[unclesomebody]

James Pearson, all round rock star, climbed the arete right of superstition yesterday, naming it The Promise. It was a fairly smooth ascent, a small fumble on the lead, but James got to the top and it's all good. I'm sure he'll be on to tell more and perhaps offer a grade. It is an excellent route with really good moves. To those who are strong and ballsy enough, get to it.

[dobbin]

HVS 4c I heard.

[Fiend]

E0, surely.

Good name, BTW!

[MattH]

http://www.planetfear.com/news_detail.asp?n_id=6077

[Bonjoy]

Brilliant news, well done yoot! 

Matt - It's at Burbage North not South

[MattH]

Thanks Bonjoy. In a rush to get the news out...
M

[SA Chris]

Also, where is "Dire Head"?

[Somebody's Fool]

I think it's on the Culm Coast and is called Dyers Lookout or something.  There's a Littlejohn route called Earth Rim Roamer that fell down and reclimbed and an Ian Vickers E8 called Dyer Straits.  Don't quote me on this though.  I have a hazy memory of reading it in High when Vickers did his route in the late '90s. 

[Johnny Brown]

Fine effort, great line, great name. Would have liked to see it, I take it the media were present for us all to get the vicarious tick?
Along with BB's ascent, should answer Dumby Dave's question too.

Re Dire head, I presumed this was an amalgam of Dyers lookout and Fair head.

There's a Littlejohn route called Earth Rim Roamer that fell down and reclimbed

Amazing!

[Paul B]

Good effort once again!

[Bonjoy]

Would have liked to see it, I take it the media were present for us all to get the vicarious tick?

Rhys has done some filming on this but was at Gardom's yesterday and missed the ascent. I suspect Simmonite got the pics and Hot Aches might have been filming.

[Fiend]

At 8 or 9 metres James reckons it would be possible to climb as a high high-ball. However, having taken numerous falls on top rope over the 6 or 7 days he spent working the route he opted to lead it, placing a solitary piece of gear – a dubious slider that stayed in with a tug, but didn’t inspire any more confidence than that. The psychological reassurance of crap gear was enough for James to climb the route without pads to protect the nasty landing.

Clear cut.

Excellent stuff Keenus.

[SA Chris]

Re Dire head, I presumed this was an amalgam of Dyers lookout and Fair head.

I was guessing at that too, wierd combo though.

[Somebody's Fool]

Oops. Was reclimbed.  With proof reading like that I should get a job at Gravity Magazine.

[Scouse D]

effort James. E5 6b.

[7lbs overweight]

I think it's on the Culm Coast and is called Dyers Lookout or something.  There's a Littlejohn route called Earth Rim Roamer that fell down and reclimbed and an Ian Vickers E8 called Dyer Straits.

Dyer Straits takes the wall left of Dave Pickford:

[andy_e]

Waddage. 

[Doylo]

effort darse

[dave]

nice one li'l jimmy. highball my arse.

[Johnny Brown]

I see UKC are quick off the mark. Something must be preventing Mick from trawling the other forums to get his news.

[Hendo]

http://hotaches.blogspot.com/ for pics

[Paul B]

nice pics, any chance of some preview footage  ?

[james]

Thought you guys might be interested in a bit of info and some of my feelings about the route?

A few years ago I decided I would like put up my own hard grit route.  I wanted to climb something that was a great line, had fantastic moves, was technically at another level and also very bold.  I racked my brains, asked lots of friends and scoured through guidebooks but nothing seemed right.  I realized that if I wanted to stand a good chance doing something really hard then I needed to get stronger and so started to dedicate more of my time to bouldering. 
For the last two years I have been pretty much only bouldering and it has made a big difference to my strength and general ability.  I first looked at the arête right of superstition about one year ago but it was too hard to contemplate leading, at the start of this season, I got psyched for it once again and I was surprised to find the moves felt a lot easier.  I managed to link it in two sections and the process began…

The climbing on The Promise is powerful, technical and very conditions dependant.  The landing is very, very poor and the crux comes right at the top.  It is a very intense route, you don’t even get chance to chalk.  The bottom half is overhanging, with big moves on good holds, the top half is vertical, with crimps, pockets, pebbles and slopers, all of them small and poor.  I found it very hard to link in one, falling on the last moves more often than not.  The climbing is both physically and mentally harder than Equilibrium E10 7a.

The day of the lead was like most other day on the route in that, on a toprope, I fell off the last move lots and lots.  Eventually the sun went down, the conditions improved and everything felt easy on the lead.  I even got to make a trade mark sketch!

It feels really good to have it done,  for the last month or so this has been a major part of my life and I was begining to doubt if I would get it done.  I was planning on bouldering again for the near future but I have definitely got a little of my route psych back and have had a sneaky look at one or two other “last great problems”, time will tell…

Here is a breif picture sequence courtesy of HotAches and Dave Simmonite.

This is the start of the crux.  Make a powerful reach out right to a small, boney crimp.


You then reach off the crimp to a poor finger sloper.


You shift your weight and slap into a bullet hole pocket.


Reach a pebble with your left, run your feet up high and hope you feel good for next move.


Long reach to a bad sloper, you must get your thumb on a pebble to make the hold usable.  I fell lots at this move on toprope!


Very tenuous and scary match at full stretch.  I fell even more at this move!!


Luckily it was only really windy at the very top.


Allright!!!

[Bonjoy]

Good account, my hands are sweating.

[SA Chris]

Nice one James, sweaty tips too.



Just curious, does the hold round the arete right of your elbow in this pic get used?