St Mary’s > Carn Leh
West Crack
6m S 4a
18-Sep-2018, Dan Morrell and Matt George
Climb the jamming crack in the middle of the narrow west face of the crag. A great introduction to jamming technique.
Carn Leh is a crag on St Mary’s. The distinctive rocky crag on the small promontory, in the southwest corner of Old Town Bay. A small, diminutive crag with most routes in the region of 8 metres in long. Good quality granite, mostly with good belays, and easy ways down off the back (north side) of the crag. Despite the short route lengths, the rock doesn’t lend itself to many wire placements, so a double rack of cams is recommended, including large sizes for some of the routes. A great crag for beginners, with routes from Moderate up to HVS. Non-tidal, and sheltered from sea spray on those rough days. There is also a small selection of bouldering, with some very worthwhile problems, both in front of the main crag, and on the tidal foreshore to the south of the main crag. Climbing has almost certainly occurred here previously, but no records exist.
 |
St Mary’s > Carn Leh
Chimleh
8m VD
18-Sep-2018, Matt George, solo on sight
Climb the wide chimney on the rights side of the west face of the crag. |
St Mary’s > Carn Leh
Autumn Lehves
9m VS 4c
18-Sep-2018, Matt George and Dan Morrell
Start 3 metres right of the left arête of the main face of the crag. Move up using rounded flakes, avoiding the chimney groove to the right. Gain a small ledge before climbing the final slab that leads to the top of the pinnacle. Take a long sling for the top. |
St Mary’s > Carn Leh
Dressing Down
8m D
18-Sep-2018, Matt George, solo on sight
Climb the short wall between the chimney and the corner, on pleasant holds. At the top of the wall, step right and climb the adjacent pinnacle to its top. |
St Mary’s > Carn Leh
Dance of the Gnomes
8 D ☆☆
18-Sep-2018, Matt George, solo on sight
A pleasant climb. Climb the wall between the corner and the groove.
 |
St Mary’s > Carn Leh
Lehve it Out
8m M
18-Sep-2018, Matt George, solo on sight
Climb the easy groove to the top of the crag. |
St Mary’s > Carn Leh
La Campanella
8m VS 5a ☆
18-Sep-2018, Matt George and Dan Morrell
A worthwhile eliminate with some nice climbing. Climb up the wall between Old Town Leh-Back and Liebestraum, without using either of these routes for holds or protection. Pull up to a horizontal break, and then follow a shallow flake upwards which allows the next break to be reached. Continue to the top.
 |
St Mary’s > Carn Leh
Liebestraum
8m MVS 5a ☆
18-Sep-2018, Matt George and Dan Morrell
Climb the offwidth crack to an awkward finish.
 |
St Mary’s > Peninnis Head
Opium of the People
12m HVS 5a
18-Sep-2018, Matt George and Dan Morrell
30m north of Pulpit Rock is a small, northeast-facing wall with several capping overhangs. Reached by scrambling around the north of the small buttress. A poor escapable route. Starting at the left hand end of the wall, climb breaks before a hard move using a sloping shelf and a sidepull in a fluted crack gains the next horizontal break. Surmount this and move right under the next large roof. Pull up leftwards through a gap in the roof, using a juggy hold in the next roof above. Either go straight up via the next break to the top, of move left under the roof, before pulling up and moving rightwards to gain the same top-out.
Peninnis Head is a granite sea cliff on the island of St Mary’s (Scilly Isles). The head offers some adventurous climbing on mostly clean and sound rock with a great vista over the island of St. Agnes. The headland also has a wealth of underdeveloped boundering amongst the rocks adjacent to the lighthouse and on the surrounding cliffs. Worthwhile routes include Excalibur (VS 4c) and Fear of the Furnace (E2 5c). Many of the routes may well have only seen a handful of ascent so grades should be treated with caution.
 |
Salakee Down
Tom Butt’s Crack
12m HVS 5b ☆
19-May-2019, Matt George and Craig Evans
Located at Tom Butt’s Bed, SV 92602 10186. Climb the crack (with help from a subsidiary crack) on the right side of the front face of the promontory. Tricky moves, with hard to place gear lead to a ledge on a large horizontal break. Follow the now wider crack with ease, until it terminates at a ledge. From here, step left and climb a final section of slab to the top of the buttress. |
Salakee Down
Tide Race
14m VS 4c
19-May-2019, Matt george
Located at Tom Butt’s Bed, SV 92602 10186 Pleasant climbing, if a little eliminate. Climb the wall just right of Conger Corner, following a thin crack system, and avoiding using Conger Crack for holds or gear. Nice climbing, with somewhat hard-to-find gear. |
Salakee Down
Conger Corner
 14m S 4a
19-May-2019, Matt george
Located at Tom Butt’s Bed, SV 92602 10186 Climb the obvious, square corner on the southeastern side of the buttress. Low tide and calm seas essential.
|
St Mary’s > Peninnis Head
 Turold A2
VDiff 20m VD 4a ☆☆☆
12-Oct-2021, Mark Collins
Reach the south face of the Monk’s Cowl via the cave to the left of the needle’s base on the north face. From there, scramble leftwards facing in, across a corner and down a little to a huge ledge that extends further leftwards covering about a third of the face. The ledge falls away at about a thirty degree angle to the south for three metres before steepening further. The huge overhang of the Monk’s Cowl can be seen above. About halfway along the ledge is a thin crack that splits the cowl from top to bottom. This is the obvious line of Turold, good cam belays in the break beneath. Climb the crack vertically for three metres before striking out across the roof. The crack widens as the ground returns to the vertical and the crack is crossed by three breaks. From the furthest of these, awkwardly enter the squeeze chimney above and continue in this vein to just below the summit, where the crack ends and it is necessary to break out onto the slab and pad to the top. However, once reached there is nothing to belay from. The first ascent was rope soloed, so the ascensionist was able to abseil down the north face, anchor the rope to the bottom and return to the south face to clean via the fixed rope. For a party of two with good communication, it may be possible for the second to lower the leader down the north face before making their own ascent, and then in turn be lowered down the south face once they’ve reached the top.
This slideshow requires JavaScript. |
