La Congrelle

So... got home from work on Wednesday and Chris persuaded me to put some effort in and check out La Congrelle for the first time. We abseiled in around 7pm and checked out the routes. Decided on an awesome 2pitch HVS - Remington. The first pitch was pretty straight forward for me, but Chris drew the short straw with HUGE amounts of rope drag leading to a scary top out on the second pitch. This made my seconding in the dark a bit harder then I was hoping for, but topped out around 9:30 I think! Cheers Chris!

Nathan C

Havelet Wall Traverse
The GMC have a social, and what happens? Another adventure is planned! Well when I say planned I mean discussed, agreed by a drunken few, never mentioned again, then it takes place. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you The Story of The Havelet Traverse 1st August 2010......
During the course of the social it was mentioned that the tides would be pretty good for an attempt on the Havelet Wall. Many were up for it, but the following day many were not. I wasn’t sure if people were going to be there, or if it would actually take place so on Sunday morning, I thought I’d go for a bike ride and head to the wall to see if anyone else was there, I packed my shoes, a towel, a t-shirt and off I went. All the way into town I was wondering who, if anyone would be there. If no-one was there then my plan was to carry on around the island on my bike and maybe go for 2 laps of it. As I turned off the main road and headed towards Castle Cornet I still wasn’t sure if it would be a goer or not. The I saw them......Greg, Stina, & James B. 5 minutes later Laura turns up with 2 friends from Uni. Ed & Robyn. It was on! We looked at the wall and all decided it was a long, long way but hey we were here so no point messing about, we may as well get on with it.

Greg took the lead and Stina became the official photographer for the days event. Next up was Ed, followed by Laura then Robyn, James B & I took last place on the wall. We all started right up the top of the slipway, Greg, James & me all took the decision to come off just before we got over the water then rest before going for it. I did 25 metres so I “won” the bet with Greg & Nathan so another £50 gets donated to Cancer Research, thanks both!

After a few minutes Greg was back on the wall, then James then I went for it again.

Suddenly Robyn was in the water, Havelet had claimed the first victim of the day!
The tide was still on the up and ledges which looked good were soon getting covered with water and the wave splashing up the wall and covering your legs, surprisingly the water wasn’t that cold. The unwritten rule of the day was that you couldn’t give up on the wall without getting a good dunkin’

Greg suddenly came off the wall, and took a swim back to the slipway.

Luke turned up, but hadn’t got his gear as he thought we would have been too far along and would have missed us. Then Tom turned up, who had got his gear and decided to go for it. Luke helped out by moving the dinghy someone had placed against the wall.

I didn’t see Laura come off as I think I was more concerned about staying on myself at that point but I saw her swim back. Apart from James and Ed I think she got the furthest so fair play to her. We were falling like flies now!

I was slipping off the wall for fun at one point, but knew I had to go for it. I had a target in my head then I thought I’d look at the next bits after that. I got to a nice big boulder a few meters over the water, which was still clear, it was a good place to stop and evaluate the next moves, unfortunately I then climbed myself into a dead end, and whilst trying to get back to the big one, my feet slipped and that, was that I was in, top to toe. I did jump back on the wall a few more times, but with the wind blowing and the rain starting to come in, I decided enough was enough. I had completed my challenge, I had raised another £50, and I knew we would be doing it again before the end of the summer so...

At this time only James & Ed were still on the wall and were just past the bunker, after getting changed I walked down to them. It was still raining at this point. I asked how they were getitng on, and Ed said it was starting to get slippy and quite moist. And then boom, Ed came off and began the swim back to the slipway. James B – Last Man Standing.

   

   

About 15 minutes later, Martin and Chris turn up, then Nathan arrives. Chris and Nathan decide to give James some encouragement so they clamber over the top, down the rusty chain and start doing the traverse. Well they were supposed to be doing the traverse, Nathan seemed more keen to go for a swim and Chris was happy just doing horizontal handstands. James mentioned he was starting to get tired and I’m not surprised he’d been on the wall for about 1hr 45 mins if not longer, then his leg slipped once, then his arm went then splash!!! He was in. How far did he get? About ½ way...............
between the rusty chain and the ladder.

Good effort Sir! And that was that the Havelet Traverse remained unbeaten but the battle isn’t over.

As usual folks plenty more pictures on the Facebook group pages.