Wintour's Leap and Avon Gorge

A brilliant sunny weekend in early May saw Will and I at Wintour's Leap in the Wye Valley. According to local legend, this was the site where royalist Sir John Winter, escaping on horseback from parliamentarian troops, leaped the cliffs and survived. The actual truth of the story doesn't seem to be quite so exciting.

We climbed Corner Buttress Route 1, or possibly 2, or a bit of both. The routes seem to cross halfway up so it's not clear.

We followed this up with the severe Central Rib Route 1, which has an excellent vertical corner groove. At the top I tried to lead the VS variant and spent quite a long time sitting on gear, so I don't think that really counts.

Heroic pose at the top, with the impressive cliffs in the background

Wonderful Wye Valley scenery

The following day we headed for the Avon Gorge in the heart of Bristol. I lead The Arete, a pretty tame scramble with one viciously polished mantelshelf move at about half height. This leads to Bob's Climb, which finishes with an impressive and thankfully well protected pull up through an overhang.

Thus concludes a fairly quiet first half of the year. June was a bit of a down month, apart from a trip with the family to Snowdonia, where Charlie impressed us all by tugging at the lead all the way up and down Snowdon.

However, the important business of June was turning the idea of a return trip to the Dolomites from a vague idea into a definite plan...