Pertex Presents: Sharpnose

The South West of England is perhaps the most underrated of climbing areas in the UK. A huge variety of styles and rock types, host to a myriad of classic routes on granite and limestone, and home to one of the more acquired and esoteric of tastes: Culm.

Lower Sharpnose Point is a staggering crag. Hidden away below the watchful eyes of GCHQ Bude, many South West Coast Path walkers will miss the astonishing sight of the improbable fins of Culm rock that jut out into the Atlantic. So thin, they don’t look strong enough to withstand a stiff breeze, nevermind the incessant pounding of ocean swells twice a day every day. The climbing is mostly hard, HVS/E1 is an entry level really, but for a generation brought up at indoor walls, there are enough classic test-pieces here to more than fill the hours between high tides.

Epic stories abound of wet feet and worse, when climbers have greedily tried to squeeze one last route in before high tide. The rock itself is the star here though: Culm is a sort of soft, sooty coal (in parts shale, sandstone, slate), and at Sharpnose it is lined with quartz en échelon veins and flecked with fools gold (iron pyrite).

South West residents Tom Newberry and Roz Frugtniet make the short journey here from their home in order to keep their trad season going all year round; and what they show us is a world class crag, climbable in winter due to the more temperate Cornish climate.

Partner: @montaneofficial
Athletes: @rfrgutniet @tnewberry1000
Film/Stills: @coldhouse_

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TRANSCRIPT

It’s a bit of an intense walk in I guess. You sort of feel like you probably shouldn’t be there.

You walk past the big satellite dishes sometimes there are people on radios and people driving around in Land Rovers.

But then you walk down a coastal path, through a gate and some bushes and it's the complete antithesis to what you were just walking past.

I’ve been to Sharpnose loads of times and I always walk to the same spot before I go down and have a look over and you can see the fins. The Culm is kind of the esoteric rock of the South West. It’s such a unique climbing place, you’ve never seen anything like it and you are like ‘are the fins still going to be standing?’, as every time you go and have a look it's been another winter and they've seen their fair share of smashing from the sea.

It's pretty rugged and quite unique. It can be intimidating the first time you go there.

Sea cliff climbing in winter is definitely an experience. The only way to get in and out is to climb back up the way you abbed down.

And then when you get to the bottom, because it's such a long route again it seems quite atmospheric being stuck down in this pit with these giant fins jutting out of the water.

The climbing is really flowy, really sustained and really pumpy. It's not to everyone’s taste and it has a reputation for being quite bold.

I always thought they were quite short but they are amazing 30/40 metre pitches.

In winter on the culm, it's pretty rare to get out for a day’s trad climbing.

Because you've got limited time, because it obviously gets dark sooner and at Sharpnose it's tidal, it's like a race against the tide and a race against time to get out before the waves start lapping at your ankles.

Once you get climbing and get into the groove of it, it becomes a lot easier and you sort of settle into it. As climbers we are drawn to climb unusual and aesthetic bits of rock and Sharpnose is definitely that.