Rock Climbing on Dartmoor: A Review of Suspension Flake

Suspension Flake Highlights

Described as one of Dartmoor’s finest micro-classics, this route begins under the ledge situated beneath the right-slanting flake on the eastern face of Perched Block. Once you have gained the ledge, execute a challenging swing to the right, onto positive holds. Traverse rightwards along the diagonal flake, where a selection of cams will be your best friends. Conquer one last demanding move up a brief crack to triumphantly summit this delightful ascent.

Why Suspension Flake Is Special

Once hailed as Britain’s premier VS climb (as per the Climber’s Club guidebook), Suspension Flake embodies exceptional climbing amidst Dartmoor’s breathtaking landscapes, making it a photographer’s dream. Its iconic status extends beyond climbing; indeed, it’s one of Dartmoor’s most photographed routes. The only lament? Its brevity leaves climbers yearning for more, wishing for an extended journey on this exhilarating route.

Rock Climbing Courses on Dartmoor

Interested in rock climbing courses in Devon, Dartmoor and Cornwall? We deliver bespoke climbing courses to suit your individual needs and aspirations. Develop your skills, learn to lead, multi-pitch and guided climbing on some of the classic routes . . .

For more information please get in touch to arrange a tailor-made course.

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Tom Bowen

7 May 2024

Excellent and throughly informative day out developing skills.

David Green

2 May 2024

What a great day, Charlie is a fantastic instructor, and has a great way of not making it feel like you are having to take in too much information, yet getting the best out of you so you meet your goals for the day in a stress free, really enjoyable way. We sadly had the 1st date weathered off but that wasn't an issue for Charlie and her team and we just reorganised without any issue. My climbing was already ok, I've been climbing indoor for years and have a bit of outdoor experience but I had a lot of anxieties around correct anchoring and rope work "process' " for abseil and belay points. This has all been addressed and I now feel like I can confidently rock up to most situations that require an abseil in. Correctly secure myself and my climbing partners, secure and equalise the abseil point. Then after safety checks and buddy checks with the use of a prusik and belay device happily make the abseil trusting the process I have put in place. And trusting that my climbing partners are also safe to make the abseil. I also firmed up a lot around setting a belay safely. We made three fantastic sea cliff climbs at Baggy Point during the day, then went back the following day without Charlie to just galvanise what we had learned and had a great time putting everything into practice. Setting the abseil and belays was great, just knowing we were using the right techniques and process', the tough part was making the lead climb that I had only seconded the day before with a big old run out 😬😂. I can't thank Charlie enough for such an enjoyable day and giving me the knowledge and confidence to know I can do the other stuff that has been hampering my trad climbing for a couple of years now. Great choice and knowledge of location also. Thanks Charlie

Beccy Reilly

22 March 2024

Fantastic weekend of Winter Skills with Charlie in the Cairngorms. Amazing knowledge and experience, shared and imparted in a super fun and supportive environment. Learned so much! Thank you!

Robbie King

3 August 2023

Fantastic day climbing on Dartmoor, guided and instructed by the brilliant EJ. We are a family of four (kids 14 and 17) and spent the afternoon climbing and abseiling. EJ ensured we had the right amount of stretch in all our activities to make it exciting and challenging in equal measure. Brilliant, thank you!

Russell Inman

21 July 2023

Guided rock climbing in Cornwall – Awesome experience! My daughter and I did two days of guided sea cliff climbing in Cornwall with Charlie in July 2023. It was the most incredible experience. In planning this trip back in February of this year, I searched on the web to identify a suitable guiding company. Adelong immediately stood out; not just due to the quality of the factual information on the website but also because it was clear that Charlie offers a very personalised and tailored experience. She also had specific pages for the very two climbs that I was looking to do. The company’s social media was also very active and up-to-date; a sign of a very vibrant company. Charlie was very responsive to my emails and offered advice and guidance in terms of what I was looking to do. From my discussions with Charlie, it was immediately clear that I’d found the right company. I booked without hesitation. In the months leading up to the climbing, Charlie was very responsive on email and was incredibly helpful in terms of aligning her diary/availability with mine. This was important as the two days of climbing were part of a one-week family holiday. I was also incredibly impressed that Charlie responded to emails in very short timeframes; even when she was away for protracted periods with work and often in remote areas with poor data coverage. We did two climbs; Land’s End Long Climb and Commando Ridge. I had climbed these before but some 30+ years previously! My daughter had done no outdoor (trad) climbing at all. Charlie took all of this into account and tailored her approach and pace to suit our abilities and experience. She has a very relaxed approach but is meticulously thorough in terms of preparation, safety and dynamic risk assessment. This gave my daughter and me massive confidence and enabled us to simply soak-in the amazing experience. For me, it was terrific to know that my daughter was in safe hands and that I could relax and simply focus on enjoying the experience myself. As well as leading the climbs, Charlie provided amazing on-the-climb tuition for my daughter; quite an incredible feat when these exposed climbs were my daughter’s first experience of trad. climbing! What was also critical to the success of the experience was Charlie’s flexibility during the week. The weather in the week was very changeable and Charlie and I moved the climbing days twice (within that week) in order to get the best weather days. I know that Charlie won’t always have the flexibility in her work schedule to do this but her willingness to do this demonstrates her commitment to her clients; she simply wants them to have the very best experience. Charlie took time to take a stack of photographs and video clips for us and made all of these available to us. This captured the whole experience augmenting the precious memories that we have of these two days. I had a vision for these two days of climbing when I planned it back in February and Charlie made that vision a reality – and more. There is absolutely nothing more that Charlie could have done to make the experience any better. Charlie is not only an absolutely brilliant guide and instructor but is wonderful company and a lovely person to spend a day with. I would absolutely recommend her (and her company) to anyone who wants to learn to climb, improve their climbing, or to get the opportunity to do routes which they are not ready to lead at the moment. I’m going to be planning some further climbing with my family and I will be going straight to Adelong without a second thought.

Camilla Palmer

16 July 2023

Wonderful weekend learning to lead trad with Charlie - fantastic, reassuring, professional tuition for my daughter and I as we grappled with ropes, knots and gear. Charlie is an absolutely brilliant teacher and all round lovely human. I would absolutely recommend her to anyone who wants to improve their climbing.

Francesca Lovely

26 June 2023

Amazing day climbing is Bosigran with Charlie. She was super helpful in the build up and answered loads of questions that I had and accommodate all of our needs. She was really flexible in the choice of location which was great as it gave us time to find a place to stay. The day of climbing was great - the perfect amount of learning, loads of climbing and Charlie chose routes which suited our level perfectly. Would love to climb with Adelong again!

Anna Crew

I recently joined the womens Ready to Rock intro to trad climbing on Dartmoor. I would highly recommend Charlie and Adelong. I had absolute faith in her and it made for an amazing day out, learning lots along the way. Easily 5 out of 5 stars

Neil Jaques

6 June 2023

We had a great day climbing Commando Ridge with Swifty! Highly recommended.

Matt Sydenham

5 June 2023

Completely brilliant experience and highly recommend. Was looking for a guided climbing day in Cornwall whilst on holiday, on some specific routes, and found Adelong during an online search. Dropped Charlie an email and she quickly and efficiently catered for our aims and needs and arranged a suitable date. The climb day itself was brilliant and Swifty, our guide, whilst leading the routes, was also happy to share his extensive knowledge to refresh my rather rusty trad skills, all with a relaxed and easy manner. Brilliant experience from start to finish and will be looking to book our next trip soon.

Rock Climbing on Dartmoor: A Review of Suspension Flake