Lee Harrison Climbing

A Silly Game Esoteric... intimidating... worrying... exhausting... are some of the words that I would best describe climbing on the white cliffs at Dover. It's one of the most unique and memorable places that I have climbed at and somewhere that has filled me with equal measures of dread and ambition. The style of climbing is far from perfect but it is partly the imperfections combined with the unique experiences and high levels of adventure that kept me returning.What's more the journey time of under two hours from my former London home made the area positively 'local' by London standards. Mick Fowler's exploits were one of the main catalysts to me trying chalk climbing. I visited Saltdean a few times to climb the bolted chalk routes at Saltdean but was keen for bigger adventures away from in situ protection. An excellent article on Dover by Ian Parnell in Climb Magazine further raised my interest in the purely trad form, particularly in a route called The Tube...

The chalk near the start of the slab was unexpectedly hard, and I swung my axe repeatedly, trying to chip reliable holds. Sometimes I would fail and would need to switch location. It had been a fine summer but was the chalk maybe too dry as a consequence? Usually the chalk at Dover is easier to climb low down, where it is more saturated and therefore softer. What beckoned higher up? The top looked a long way off. My forearms worked overtime from the multiple axe swings. I paused to shake out my calves. My busy summer on rock provided little in the way of conditioning for this form of climbing but at least the first couple of warthog placements were adequate. (About 7/10 I reckoned) Beneath the slab I veered right to avoid a mild steepening at the left edge of the slab at third height. The chalk quickly became softer and easier to climb but proportionally more crumbly, which triggered a steady flow of debris to tumble South. The surface chalk repeated cracked and peeled with li...

Plans for Scotland this weekend were binned again due to the high winds forecast. I made a day trip with Murilo to Dover instead. We parked the car at St Margaret's Bay at 8am shortly after sunrise and one hour after low tide. Clear skies greeted us. A welcome break from the sometimes unrelenting rains of late. After examining a number of unclimbed lines we eventually opted for The Tube. I climbed this fifteenth months ago - largely in the dark, due to a slightly bonkers 8pm start, and with no head torch. I was happy to climb it again in order to appreciate the daylight experience. St Margaret's Bay at Dawn  (Dry Ice, III pictured left) Murilo beneath the Tube The start of the first pitch was harder than recollection. The short-lived overhung wall was well hooked but my fluency was compromised by a number of the pockets being worn down to a bed of flint rendering them unreliable. The going was soft today and I could sometimes feel movement in my foot...

The tide was far higher than expected by the time Jack and me reached the zigzag path. Low tide had only been just over an hour ago but already the water had almost reached the cliffs immediately East. We quickly descended the path for closer inspection, which indicated that there was just time to traverse the cliffs to the beach that we had visited last weekend. We hurried across the high boulders directly beneath the cliffs but were nearly halted by the waters immediately preceding the beech by their absence. We delicately padded our way across a sequence of smaller boulders that just about poked their head above the water, to the safety of the beech. Ten minutes later and we wouldn't have made it. There would certainly be no return by the way we had come until the next low tide. Traversing beneath the cliffs The tide nearly beat us The obvious choice of route was a grade V called Dover Soul as there was gear to retrieve after last wee...

Jack and me could afford a casual start. It was 11am by the time we arrived in the White Cliffs of Dover National Trust car park. There was even time for a slice of cake in the shop. High tide was at 9.20am so much of the morning would be a write-off. We descended the zigzag path to the beach. Waves were still extending the full length of the shore and showering the boulders strewn beneath the cliffs.We waited patiently. Then we ran out of patience... We clambered over the boulders, avoiding waves, sometimes getting soaked by waves. We reached a section of cliff with no boulders that would forced us to pause and wait for the tide to recede a little more. Everything in this area was too steep to consider climbing so we had to press on. There was soon another impassible section. Beyond this the cliffs cut back from the waters edge before reaching the huge section of cliff that collapsed over the summer. We donned our crampons and traversed above the waves to the safety of a strip of ...