At the end of September, Miles Gibson climbed a new gritstone E9 at Wimberry (UKC News). Whilst Miles concentrated on his new line, his climbing partner Ben Heason managed a rare repeat of the hard route Order of the Phoenix (E8 6c) at the same crag.
Speaking about the route Ben said:
"Kevin Thaw's route, Order of the Phoenix (E8 6c) seemed an obvious choice. It looked a nice line and was the cleanest of the harder routes up there.
Physically it's the most sustained hard grit route I've done so far with no particularly easy moves on it. The climbing is highly technical, often with tenuous footholds and a crux slap up the arête from a 1-finger pebble (by which time the gear/rope is redundant), culminating with taking a small pebble in each hand to make a super high step to a smeary top-out.
Kevin lead the route with a low side runner in Coffin Crack, in an attempt to avoid the nasty boulder-strewn landing should the worst happen.
My ascent went smoothly but it's probably quite stern for the grade.
Fortunately Miles did his new route Dangermouse later that day - a fantastic effort and not a bad day!"
VIDEO: Ben Heason on Order of the Phoenix
Ben Heason is sponsored by Wild Country Red Chili
- You can read an article by Ben on his recent onsight ascent of the F7b+ limestone route Il Pesce (The Fish) on the Marmolada on the Wild Country Website
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