Last week we reported on Angus Kille's fourth ascent of the iconic route The Meltdown (9a), at Twll Mawr, in Wales.

The route, graded at 8c+/9a, has long been heralded at the UK's hardest slab route. Having seen off efforts from Johnny Dawes and Jerry Moffat in 1985, it was another twenty-seven years before the route saw its first ascent from James McHaffie in 2012.

In the eleven years since, only three further ascents have been made, with the first repeat coming from Ignacio Mulero in 2018, before Franco Cookson bagged the third ascent just over a year ago.

On the 5th of June, after twenty-five sessions, whilst racing against rising temperatures and waning friction, Angus added his own name to the list. We got in touch to find out more:

Congratulations on climbing The Meltdown! How does it feel to have climbed such an iconic route?

It feels great! Easily enough to outshine an injured finger. It was such an interesting process and I've come such a long way in that time.

I think the route is iconic because it's so unusual to have such weird moves and such a hard slab, and because of its history. That made the project inspiring, and I suppose it makes having sent the project feel like dabbling in that history or something. People tend to share your psyche a bit more when it's an iconic route, which is kind of nice really.

When did you first try it, and how many sessions did you have on it in total?

I first tried it last summer in the boiling heat, then I tried it again with Franco (it felt like he was showing me round his home or something).

At the beginning of this year it became a project. I got sucked in because all the crazy moves began to feel more possible the more attention I paid to them.

I had twenty-five sessions on the route in total, including sessions that seemed hopeless because of conditions or skin or something, but I learnt something from every one (I know that because I made beta notes after every session).

It went from being hard for me to imagine climbing, to me being able to climb consistently through both cruxes to the shakeout at the top. Good times.

What was the main 'limiting factor' for you when you first got on the route, and how did that change whilst projecting it?

It's hard to say what the limiting factor was initially, because I was just so far off!

After finding the right shoes (stiff) and conditions (cold and windy) just finding the beta was the limiting factor – the moves are pretty unique and often far from intuitive.

Then flexibility was a limiting factor – I finally did all the moves after a few weeks of hip stretches.

Then skin was a massive limiting factor until the end, when it was heat! When the project ran over into summer, I had to find new chalking-up points and moves that I had previously done reliably were suddenly impossible.

It felt like the project was running away from me just as I was getting close to it, but honestly I learnt some of the most valuable lessons in those last few sessions when it was really marginal. Unlike my project last year, Esclatamasters (9a), fitness or power endurance were never a limiting factor, so it was a completely different challenge for me.

Tell us about the climbing itself, having watched films of others on it, there are sections that look pretty relentless - which might not be what people expect from a slab route!

It's pretty unusual climbing. It's not like a friction slab, it's a balancey tension slab with wacky moves.

A lot of the moves aren't the kind you can really try harder on – you can't just pull harder, any excess tension could feasibly spit you off. So, aside from all the other factors like shoe rubber, conditions, and skin, being 100% focussed is kind of critical. Which makes it a really interesting challenge.

Some of the most valuable learning was just around how to focus and get into flow/clutch states more reliably. Apart from that, it's also just really interesting doing a bunch of moves that are unlike any you've ever done before.

Has slab climbing always been something you excel at?

No. I'm not a terrible slab climber, but I've always lacked some of the flexibility and attention to detail that are part of slab mastery.

Friends will say I've climbed some hard slabs like The Walk of Life (E9 6c) or Crac Yr Maestri (E9 7a), but it's not difficulty I'm talking about, it's the mastery of that slab climbing skill. The Meltdown was the perfect chance to work that weakness and really immerse myself in all the intricacies. I can't say I've mastered it now, but I really learnt tonnes.

Any pearls of slab-wisdom after having spent so long on such a challenging route?

Yes. Shoes really matter – get them stiff, tighter if you can, really look after your edges and make friends with a decent resoler because they can make you climb a grade harder on slabs! Friction matters, even on slate, which means you want it cool with some air movement.

Flexibility is dead important – do some hip yoga stuff in front of the telly. It's tempting to think that some moves are low percentage and it's just a matter of chance – try to catch yourself saying this because that's an opportunity to work out what the difference is, whether it's in your control or not. 

The big one is not to neglect the psychological side of things – not just for bold stuff, but for any performance that matters to you. It's easy for me to say when I've been helping to edit an online performance course for a mental training company, but The Meltdown was like a testing ground for all of the performance psychology stuff I wanted to put into practice.

Loads of mindset work, finding flow, presence, breath work and in the end a positivity/gratitude trick that put me in the zone for every burn. That stuff probably made the biggest difference. And Llanberis Resoles doing fantastic work on my shoes – cheers guys.

Talk us through the successful attempt!

It was pretty nuts to be honest. I had fallen off the final hard moves five times already, having thought I'd never fall there at all. It was getting warmer and warmer all the time, but I was getting ever more consistent on the route which was really exciting.

On the day, the conditions were worse than usual but I decided to go and try to work out a more secure way of doing those final hard moves. I had been resistant to this because I had a really elegant 'comp boulder' style finish and I didn't want to muscle through it - that's not what the route was about for me.

But when the conditions were getting out of hand I decided to stretch, full crimp, and miss out all the slippy feet. On my first burn I got straight through both cruxes, up to the final moves. My ugly new beta worked at treat, but with an audible 'POP' from my little finger.

Obviously I wasn't going to let go at that point, having blown any other chance of trying the route, so I climbed the slippy runout doing everything I could to keep my focus. The scream when I clipped the chains, and the subsequent echo, was rather satisfying. Worth wrecking your pinky for!

How's the finger recovering?

The finger is pretty terrible. I've blown a pulley (or two) and not the flexor tendon, so it could be much worse. The little finger is the best one to injure, and that was pretty much the best time to injure it, so no complaints from me.

Any set plans for when the finger is better?

To be honest I'm pretty glad to have some forced rest and some time to reflect on the whole process. Hazel and I are also just about to launch the performance course at Strong Mind so we've got our hands full anyway.

In autumn we're heading to the States so I can get shut down on cracks. Can't wait!