Lip of Fools, E7 6c

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You may have noticed references to Jon "setting up ropes" or a one liner at the end of my latest posts showing what Jon did for the day. The reason for the vagueness of my posts and their brevity is due to one thing; Jon had a project. A project that he kindly invited me to try with him a little over a week ago. Since then my vagueness was necessary to keep all of you wads away from the said line, stopping you from stealing an awesome FA and my chances of being number 2!
I'd never been to Eastwood before but was keen to tag along for the traverse. Jon spent a while rigging a top rope whilst I puntered around and quickly got the trav ticked. After this we set about the route, it was cold however Jon was throwing good links. I however, wasn't. I would pull on, get half way along, fall off, pull on and do the remainder of the route. The issue I was having was that although my halves overlapped they didn't correspond. Namely, I was taking one hold with the wrong hand. Idiot.
The next time we went on it the temperature was low. Far too low to warm up, we both had a little play but it was clear that it wasn't going to happen. Early on in last week we returned as a three, Jon, Pritch and Myself. As pritch got stuck into Westwood (and got psyched, and TBH was looking fairly good) Jon again went and rigged stuff. Now this day was a strange one. Jon looked great on a top rope, throwing the best link I'd seen. Quickly after this he went for a redpoint and looked really solid until the last move, a lock to a pocket. Ben and I screamed for him to slap but cold fingers got the better of him and he took the fall. His next few RP's were similar, although one ended fairly early due to his foot popping. Every go he looked smooth and every go I thought it was in the bag but for some unknown reason it wasn't. I think at this point Jon noticed that I was cold. Frozen in fact as I hadn't climbed for a long time. We chatted for a bit and he was keen for me to have a go and "take the ride". It was agreed that I wouldn't take the gear to protect the top section, so I didn't. Annoyingly (having never linked the route) I cruised through the hard lip traverse and locked up to the pocket comfortably. A few more moves up and then I turned to Jon, who had a big grin on his face and was shouting for me to jump. I reversed as far as I could and took a comfortable if airy fall.


Back on the ground I felt elated as Jon set up for another RP. This time I thought! Again he looked smooth and fully composed on the traverse but fatigue had set in (trying it earlier in bad conditions was a mistake in retrospect). He span off the end of the traverse. F*ck!
Pritch was there with his lens so I suggested we all get some piccies whilst we had the option. Jon went again and, like before I thought he had it. However, he was clearly tiring and dropped off exhausted.
My turn for photos and I basically repeated my previous effort. This time reversing the moves back down to the lip before jumping off. I left the crag feeling happy for myself but wishing Jon had got his line in the bag.
At the weekend whilst I was busy with a family thing (Gran's 80th!) I recieved a text. Second RP of the day on Saturday for Jon, the top moves turned out to not be as trivial as he remembered and thus he'd spent around 20 mins avoiding committing to the final move. Great effort and a fine line!
Now, I felt edgey, nervous if truth be told that somebody else would cruise up it shortly after. Monday the weather was poor and I was busy and Tues Jon was busy until midday. I was reluctant to go to Eastwood just for the afternoon in case I had a 'mare of a time repeating my previous form so Emergency Belay Bod (My Dad!) was rung. Revelling in the chance to try and convert me to liking his new ish car he agreed.
On his arrival the weather looked dodgy. Very dodgy. On the drive to the crag it looked bad. Wet roads, no wind and frost on anything in the shade. On arrival at the crag things perked up; the finishing holds on the trav were perfect and so too was the route.
This time it was my turn to rig everything and I took my time as its been quite a while since I placed gear and a lot longer since I fell on self-placed gear! Jon rang, james rang etc. and all I could say was "I'm about to have a go"...
The climbing?


Well that went without incident. I even paused mid crux to give instructions to my dad on what to do with the ropes. On arrival at the pocket my fingers were frozen but the sanctity of a big jug soon brought them back to life for a relatively trivial finish.

Thanks to Jon for putting me on this route and helping to push me.

For the full sequence take a look at the pics below. However, be warned, my sequence is unlikely to be the easiest/best/most sensible, and it will blow your onsight! I think the route can probably be high balled by somebody feeling brave and having all of the beta although the lock is big and might cause an uncontrollable fall. The other option is to place a ball nut on the traverse but to do this you need to climb half of it, reverse, then do it correctly. The third option? I'll leave that in Jon's concept head.


Sequence shots:
(thanks to Ben Pritch for the photos)



I don't have any photos of Bonjoy as my iPOD was full but there are some on Facebook.

After standing under Fat Slapper with a "Wowed" look on my face we retreated to Sheffield via some twisty roads. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching L'etranger with Dad and then by my first session on the Varian/Ned board, it went well! But thats a whole other blog post!