I had once seconded Phil Dowthwaite up the route a couple of years ago so couldn't claim an on-sight, but was hoping to give it a good go.
Lee went up first and got the camalot 6 well placed before, after a good tussle, being ejected into space (see left!) So then it was my go, I pulled on and immediately it gets pretty physical, got to the big cam, clipped it and carried on through some strenuos laybacking until it's possible to once more get a leg back in the crack and a toe heel, fist jam combo which allows another big cam to go in above. This just left the finishing it off bit..........whereupon I struggled up, got a bit over excited, and tried to reach for the top too soon and slapped for a sloper instead of a jug and of course fell off.
Next go up was worse, fell off really early, and then almost immediately I got back on and managed to get it all right and latch the jug at the top - can't believe how a route so short can make you so tired!
Lee then got back on and decided to go for the more traditional approach and spent quite some time grovelling inside the crack before retreating minus quite a lot of skin from his elbow, ankle, forearm..........Good expedition cut short by a huge amount of water, some of it in very hard hailstone formation, hurling itself out of the sky and soaking us all to the skin.
Little bit of film below from the short lived second attempt, will put some more on of the successful version on a separate post.
Now in Wales for a few days so hopefully I'll be able to get some routes done over here if they aren't all being climbed by the BMC International Meet attendees!
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