Fairy Cave Quarry April 2024: A day for good gear placements, and a good day to be part of a club

By David Cunningham

The sky was grey and the hour was early as an open public toilet in Frome was sought by Conor, Charlotte and Dave.  Success (and relief!) after Charlotte accessed some local knowledge from a gentleman at Frome Station.

On arrival at Fairy Cave Quarry the wind was chill and the rock was wet.  Conor kicked us off by leading  Socialist (S4a) , (which was a bit bold on the muddy slope at the top) and seconded by Charlotte and Dave.  Having not taken trainers up, Dave was not keen on the walk off along the muddy top of the Alpine Ridge in climbing shoes, so he and Charlotte set up an abseil down Balch’s Slide (next to Socialist). 

The three early starters were then setting up for Back to Basics (VD), when Paul, Rich and Alan arrived.  Conor and Charlotte stayed with Back to Basics whilst Dave joined Paul in eying up Antimatter and Alan and Rich tackled Socialist (S4a) 

Conor made good progress up Back to Basics on the still wet rock, until a lack of big hexes led to him deciding to avoid the final wide crack and seek a way around the side, leading to a more exposed variation (probably more like a Severe than VD) and the need to remove a lot of loose rock. 

Dave placed a hand on the base of Antimatter, leading to a need to wipe off the layer of black slime down a trouser leg.  Dave subsequently decided that discretion was the better part of valour and declared no interest in leading the route at that point.  Paul was much braver and geared up and got started.  It was a difficult start.  A route that would have allowed progress by easy smearing in the dry offered few safe holds in the wet and was very thin on protection in the first ten metres or so.  Paul took his time and had to down climb and try new ways up a few times. 

Meanwhile Alan and Rich had finished socialist and went off to have a look at Halfway to Kansas (2 pitches HS4a) and Conor and Charlotte made a start on Balch’s Slide (HS 4a) 

Conor made a slip and went for a slide down Balch’s Slide, but his gear held and he successfully completed the climb  Charlotte started he ascent as second whilst Paul started making much more rapid progress up the top half of  Antimatter. Some of the early gear had pulled out of the rather thin placements available early but Paul had found some really good placements as entered the top third of the climb.  This was just as well as some mud on a foot hold as Paul was preparing to top out sent him tumbling.  His cam held (and so did the belayer!), leading to a fall of 5 or 6m, but he had injured his knee.   

This was the point where climbing as a club really paid off.  Charlotte was just finishing her ascent a few metres away and so she and Conor were able to quickly move across to the top of Antimatter, where they set up a belay stance and lowered a rope with a loop and carabiner which Paul was able to clip into his central rope loop so that we had a back up line whilst we lowered.  Whilst this was happening, Rich and Alan had joined us at the base of the crag and started recording information we might need if Paul lost consciousness (DoB, allergies, medications etc).  Fortunately Paul was able to mobilise and fully weight-bear on his injured knee and was able to be lowered with little difficulty. 

Paul had sustained a quite nasty laceration to the skin on over the kneecap, but was otherwise uninjured.  We cleaned and dressed the wound and Paul then rested.  (It turns out that using a hydration pack with a bite valve and squeezing the bladder gives a decent jet of water for cleaning out a wound) 

Conor and Charlotte went off to tackle Rob’s Crack (VS 4c) (keep it clean folks, this is a great slab climb, well worth the stars) and Alan had led the first pitch of Halfway to Kansas. Rich invited Dave to take one of the ropes and join him in seconding.  Dave gratefully accepted as this was a very enjoyable climb on rock that had now dried out.  Rich, as the first to second, planned ahead and transferred the second rope to points of protection that would protect Dave on the traverse to the stance at the end of the first pitch.  As we sorted ourselves out at the stance, one of Alan’s trainers escaped from the back of his harness and returned to the base of the climb.  We declined the kind offer from a passing climber to lob it back up to us!  Alan continued to lead for the second pitch, which terminated at a lovey belay stake (wish there were more of those at this venue!) 

We all abseiled down Balch’s Slide, (except Conor who kindly retrieved Dave’s sling and karabiner before scrambling down the Alpine Ridge again) and then called it a day. 

Postscript:  The importance of asking the right questions 

Paul later presented at A&E to get his knee glued.  He reports that he caused surprise and confusion when they asked how high he was when he fell and told them 30m.  What they really should have asked is how far he fell…