Clambering on Coppet Hill

Mr Tom Stone & I went to Coppet Hill (Forest of Dean) in search of some good bouldering. Although it was a great adventure, we didn't actually manage to climb much - maybe cos we're crap at climbing, maybe cos this conglomerate rock just falls apart in your hand/under foot!

We set off from Monmouth on Tom Stone's motorbike - a 500cc Kawasaki. I had my (brand new Christmas present) bouldering mat on my back. It acted like a ship sail. Every time a gust of wind blew I was nearly blown clean off the motorbike and onto the dual carriage way, into the path of some unsuspecting driver! I held on pretty tight and we survived the journey in one piece! We looked like some kind of weird Wallace & Gromit-like day out duo!

After some scrambling around in waist-high dead bracken and wandering about the hill-side, we found what we had been looking for - the Crags of Coppet Hill!

The views were stunning - overlooking the Wye and rolling hills around us, but the view of us stumbling around on the rock, but 2 feet from the ground - was a lot less stunning.


I have no idea how anyone climbs this rock! It's insanely dangerous (even more so that hurtling down the dual carriageway at 50mph with a sail attached to your back and nothing more than a tight grip to save you from the oncoming traffic?!)! Every time you bear down on something it falls off or crumbles away! Everything was covered in a layer of lichen and brittle pebbles! And if these did somehow hold your weight, the rock underneath would just fall off. A piece of rock the size of a fist feel off right from under Tom Stone's foot.

So, a little perturbed by all this brittle rock, we did a bit of traversing, did some more confused staring at the rock and then, for safety's sake - got back on the motorbike and headed home.

A good adventure, but we're obviously far too pathetic to conquor Coppet.