Nic Sellers has climbed a new route on Blue Scar between Stairway to Heaven and The Great White. True Blue follows a surprisingly direct and independent line of sidepulls and undercuts on immaculate rock to join the top of Stairway. The crux start is protected by sideways wires, before a poor break where two Friends and a large wire are placed as quickly as possible. From here, sustained climbing with no more protection, leads for 30 feet to a final long slap for a good pocket and easier ground. With climbing that warrants F7c, Nic has offered an on-sight grade of solid E7 6b. The line was first spotted by Craig Smith, who belayed and cleanly seconded Nic on the route, perhaps wondering why he hadn't kept the route to himself? Unlike the other three E7s at Blue (Stairway to Heaven, Blue Angel and Lord of the Dance) True Blue doesn't utilise any pegs, threads or bolts, and all gear was placed on lead.
Hi Tom Sounds like a fine effort (and waaaaay beyond anything I'll ever aspire to), but I'm interested - At what grade do new ascents become newsworthy? I thought E7 was a bit off the cutting edge these days? John
Refreshing to see some hard trad, without the decoration of pegs 'n' threads.News worthy as its on a crag that's seen nothing but sport/trad clip-ups for 15 years. Nice one Nic/Craig. R
Hi Craig Er, I think we're agreeing. I absolutely add my applause to those congratulating the ascent, but I was curious about what makes an ascent newsworthy. I'm not especially grade obsessed - other than wanting to maintain my standard as a guard against middle age. I hop if someone puts up a lovely new VS somewhere we'd view it as warmly. J
We don't have any strict guidelines as to what makes an ascent newsworthy, many factors come into play....especially just the 'feeling' that it is. This one, as said, not so much because of the grade but because of the fact that it is naturally protected, no fixed gear.....was it headpointed Craig/Nic? Style is interesting. See for example the news report on the new multi-pitch sport route at Cheddar. Weighs in at 6b (with a pull on a bolt)....I'm sure many would be interested in this route. I suppose the main criteria is that it is of interest to some of UKClimbing.com's readers, which you cannot generalise about. One thing is, we aren't grade-ist, if someone had down some class Vdiffs I'm sure that could be newsworthy. Mick
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