Dan & Ned - Peak District Toy Boys

by Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC Nov/2008
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+Dan Varian walks all over Welsh Rarebit/Waite Font 7c at Caley Roadside, 112 kb
Dan Varian bouldering at Caley Dan Varian and Ned Feehally have repeated Ron Fawcett's 1986 slab nightmare Toy Boy at Froggatt in the Peak District. Graded E7 7a in the current guide, Dan and Ned opted for a more modern approach, bouldering the route out; ground-up, above crash-pads.

Dan reports on the Bigstone Website (with photos):

"Big Ron (Fawcett) did Toy Boy in 1986 for the first ascent, then Ben Heason head pointed it in 2001 after 6 or 7 roped sessions. Ned Feehally and I did it as a highball font 7c+ last Friday ground up. Only 2 ascents in 22 years then 2 ascents in 2 hours! We followed up with Slingshot (first ascent Mo Overfield 2000) at highball 7c."

Dan and Ned have a blog: Beastmakerblog where they have shared some of their recent thoughts on these highball problems:

Dan blogging:

"I'm done for Froggatt highballs after 4 visits. here's the Froggatt highball list: (with the possible exception of screaming dream and a project (and maybe rampart with tons of pads))"

  • Mint 400 font 7b+
  • Narcissus font 7a? (piss)
  • Sole Power: font 7b+ (obviously ground up)
  • Renegade Master: font 7c (ground up second or third go)
  • Slingshot: font 7c/+ (2nd go today after 2 minutes of mucking around a while ago, ground up)
  • Toy Boy: benchmark font 7c+ (very morpho, ground up)
  • Chequers Groove: super solid font 7c+ (2 visits, ground up)

"Ned has also crushed Toyboy, Slingshot and Sole Power ground up in a few goes for each. They by no means deserve E grades as below 10m (8m defo) everything is pretty much a boulder problem these days (landings obviously vary)."

"We love pads too the more the merrier, if everyone at the plantation on a weekend stuck a pad under Unfamiliar it'd be fine! Work together people and claim all these routes masquerading as boulders, pads save the ground and your ankles. E grades under 9m are a bit of a joke when pads are involved, learn how to fall off properly too..."

The guys also have a product website beastmaker.co.uk where they have amazing looking wooden finger boards for sale, plus training tips and other bouldering info.


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