Report - Ravenhead chimney climb, St. helens. 24-12-08

Bigjobs · Dec 26, 2008

Over hasn't been given full status yet, so I'll quote his text, as it's far better than I could have done, and he was the one that made the first ascent.

Big reps to Over for that, much respect.

Gasping, I reached upward; my arms felt dead and the last quickdraw was clipped six bolted sections beneath me, if I were to fall it would ****ing hurt and spending the night in A&E on Christmas Eve just wasn't an option. Fine long cracks, following the path of the mortar, ran along the stretches of brickwork between bands calling into question the structural integrity of the chimney.

I shifted my body weight onto my leg, shook off my arms and crimped the band. An adrenaline rush surged through me, I ignored the numbing pain building in my arms. Sarcastic, I asked myself, 'This real enough for you now?' I grinned, one of those quirky oddities, 'Hell yes!'.

I took a deep breath, light headed from the intoxicating refresh, and lunged up to the next bolt. With hands coated in a mixture of dirt, grease, sweat and blood freshly flowing out through the cuts on my knuckles, I grasped for the ledge. With one last effort I clambered over the wall, a triumphant finish. Just sitting up there amongst the pigeon shit I smiled, the hard graft had paid off. There I was, free.

Anchors fixed? Check. Backed up? Check.

"Right. You can come on up." I yelled down the chimney. "Stoka. Pull the rope taught, just to check it's not snagging".

Not snagging? Check.

'jobs attached himself to the rope and began to make his way up, "****. This is a right bastard!" he said, I smiled like some crazed goon.

"I don't think we've got enough rope to double it!?" he said. I looked down, he had a point there.
"Right what we'll have to do is double it abseil to the last bolt, anchor, pull it down to us and double it again from there." I replied.

He headed off first, hanging on the anchored single length. We had agreed on leaving a sling behind to use as a backup. I threw caution to the wind, took the sling off, doubled the rope on the rung and committed.

Now from me.
I've always looked at the banding on brick chimneys and thought it would be fun to climb up them. Then Stoka found reference to a site near here that was derelict, and it had a brick chimney. So me and stoka went and had a look at the site, spotted security with dogs doing their rounds from the rooftop, but still went back. Got to the bottom of the chimney and kitted up. I started the ascent, and quickly realised it was beyond me., so Over took the lead and went up like a rabbit up something a rabbit runs up real quick. Just one stop to give his hands a rest, and he was ontop. Then it was my turn. Rather than climbing up the banding like I'd intended, i' srt'd up the rope that Over had fastened to the top. It was still a ball ache though. lol.

About two thirds up we noticed that the workers from pilkingtons had come out and were watching us, but that was ok, cos the two security guards didn't pay us any attention

Anyway, on with the pics.

Our audience..........................................................................Guess who........................................................................Stoka takin shots