nik at work
Well-Known Member
Climb the obvious line of bolt holes 3 metres or so right of Jaggernath, gear at the break then finish more easily over the right hand side of the small roof.
F.A. Nik Jennings 11/3/13
And if you're bored at work here's a bit more waffle...
I first spotted this line last November when I first visited Summit Quarry. I didn't try the line, but I did spend quite a long time looking at the holds from various angles and trying to work out a sequence. I also knew I'd need to get a lot stronger on mono's. So after three months of thinking about the sequence, training mono's, being ill (a couple of times) and a quick 8b ascent in Spain i was feeling pretty much ready for an attempt. A cheeky bit of rapid weight loss and I headed up to Summit last Wednesday with a plan. I wanted to on-sight (hopefully cruise) Jaggernath, an E4 to the left. Then try and ground up the project line. And finally try and ground up a route that goes between the project and Jaggernath which doesn't have a name as far as I know but was possibly climbed by a guy called Jim. Details about this route have been a bit sketchy to say the least, all I knew was that a guy on UKC called Ian had tried it on a top-rope after flashing Jaggernath on a top-rope and got pretty much completely shut down, not that much info...
Anyway back to last Wednesday and there is a serious amount of mist everywhere, some people would call it drizzle or even rain but I'm sticking with mist (in droplet form perhaps...). After grumbling about the weather I roped up and on-sighted Jaggernath (fuck it, I cruised it to be honest) but then I realised that conditions were not conducive to pushing the boat out on a couple of potentially hard routes so I binned it and went for cake (weight straight back on...).
The next opportunity to get up there was today (after starving myself yesterday, weight back off), which has been mint, if a little snowy (and cold). Andy led Jaggernath and then I warmed up with a quick couple of toppies on it. Then I moved on to the project line with a view to ground upping it and...
...fuck me I on-sighted it. Straight up with a few power screams and a little "oh fuck" moment. Shocked isn't the word. I started to think it was easy then luckily Andy tried the first couple of moves and made not much headway, phew! I think E7 6c, but with a bunch of pads it would become a highball. It's pretty hard climbing though I reckon. So an on-sight which took four months, it's the first time I've ever tried to specifically train for something which is only a guesstimate of what I need to train and it worked out pretty well. Well pleased.
Just to complete the story I then onsighted* "Jim's Route" which is probably E6 6c and is really good. And again a bunch of mats would highball-ise it.
* it was on-sight but it shares a handhold with Responsible Parenting. A hold you get with your left on RP you get with your right, in a completely different orientation on "Jim's Route". So maybe the purists would like to have a lengthy debate about the on-sightedness of it all...
Anyway I'm very chuffed. Oh and got video of Responsible Parenting, I'll stick it on Vimeo soon (tried to get video of Jim's Route but only got 40 seconds of me taking off my coat and such like before the battery died and the camera nose-dived into the snow).
Finally massive thanks to Rachel and Andy for willingly trudging up there in freezing conditions and cheering me on.
F.A. Nik Jennings 11/3/13
And if you're bored at work here's a bit more waffle...
I first spotted this line last November when I first visited Summit Quarry. I didn't try the line, but I did spend quite a long time looking at the holds from various angles and trying to work out a sequence. I also knew I'd need to get a lot stronger on mono's. So after three months of thinking about the sequence, training mono's, being ill (a couple of times) and a quick 8b ascent in Spain i was feeling pretty much ready for an attempt. A cheeky bit of rapid weight loss and I headed up to Summit last Wednesday with a plan. I wanted to on-sight (hopefully cruise) Jaggernath, an E4 to the left. Then try and ground up the project line. And finally try and ground up a route that goes between the project and Jaggernath which doesn't have a name as far as I know but was possibly climbed by a guy called Jim. Details about this route have been a bit sketchy to say the least, all I knew was that a guy on UKC called Ian had tried it on a top-rope after flashing Jaggernath on a top-rope and got pretty much completely shut down, not that much info...
Anyway back to last Wednesday and there is a serious amount of mist everywhere, some people would call it drizzle or even rain but I'm sticking with mist (in droplet form perhaps...). After grumbling about the weather I roped up and on-sighted Jaggernath (fuck it, I cruised it to be honest) but then I realised that conditions were not conducive to pushing the boat out on a couple of potentially hard routes so I binned it and went for cake (weight straight back on...).
The next opportunity to get up there was today (after starving myself yesterday, weight back off), which has been mint, if a little snowy (and cold). Andy led Jaggernath and then I warmed up with a quick couple of toppies on it. Then I moved on to the project line with a view to ground upping it and...
...fuck me I on-sighted it. Straight up with a few power screams and a little "oh fuck" moment. Shocked isn't the word. I started to think it was easy then luckily Andy tried the first couple of moves and made not much headway, phew! I think E7 6c, but with a bunch of pads it would become a highball. It's pretty hard climbing though I reckon. So an on-sight which took four months, it's the first time I've ever tried to specifically train for something which is only a guesstimate of what I need to train and it worked out pretty well. Well pleased.
Just to complete the story I then onsighted* "Jim's Route" which is probably E6 6c and is really good. And again a bunch of mats would highball-ise it.
* it was on-sight but it shares a handhold with Responsible Parenting. A hold you get with your left on RP you get with your right, in a completely different orientation on "Jim's Route". So maybe the purists would like to have a lengthy debate about the on-sightedness of it all...
Anyway I'm very chuffed. Oh and got video of Responsible Parenting, I'll stick it on Vimeo soon (tried to get video of Jim's Route but only got 40 seconds of me taking off my coat and such like before the battery died and the camera nose-dived into the snow).
Finally massive thanks to Rachel and Andy for willingly trudging up there in freezing conditions and cheering me on.
