cool HVS 4c I named Blue In The Face. Gav' then soloed a cheeky Diff to the right that he called Alex and Agne. A nice evening out...