Since coming back
from my summer van tour I've been quite busy with work and the
weather has been generally wet, apparently it's been the wettest
summer in the UK for 100 years! After a long trip with plenty of
European sun it took a while to re-adjust back to the North Wales
climate. However I can't complain too much, I've still managed a fair few
good days out climbing. The highlights over the past month
or so are (in no particular order) Cockblock E5 6b on Clogwyn y
Grochan (not on-sight), Soap on a Rope E4 6a DWS in Vivan Quarry,
Warpath E5 6a at Rhoscolyn, climbing on Cloggy for the first time
doing Main Wall E4 6a and the even better Pinnacle Arête E2 5c.
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| Soap on a Rope, Vivian Quarry DWS |
A few days ago I
managed a successful red-point of Manic Strain 8a in Vivian Quarry.
The route was the first 8a to be put up on slate by John Redhead back
in 1986, cutting edge stuff. At the time it was only the fouth bolt
protected 8a in the UK (I think?) after Jerry Moffat's Masterclass in
1983, Revelations in 1984 and Ben Moon's Statement of Youth in 1984.
It's fair to say the route is a Redhead 'creation', a fair amount of
chipping was involved to make the route. While this would not be in
good style today, the route is however celebrated as the classic test
piece it is; after all the route has been well chipped and contains
some absolutely fantastic moves!
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| Kicking off the Manic Strain project on a cold showery day in March.. |
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| ...that's more like it! View from top of the route in summer sunshine |
The North Wales
Slate guidebook describes the route as “Marmite”, some love it
and some hate it. I hate Marmite, especially with avocado
and cheese! I do however like
“long
thrusting moves between harsh cracks and minute edges lead up the
smooth golden wall to an 'all-or-nothing' rock-over for the
finishing crack.” -a
great description of the route from the NW Slate guidebook, although
personally I would have added the words “finger-tip shredding” in
there somewhere!
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| Will on the lower crux which involves taking body weight on your little finger jammed in a sharp crack! |
The route took me
6 sessions over 6 months to work out the intricacies of the line, 3 sessions were spent working out the moves, Luke Brooks worked out some key short person beta for the lower moves I was struggling on. Then three evening red-point sessions were needed to link it all together. The
route is harder for the short, the crux for me was quite low down, a
V7ish technical boulder problem to reach the second bolt.
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| Air time! |
On Monday I'm
looking forward to heading back to Vivian to give Will Oates a belay
on the route, he came so close last week, coming off on the upper
section of the top crack. The route will be his first 8a, good luck
Will!
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| Calum Musket putting in a good effort, getting to the rock-over first go after not being on the route for months (video below) |
I really enjoy
these brutal slate challenges, after having done The Dark Half and now Manic Strain (Both are at the top (for no real reason) of
Steve Maclure's super 8a UK routes). I've been looking around for other similar challenges to get stuck
into. The Medium 8a on Seamstress slab is an obvious challenge to
round off the trio of classic slate 'hards'. However being a slab
I'm sure I will find it desperate! I quite fancy having a look at
Cwms the Dog Fish 8a and Chitra 7c+ both put up in the 80's by the
visionary Nick Harms who also put up the Dark Half. Nick was one of
the first to use bolt protection to put up routes which tackled the
blankest looking slate walls around.
