Pete Gunn and Jeremy Ingham have cleaned up and developed a ‘new’ roof in the vicinity of Armathwaite, in the Eden Valley. Coombs Cave, as it is known, hosts around ten problems, all of a similar style – horizontal roof climbing with mantle top outs – and for the most part graded in the mid 7’s.
The stand out problems are as follows:
Paran (7B) Good foot locks, hard cut loose, with a burly slopey top out.
Kenyan (7A) A couple of bicycle footlocks help gain the lip.
Heidelberg (7B+) A superb, tough, right to left traverse just below the lip starting as for Paran.
Pete has added Combs Cave to the UKClimbing database with all the relevant access notes. In you’re interested, all the names are taken from the shortened version of the first 10 stages of the evolution of man.
Access details:
From the village of Armathwaite continue over the bridge and past the Fox and Pheasant pub and take the next right. Continue up the hill passing a couple of laybys until the road levels out and a house is past on the right ~1 mile “Coombs Head” and Coombs Cottage” Park in the lay-by of Coombs Wood, room for several cars, please do not block the gate.
Follow the track downhill for a few hundred metres, the roof being visible up to the right through the trees.
Coombs Cave Topo:
