Climbing - First Ascent of First of a Dying Breed (E4 6b)

I made the first ascent of this route back in October 2007- I first saw the line in Ilkley Back Quarry in January 2007, tried it and wasn't strong enough to pull the moves on the top wall. Many hours spent on the fingerboard and down the wall later, and i'm back with a belayer and cameramen (and women) to get it sent. Finally, it's out of my life and I can concentrate on the next project!

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Rock
• Climbing
• extreme
• sport
• trad
• ilkley
• cow
• and
• calf
• quarry
• fall
• e4
• 6b
• first
• ascent

[tiarnan17]

this is seriously 6b? i mean, i know the best climbers make things look easy but...also, is the route an eliminate and if not why not climb using the arete you use for a foothold a few times...have you been on any ron fawcett 6bs? (thinking of crypt trip at stange, which i couldn't even pull past the second move on) how would you compare them with yr own routes?

cheers, just curious.

[climbingsean]

I have been on some of Fawcett's 6bs actually - Shock Horror (also at Ilkley), for example, the moves are a bit easier than on this route (feels scarier though, hence the E6 instead of E4). The hardest moves on this route are from the good left-hand pocket just past the break, you go to a poor right-hand shallow edge, then make the crux moves into the sloped sidepull (the wall overhangs a fair bit as well, which makes things a lot harder).

[climbingsean]

It's definitely english 6b, trust me, but as it's pretty short and well-protected it only gets E4. The original aim was to climb the front face in its entireity, as it worked out I needed to use that one foot out left (the rock there is very poor and crumbly, I wouldn't want to climb on it if I could avoid it!) to keep balance. The moves compare pretty well to other 6bs i've done, including other new routes I did in the quarry which have since been repeated and the grades confirmed.

[kimboII]

man this is great. I would shit my pants ;)

I am just curious, if you fall from near top can the safeties hold you above ground, or is the distance too big?

[climbingsean]

Falling from the crux moves (going to the undercut sidepull and hopping the hand up again) would be pretty safe I think, but any higher than that and you're looking at ending up very close to the ground - especially when you factor in rope stretch, slack in the system and the big boulder directly below the route in the ground! Fortunately the top moves are relatively easy.

[thekobaz]

Looks like a nice boulder problem.

[philosophiliac]

I agree with cantstopnot - seems like it would be better suited as a boulder problem...

[canstopnot]

great climb... have you thought about just making it a highball boulder problem? seems like you got it wired to do it with confidence...

[guyveegee]

Looks like a great crux, keen for this in the future, nice one Sean

[stompingallan]

nice work

[tiarnan17]

cheers, i watched yr other vids and you're the real deal. props.

[vidcritic12]

wat is e4 6b