In reply to Bob:
> Surprising isn't it - that's not my memories of LW at all. Steady 4c/5a up to the kink right, a hard move to get in to the rightward trending bit. Steady up this to the fork in the crack. Get gear in then a twenty foot section that doesn't really give up then jugs out to the arete and easy up this.
> I find CG to be nearly as hard and I just don't feel comfortable on it.
It is obviously a fitness thing. My attempt on LW was before I'd ever been to a big indoor wall, for example. A few years later I did a lot of climbing on that huge indoor wall at Birmingham (does it still exist?), and got much, much stronger and better at climbing steep and sustained pitches. If I'd gone back to LW then I think I would have cruised it. I really regret that now - about my only climbing regret, really (oh, and the Matterhorn).
I probably exaggerated a bit above with my comparison with CG. I had a very good experience on the Gates, and more or less walked up it. My attempt on LW was a fortnight later, and I was expecting the first half of LW to be similar. It seemed much harder but I guess in reality only about half a technical grade, because resting was much more difficult. e.g. top end 5a rather than 4c/bottom end 5a. I also found it a lot more intimidating and bottled out when I had trouble doing that first hard move going right on soggy arms. (Curiously, the ropes were just long enough to let me reach the ground from there, as if some subconscious part of the brain had been making a calculation …