UKH

Wondering whether to go to a range west briefing. My Pembroke mate, 'Lucky' Dave Daggers, says not on the basis he's been 6 times and its not that great plus there are shed loads of great routes elsewhere in Pembroke that I haven't done but i'm tempted by the isolation of it all. Any thoughts on the worth of routes VS - E2 there? Any great places for easy soloing would be another option? I have the definitives but recent experience has shown not to entirely trust their star ratings...

thanks,

mike

Given what you say about being tempted by the isolation, I think it's worth the effort. I've only been in once but had a really great day at Iron Age Fort. Fabulous location with lots of quality routes in your grade range.

Mind you, the crags themselves weren't all that isolated the day I was there. There was another team at Iron Age Fort with us and that was our secondary objective after we found several people at the first crag we headed to. The walk in was pretty fascinating though it was sad to see truly vast amounts of litter washed up on the beaches.

It's true that the rock itself doesn't really offer anything more than you can find elsewhere in Pembroke but it's an interesting place to visit anyway and more of the same isn't exactly a bad thing when it comes to Pembroke.

Having said all that, I wouldn't drive hours just for the briefing unless I could make a decent long weekend out of it and if the briefing clashed with the best weather, I would still give it a miss.

Totally worth while! Perhaps you need a different partner for a few days who hasn't done it all before. I've only been a couple of times and barely scratched the surface cherry picking out some of the better routes in that grade range. Although I have been lucky in Pembroke almost always getting on stuff without having to wait the chances of finding your route occupied are going to be even less. I went twice over the august bank holiday on year and had the place to ourselves whilst friends battled for routes elsewhere on range east.

My favorite routes that felt on a par with other stuff in the area include:

Bellringer (S 4a)

Christmas Chasm (VD)

Night Riders (HVS 5a)

Golden Eagle (E1 5b) - bring lots of cams for all those breaks I think

Bird on a Wire (VS 4b)

Rainbow Warriors (E2 5b)

Physio Groove (E2 5c)

Jug City (HVS 5a) - small but steep excellent!

Spacewalk (HVS 5a)

Surge Control (HVS 5a) - possible rockfall since we did it

We did a bit of soloing at 40-foot wall (non tidal) but it also looks possible at slab bay

Whilst all these routes were great, the concentration of higher quality climbs is possibly slightly more spread out than on the east but unless you can access a number of different routes at all states of the tide from a single an point most days sea cliff climbing require some moving around or FAFF.

If you want a bit of isolation but not in range west, try the penally area if you've not been. We had a great day doing the amazing Magic Flute (E1 5b) at high tide my mate had so swim to gain the rock after the abseil ended out in space, followed by Chimera (E2 5c) which must be one of the best E2s in Pembroke and then a bit of soloing at Penally East though avoid the sandbag of Giltar Ramp (VD)!!

I agree with what Luke90 says.  It's mostly worth going to the briefing if you visit pembrokeshire a lot and value solitude.

Some of the rock is great, some of it is terrible*.  If you only go once or twice a year it's also worth bearing in mind that some of the more interesting areas will have bird bans well into July.

I tend to do one of the spring briefings, drive somewhere else to avoid the mugshot queue and go back to the range later in the year.

*Cabin door area is particularly bad.  Nice looking, technically easy but friable chop routes.

Thanks all three of you, will try to get to a briefing on the basis of what you say,

mike

Be careful of the cows! Was there a few years ago and a heard of them decided to occupy the path between where we were climbing and the way out, right at a point where the path went perilously close to the cliff edge. As we tried to walk past them the started charging us and we beat a hasty retreat back to the safety of some rocks and had to wait over an hour for them to lose interest and wonder off somewhere else.

But other than that it's worth while, particularly if you've done a fair bit of the rest of Pembroke and you value peace and quiet. The walk-in from the north west across the beach is particularly pleasant.

Some of the better areas do have very long (albeit flat) walk-ins, you might want to consider brining mountain bikes (afaik the MOD don't have any issue with people cycling on the path) to cut down on the approach times and get more climbing in.

Top tip.  Make sure at least one of your mates goes to the briefing.

One year my friends decided to drive down at the last minute, got stuck in traffic and I ended up being the only person I knew who could go onto the range.

I enjoy getting off the beaten path a bit and am thinking of going for Easter or May Bank Holiday. My mate just asked me how long do the briefings take?

 Thanks Alan 

Less than an hour, so you can go straight in for a climb afterwards if the weather is good. If you want to do this, try and make sure you are among the first out of the lecture and to the guard post, as there will probably be a fair size que. 

Great advice on all accounts, particularly the Penally tip-off. Penny and I spent a few days exploring the area last year (or maybe the year before, time flies!). Add The Scoop (E3 5c) + Mutley (E3 5c) to the list, and also Gladiator (E3 5c) - they're all amazing.

In terms of Range West itself I've only had a couple of days there in total, not climbing a single route within the requested grade range. As such, I can't offer too much advice to the OP directly, but can recommend the following:

• Icarus (E4 5c) - I remember this being good, but my logbook entry suggests there's a whole load I forgot (i.e. that it was both harder and looser than I recalled it to be)
• Tombstone (E4 6a) - a wild line up unlikely terrain, with some cool features on the way, particualrly the belay at the end of P1
• Tasmanian Devil (E5 6a) - unrelentingly steep, with whole host of novel holds + threads to protect

We also repeated John Arran's Wrought Iron (E4 5c), which gets a rather optimistic E4 5c in the guide. Probably worth strapping your E5 6b head (and arms) on if you ever find yourself at the bottom, or worse still, half way up it!!

Hi Martin

  thanks for the info - sounds good

   Alan

"Stay on the beaten path" is one of the most important things that they tell you in the briefing, along with "don't attempt to play golf with anything metallic!", and "for the love of Cthulhu don't bring your own belay stakes!".

Apologies for spoilers.

LOL very good, well away from the crowd perhaps!