I heard over the weekend
that a new route I did the first ascent of last year has had its first repeats;
Pete Robins and Ben Bransby thankfully confirmed the accuracy of my
grade-ometer, though they did comment that if you aren't tall you’ll struggle
with the loooong reach on the Font 7B crux.
Pete and Ben aren't tall; but then they aren't your average 8a+ climbers
either. Given the choice of being tall, or having 4 grades in hand - I know
which I’d choose!
Badger Badger Badger 8a+ climbs the direct start to Dive Dive Dive
on Upper Pen Trwyn. It was first bolted and attempted
by Perry Hawkins in the 90s.
The first ascent process
wasn't your normal tale of hard graft; working out the moves, slowly building
up to bigger links until day upon day of red-point efforts grind the route down
until that perfect day arrives where conditions, form and psyche all combine
and the route succumbs. No, this came down to ONE SINGLE MOVE.
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The
Dive Dive Dive buttress at Pen Trwyn; Route 1 is actually the start to a
banned E5 6b crack climb. Badger Badger Badger climbs further right than
depicted. Taken from the Rockfax (A.K.A. wrongfax) press release for their
shamefully parasitic new guide to North Wales http://i.ukc2.com/i/221052.jpg?v=3323)
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Day 1:
I dabbled briefly with the direct
start after doing Dive Dive Dive for the first time; barely making any
meaningful shapes and cursing the location of the bolts. I left it and thought
no more about it. Or so I thought. But at some point during that one-day-stand
it must have made an impression on me.
Day 2:
A year later, something
clicked, and armed with gri-gri, jumar, drill & static rope set about
replacing the two in-situ bolts with three in better positions. My work done, I
played again with the moves, the new bolt placement making it much easier to
try the difficult starting section with a shunt.
I was shut down - HARD!
Arse, at this point I felt like it
I'd wasted the time and energy replacing the bolts. I should have gone
bouldering instead; that would have been much more productive use
of my Chester-climbing commute. Dejected, I wound
some finger tape around the first bolt, more to show that it had been re-geared
than any statement of ownership, probably… and scuttled round the corner to
Pillbox Wall; where the shutdown was equally hard. I hate the box. (No,
not that box Doylo; get your mind out of the gutter.)
Day 3:
"How-dare-you!" I
screamed from within my head at the computer monitor - you can't declare my route! an open project.
Pete Harrison, guidebook
man of the moment, had sent
out a tentative graded list to a small number of locals for input to his
forth-coming magnus opus (see http://northwaleslimestone.com/index.php) and had provocatively listed a bunch of routes
as open projects.
Tommy's project on the
Diamond was the most obvious example; he'd climbed from 2 bolts to the top to
create a superb 8a "The Empire State"
but not linked in the V10/11 start. Yes, the original "yellow scoop
project" had been originally equipped by someone else's hand, but it was
Tommy that had put in the effort to re-install some proper stainless steel gear
it and complete the 8a version. In everyone's mind but Pete’s, it was Tommy's project; don't
touch.
Sitting half way up the
8a+ section of the graded was "Dive
Dive Dive direct (open project)" - 3 months after my aborted attempt
on the line my interest was suddenly piqued again. After the initial chimp response, the internal dialogue switched back to the human "Better-pull-your-finger-out-lad-if-you-want-your-name-in-that-shiney-new-guidebook-you've-been-hearing-so-much-about".
After all, there is an ego that needs stroking in all of us.
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Snap
shot of Pete's old graded list - red rag to a fragile ego...
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A few weeks later I was
back, partnered by the ever-reliable shunt.
The section above the
boulder problem start was worked out; some cunning hip swinging and a
"nothing" pinch negate the
need for a powerful lay-back move. The entree was
dialled too; a sharp undercut flake allowing a direct entry instead of stepping
off the DDD ramp.
THE move still felt
impossible though. The most likely solution seemed to be a long reach up left to a
distant edge, taken as a backhand, feet set
high whilst wrenching
the shoulder trying to span an almost
insurmountable gap to the obvious flat hold.
Day 4:
…was over
before it began. After a pleasant warm-up following Curly Chris up String of Pearls,
the classic 6b+, I place the clips into the project. That moment the heavens open with a biblical torrent.
Drenched in seconds, I aid back up to retrieve the draws and run away with my
sodden tail between my legs.
Day 5:
A week later and I was now admitting to myself that this
was a serious project. The internal dialogue was sharply
focused: "get-through-that-move, and-you-should-have-a-good-chance-of-immortalising-your-minor-contribution-to-North-Wales-Limestone".
But what a sod of a move.
I must have been psyched
as I accepted a belay from Dylan; the same lad who'd snorted coke from the
screen of his iPhone to rouse himself, during what I then promised myself would
be the last time we'd climbed together.
Dylan was thankfully
sober and patiently belayed me as, time and again, I threw
myself off the boulder problem start. A tiny intermediate for the right hand
and a subtle twist of the hips was the new micro-beta and I got close a couple
of times; touching but not holding the flattie
which signified the end of the crux.
The next day my left
shoulder was trashed from repeatedly trying the gaston move; massage got it
functioning again ready for the next onslaught. Psyche
wearing thin, body battered; this was a battle.
Day 6:
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| Pete leading his new E6 arete at Llanfairfechan. |
1st go: Gaston, digging deep. Micro-beta. The move has boiled down
to my hip, occupying a single mm location in the matrix of space and time. Pull-up
my trailing shoulder, little intermediate, slap for the good hold. Close!!
2nd go: BANG! "Shit-I-did-THE-move!"
I've just a one point of contact, feet swing uselessly in the air but I'm still
in with a chance and fighting. I fumble the
next clip and drop an easy move above.Success quickly
turns to failure and dark brooding.
3rd go: Gloomy now, nearly dark. Last
go. It’s not going to happen tonight but I’ll be back; will I be back? Why? I
know why.
- Gaston, set the feet,
little intermediate, straighten the shoulders and … reach - STATIC!! - to the
good hold. Come. On.
- "How-did-that-happen?’’
(...an almost impossible move made
into something I just did statically…)
- Don't think…
- …push on.
- "nothing"
pinch..
- ..one more layback move, pumped now.
- Big hold. I’m moving
on.
- Relax, shake out and..
- BREATHE!
- "Don't-cock-it-up-now" is the worst kind of internal dialogue – like staring at the fencepost
you don't want to hit as you sweep a moorland bend at 80mph. Concentrate on
the positive!
- crimp, reach, outside
edge, another crimp and rock-up to the finishing hold,
and, it's all over.
The route is born, and I can finally acknowledge how much time and effort
has gone into the process. Since I'd started playing
with the route I'd mentally toyed with the idea of naming it "Badger Badger Badger" in keeping with
the triplet "Dive Dive Dive" and much more importantly, as a monument to my
late partner, Dr. Emily Goodman.
Emily's PhD and short
career had been devoted to wildlife study, and in particular researching the
transmission of Bovine TB through badger populations. Emily succumbed to
pancreatic cancer, 5 short months after her diagnosis in September
2010.
Only once I'd completed
the process did a dark and
previously closed corner of my mind open up,
and acknowledge that this is where I'd been drawing motivation to return, time and again, to this windy headland in North Wales. The same dark corner in which I'd repressed bitter anger at the terrible and hideously unlikely
card chance had dealt out - in doing so denying Emily and I the future we would
not have together.
Now, standing there as the sun set orange below the
sea, all I could think of were the happier times we'd
shared together, and the silly flash animation she'd shown me whilst studying
for her PhD.
Thanks to Pete Harrison for his input in writing this; even if though he added a bunch of typos to the draft - fingers crossed the new guide will be well proof read?!?
