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Cheddar Limestone in UK Trip. 4-Oct-2009 At 9:38:35 PM henners

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Hi everyone.
im new to Chockstone, and im just doing a short report for my first entry to the site. Im a 13 year old
tasmanian living with my parents and three brothers in Somerset for 6 months while dad does
sabbatical, and we asked the local outdoors shop were the closest climbing spot was. "Cheddar gorge"
was the reply, and so on our first saturday we packed the gear and headed up to cheddar. That was
about 5 and a half months ago now, and back then we were climbing grades like F5 (17) and we were
stoked with an F5+ (18) onsight.
Time has passed and we're nearing the end of our stay, and in that short amount of time my grades
have soared to F6c (22) onsights and so we decided that for our last day at cheddar we'd try the
longest sport route in Britain.

It was a real disappointment. Despite the first pitch being severely undergraded, and too hard, the rest
of the climb had no hangers! In england, at least in cheddar anyway, there are very strict rules about
when and where you climb. Unlike Australia, you have to be a member of the BMC to climb on a
certain side of the gorge! So a 25 meter abseil was the end result of a very optimistic start to the day.
We finished our time at cheddar with a redpoint of a 6b+ (22), and that felt good and was really fun.
But then as dad started up a 5+, the dark english skys opened and we had to go home. Oh well, we
were already running late for mums dinner arangements anyway (poor mum).

Thanks for your time folks, and ill be posting more reports on the site when i get back to tassie. Im
planning a trip to freycinet with my bros and a friend from melbourne who is also on this site, so that
should have a few cool photos and storys.

Thanks again. From henners.