Fear not! This isn’t a tale of inadequate catering on the Rucksack Club’s annual Gogarth meet (a.k.a. “The Barbecue Meet”, much to my chagrin!). Helen and I have been organising this for over twenty years, and no one has ever gone away hungry yet, despite the occasional non-burning BBQ, short delivery from Tesco and the odd spot of inclement weather. No, the beach barbie went without a hitch, with 65 Rucksackers and friends gathered for burgers, beer, banter and a bonfire:
You can read a full report here:
https://rucksackclub.org/2023/06/11/gogarth-meet-report-3/
No, this is a quick post about Hunger, E5 6a, on Main Cliff. This was the last of the “Big Five” on my tick list, the others being Citadel, Mammoth, Dinosaur and Positron. In the interests of accuracy, I should say that each of the other four had involved at least one rest or aid point, so hardly immaculate style, but I’ve always felt that the routes on Main Cliff are more about the journey than the move. In any event, conditions are notoriously fickle, with only very rare days not suffering from at least one of residual seepage, a soapy sea-fret or scorching sweatiness.
As we rounded the Gogarth pinnacle, dodging the log-jam on that route…
… and enjoying the fact that for once we were making the traverse on the dot of low tide, Jake and I dared to hope that we’d caught the sweet spot of non-sogginess – a drying breeze to mop up any condensation and an hour’s window before the full intensity of the sun sneaked around onto the wall.
Here’s Jake firing up the start of the first pitch, full of optimism:
The optimism, unlike the condensation, evaporated pretty quickly, as recorded by Jake on his logbook entry:
Slippy slappy shocker on this, set off at exactly the wrong time as main cliff was still greasy from the morning haze but also cooking in the blazing sun. Couldn’t hold onto anything, required several sits on the rope. Always get conditions wrong at main cliff and always climb like a wally. Ah well. Finished up Citadel P2 as I’d been rained off that in the past having onsighted P1, had a greasy nightmare on that as well but at least did that clean!
Others have had similar experiences, and the UKC logbook entries are peppered with reference to the “Gogarth Death-Pinch” and “Like trying to pinch bars of soap”. All smiles on the stance though
… and we decided to make the best of the situation by doing pitch 2 of Citadel. This combo has been recommended as “probably the best E5 on Main Cliff” and also presented the opportunity to complete some unfinished business, as Jake and I had been rained off after he’d onsighted the first pitch of Citadel a few years ago.
This really is a stupendously sustained piece of climbing – no move harder than 6a (unlike the first pitch I’d suggest) but very few easier either. Still surprisingly soapy, despite the rays, but Jake held it together to complete a clean ascent of Citadel, albeit four years in the making.
I ran the top two pitches together and we were on the beach comfortably in time to set out the beers and fire up the BBQs before the hordes arrived. No room for Hunger on a Gogarth Meet!
RockAroundTheWorld 