UKC

The Route of All Evil (7a+)

I’m sat here, flicking through guidebooks dreaming of routes to climb and days to be had.

Having mostly found other parties climbing on the Great Wall at Chapel Head I’ve never justified getting on the aforementioned route but I’ve often wondered how people manage their ropes with such a meandering sport climb.

Lots of extenders? Double/twin ropes? Just put up with the drag? Skip bolts? If anyone any memories of how they’ve climbed it, I’d like to hear them.

Pretty sure we'd have used double ropes, but then it was a long time ago and maybe wasn't a true sport route then - in fact pretty sure it wasn't!

To do it properly, just set off like (big) George with two ropes and a few wires . No bolts in then.

A perplexing bit of rock, with a lot of easy sections , non linking that comfortably.

Like most folk , I  just climbed what I  could on that wall with a single rope clipping as many bolts as possible.

Three or four ropes might be best to follow G's original line

I'd always avoided it for the same reasons as you: it sounded like a whole load of faff.

When I eventually got on it I did so with a single rope and a whole load of 60cm extenders. Whilst this obviously made it feel a little more run-out, it wasn't half as bad as I was expecting drag wise (i.e. noticeable, but far from terminal), and really was a great route. Sure double ropes would have made a difference, but given that I didn't have double ropes with me that day it wasn't much consolation. 

Were I to go back I'd do the same thing again.

Hope that's of help!

Did you not think of using both ends of a single then lowering off on one?

Thanks everyone who’s been in touch, feeling even more inspired. Maybe had one too many occasions either running pitches together or bad rope management causing me to hesitate getting on it.

On another note without making another topic I’ve just noticed a discrepancy between bird ban dates in the Northern Limestone guide (1st March) and on here (1st February). Any thoughts anyone? 

I could have, but it’d have been a whole lot heavier. Given a reasonable backing of experience I was relatively confident it’d be fine with the extenders, which is was...thankfully...

The UKC page has 2 conflicting ban dates for Chapel Head Scar - in the 'access' section it says 1st March, it's just the overview that has the Feb date. The BMC Regional Access Database is the best source and this too has the March 1st date, but if there's any doubt there are signs at the crag to say when it's closed. 

Thanks Ron, the clock is ticking either way. Hope someone’s been able to make it there this weekend. 

Rick, I've been mulling over my self righteous comments above and all I can think of is the occasions where said 'experience' counted for very little, and I topped out with monumental rope drag.

I'm going to have a think about some personal favourites/all-time greats (i.e. all time low points within my climbing career) and post them in another thread. Reckon it could be a laugh...

This was only George's second ever route on limestone, the first being Book of Invasions on white scar.

He led ROAE after a brief abseil, as Rick said, 2 ropes and a rack of wires, the only fixed gear was a thread at  mid- height. Considering that bolts were not placed on the crag for another 4 years, it was a brilliant lead, and as noted in this commentary the wandering nature of the line is not easy to follow as a full sports route.

The other point to note is that George had only led a couple of trad E4' s before ROAE, he was really pushing the boat out on that route.

Not sure about that last bit , Al. 

I climbed a lot with George in .summer 1983, he was solid on E5 then.

I think ROAE was done late 83, not got a guide to hand .

If ROAE was done early 83 , he was soon on a roll. The only time i saw him struggle was on a new route on burnt crag, he completed it a couple of years later.

If you want, it is possible to do with a single rope without too much faff. I remember putting a long 60cm extender where it kinks left and down-climbed to the rests to remove the previous quickdraws (and rest!) and had minimal drag. Awesome route!