Setting new routes?

White Rock 03.07.2011

Luke on Central Route (D)
03.07.2011

Again, a lazy start to the day - Luke and I decided that we should go and explore something different, so we went to White Rock, a limestone quarry near Newton Abbot, to find out what the routes there were like. We were pleasantly surprised to find the crag to be larger than we had at first anticipated. We approached via Ogwell Mill, as suggested in the guidebook, walking to the end of the road and then turning left to walk through a field, passing through a gate, and then coming almost immediately upon the slightly obscured crag on our right, just behind and old quarry building. The ground appeared to be slightly overgrown and the rock was a bit on the loose side... We decided that Luke should lead, and we attempted what we assumed to be Central Route (D) in order to check out the crag. As we suspected, it was a bit loose and chossy and quite overgrown, however there were no major difficulties, although there were very few gear placements, which made the leader's task just a little bit harder. The route we decided to follow started slightly to the left of the lowest point, at the best belay ledge and then up the most logical line towards some blocks half-way up, just after which there was a fairly solid PR. We then moved a couple of metres left to top out and ab down off from the top. The second route we did, possibly West Buttress (VS), was fairly difficult, although VS was probably a fair enough grade for it. Gear was, again, sparse, as we followed the line up and left to a platform and then slowly traversed up and left until topping out just shy of a large gap on the face. There is probably plenty of room there for new climbs to be put up, but in its present condition it would hardly attract many people to come... We did, however, manage to clear a thin layer of dust off of those two climbs, which have probably rarely been climbed in the past!