More access work, this time at Fomm ir-Riħ

I have spent another beautiful sunny day improving installations at two excellent crags in the Fomm ir-Riħ area: Glass Wall and Spezz Wall.

As was notified earlier this year, some vandal damaged the abseil point at the top of Spezz Corner E2 5b on Spezz Wall. I have now replaced this with a proper 2-chain ring abseil point made of A-316 marine steel. It is slightly below the original installation but still within safe reach of the top so it is easy to abseil down the route (see picture). Caution – this is a 40m abseil to the start! There are still two more installations needed: a mid-height second abseil point to allow abseiling with a 60m rope doubled over, and a belay point near the sea.

Spezz Corner is a 40m trad route and will stay trad as it is very easy and safe to protect using trad gear, a pleasant 3-star route well within its grade.

On Glass Wall, I have installed some much needed belay and abseil points:

  • On Rasta S 4b I have replaced the two old slings at the belay point down by the sea with two sea water resin bolts. I have also installed a mid-height second abseil point to allow access to the new belay stance (which is 35m down from the top) using a 60m rope doubled over.
  • The Glass Wall E2 5b now has a belay stance 8m above the water to allow a direct ascent instead of trending into the route from the old rope stance at the foot of Rasta.
  • My new route Oksana Ermakova E1 5b which takes a direct line up the far right hand side of Glass Wall now has a belay stance at the bottom and a belay anchor at the top. The route is 30m high so you can abseil directly from the belay anchor at the top but be extremely cautious – the route is EXACTLY 30m so a 60m rope doubled over will get there with only the stretch in the rope as leeway. Tie a knot at the end of your rope before descending!

Glass Wall is a trad climbing crag so all the routes on it will be left as trad. Spezz Wall is a mixed climbing area so there are some routes which are bolted and others which will remain trad. As I said, I will leave Spezz Corner as a trad route because it is great fun that way.

Join our Facebook page to receive regular updates on events and activities of the MRCC.

Do you you want to tell your friends about this page? Share the URL easily!

News sections