Recent new routes and bouldering in South East Cornwall

Tom Last has been in touch to let us know about some recent stuff he has been doing in the area. Amongst various new bouldering and micro-routes at Roche Rock and in Luxulyan Valley he has also recorded a solo ascent of the slab which is found in the back of Luxulyan Valley Quarry. This gave the route The Downward Spiral, a bold protectionless E1 5a on dubious rock. (See photo and description here).

Tom, in the company of Todd Berryman, also added what sounds like a very pleasant easy route at Gell Point which is located between Dodman Point and Hemmick Beach. This must have the best name of any of the recent new additions in South East Cornwall - The Future Sound of Grampound - and just goes to show what quality new lower-grade climbing potential there is on the South Coast. The photo below, courtesy of Tom Last, is of Todd Berryman making the second ascent of this route.

Full descriptions of these routes and others can be found on the New Routes section of the Cheesewring Climbing webpages. Our thanks to Tom for the details and use of his photos.

Also of note, Andy Steinberg has done a sit start to Backlash on the Split Boulder at Bearah Tor (page 116 of the current guidebook), which goes at roughly the same grade. Andy also added two new problems here: Hacienda (Font. F6C+ or V5), which links the Backlash sitter into Driller Thriller; and Lashback (Font. 6A+ / V3) up the right arête of this face.