Did Lightning Wall twice yesterday. Not a thing I usually do and not trying to add to the million or so times that I have done this climb since first starting to climb on the Ruckle in 1969. On this occasion, having chosen to do the Marmolata abseil (very traditional!) and being stopped by high seas from straying from that area I decided it would be a good warm-up climb. However, my inexperienced second,very understandably as it was her first climb on this sometimes scary cliff, left a fair bit of my gear on the fault line belay and on the pitch. Now, before you all go rushing down there to retrieve the booty I must tell you that I got it all back courtesy of a kind gent in the shape of Andy Blakely (as it turns out a renewed acquaintance from 30 years ago) who appeared and agreed to do the route with me again.
Andy led the top pitch, enabling me to retrieve my gear, and, not knowing it quite as well as me, he strayed to a line left of the proper finish. I have to say that this is a somewhat better finish. Nicer and more varied climbing, slightly more difficult up a striking corner crack line. It doesn't appear to be in any past guidebooks. The Dorset Rockfax photos indicate it very clearly, but no route is marked and I can't find it in any other guides. So, to cut a long story short, anybody done it and claimed it as theirs before we register it as a new alternative finish? I have done all the other climbs in that immediate vicinity before and I don't remember ever having done it before, but then old age is addling my memory!
