Today I completed a project of mine at
Mount Edgcumbe Rocks that I have been working on for a few sessions. It is
highball, technical, varied in style and in angle – in short what I wanted in a
project (although less dusty rock would have been preferable!).
This line has gone from me not being able
to get past the second move, to making a couple more move of progress, to
abseiling down to assess and clean the top holds, before I put it all together
today.
I have called it ‘Faith’ – very simply
because the crux involved standing (and matching) your feet on a sandy sloping
foothold before pulling up to a small pocket/pinch. It requires total faith
that your feet will stay (mine peeled off on many other occasions), as well as
maintaining ones centre of gravity in a very delicate position.
As for the grade – I went for font 7b in
the end. Like almost every project I have tried the line looked reasonable, I
got shut down and I thought it was really hard, before I sussed a new sequence,
which made it feel much easier than I was anticipating. This might be on the
softer side of 7b, but considering the height of the problem, and the
difficulty of working out the moves (this would be an impressive flash – if
there are any takers?!) I think the grade is fair. It felt similar in style and
difficulty to the two ‘Porg’ problems at High Rocks (font 7b and 7b+) at least,
which helped me to grade it.
So another project rapped
up – plenty more to go! I feel spoilt for choice at the moment as the sun is
drying everything up nicely – got to love summer on the sandstone!
One of the nice things about climbing is
coming back to old projects. Quite often there can be months, even years in
between your attempts, and it is in returning to these old undone problems that
you can see how much you have progressed. It is definitely an element of
climbing that you miss out on if you only climb indoors. In the last couple of
weeks I have taken a small break from new routing (it can be exhausting finding
and cleaning problems, before the climbing even starts), and I have really
enjoyed returning to some unfinished business on the Southern Sandstone.
First up was ‘Maybe When You’re Older’
(font 7b) at Bowles. I met up with a friend mid-week and did a few top ropes at
Bowles, and while I was there my eye drifted over to this traverse. I had tried
this line once before a couple of years ago, when it was not in the best
condition. I did all the moves that day, but I couldn’t put the whole thing
together. Anyway, I came back at the weekend, repeated the moves, and to my
surprise sent the whole link within about 10 minutes of trying. What was really
nice was how easily this climbed, considering how hard font 7b can be on the
Sandstone!
Next up was ‘Yoda Assis’ (font 7c) at High
Rocks. I had ticked the stand start to this (font 7a+) back in 2012, but when
attempting the sit start it looked like a crucial undercut had come off, making
it un-climbable. However, sometimes you can’t get a problem out of your head,
and I found myself sitting once again underneath Yoda. Indeed, I think that the
way that it had been climbed via the undercut would now be very unlikely,
however, I started playing around with a slopey left hand hold. This hold is
very poor in isolation – yet when you sit just under it and compress with your
right hand and feet, it gives you just enough to dead point through to the top
section of the problem. In a moment of elation I held this move…. and then I
remembered both how difficult the top was and that I was approaching it from a
different (and more awkward angle). I didn’t send the problem that day, but a
week later I returned, and after tweaking the beta for the top section I sent
what has got to be one of the coolest 7cs on Sandstone.
The final un-finished problem that I have
tried recently is ‘Hypersonic’ (font 7b+). This is a striking line up a high
blank wall at Eridge Green. The problem starts with a tricky (and dynamic) move
to get to a large pocket. From here there are basically no more hand holds for
another meter and a half, which forces the climber to do a large move from
undercutting the pocket to reach a vague break, where a selection of small but
positive edges lead to a finishing jug. Traditionally from here you would top
out using an old tree, but this is long gone these days and recent ascents
instead involving using a rope to pull round the sandy top out (the last meter
or so really is completely un-climbable!). I had tried this problem before, but
I had always struggled with the large reach off the pocket. However, off the
back of climbing the previous two problems I felt a certain momentum that could
help me dispatch this one as well. This problem also went fast – so fast in
fact that I didn’t film it (this is also difficult to do due to how big the
route is). However, it did provide one of those wonderful moments in climbing –
as I reached from the pocket to the small ledge – where you do a move where
everything feels perfectly in balance. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to
capture this climb on film - but there are other videos of the route being done on youtube.
