[petejh]

Bit of a change of scene I know but it's all part of the same game after all. Chris Parkin made the FA of yet another hard mixed line on the Black Ladders wednesday to add to his long list of hard first ascents in Wales. Tora Bora 300m VIII 8, climbed onsight with a brilliant lead by Chris on the crux pitch.  Thought I'd post it on here for the record rather than ukcommercial.

[Johnny Brown]

Wow. Whereabouts? Sounds like conditions are good over there then?

[petejh]

It's in-between Imminent Conflict and Broken Cease Fire. Yeah conditions are great up there, The Somme is in as is pretty much everything else. The details will be on the Welsh Winter wiki sooner or later and there's a topo of the Ladders and other crags on there if you didn't already know - link here welshwinterclimbs.wetpaint.com/. Here's the route description from Chris:
An outstanding outing which takes a direct line up a series of grooves and corners in the shallow buttress between Imminent Conflict and Broken Ceasefire. Each pitch provide good climbing and the crux pitch is one of the best around giving sustained climbing on torques, hooks and turf with adequate but hard-won gear. Take a good selection of pegs and turf protection.
Start at the direct start for Central Gully Direct.
Pitches 1 + 2, 100m :  As for Gallipoli to the flake belay where that route continues up and left (two pitches of 3).
3. 35m. 3/4 - Climb the shallow groove on the right for 20m to a couple of steeper moves to gain the terrace above. Go up and right to a block belay on top of a pedestal.
4. 47m. 8 - Traverse 5m right to the base of a shallow right-facing corner/groove. Climb the corner, sustained, past one particularly difficult section and an exit leftwards onto a small ledge. Move up to the slab above, climb this using a crack on the left to make a tricky exit up and right. Climb up steep turf to a much-needed bomber belay under a small rock overhang - good thread behind the partially buried block.
5. 35m. 6 - Climb up towards the small buttress/tower above and traverse the base of the buttress rightwards (or go straight up the corner), make awkward moves up and right up turf ledges, and then a short traverse back leftward and climb a small slab and crack to the top of this tower. Easier ground leads to a belay on a largetriangular block on the terrace.
6. 40m. 4 - Go up and left to climb a open corner groove, a steep exit on the left gains easier ground. Cross diagonally right to a crack belay at the base of a left facing corner which forms the left side of a large tower/buttress. You should now be directly above a tower below.
7. 50m. 5 - Gain the base of the corner from slightly left and climb to an exit right level with the top of the tower. 10m of easier ground leads to mega
block belay. A bold pitch. (it was basically soloed)
Easy ground leads to the summit plateau and some much wanted relief (vitamin 'I' in this case).

[Pantontino]

There's a pic (admittedly from a distance) of Chris on the crux pitch here:

http://news.v12outdoor.com/?p=41

Snow was a bit spooky that day! I had a few 'moments' when my footholds collapsed - not as bad as Chris' near miss though. Lots more snow today - might be worth getting the skis out! 

[petejh]

Photo doesn't really do justice to such a good pitch. Is that a snazzy new v12 site?, very nice. I hadn't realised he'd had that much of a moment but I remember a bit of a whumpf and a small avalanche of powder coming down and not thinking much of it at the time... ???

How was Gallipoli?

[Pantontino]

Fair point, it doesn't really show the pitch, but at least people can see what sort of condition the crag was in.

Gallipoli was great, lots of interesting climbing all the way. Second hard pitch quite bold up the groove after the pinnacle squeeze, crux pitch harder moves but better gear. Some scary moments with dodgy snow and hard to find gear in places because everything was so plastered, especially higher up.

Stunning day out. Looks like we've got lots more days like this ahead of us too - god I'm psyched! 

The V12 news site is brand new today, just put it live. (So apologies if there are any mistakes)