Trying to work out whether I did Black Hawk Traverse Left (VD) or in fact did Burgess's Variation (S 4a). I went sufficiently high that the only hold was around waist height and was left with a rather balancey move left and a delicate hand swap. Thoughts?
The "Bishop's Stride" move is going round the bulge to the left of the chap so I'd imagine you did do the variation. I never knew that it's been named, it just seemed like two ways of doing a route to me.
> The "Bishop's Stride" move is going round the bulge to the left of the chap so I'd imagine you did do the variation. I never knew that it's been named, it just seemed like two ways of doing a route to me.
But in the Peak, that counts as a different route it seems
I'm pretty sure the stride was named after Henry Bishop, who probably involved in the first Ascent.
Burgess' Variation avoids the stride and continues up the cracks in the picture. The BHTL continues diagonally left and up out of that picture, so the two finishes are several feet apart.
You probably did something between the two. Burgess Variation follows the tricky diagonal crack but you can move up to this and step left to avoid the airy Bishops Stride. There are multiple fun finishes as well.
In reply to climbwhenready: The Bishop's Stride is fun but doesn't always suit short inflexible folk and there are a set of ways of avoiding it above which vary slightly. Burgess Variation is clearly too hard for VD so you know if you did it (if you follow that diagonal crack all the way). The type of variation above has been climbed hundreds of times just in my direct experience. Pretty mush every easier inch of Stanage will have been soloed quite a few, times (so anyone with any sense of history should be claiming FRA at most for any easier routes on the crag). Despite the reputation of the Peak, most routes are pretty independant and I would hope UKC doesn't start routinely accepting micro-variants (I'd make an exception if they are brilliant) and so clutter up the logbooks with shite. The comments can be used to record things people did slightly differently.
In reply to Offwidth:
Another route in a similar vein is the variations of prudence/providence. I've climbed it all different ways and to say they're different routes is really pushing it.
Black Hawk Traverse Left was possibly my first or second lead any years ago. I took so long a small queue formed at the base. I still recall two old boys tut tutting rather unkindly.
Fri Night Vid Finding Focus - Life Behind The Lens of a Climbing Photographer
This week's Friday Night Video is a portrait of a prolific climbing photographer from Wedge Climbing. Sam Pratt is well known in both the outdoor and competition scene but if you haven't heard of him, you've likely seen...