Orrin Coley has repeated Voyager Low Start (8B+) at Burbage North. He quickly dispatched the stand start in October of last year and decided to take on Ben Moon's low start as a winter project, eventually climbing the problem in four sessions.
The process wasn't smooth, Orrin told UKC: 'The process was a bizarre one, about a week after doing the stand I badly injured my shoulder and neck while competing and took over a month off climbing and exercise completely. But with some help from my physio I got back to a manageable state, started climbing very slowly and building up my shoulder strength again.'
Despite coming back from injury, Orrin managed all the moves on his first session back and then quickly booked a trip to Fontainebleau to continue his rehabilitation. After his trip, he made good progress on every session: 'By my third session on it I'd stuck the crux move and knew I could do it. So, I had a short training session the next day, rested the day after, then went back to try and seal the deal. After going through my usual warm-up routine, I pulled on the crux move and did it the smoothest I ever had before. I knew it was on, so I waited for Billy to arrive with a few extra pads before going for it. Once he got there and put the pads down, I went for it straight away. A few moments later everyone in the valley probably heard how psyched I was!
'Topping out was brilliant, I tried to hold it in, but I was pretty damn psyched. And it showed. I don't see myself forgetting that feeling.'
Ben Moon climbed the low start to Voyager in 2006 and went nine years before Niccoló Ceria finally repeated it. Since then it has been repeated by Ned Feehally, David Fitzgerald and Dan Turner. Commenting on the history of the problem, Orrin said: 'Everyone knows how good Ben was (and still is) and the fact that even the stand has pushed a lot of top British climbers. But once it got that first repeat, suddenly more people sneaked up it as if they knew not to be afraid of it anymore. I suspect more ascents will follow me, it's just how things go.'
Watch our video of Ned Feehally repeating Voyager Low Start:
Comments
Dan Turner also repeated Voyager Low Start last year:
https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2017/12/dan_turner_repeats_voyager_sit_start_8b+-71403
Oops, silly me! Added him in.
Nick
Nice one Orrin, pretty sick!
Love Dan's (cold) spotters' comment at the end -"If you'd just done that last time we needn't have come out again..." - no-one of yer johnny foreigner `you the man!' nonsense.
I think I was over the other side of the valley when this was done, and yes everyone could hear the shouting of joy;)