Routes as sport in Tall Storey Wall

Labour Pains 5.11+ (3 pitches) 1 X 70m rope

If your looking for a quick multipitch after work or you’ve made the trek up for Tall Storey, only to find it occupied don’t fret. Three long beautiful pitches await you! You won’t be disappointed cruising through black chert bands, or laybacking up perfect corners or getting lost in a sea of “holdless” grey perfection. In fact you’ll probably be wishing you could keep going. In which case after pitch three follow the ledge left to it's end and continue up Tall Storey.

Descent Make three long rappels straight down. From the top of pitch two rap straight down to a hanging rap station and not the top of pitch one. Tie a knot it your ropes as they are rope stretchers and may use up every inch of your rope.

Walking off is possible but not all that pleasant. Follow the ledge down to the scree slope below The Notch.

If your not sure your rope is long enough and no one is on Tall Storey you can make four raps to the ground using Tall Storey’s rap route.

Pitch 1 5.11d 11 bolts (30m) Multiple cruxes will have you working hard on pitch one. Pull past a small roof right off the ground directly into strenuous climbing with hard to locate grips, followed by a sequential roof encounter in the middle and finish with an airy couple of moves left into beautiful chert knobs. Belay on the good ledge.

Pitch 2 5.11 11 bolts (34m) A Stunner! Powerful climbing right off the belay leads to lay-backing up a small corner. At it’s top traverse right on a handrail before finishing up the big left facing corner. Belay on the ledge at the top of the corner.

Pitch 3 5.11+ 12 bolts (34m) From the belay climb to the right and on top of a large ledge. From the ledge climb left into a sea of perfect grey stone weaving back and forth on whatever holds you can scrounge up. Anchors located just over the top of the wall.

2 X 60m ropes

The beautiful grey streak at the top of the wall is enough to tempt just about anyone off the ground and onto the wall. The line takes a straight shot up excellent rock with magnificent climbing the entire way. The climbing tackles mostly overhanging terrain and is quite physical. Not a lot of tic tacking your way up. Don’t let the pitch count fool you. The pitches are long and bring you nearly to the same height as the neighboring 7 pitch route, The Tall Storey.

Descent Make four double rappels to reach the ground. Rappelling pitch 4 and pitch 3 will require back-clipping in order to stay close enough to reach the next rappel station.

Pitch 1 5.12d 16 bolts (47m) Climb up and over a low ledge and into a right facing corner. From the top of the corner the climbing gets hard and fingery with little in the way of feet for two bolts before better hold reappear. After the crux enjoy really great climbing up nicely featured yellow and grey rock with the occasional small cruxy move thrown in.

Pitch 2 5.11b 8 bolts (25m) A short connector pitch with good holds and good climbing that leads to a ledge and belay.

Pitch 3 5.12c 15 bolts (40m) Get your burl on and make big pulls while climbing through yellow overlaps to a roof where one last big move secures a rest above. After resting trend left through some still tricky face climbing to one last roof pull before easier climbing above and the anchor.

Pitch 4 5.13b 17 bolts (44m) Simply put, this is a stunning pitch! Follow a beautiful grey streak through several perfect crux sequences separated by good rests. A final heartbreaking crux through the last and largest roof guards the anchor and victory.