Lundy Island CircumSummit

The world’s first ever CircumSummit

Thursday 27th July 2017. Silly-o’clock in the morning. I met up with good friend Nick Salmon to begin the drive to Devon, down on the south-west coast of England, and the harbour town of Bideford. There we would rendezvous with our waiting friend James Hooper and onward journey aboard MS Oldenburg — the ferry to Lundy Island.

This trip was a long time coming. Firstly, it is the first ever CircumSummit, an idea that popped rather suddenly into being on the 13th March 2014 during an enthusiastic email exchange with some adventurous buddies of mine. Secondly, I’ve been consumed with fascination for Lundy ever since watching a documentary when I was about 17 years old. Thirdly, planning this trip, including its long trad climb, required months of preparation.

CircumWhat?

CircumSummiting is a new form of adventure sport. It involves performing a circumnavigation, by non-motorised means, of any body of land and then summiting its highest peak. This simple idea opens up a whole world of possible pioneering adventures and new perspectives on little-visited locations. It can be anything from a single day challenge around and up a small local island, a month-long expedition tracing an entire country border, up to a whole continent CircumSummit. They are divided into three types — Race, Expedition and Research. In addition, you can apply for a grant of up to £1,000 to perform a socially beneficial Research CircumSummit.

Lundy Island

The island of Lundy lies just off the North Devon coast, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Bristol Channel. With nothing between its western coast and the American continent, it is wild, windswept and dramatic. And yet at times of good weather, it is also a car-free paradise giving off the occasional air of ‘tropical island’. Famed for its rare nesting seabirds, in particular the beautiful clown-like puffin, and frequented by flutters of butterflies and pods of seals — it was Britain’s first Marine Conservation Zone and is a true wildlife haven. Britain’s own little Galapagos.

I had wanted to visit the island for over a decade, ever since learning of its fascinating history — especially during its privately owned days. So, on researching the best location to trial the first CircumSummit, Lundy was instantly high on my list.

The Plan

Lundy Island is home to the UK’s largest slab climb — the towering Devil’s Slide. 117m of pure granite slab, starting at the thundering waves of the Atlantic Ocean and rising up 5 pitches to the plateau of the island. Any CircumSummit of Lundy somehow had to involve this climb.

The most logical method would be some form of sea-based circumnavigation — perhaps kayak, swim or kitesurf — climb the Devil’s Slide, and then run to the highest point. Unfortunately, my attempts at sourcing three sea kayaks in time were fruitless, so we opted to start the CircumSummit at the Old Lighthouse, run to the Slide, abseil down, climb back up and then run the remaining distance around the island, finishing at the top of the Old Lighthouse.

The Attempt

At 9:40am 27th July 2017, the world’s first CircumSummit attempt commenced.

We began with a relaxed jog up the west coast to the Slide. Running cautiously through an area known as ‘Earthquake Zone’, navigating deep scars of torn terrain opened up during a tremor in 1755. Past the occasional hopping rabbit, herds of Highland cattle and Lundy’s own pony population, we jogged. One, two, three false headlands before we had our first glimpse of the Devil’s Slide. Mighty and intimidating, its immense size rising dramatically from the crashing waves below certainly gave me the thought that we’d bitten off more than we could chew. James and Nick sprung into experienced-climber action, geared up, set up the abseil and down we went.

At 10:12am, Nick’s took his first few tentative toe placements on the grippy granite. We found a decent and safe climbing pace. The weather initially held out providing gorgeous golden sunshine and sea views, although inevitably this gave way to some spits of rain turning the granite from coarse grip to ice-rink in an instant. The gear placements were reasonably solid and the initial angle of the slab meant that it was mostly a job of finding and trusting foot placements. By the penultimate two pitches however, the face nears vertical and hand holds almost disappear. The crux move is a precarious leftwards traverse to the final belay point sheltered in a little nook. By 12:33pm we’d completed the climb, one to remember for life — a true classic climb of Great Britain that I can’t recommend enough.

From Devil’s Slide, we stashed our gear, changed clothes and continued the run north following the western coastline all the way to the North Lighthouse. At that moment the rain came tumbling down. Now it was ‘jackets on’, accepting that we were going to be moist for the long-haul. The return journey south along the eastern side of the island was slightly more protected from the Atlantic winds. We soaked up some fascinating sights en route including Tibbetts, a stone cabin on the second-highest point on the island, the only rentable property without electricity. Old quarries, hidden secret pools, the old narrow-gauge miners’ railway and decaying old hospital.

After passing the Halfway Wall, and then Quarter Wall the rain eased a little and we spotted the ferry landing point in the distance. We cut back up to the village, down past the Castle (built by Henry III in 1250) to the dramatic collapsed sea cave — Devil’s Limekiln— and back up through a final few fields to the Old Lighthouse.

The Old Lighthouse is situated on the highest point of the island (128m + 29m tower) and is accessible to the general public — it seemed only fitting that the Lundy CircumSummit should finish at the top. A relaxed total run time of 1 hour 36 minutes, in addition to the 2 hours 21 minutes climb brought our Lundy CircumSummit to a close in 3 hours 57 minutes.

What will you CircumSummit?

Mission success. The Lundy CircumSummit made for the perfect test case and one great adventure. Over the past few years, I’ve been scheming up and jotting down plans for many other CircumSummits — some grander, some with a specific social or environmental focus, some just as small-scale and simple as Lundy. I plan to focus a good amount of my time in the coming years realising many of these adventures and seeing where this takes me.

What did this adventure bring? It was the smiles, laughs, successes, trials and tribulations that Nick, James and I went through and the associated deeper connections formed that will stay with us. The physical benefits from the exercise and the mental benefits of getting out of the everyday and into the wilderness. That and giving me a reason to look at the map in an entirely new light, reconsider places such as Lundy, tell their story, get out there and go explore.

So, my question to you — what will you CircumSummit? Have some good ideas, please comment below or get in touch here. Visit the website to find out more: https://www.circumsumm.it

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