Johnny is back!

Johnny Dawes, the original Stone Monkey, well known for his 1980's gritstone test-pieces as well as his North Wales additions such as The Indian Face (E9 6c) and The Quarryman (E8 7a) has climbed a new route, onsight, on Scimitar Ridge in the Llanberis Pass.

The route is a multi pitch traverse, sweeping across the crag from the left side. Johnny has completed the meat of the route and is planning to return to finish off a final easier pitch to complete the full girdle of the crag.

Johnny was filmed on the route by Bamboo Chicken Productions and will be featuring in their forthcoming film The Welsh Connection.

Film-maker Dave Brown said "He looked like he was climbing at his limit, it looked hard." Adding, "His belayer refused to second the hard traverse pitch!", explaining why the team didn't finish the route off on that day.

No stranger to the camera, Johnny starred in one of the greatest climbing films of all time; Stone Monkey, and this year looks set to make a TV screen come-back, appearing in The Welsh Connection and also the Hotaches film for this year, so far known only as DVD '09.

In DVD '09, Johnny is seen alongside visiting American climber Matt Segal and Bristol based Hazel Findlay as all three battle up the slippery slate groove of Gin Palace (F7c), an easier version of Johnny's classic pitch - The Quarryman Groove. It will be interesting to see how Johnny fares in comparison to Segal, who has climbed F8c on trad (Cobra Crack) and is at the peak of his climbing career.

• You can view more info on Johnny's coaching and movement workshops on his UKClimbing.com Classified Page.