[Andy Harris]

Last night I made the 1st ascent of Ruth Jenkins old project left of Caviar.

I’ve called it Barracuda and it rates at a very bouldery French 8b.

It’s essentially a 6 move boulder problem (7c+ or maybe a bit harder) into a French 7a+. Very fingery with a particularly hard move into and off a mono stack!

Surprisingly good climbing on dirty holds if you like that sort of thing.

[dave]

nice work. does this end up on or near plectrum maxilla direct then or what (i've never really been able to suss where that goes by looking)?

[account_inactive]

Effort Andy

[Jaspersharpe]

Excellent effort and good name. 

[Bonjoy]

 It takes the fairly obvious diagonal line going L-R into the top of Caviar. Vintage Harris, a truely horrendous set of grips! Rubicon is the new black.

[Andy B]

Excellent.

a mono stack!

How do you stack one finger?

[dave]

Badly.

[dobbin]

This is a bloody good effort. It looks to be miles from that mono to the next hold.

As they say in Scoootland - 'There's naaaay grips'.

[Slide]

Good effort Andy

Rubicon is indeed the new black.  I knew i should have installed the turnstile and started charging.

[Andy F]

Great effort Andy, but I've got to say a 7C+/8A into F7a+ sounds harder than 8b    (well by Yorkshire maths anyway...)

[north_country_boy]

sounds about right to me Andy F, if you consider Pump up is Font 7c+/F8a+

[dobbin]

yes, but that is 7c+ into f5+.

Does anyone else think PUTP to the 2nd bolt is probably 7c+/8a?

[Darren S]

nice one andy 

[north_country_boy]

yeah thats exactly my thinking dobbin - like doing pump up the power (Font7c+) into F7a+ (rather than 5+) would be 8b in my opinion......

[Doylo]

nice andy, sound a fair bit trickier than zeke, same grade? Long live the Con.

[Andy Harris]

Tricky one this. It's definately a notch harder than the true bouldery peak 8a+ routes (egPUTP, Culloden, Inch Test, Dialectics). The hard bit is even shorter but the moves are harder and a very specific strength that will not suit the masses. For me it was harder than stuff like Zeke, Revelations but that doesn't mean a grade above, just more intense. I guess as always repeats will confirm or not.

[Shy Ted]

bon effort

[Ru]

Tricky one this. It's definately a notch harder than the true bouldery peak 8a+ routes (egPUTP, Culloden, Inch Test, Dialectics). I guess as always repeats will confirm or not.

I repeated this yesterday. It's harder than PUTP, Culloden, Love of Money, Dialectics, Revelations and similar in difficulty to 3 Spheres and Jehovahkill. I thought it was font 8a at the start. 8b+?

[Doylo]

Effort Ru, font 8a is too hard for 8b surely! Give it 8b+!

[nodder]

Doylo the upgrader

[Doylo]

Doylo the upgrader

Yes i believe in accurate grading David!
Jordan repeated your 8as at Moel Y gest at weekend, was impressed.

[nodder]

Of course.  When you stop pissing about with your string you should get up there.  Grumble used that crimp though knew I should have tried harder to break it.
 

[Andy Harris]

Nice to see my bit of peak nastiness getting some attention. I'd wondered all along if was more 8b+ than 8b and had been chatting to Ru whilst he's been trying it. I guess I was going well at the time and plumped for 8b but it's hard to grade these essentially boulder problem routes.  We've both now settled on 8b+ or Font 8a. Hopefully it will get some more attention now. The perfect antithesis to Mecca.

[nickreyner]

Well Done , Thought you were getting close when we left on Sunday

[Andy Harris]

Sad news but I finally got back on Barracuda to see if the pocket had got bigger (after a conversation with Ted & Ryan) & I'm afraid to say it has. The pocket has crumbled 3 or 4mm meaning you can get your big 2 fingers side by side vs the original mono stack. Unfortuantely this has made is significantly easier. Originally I thought 8b+ or Font 8a but now it's no more than 8a+ or Font 7c. Incredible what such a small difference can make. Still bouldery and fingery but at a different level.

The bonus for boulderers is it's a lot more friendly to boulder out to the Jug as it's much more static.