For those of you who have not frequented the leafy and tranquil cliffs of the Wye Valley, here is your chance to sign up and combine your love of getting lost in the woods with your love of climbing limestone!
Wye, It Is a Spreadsheet?!
There’s four main crags people go to (and some terrible quarries but we don’t talk about those*):
Shorn Cliff
Concealed cunningly in the woods above Tintern, Shorn Cliff is mainly steep slabs and technical wall climbs (but there are exceptions, check out Tigers Don’t Cry!), single pitch and about 20-30m. Very good if you operate in the VS-E2 range. All trad, and often considered to have many ‘low in the grade’ routes.
Wintour’s Leap
The big bad multi-pitch cliff of Wintour’s Leap looms above the murky Wye and occasionally (quite large) bits fall off. A pretty serious cliff but there are in fact a number of decent easy multipitch routes, as well as the adjacent Woodcroft Quarry (*yes, I lied) featuring some rather dubious sport routes. Check the UKC notes for anything you want to lead to make sure it’s still there, and that it’s still possible to get down again (some bits have abseil stations, some bits top out and walk round (there’s an Easy Way Down at about Mod grade)).
Wynd Cliff
Fairly close to the parking, Wynd Cliff has a right and a left crag each featuring generally steep trad routes up to about 35m across the grades including the classic VS duo of Cadillac and Questor, but again, the rock cannot always be trusted (I’ve done two different versions of the former…)! There’s also a sunny little sport quarry adjacent. (*yes, I lied again)
Ban Y Gor
Sport climbing! Steep blocky limestone requiring some burliness but rarely over 20m high (“short, steep and bouldery” says the guidebook…!). There’s actually some trad as well…
Accommodation
I’ll try to book Beeches Farm Campsite as it is situated just behind Shorn Cliff and is apparently fairly easy going regarding cooking and drinking. There are plenty of others in the local area though.
Dinner
I’ll check out the local pubs; there’s at least two decent ones in Tintern, Chepstow seems a bit dodgy, or we could bring food depending on the numbers…
A Cautionary Note
All the Wye crags justifiably have a bit of a reputation for loose rock, polish, vegetation, abseils from suspicious trees and the like. A lot of Wintour’s Leap routes are protected by pegs which may be present, absent, or in a highly suspicious state. Shorn Cliff routes often feature threads and rock formations called concretions which will require some circumspection when using or abusing them. Popular routes tend to be clean, well protected and relatively trustworthy, but Stanage this ain’t…that said, it’s a beautiful area, can be around 3 hours from London, and some of the climbing is superb and quite adventurous feeling, and feature great views from the top too…
Yes I have climbed there too…!
