13 / 04 / 2024
I've been very busy with work of late and it's been a real struggle to get any climbing done, let alone blogs and stuff. Any climbing I have done has just been on my local Magnesian Limestone crags in Rotherham (England). I did manage to complete the first ascent of a long standing project that I first eyed up as a youngster.
I have tried it from time to time but never really with any conviction. It's at Roche Abbey on Gypsy Buttress. A crag where you wouldn't expect to find a hard problem. The line is an obvious eliminate right to left traverse in a roof starting on the rightmost flat jug. Keep your hands below the lip and feet above the big foot ledge. It then drops down to carry on more easily, and very satisfyingly, along a break to traverse the full length of the crag.
It has some great and very involved moves under the initial roof with a high feel and a very blank section to get past. On trying the line this time around I managed to finally unlock a sequence to get me onto a distant undercut which proved the key to getting the problem done. I'm quite pleased to have completed this line on a crag I basically grew up on. I'm going to call it 'Perdition' and suggest the grade is around the 8a+ mark.