Dewerstone evening bimble 17-5-2010

This evenings adventure was a short bimble through Dewerstone woods and up to Dewerstone Rock to check out the climbing options and a look at a few top roping set up positions to use one evening in the future, as per norm on the weekday evening bimbles my company consisted of Mary, George, Anna and of course Beetroot and Jasmin( the dogs) .

So starting at the car park and passing over the small wooden bridge across the River Plym we strolled across to where the River Meavy joins the Plym to the great pleasure of Beetroot who was straight in the water, having dragged a rather damp dog away from the river we headed back for the miners track leading up through the woods towards the huge crag named after Dewer, the dreaded Wisht Huntsman who in other guises is none other than Satan. Not only does Dewer terrorise the moor at night as he hunts with his dreaded pack of phantom hounds but he haunts the lofty heights of The Dewerstone.

Heading up the miners track we broke off left along the path leading to the climbing faces of the Dewerstone Rock, looking up at the first face thinking it doesn't look too bad, tho no doubt those conceptions will go out the window once we start climbing it, but for today a little scramble around and up past it was the call of the day to check out anchoring points for setting up a top rope, again this looked fairly simple but will see just how simple on the next trip, when ropes harnesses and the rest of the climbing paraphernalia will be getting lugged out there.

A scramble back down beside the second and larger climbing stack led to what looked like a nice platform for a belay point about half way up the rock face, and once reaching the bottom the routes to climb up to it looked quite manageable, so hopefully a good starting point to build on our skills and finger strength. At the base of one of what looked a more interesting and challenging climbs is a stark reminder of how dangerous climbing can be, with flowers placed on the rock in remembrance of some fateful incident in the past, one we shall be endeavoring to avoid happening to us.

After a poignant moment looking at the flowers it was time to head back up to the path and out onto the miners track, heading down and across the Plym once again and back to the car.