Once were young

A younger hairier more naive version of myself on the first ascent of the Excoriator. This was one of the first handful of new routes I'd done In the Isles of Scilly. It was here I was bitten by the new routing bug, and here that I learnt that long sleeve tops were useful for off widths.
Its basically a highball on a large marble shapped 30ft boulder between the lighthouse and the giants castle at Peninnis. The ear shaped flake starts at shoulder height and requires tenuous laybacking until the flake fats up to sloper hell and a rockover onto scissored armbars begins the squirming. I think being unaware of bouldering nuance at the time I just reckoned it HVS 5c.
The thing that makes St Mary's special is the rock is so scoured by the elements that the lines are often laid bare and glaring at you. relegating you to the position of a slightly sticky kid in a sweet shop.
That's not to say that the lichen and occasional scrattly patina doesn't lend spice to the ground up experience..