Milton Keynes Mountaineering Club

5 th – 9 th May
Pembroke delivers the sunshine! Whilst one previous Prince of Wales formally became King some of MKMC headed to the birthplace of Henry VII (the UK’s only Welsh King and the founder of the Tudor dynasty) for a superb weekend of sea-cliff climbing. Heading off the rain on Thursday evening Charlie and Peter met at the charming Windmill Farm Campsite to set tents before Peter braved a deluge to collect Kathy from Swansea. The following morning the 3 made their way to Penally once the weather had cleared. Friday turned out to be a very fine day of slab climbing and a good re-introduction to the delights of abbing into sea-cliffs. The remainder of the party (James, Lee and Tom) made good time up from far east, meeting the others shortly after lunchtime.

Logbook for the day:
Rusty Slab VS 4c – Charlie, Peter & Kathy. A bold start to get the blood pumping.
Ferrous Rib VS 4c – Enjoyed by Peter & Kathy first then lead again by Charlie
with James.
Rusty Corner HS 4b – Fine lead by James followed by Charlie.
Pollock Diff – A crack on the smaller slab lead by Lee with Tom. Kathy then led
Peter on it.
Chocolate Brownies S 4a – a popular snack led first by Lee with Tom, then Peter
with Kathy and finally James with Charlie (from a hanging belay as the tide was fast
approaching).
While the cat’s away VS 4c – Led by Lee with Tom and thought over-graded.
Severe?
The high tide was late afternoon and made the starts of the further routes difficult.
A pleasant pub dinner was enjoyed.

Saturday:
Whilst a band of torrential rain sat on the rest of the UK, once the morning cloud cleared we had another fine and sunny day. Heading to the Stack Rocks car park at the far end of Range East another day on superb slabs beckoned. Peter, Kathy, Lee and Tom wanted to consolidate on some of the classics at the beautiful Flimston Bay, climbing on the slab there before heading over to join James and Charlie at Crystal Slabs for the remainder of the day. These are highly distinctive, non-tidal 60m slabs with a steep but easy scramble approach.

Logbook:
Flimston Slab VD – Led by Kathy with Peter and then Lee with Tom.
Flimston Crack VD – Led by Lee with Tom.
Razzle Dazzle VS 4c ** – Excellent climbing with a very satisfying crux at the
overlap. First up for Charlie with James then later led by Peter with Tom and
Kathy. A fine second by Tom and his highlight of the weekend.
The Gadfly VS 4c ** -Fine, sustained climbing up the slab with some lovely moves
at the overlap, widely considered the best of the VS’s here. A fine lead by James
with Charlie and later by Peter with Kathy.
Crystal Arete HVS 5a * – A long nervy slab with HS climbing and HVS gear,
followed by a fairly intimidating but well-protected 5a move on an overhang into a
garden of sea-cabbage. Due to rope drag a necessary hanging belay before the final
7 m. Lead by Charlie with James
Sixth Crack VS 4C – Actually the first main crack of the slab, overlaps with the
Gadfly to give a pleasant and although similar, not quite as satisfying experience.
Led by Charlie with James.
At this point, most of the group returned to the campsite satisfied with a full day
although Lee was suffering from a cold which had left him out of action for the
afternoon.
Charlie and James decided they had one last climb in them and with no tide to
worry about and the lingering days stayed for Charlie to lead The First Waltz E1 5b
*. Some really enjoyable dancing up the slab with an unusual E1 comedy run out and
a couple of brilliant moves onto the steepening headwall. A very fine climb with
seems a touch overlooked.
A special mention must go to Tom and James and the Apocalypse Nachos. Speak
to Tom for the recipe.

Sunday
The group split with James and Charlie heading off to Mother Carey’s Kitchen, leaving the rest to go to Saddle Head. They had a good day bagging a number of routes at that classic venue. It offers a scramble approach as well as abseil and is often a fairly busy and friendly crag. It offers some of the best easier climbing in Pembroke including some absolute classics like Sea-Mist and Blue Sky. Typically for James and Charlie, Mother Scarey’s was living up to her name. A hugely intimidating venue with a hanging ab in and the easiest escape route, The Cracks, goes at HS. The day there was delayed by the tide. Then Charlie attempted a long-anticipated climb of Rock Idol E1 5a. Described as the best E1 in the country. Happily, for Charlie’s outrageously pumped arms, there was a bird’s nest at about 35m that forced a begrudging retreat. James was wonderfully patient on the belay while he nervously watched the tide. A welcome Chinese meal ended the day.

Log book
At Saddle Head:
Small Beginnings -VD Led by Lee and Peter
Forgotten Corner – HVD Led by Lee and described as an absolute sandbag
Fel Gwyr – D (led by Kathy and Lee)
Flake Quake – S 4a Led by Lee and Peter. Lee’s highlight of an illness-restricted
weekend.
Sea Mist – HS 4a – Led by Peter, a super exposed, atmospheric, fingery traverse
and arete
At Mother Carey’s
Rock Idol – E1 5a dnf
The Cracks -HS twice

The final day was rained off as finally the monsoon made its way to the coast and
very satisfied climbers made the long journey east.
A terrific weekend’s climbing at the UK’s truly unique and world-class venue.

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28th April to 1st May

We arrived to a drying campsite having lucked out and missed the rain. Heading to the usual spot we were happy to see Alan’s lovely gazebo waiting and ready to receive us. Tents were pitched and food eaten. Some ate at the campsite while others made for the pub. Shane’s electric car got stuck so we pushed him out to higher ground. We had 17 turn up in the end so I was glad to have asked for 20 spaces.

On Sat we split between climbers, runners and walkers.
Neal, Stu and Tom did a few early routes at Carl Warl and then joined Gill, Loz, Mark, Ollie,
Naomi, Alan and Keith at Burbage South. Later, Peter, Kathy and Matthew also arrived. We had a good day of climbing and even enjoyed some sun.
Shane ran Win Hill to Edale Skyline while Nigel walked Win Hill.
Most went for a social meal at the pub on Sat night.

Sunday saw the climbing group head for Stanage “away from it all”.
A larger group of walkers that included Peter and Kathy, Gill and Loz, Michelle and Nigel took the train to Edale and then walked Kinder Scout.

A smaller group decided to climb on Monday. Some of the party had to head back late Sunday so we were without the walkers. Climbing was at High Neb end of Stanage. We left early and got parking which was lucky given it was the first BH.

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Recently some members had expressed an interest in learning some valuable self-rescue skills. We should always plan not to get into tricky situations but if that happens, it’s great to be prepared with some simple and improvised techniques to get ourselves out of bother.

The Club was able to book a local MCI David Whiteley, who owns and operates Adventure Days UK adventuredaysuk.com/ for a 2-day course at Pinnacle Northampton. 6 members self-funded the course and subject to interest we may look to run another fixture in the future. The training requires prior knowledge of abseiling and anchor building but if you are interested, please contact a member of the committee.

During the course we covered tying off the belay, assisted and unassisted hoists, problem-solving, ascending, passing knots, escaping the system and rescuing on a traverse. Everyone agreed that the course was extremely valuable and a great time was had by all and there are some photos below to prove it.

For anyone with a copy of Libby Peter’s “Rock Climbing: Essential Skills and Techniques” these skills are covered in pages;
183 abseiling
187 the Italian hitch
217 ascending ropes
221 backing up a prussik
222 tying off a belay
223 prussiking up and down a rope
252 ascending with guide mode
265 assisted hoist
267 unassisted hoist
275 passing a knot

JB Mountain Skills and Leading Edge are also a great resource on YouTube.

REMEMBER: You don’t know what you don’t know. Climbing is dangerous, don’t attempt anything that you haven’t been taught by a professional or aren’t completely comfortable doing because getting it wrong may lead to injury or death.

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In April, 6 members of MKMK Jetted off to the Greek Island of Kalymnos. Kalymnos is one of the premier sport climbing destinations in the world and has more top-quality routes across the grates than you could climb in a lifetime. 

Getting there is a little bit of a hassle as it involves flying into Kos and then getting a ferry across to the island. Myself, Tom, and Alex Ward arrived in Kalymnos on Wednesday 5th of April, but despite getting an 8AM flight, it was about 20:00 by the time we got to our Air B&B. 

We stayed in the town of Massouri which is where most climbers stay, sitting just below some of the most impressive cliffs on the island, including the world-famous cave of the Grande Grotto. We could walk to the far end of the main strip from our apartment in about 10 minutes, and the town itself is perfectly set up for climbers with numerous restaurants, bars, cafes, supermarkets, car & scooter hire places, and at least 6 climbing gear shops. Pretty much everyone you see there is either a climber or a local and it makes for a very friendly atmosphere as you can chat to pretty much anyone about where they are from, what crags they’ve been to and what climbs they’ve done. By the end of the week whenever we walked through town we’d spot at least one person we’d recognise from one crag or another and give them a friendly wave.

On our first day of climbing (6th April) we visited a sector called Kasteli, which is a tower-like promontory of rock situated on a small peninsula. We got used to the rock working our way through the grades starting with a 3c incrementing our way up to  4c before the heavens opened and we made a hasty retreat to the car, leaving our draws in the route. We popped into town (only 5 mins from the crag) and grabbed some lunch in a local cafe while waiting for the weather to brighten up. Fortunately, the rock in Kalymnos dries very quickly and by the time we had finished lunch, it was looking dry. We went back to Kastelli to retrieve our quickdraws and then decided to move onto another crag a bit further round the coast called Summertime which was north facing and sheltered from the Southwesterly winds that were bringing the rain. We continued to work our way up the grades here doing a further 3 routes finishing on Soupia the Great** a steer but very juggy 5b.

On Friday the 7th we visited Sea Breeze, one of the more popular crags on the island situated on the north side of Arginonta Bay. We climbed 8 routes here ranging from 3c to 6a. The highlights here were, a super juggy 5a called Drosia, a very thin and sharp 5c called Selene and an excellent 6a with technical moves between good pockets called Climbing is the Second Best Feeling*** .

On Saturday the 8th we went to ArgInonta, a fantastic crag overlooking a bay and a village of the same name. The approach is a little adventurous involving scaling a small cliff face into which a ladder of iron staple had been fixed. We climbed 9 routes here ranging from 4a to 6b (good lead by Alex). We warmed up on a slabbly 4c called Victoria** 4c (Tob had a choice between this and the neighbouring Katarina, but figured he’d get in trouble with the real victoria if he chose the latter). The highlights of this day were a trio of harder routes beginning with Koubinos 6b; a fantastic 6b with a steep and strenuous start on small flowstone pockets and some delicate climbing above. This was followed by Free Style*** an incredible steep 6a+ that follows a never-ending line of fantastic pockets for over 30m. We finished the day on Pornokini  a 6a that had been one of our main reasons for visiting the crag, but had been occupied for pretty much the whole day. This was an amazing and varied route featuring delicate slabs, steep juggy terrain, traverses and even some 3D climbing inside a cave.

On Sunday the 9th we visited the Island of Telendos which sits in the bay opposite Massouri and despite being a tiny island with only a single small village offers a fantastic wealth of climbing including multi-pitch routes up to 11 pitches long and 240m high! 

Visiting the island involves chartering a boat from a local fisherman who drops you off at the foot of one of the more popular crags. Our first stop here was a  sector called Lambda which is an impressive and imposing face of rock about 20 mins walk from the boat drop-off point with single pitch routes up to 50m long. Here we climbed 5 routes from 4b to 6b including Lambda a tricky, balancy 6b, Hot Chilli*** a fun but challenging 6a followed and Lava a very delicate 6a+. All 3 of these were fantastic 30m+ routes on the great and varied rock.

In the afternoon we moved back to sector Irox (where the boat dropped us off). Here we climbed 3 routes, with Tom putting in a heroic effort on Anastatisa a supposed 5a that me and Alex both agreed was much closer to 5c. 

On Monday Neal joined us, after getting a very late flight the night before, spending the night in Kos airport and then getting the first ferry in the morning. After a much-needed coffee, we took Neal back to Kasteli as this sector has a short approach and a good variety of grades allowing us to give Neal a crash course in Kalymnos rock. Despite running on very little sleep, Neal led 4a, 4b, 4c, 5a and 5b, 5c and cleanly seconded a 6a, a heroic effort for his first day (on very little sleep).

On Tuesday after spending the morning dodging rain showers and enjoying the local cafes we eventually ended up at a crag called Noufaro which was a little further up the road from Sea Breeze which we’d visited earlier. Among the routes we did here, Alex put in a great effort on Spice, a very steep and pumpy 6b with a powerful sequence through a roof. But the highlight of this day was Revue a 6a+  which, despite “only” getting 2 stars in the guidebook, both I & Alex agreed was one of the best routes of the trip, featuring superb sustained and technical climbing up a long steep pocket-filled slab. (The fact that we were ‘looking down’ on 2 star routes should give you an idea of just how much ridiculously high-quality climbing Kalymnos offers)

On Wednesday we visited Ahri which is one of the most incredible crags on the island for low-mid grades with over 70 2 & 3 star routes within the grade ranges of 4c to 6c! Here we had our most successful day of the trip climbing: Jolli 5b, Theia Fotisi 6b (a sustained technical slab), Couce Couca 6a (a slab split by a short steep overhang), Axe 6b (a 38m sustained pocketed wall with some very thin moves in the midsection), Tspoanakos 6a+ into Del Mabul Extension 6a (a nice varied route, starting with a slab, a steep pull over Tufas, a very delicate slowstone grove and then steep jug pulling to the top) and Ercole 6a (which had some of the sharpest holds I’ve ever pulled on). 

The forecast for Thursday was hot, so we visited a crag called Sikati Beach on the less frequented north side of the island reached via a winding mountain pass. True to its name this crag is situated on a beach. The highlights here were Karpouzi*** 6a which climbs a huge soaring flake up interesting flowstone features (and we all agreed could be lead on gear), and Tomboi*** 6b+/c a very technical and sustained fingery route up small flowstone pockets. We then spent the afternoon enjoying the beach and the sea.

Sadly we did not climb on Friday as there were reports of very strong winds forecast for Friday afternoon & Saturday morning which we were told can sometimes cause the ferry to be canceled. There was only one ferry we could get on Saturday and still make our return flight, so we decided not to risk it and took the ferry back on Friday and got a hotel on Kos for a night. We had a nice walk along the seafront of Kos town, the Sea wall here fascinated us as it was made of large heavily featured stone blocks and would offer numerous opportunities for climbing if one was so inclined. We also explored the only crag on Kos marked on UKC, the Kardamena boulders which is an extensive granite boulder field somewhat reminiscent of font.

Overall it was a fantastic trip and we can’t wait to go back again. It really does have some of the best quality rock anywhere, all of which are very accessible (max 20 min drive) with mostly short walk-ins (typically less than 10 mins) and there is so much of it that we barely scratched the surface. One of our biggest problems was deciding where to go because so much of it looks so good!

Alex Thakway and Dave Mountford joined us for the tail end of our trip, arriving on the 12th of April, and staying for a couple of extra days. We hung out with Alex & Dave in the evenings but tended to do our own things during the day.

Below is Dave’s report of his and Alex’s trip:

“Alex & I bought the guidebook 5 years ago so thanks to Lee for organising a great break and breaking my apathy.  It will not be long before there are more guidebooks for Kalimnos than the peak! 

I was surprised by the prosperity, nice accommodation and restaurants and welcome for climbers who have transformed the island. 

We hired a car and very quickly trained ourselves to abandon (greek highway code) as opposed to parking the car – while we did in total 35 routes over our week – I did 33 and Alex led 35 – it was so easy to find small crags just 15 minutes from the main town of Massouri. The walkins were very easy and we did a nice spectacular walk on day 6 to the far crag on the Arginonta skyline  While Alex led most I had a great start to my retirement and was leading a few by the end of the week.

Our grades ranged from 4s upward and Alex did a 6a and we are now nicely set for the year. A week is definitely needed as we lost 2 days travelling – but the whole transfer was easy with car hire being massively cheaper than the UK. As we ate out every night including a couple of dinners with Alex, Tom, Neal and Lee – it cost me I guess 1000 euros so it works out at 29 euros per climb – only joking as I am no longer an accountant – as with all our travels we are in it for the journey and friendship. 

The island is a must if you are a keen climber looking for a great scenic week in the sun.”

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