Nice to see someone making the effort to seek this out. I'm pretty sure that it isn't E1 though? It's 26 years since we did it but it felt like E3 5c as an onsight FA.

Done as the way described in the current definitive guidebook "Start just left of the arete. Climb the short groove, then hand traverse right to the arete", it is about hard E1 5b. The direct line up the arete would be about E3 6a, was that what was originally done?

It's that long ago I cannot now recall every detail except that I got onto the edge as soon as I practically could. Andy and I did several routes that day including another E3 and a couple of E1's and this felt much more 'out there'. At the time I was regularly leading E3 (E4 with a tail wind!) in places like Northumberland, the Dales and the Lakes and this felt about right for the grade. Having said that, I did tend to get more gripped heading into the great unknown as for an onsight FA and I was carrying too many big cams as it turned out. You could just be bloody strong, you know?

Not at the moment I'm not! I suspect you did the lower arete spanning in from the left, and the guidebook as got the line / description confused.