Diabeg is one of those places – it feels surreal. Beautiful slabs of gneiss rise out of the sea, with beautiful fine cracks running up these walls, making for excellent, relatively safe climbing. The quality of the rock, combined with the stunning outlook over the peninsula, make it undoubtedly one of the finest ‘non-mountain’ crags in the UK.
I’d climbed here once before last summer, where Charlie and I had an ace day on the 4* classic Route Two, and the Black Streak. Lara however had never been.
Neither of us had done much trad over the winter, so we thought an appropriate warm up would be to repeat Route 2! The first pitch has a slightly necky start in my opinion, but then you quickly gain the crack line that is filled with absolutely bomber gear and lovely holds. The top pitch follows an even more defined crack, and makes for some really excellently enjoyable climbing, all in a good position. I must admit, although excellent, I do not feel this route warrents 4*.
Next we moved on to Route Three – a nice little route just to the left of Route Three. Lara led the first pitch, and underwhelming and blocky 4b pitch, then I took the second pitch – an E1 pitch with a tricky pull leaving the belay without particularly good gear (although I think you’d just hit the grassy ledge below unscathed so it is not particularly stressful), then a smeary traverse. I really enjoyed the climbing on this pitch – it was much more ‘face focused’ than other routes I’ve done at Diabeg.
Lara took pitch 2 – a streneous steep crack. The gear was good, but it did involve a steep and hard pull to overcome a small buldge. I thoroughly enjoyed the struggle, and we abseiled down for a very quick dip (we put our heads under, shrieked wildly at the cold, and promptly exited the sea).
On Sunday, we returned. Lara cruised up the Pillar in an exceptionally slick lead- a 4* E2 – not being deterred by the wet initial section. The climbing was really rather excellent – with plenty of gear where you need it and seemingly the perfect amount of holds to ensure sufficient interest whilst allowing for a relatively straightforward (in that it has no definite crux), if sustained, climb.
We them moved back to the main wall – where I eyed up the Garry Latter Special – Perfect Day. This was an excellent direct on Route Three, and involved climbing a challenging and bold section off the belay, before gaining twin cracks at the top and finally a challenging and awkward offwidth. The gear was good, although not quite as good as you’d want given the climbing was fairly challenging for E2. I was somewhat gripped transferring from the left to the right crack, with a shallow but good green totem providing the sole gear to protect me from some significant air time. Luckily – I did not fall, and gained the offwidth and began a short, but extremely inelegant struggle to gain the top.
An excellent end to a brilliant two days of cragging, and a good start to the trad season!
Oscar Outdoors 