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News archive: Jul '99
Ilkley's hardest? 23 Aug 00
The 'last great problem' up the wall left of New Statesman had a liberal covering in chalk last night. Is it possible it's been done? It's certainly received attention from someone (I think we can probably guess who!). This must be the last best line left on grit?

Cloggy Onsight 9 Aug 00
Tom Briggs, former Tuesday-Nighter 'hotshot' has been keeping the Wilsonian torch burning recently with a fine on-sight of Authentic Desire (E7 6b) at Cloggy.

Thomas Willenbirg cleans up at stanage 15 Jun 00
Boulder problem Brad Pitt has been climbed with a sitting start and finished via the original dyno at Font 8b+, by visiting german Thomas Willenbirg. Wow! See http://www.climbing.de/tw3.htm for photos.

New sticky 'rubber'? 8 Jun 00
Prof Rob Full of University of California has shown how Geckos manage to stick to smooth surfaces. Their feet are covered in millions of very small hairs which appear to bond to the surface via a molecular force, rather than a mechanical 'latching' of irregularities. Estimates suggest that a million hairs covering a five pence piece could hold the weight of small child. Will we see new technology using this discovery to make the next generation of sticky boots and chalk? Would it destroy climbing as we know it? Perhaps, more importantly, will Benign Lives be easier?

Beau Geste pebble disaster 4 May 00
Well I was sure the pebble used to be bigger when I tried it earlier this year, and put it down to being useless, but, after listening to rumours and another look, it's true: the most famous pebble on gritstone is half the pebble it used to be.

The left-hand side has broken off, presumably by someone standing on it (idiot!), leaving a sharper smaller handhold than the 'jug of a pebble' it was before. The move is still possible though definately harder, but not enough to warrent 7a though, I think. Has anyone re-lead it yet?

Please do not stand on what remains - work out a sequence that doesn't need it as a foothold - yes it is possible and only 6b. Better still, try doing the crux without the pebble at all, as it's days are surely numbered...

Grit stuff 17 Apr 00
Mike Lea has made the first repeat one of Dawes' last big grit routes, Living In Oxford, E7 6c/7a. The route is harder than when Dawes lead it since the demise of a crucial pebble and a block foothold. Mike says, "the holds that exist on the route are not pulled on as such, more like you move around them making upward progress!" Mike seems to have been making it his business to repeat all of Dawes' routes on grit, having led an impressive number of them including Slab and Crack, Avoiding the Traitors, Braille Trail and White Lines to name a few.

Rumour reaches me that Ben's Wall, B11, at Curbar may have had an ascent in 1979, by a young unknown called John Allen, who had claimed a route called Pockets and Pebbles around here at E3 6b. This is not in any way confirmed, but Curbar seems to breed these strange problems that go unrepeated for a long time (eg., Walk on By, Happy Hart).

Last Great goes at Froggatt 23 Feb '00
Adrian Berry has climbed the wall left of Beau Geste: Soul Doubt (ho, ho!) E8 6c: bold and technical. See here for more details. This means that only one problem remains from the LGP list in the 1987 Derwent Gritstone 'E8 and above' graded list: the groove below Fern Hill. Now if that doesn't get done this year I shall be very suprised...

Yoghurt Arete attempts 18 Feb '00
Neil Bentley has been trying to lead the Yoghurt Arete at Burbage South. This 'last great problem' gained a little limelight a few years ago when Mr Moon top-roped it and declared that it was about F8b+. Indeed, while it looks not unrealistic from a distance, it really is very damned hard indeed. Bentley has apparantly fallen off the second crux, ie. quite high up it, onto friends around the corner. This is incredibly impressive by itself really, and if completed it would be the hardest route on gritstone by miles.

Le Menestral on Buoux clean-up 1 Jan '00
Ok this isn't UK news, but plenty of us go there, and some of us even like it. Antoine Le Menestral, who soloed Revelations when it was very hard, has been repeating some routes at Buoux without the chipped holds. Now, if you know Buoux, you'll realise most of the crux holds there are artificial. For example Into the Waves and Feeling Fine, two short F7bs both have chipped holds on their crux (technical 6b+/6c), but Le Menestral has climbed them both without at F7c+. I can't recall seeing any other possible holds there, but then again it was hard enough using the obvious ones. The classic Menestral route Rose et la Vampire features several drilled pockets and a few chips. Antoine has climbed this without the chipped holds, at the same grade. Mind you, the man lives in a cave in the cliff...

More gritstone on-sights 6 Oct '99
Ben Heason has apparently on-sight soloed Monopoly, a bold wall at Millstone, given E7 6b in the last guidebook. Also word reaches me that Adam Long has on-sighted Kaluza Klein (E7 6c) at Robin Hood's Stride, though this may have been a while ago. While it has received ground-up ascents in the past this is still impressive, considering Dawes still thinks it should be E8 for anyone his height.

North Stack repeats 24 Aug '99
Nick Bullock recently had a productive three days at North Stack wall, Gogarth. He onsighted Redhead's high traverse of the cliff, The Stroke of the Fiend (E7 6b) with Tim Neill (who wisely opted for a backrope), with one scary moment when a hand-hold broke as he was nearing the arete.

Bullock also nearly on-sighted The Bells, The Bells, Redhead's infamous E7 6b, without using or placing gear in the flake of The Cad. Most repeats of this route have used this off-route gear (Redhead didn't use it and thinks the grade to be much less with it), except for ascents by Mike Owen and Ian Vickers. Bullock made it through the sustained 6b climbing to the peg, but unfortunately fell higher up when a foot-hold crumbled. See what training on Slauston Bridge, Northamptonshire, can do for you!

Lines blasts the Cairngorms 13 Aug '99
Julian Lines has been very busy the last few weekends, doing a lot of walking and making some very impressive ascents. Climbing with Paul 'Stork' Thorburn, he led the true direct line up the middle of the Shelterstone Slab. While not containing any new climbing, the sustained nature of this two pitch route (Lines led both pitches) might prove to be Scotland's hardest slab climb.

The route had been climbed as seperate routes before, the 6c cruxes previously climbed by Rick Campbell several years ago as Elisir d'Amour and Aphrodite, both E7. Lines' direct version takes in an E3 variation on The Pin before climbing Elisir to the arch and belay. The crux of Thor (E5) leads to the 6c crux of Aphrodite and the long runout to take in the direct finish to that route. Grade? Lines hasn't given one, but it must come in at hard E8, I would imagine.

Not content with that, Lines also on-sighted a new route up a steep slab somewhere near Garbh Choire, Beinn a'Bhuird (where Squareface resides). Thought by the moral support team of Wilson Moir and Neil Morrison to be worthy of E6 6b, the sustained and serious 'paddy' nature of the climb and remote setting (Garbh Choire is 11 miles from the nearest road) puts it in a different league to other new routes that have been done ground-up or occasionally on-sight.

While in the area, Lines repeated a route he had soloed on-sight whilst out by himself a few years previously, in one of his characteristic lone Cairngorm forays. Moir and Morrison thought this to be E6 6a, and not the E4 5c Lines had thought originally.

Llanberis news 2 Aug '99
Leo Houlding, climbing wunderkind and curtain expert, has climbed the bold steep wall above pitch 5 of The Cracks on Dinas Mot, F8a+ climbing, top-roped first. Grade is something like E9 4a, 4a, 4b, 4a, 7a. The world waits for a one day ascent.

Patch Hammond has put up an E7 6c to the right of Beginner's Mind, presumably up the thin cracks? Meanwhile, there has been a recent spate of thefts of climbing gear from tents pitched in the pass, some even occuring while the owners are asleep in them! Moral: take care, and don't buy any 2nd hand gear offered. Anyone with information please contact the police or mail Kate Ness.

Thanks to: Nick Bullock, Thomas de Gay, Mike Lea, Adam Long, John Wilson, Simon Witcher.

©J.Read 1999

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