New Wave & Fire Island

Written by LakesBloc Sunday, 14 March 2010 00:00

A few bits of back dated news: at St. Bees Head – North, Greg Chapman has added a few fine new additions to the ‘Far South’ boulders, originally documented in the Rockfax Lakes Bouldering guide.

On the ‘Square Boulder’ he added a long, meaty and most importantly quality new line, which climbs out of the back of the cave on the far right, before linking into the lip and following it all the way into and up the SW arête. This has been named New Wave, and weighs in at solid 7c/V9. Greg also, pointed out that there are a number of other good lines on this block up to 7a+/V7, which are not covered in the Rockfax guide. However most of these will have no doubt been climbed before, and will feature in the forthcoming LakesBloc guide.

A hundred metres or so south, on the ‘Neapolitan Boulder’, two other striking lines were  completed: firstly the obvious rising seam was climbed from standing, linking into the upper left arête and finishing via this. This has been dubbed Fire Island and is around the 7b+/V8 mark. The obvious challenge is to climb this from a low/sitting start, although this would be a hardcore proposition to say the least. On the same block Greg surmounted the centre of the blank front face via the “run-up and springboard off a low foothold” technique, already familiar to St. Bees regulars – see Lateral Mindset and Chipper’s Wall. This is Blue Touch, and is pretty much upgradeable. For those who require the numbers 7a/V6 is offered, provided you go for the break in the exact centre of the face. The 'Far South' area is currently covered under a bird ban, so please don't visit until this comes to an end.

Right: New Wave, 7c/V9.