[user deactivated]

Went back to the old stomping ground to try this today. Fierce moves and very scrittley. Just wondered if anyone had done it? I gave it a bit of a clean on ab and worked out the beta in the end but felt top end of the grade. 

[user deactivated]

Popped back to Rivelin today to climb this cleanly, thanks to 205Chris for providing the belay. Nice to climb something ground (previously cleaned on ab *due to serious scrittle) up placing the gear with no falls today, it's possible to downclimb from the gear after clipping. Some tough moves for an e5, probably a harder crux than stuff like Lost World for me. Here's a brief clip I took to capture the crux, some nice light at the dam also.

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Dan, this is super news, to hear about one of Dave's old lines being repeated.

He called it Declaration because of the 7a tech grade he originally gave it. He deliberated over that for a while. What do you reckon? Congrats for doing it, and I bet it was beautiful out there today.

However, please, as disappointing as it is, cleaning the route and working out the beta rules out any claim of a "ground up" ascent. 

If you can, I hope you can look past my own remarks there. I'll send a link to this piece to his family. They'll love the vid too. I'm assuming you'll know why. Or I might pm you, and you can do that if you like. Hope it climbed well, and you enjoyed it. 

[user deactivated]

Hi Dave, that's a fantastic piece of climbing history, I was trying to work out why it was called Declaration. I thought it must have something to do with the needle,  but that makes much more sense. With regards the grade I can see why 7a would have been suggested, and in a way e5 7a would be better than e6 6c. It may be around font 7b/+  certainly way harder than most old school grit font 7b's I've climbed.  But I'm sure it would take one of the local grit meisters to cruise it and downgrade.

You were spot on about the style description of course, the irony is, in my haste to be as clear as possible about how I did it (after receiving previous grief off a dude on Lancashire rock revival) I've described it in a way that wasn't entirely clear. Although the grade is relatively insignificant, style is always important to me as you rightly pointed out 

I've pm'd you about the vid 🙂

[Fiend]

Much better than top-roping to death an already clean and easy trade route then not even bothering to make any mention of lack of style!! Honesty and best attempts at good style are goood 

[shark]

He called it Declaration because of the 7a tech grade he originally gave it.

My recollection was that he originally called it Decathlon because of the effort required to do it and it was wrongly renamed in the guide

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Hi Dave, that's a fantastic piece of climbing history, I was trying to work out why it was called Declaration. I thought it must have something to do with the needle,  but that makes much more sense. With regards the grade I can see why 7a would have been suggested, and in a way e5 7a would be better than e6 6c. It may be around font 7b/+  certainly way harder than most old school grit font 7b's I've climbed.  But I'm sure it would take one of the local grit meisters to cruise it and downgrade.

You were spot on about the style description of course, the irony is, in my haste to be as clear as possible about how I did it (after receiving previous grief off a dude on Lancashire rock revival) I've described it in a way that wasn't entirely clear. Although the grade is relatively insignificant, style is always important to me as you rightly pointed out 

I've pm'd you about the vid 🙂

I think your own personal symbolism in the video is really fitting, and much more meaningful/creative. Totally appropriate. I think it conveys the meaningfulness of your own encounter with the route.

What you said in your pm was very sensitive. It would be nice to be able to convey some of that. It would mean a lot. I've sent Ann (Dave's Mum) a link to the thread.

No, the route name wasn't anything to do with Decathlon, by the way Shark! 

[user deactivated]

Thanks Dave, it was great to get up this route. Such an esoteric gem and climbs really well. These kind of routes are my favourite aspect of climbing. Re: the pm please do convey the important parts 

[grimer]

Nice one Dan :-)

Lancashire Rock Revival is where I always go to when I'm looking for friendly and positive input ;-)

[Paul B]

Nice one Dan :-)

Lancashire Rock Revival is where I always go to when I'm looking for friendly and positive input ;-)

Come on, you have a podcast and spend the first 5 minutes each 'cast telling everyone how sh*t you are at podcasts, what do you expect?