[El Mocho]

Or at least thats what I thought when I first saw the heading.

Its Miles, not Gary. The BIG Wimberry project.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=49487

(that'll teach Sam to go sport climbing all the time!)

Having been on this it is of top quality and quite probably stiff for E9 (Miles undergrading shock)

Good good effort...

[cofe]

My title is better than yours Ben   

[El Mocho]

Title quality doesn't matter when talking about Miles, it is all to do with speed and I beat you by a couple of seconds!!

(we always called him Miles 'fast hands' Gibson)

It was a work in progress under the name of Appointment with Jeff

[cofe]

You should have said yours was 'Miles' better than mine. Opportunity missed there sonny jim.   

[Bonjoy]

Awesome news!! Was up there on Sat and saw Miles cruising it on a TR. Unfortunately we had to rush off before it got cold enough for the big send. Did get to see Ben H make light work of Order of the Pheonix though. Not a bad team day out!
The climbing on Dangermouse looks totally brilliant, the higher (not very) gear looks pretty log, the low gear though good is very low and the landing is attrocious. Not one to fall off!
Can I have my Ballnut back now?   

[Bonjoy]

Can't believe a thread about the font grade of Cresent Arete receives more attention than news of a truly amazing first ascent of a world class LGP. What does that say about UKB or the state of climbers in this country? Sorry to get all Steve Haston, but I have morning agro and when a climbing site seems to register zero interest in news like this….

[nik at work]

Miles is a total beast. That looks stunning. Effort.

[lagerstarfish]

Is it because CA is a  boulder problem and Dangermouse is a million miles from bouldering and this is a cooking fit burds comedy bouldering forum?

It might be due to all these words and no embedded pictures/videos.

 

Good effort Miles 

[Bonjoy]

Miles is a total beast. That looks stunning. Effort.

  I’m not sure that was said to make a point Nik, but it makes one all the same. I guess there’s not much more to say when someone does something so far out of most people's boxes and how interesting is a thread consisting of variations on the “Effort beast” theme? I am duly chastened.

[andy popp]

Agreed, that must be one hell of an audacious route. Will the arete under Appointment go and has MaDMAn been repeated yet.

[slackline]

Sounds like death on a stick.  As well as being a beast Miles must have balls the size of watermelons.

 

[andy popp]

I meant I agreed with Nik and then Jon cross-posted

Miles is a total beast. That looks stunning. Effort.

  I’m not sure that was said to make a point Nik, but it makes one all the same. I guess there’s not much more to say when someone does something so far out of most people's boxes and how interesting is a thread consisting of variations on the “Effort beast” theme? I am duly chastened.

Exactly, I almost never join in 'congrats' style threads because I don't see what I have to add. Anyway, I meant it in this case, I should imagine this thing is pretty nightmarish.

[dave]

would the wall right of MaDMAn go too? must be the peak grit crag with the most potential.

[Johnny Brown]

E fucking 9. What next? On any other scale this would be E11. Sam was trying it after App w Death, reckoned it was a totally different proposition. Harder moves, worse protection, more committing = not the same grade.

[Jaspersharpe]

I couldn't decide which thread to post on. 

It looks absolutely terrifying and if El Mocho says it's "stiff for E9" then looks are obviously not deceiving.

EDIT - what JB said.

[Bonjoy]

I agree with JB also.
The wall right of MaDMAn is Cheltenham Gold Cup E4(!!!) 6c. Looks like a mighty big sandbag too.

[dave]

E fucking 9. What next? On any other scale this would be E11. Sam was trying it after App w Death, reckoned it was a totally different proposition. Harder moves, worse protection, more committing = not the same grade.

It does amaze me at E9, since it kinda implies that UK trad headpointing standards haven't improved in 20 years. I hope one day ridiculous undergrading gets vilified in the media the same way that overgrading does.

I agree with JB also.
The wall right of MaDMAn is Cheltenham Gold Cup E4(!!!) 6c. Looks like a mighty big sandbag too.

doesn't this traverse in from the gully though? you can tell its a long time since i've been to this crag.

[Bonjoy]

It comes in diagonally from the right along a kind of vague scoop/ramp. I'm not sure a direct start would really work.
The wall right of Blue Light Crack looks like ridiculously hard sustained pebble climbing but maybe just about doable.

[cofe]

I always thought Cheltenham Gold Cup looked amazing. Doesn't the crux involve a move with all points on pebbles? Looks ace. I'm hoping there's some more pics of Miles' thing to follow. Given no one seems to be able to repeat some of his older routes the guy is developing into something of a legend I reckon.

Can't believe a thread about the font grade of Cresent Arete receives more attention than news of a truly amazing first ascent of a world class LGP. What does that say about UKB or the state of climbers in this country?

sadly, how true.
 

[Doylo]

Miles' routes all follow the the same theme, hard physical climbing with tough grades. In this case he's thrown in significant danger too! Everyone knows how strong and good he is so this must surely be a sandbag at E9.

[SA Chris]

If it's someone who never actually posts on here I didn't bother commenting, but if anyone feels he is being hard done by, Miles if you do actually read this, a truly audacius effort on a stunnign and terrifying looking piece of rock. You should be regarded as one of the grit legends.

[Bonjoy]

Some more background from Ben H. Sounds like the higher gear is better than I thought (fortunately!):

There will be some video footage to follow shortly - but the quality isn't very good so don't let people get too overly excited. The cameras aren't that great, and it was getting pretty dark by the time he went for it, and there was a slight issue with the tape. Unfortunately there are no photos (but Miles was keen to try and go back to get some somehow)
 
He took a fall (climbed to the crux move to the pebble but bottled it so reversed a move or two before dropping off onto the gear) on his first effort - which I think he needed to clear his head, to confirm that the right hand gear was good.
 
I don't think you saw that gear in the 'best light', but collectively it is actually good, and he was confident in it, which makes a fair difference to the seriousness of the route. By the way, judging by how difficult it was to get your ball-nut out, I think that may have taken a fair bit of the force :-)
 
When Miles first tried the line, he thought it might not be possible, but after working out a really devious and very unlikely sequence (if Bransby or Sam had found this sequence then it's possible that they might have done it before him) earlier this year he realised that it was on, especially when coupled with the right hand gear being better than initially expected, and therefore protecting the really hard bit. He was confident of not falling off on the more serious upper moves.
 
This is why he has tentatively given it E9. Without the right hand gear it would definitely be worthy of a loftier grade. But you are pretty well protected actually for the last really hard move. Then you just have to do an unprotected couple of English 6b moves in a death situation. I didn't try these moves enough to know whether they felt like easy 6b or 6b going on 6c, but I think there lies your grade of E9 or E10.

[Jaspersharpe]

Still sounds fucking terrifying.

[T_B]

OK Jonboy I will join in on the congrats thread. Awesome effort and when I saw him the other day he was muttering about starting to do a bit of bouldering to get strong again...

... a good warm up for something harder 

My tuppence worth is everyone who knows miles knows what a wad he is and that he's 2 Burbage Valley 'E8s' lie conspicuously unrepeated despite being 'looked' at by a few worthy suiters. Tis better to undergrade in this day and age as you look less silly than when someone finds an easier sequence (or just finds it easier). Is it me or is every new route downgraded these days?!  There seem to be more folk around now with trad heads who can actually pull as hard as Miles so that's maybe it. People are stronger they just don't realise it.

Well done Miles - looks terrifying. What about the obvious arete to the right of Blasphemy? When that gets done it's time to take up golf.

[Bonjoy]

Is it me or is every new route downgraded these days?! 

Only the ones that get repeated get downgraded. Travelling foreign wads seem pretty good at spotting the sandbags.

Tis better to undergrade in this day and age as you look less silly than when someone finds an easier sequence (or just finds it easier).

Hmmm, surely it’s preferable to grade correctly rather than either over or under, neither of which is particularly better than the other? Strive for accuracy rather than accuracy plus or missus hype/downgrade-buffer. Anything else distorts an (already much battered) system.
That’s not a comment on Miles’ grading of this route, which I’d assume is an honest best guess, though it does ‘look’ pretty hardcore at E9.