[TomP]

I'd been looking at a project for quite some years at Brimham, in a bay just to the left of the National Trust building. It was always filthy and had a tree growing right against it, making climbing it impossible. I thought it looked nails and couldn't be arsed to clean it so just moved on to other stuff. I've asked around and it seems like this prime line has been over looked all this time, in a pretty obvious location. Judging from the top half, it had never had any cleaning or climbing on it before. The easy lower roof section has seen some attention, where some flakey holds have snapped but the trail stops abruptly (and where the tree was obscuring) at about half way.

A few weeks ago I cleaned it up (it took a hell of a lot of cleaning!) and asked the National Trust if they could remove the tree, which have since done. I removed a very thick layer of lichen and gave it a light brush to try and remove the scrittly layer of grit. It has left a prime chunk of grit with an amazing problem.

On my first session (after cleaning it) the rock was very wet and I was getting to the top, only for my efforts to be thwarted by terrible conditions. I went back yesterday but the whole thing was covered in snow. After about 45 mins of removing the snow it felt a lot better than the previous sesh. The top out was still very wet hence my, hmmmm, unique top out skills in the vid.

It's a very difficult one to grade as I haven't tried it when is in good condition (it's north facing so might be hard to). It felt about 7b/7b+ to me but I reckon once it gets less scrittly and in good conditions it could go down to 7a+. Like most new problems at Brimham, it takes a bit of traffic for a problem to settle.

Irrespective of grade it is a stunning line and climbs superbly! Check it out:

[andy_e]

Nice photos and vid! 

[Sypeland]

Nice one Tom, clearly a man with 'an eye for a line'.

[Adam Lincoln]

Nice one Tom. Shall prob go and try soon!

[Nigel Poustie]

I've Always looked at this and thought it was a project too but from what I can tell this is boulder 16 problem 4 on pg 118 of the AC-D guide, V4! I do think this was probably another made up problem though.

[andy_e]

Yeah, that's definitely not the right grade, but that's the right position of it. I'm not even sure how you could give it a grade that low, even looking at it you can tell it's hard!

[Nigel Poustie]

Oh yeah, It's definitely not V4. It a good problem and should get some attention now the tree has been felled.

[TomP]

I've Always looked at this and thought it was a project too but from what I can tell this is boulder 16 problem 4 on pg 118 of the AC-D guide, V4! I do think this was probably another made up problem though.

Too right Nige, now way is it V4! There are quite a few "made up problems" in that guide; Banana republic at caley being one. ACD did a very good job but obviously penciled in many of the problems. This had decades of lichen on it and layers of grit came off indicating it never had the pressure of sweaty tips pressing down.

With this and E.S.P (which is pure quality by the way) there are a couple of decent new additions to go try at Brimham; plus the dozens of amazing projects! Truley a venue that needs some proper developemnt.

[Nigel Poustie]

Absolutely Tom, This is a quality problem too and like you say there's loads to go at! Well done!

[Fiend]

Looks great. Liking the sock action too.

[andy_e]

[SA Chris]

bough.

[slackline]

selecta!

[andy_e]

It's a reference to the bow of a ship.

[kilgore1080]

tree branch or front of a ship?

[TomP]

It's supposed to be spelled bough as in tree but someone told me I had misspelled it. Turns out my spelling was right. I tried to be ambiguous with the meaning regardless of spelling – tree (bough), ship (bow), bow (uhhh…..bow).

[andy_e]

That'll teach me for listening to you 

[Norton Sharley]

Effort.

I'm sure  a line was climbed to the right of the prow starting low and following the right arete / side of the prow up to the jug you put your foot on but then rocking on to that onto the right side of the slab.  That is probably what is mentioned in the AC-D guide as previously mentioned.  Does that sound feasible?  Hope that helps.

[andy_e]

That sounds entirely feasible. That line is also filthy, but it could be a fun rock-over if cleaned up.