Thursday, February 5, 2015

Not so many new routes. Yet!

The new route at Mundo Perdido didn't go quite as planned. The top of the first pitch has a very hollow sounding rock shield which is 5 metres tall and about 3 metres wide. The line I had in mind goes straight through the middle of it. I really didn't want to place a bolt in such marginal rock so I opted for a large run out instead! What could possible go wrong?

 I spent two days cleaning it and was happy that it would go at a high 7. Myself and Agustine Gomez had first go but the sequence through the steep fragile shield eluded us both. I think the fear factor was working us hard.

Trying to figure out the crux sequence through the shield.


The second pitch shed a large foot hold that narrowly missed Agust and sent me flying past him, can't remember the last time I took a fall greater than a factor 1.

Rich Mayfield on the crux of the first pitch.


I returned with Matt Warner a few days later, with the cunning idea of mostly avoiding the shield by climbing rightwards where the rock is more solid. I placed a high bolt in good rock.

I lead the first pitch at a surprisingly amenable grade of 7a+/b 28m. The second pitch goes at 6c+/7a and a looooong 44 metres of slightly overhanging crack and face climbing.   

Je Suis Charlie 72m   7a+/b


Agust on Fiesta de Sella 6c
I also climbed two other routes which we bolted last year but hadn't gotten around to leading. The Crow Eaters 6c+ and Feist 7a.

Topos to follow on the Miniguide page http://theorangehouse.co.uk/mini-guides

I've also been spending some time climbing with Gaz Parry a little further North, new caves seems to be popping up all over the place.  http://www.gazparryclimbing.com/2015/02/supersonico-highs-and-lows.html

The new route count for January is a lowly 3.