Steve Dunning has made what is likely the tenth ascent of The New Statesman, the classic and bold gritstone arete at the Cow and Calf Rocks, Ilkley, West Yorkshire.
"It's very impressive John Dunne doing back in the day - 27 years ago - as not only must it have been way ahead of the other grit routes at the time but the difficulty of the crux would have been as hard as anything on the boulders in Yorkshire." commented Steve after his ascent...
In reply to UKC News: Well either there's a paucity of news or NS is still cutting edge for the 10th ascent to be newsworthy. I think the latter as it averages out at one ascent every 3 years which is not a lot for such an obvious and desirable tick.
Well done to SD, it shows how far ahead JD was on some of his routes back then.
Definitely still cutting edge! Still very hard and very bold. Tried it on a top rope years ago when I was climbing quite well (for me) and couldn't touch it. It is powerful but still requires that very special gritstone something.
My palms and fingers are sweating at the thought of it!
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