Rosemergy climbing

Crag: Rosemergy Towers, Penwith, Cornwall
Routes: Flash Back (S 4a:sh), Sam's Greasy Thumbprint (S 4a:sh), Go Shorty Variant (HVS:sh)
Hardly the best venue on the North Cornwall coast, but my solo options with the shunt were rather limited. I climbed at neighbouring Bosigran in the mid 90s, it is undoubtedly one of the finest crags in the UK: Rosemergy is emphatically not! But it did at least provide a sample of Cornish granite and ambience on this early morning trip: nobody around, the sun just rising to light the gorse as I jogged along the coast path. The main, slightly broken, slab is obvious and I found a large flake above it quite easily, abbing down to a comfortable base: a friendly venue, although the swell remained quite heavy below. I didn't know where the routes went, but chose the two obvious lines up the main slab, which was clean and obviously fairly well travelled: excellent rock throughout, both routes following blocky rock interspersed with a couple of delicate moves up to a positive flake crack and scrappy, vegetated finish. The steep and blank face to the right turned out to be Get Shorty at E2 5c. I did the first few moves on a loose shunt, up to the break, fingery and technical. But I had to avoid the final steep wall due to the pendulum, so traversed left into the obvious wet flake crack. Back in time for breakfast and a superb day of boarding in perfect conditions at Porthmeor.