UKC

Just heard from the other channel that Will Bosi has just ticked the Brandenburg Gate project at Raven Tor… astonishing achievement!

Has he given it a grade?

Holy cow! That's insane! Another chapter in the history of climbing is written.

Andy F

Some year he’s having!

I accept the blame, it's all because of my post less than 2 weeks ago on the Toby Roberts Hubble thread:

I don't remember hearing that Mutation (9a) had been repeated yet.

Most of the hardest routes to repeat seem to be Steve's, it's about time some UK buck climbed harder than him, I mean he's going to be pensionable soon 😁

I didn't realise that all the moves had been done yet, let along anyone was close to ticking it.  Very impressive.

9a+ by the looks of it... 

youtube.com/watch?v=CqoVQxpYwlw&

Here is the UKC Logbook page for the route which suggests that Will Bosi has indeed climbed it:
https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/raven_tor_millers_dale-146/branden...

Wow.

I've killed your link. Believe it or not someone actually logged it as the aid climb so had to create a new one.

Would love to see him on VNB.

If it even exists yet… quite some question marks around the FA.

Loved that video. The precision with which he moves, and the fact that he does so many hand/foot changes between each actual upward move are amazing.

Can someone educate me on the wall above. Is it too hard or too easy to be considered part of these routes?  I'm guessing it's too easy, given that someone implied the crag was pretty much worked out.

Also great to see someone climbing hard without making as much of a racket as certain nameless climbers do.  Didn't even realise he had topped out until he swung on the rope.

Where he finished was at the Mecca - The Mid-life Crisis (8b+) belay. If you were so inclined you could finish up Mecca Extension (8c) or Hajj (8c), alternatively you could also swing left a bit lower down (i.e. before he does that little trav right) and finish up The Whore of Babylon (8a). All of those options would add in an extra 8a or so. It'd add a little but the start is where the action is.

Would an extension push the grade to 9b or is 8a climbing too easy to make a difference?

From soft 9a+ I would have assumed not.

Massive resting jugs at the end of a lot of those routes so adding hard second pitches doesn't really bump the grade.

I'm guessing he's not going to tamper with the "Brandenburg Gate" route name.  An extension would allow the new route to be called "Brandenburg Path"...

Given resting jugs... basically pointless. But without jugs and depending on style it may or may not have an impact.

Not wishing to start, but I don't think you mean "second pitches" do you?

If it was a second pitch then it wouldn't make any difference how big the jugs were.

/pedant mode

Thanks for the replies all. To paraphrase someone the other day paraphrasing that  bloke in the eighties " and 8a is approaching a rest"

What's the history behind the name?

The first ascensionist of the the aid route had a penchant for square section, marzipan wrapped, baked goods.

Do you mean that the 'Gate' bit was actually an accidental truncation - originally recorded as 'Gateau'?

Or he was alluding to the famous Berlin landmark - The Battenberg Gate.

Of course not second pitches but quite separate in style, angle, difficulty and rock quality. Inline also with the original first stance of Prow P1.

No idea, sorry.

Possibly confusing Brandenburg with Battenberg??