UKC

How the heck do you do the start?

In reply to Owen W-G:

Is that the Windhover/Flakes start? If so, I used the 'with great difficulty' method. I can remember some good gear (a wire maybe) that I fell off on to a few times.

In reply to Owen W-G:
I thought it was OK. I just pulled up on the good holds, most of which are now lying in the grass by the path at the bottom. Went onto Windy Ledge on a Memory Lane trip to the Peak a few weeks ago and could not believe how much more difficult it looked than when I climbed there regularly 25 years ago. Or is that just age and decrepitude creeping on?

In reply to Owen W-G: Place good nut, right in side pull, left foot high and flag right, reach out to clip peg, come down for a shake, then go up and do the same again except reach through for the holds instead of the peg (they aren't much further). You have to pull quite hard.

In reply to Wiley Coyote:

The biggest problem is sorting the useful holds from the useless holds. I found that once you know which these are it was quite straight forward.
High foot and thin, positive hold for the RH then stretch for the small ledge.

In reply to Owen W-G: I solo reversed this route once, and all the way down I was worrying about the bottom 15ft, I figured I could always just jump for the ledge but in the event it was far easier in reverse than ascent. The route was only VS at the time.

In reply to Owen W-G: clip the peg, then pull on the QuickDraw. Your belayer won't be able to see you anyway.

In reply to deacondeacon:

But he might see the clip stick!

In reply to DubyaJamesDubya:

Doncha love progress!

I didn't even manage to spot the peg!

I placed the no1 wire directly, then climbed up from the right.
Felt like you needed to rock up and leftwards but just couldn't find the holds! Not sure I could even see the peg.

In reply to Owen W-G: yeah the peg is just out of sight up and over on the left hand side. I seem to remember lots of chalk under the little roof that is a bit of a red herring, keep making progress up And left and you'll be spot on. I've only led windhover on that buttress and its an easy hvs clip up after that start.
Oh and once you've done the start you'll be able to do it again and again easily (as is so often the case).

In reply to Owen W-G:
Warning, beta alert.....




The secret is to keep left of the arete itself - sounds like you were maybe being misled by the numerous chalked holds that don't actually help. The peg is fairly high up and left of the good wire placements in the niche. That's the way you need to go. There is a small but good sidepull and a tiny crimp (very hard to spot but feels right when you get it) that allow you to get your foot onto the large polished hold from which position you reach higher for the small ledge. I went for the ledge before clipping the peg - the wire is bomber and still around foot height so it felt quite safe. Great sequence when you get it right.