In reply to Ian PJ Turner:
well i'm sorry to finally hear the details about the seriousness of your partner's injuries, but it's also somehow a relief to get an update on her condition (it has of course been on our minds ever since) and it's impressive that she's managing to be circumspect about such a traumatic incident.
hopefully she'll make a full recovery soon and if, like you say, she remains undaunted... well, maybe she'll be back on the hill sooner rather than later. cham' will still be there when she's ready.
for what it's worth: best wishes to you both, from two random folk who were queueing below at the traverse when the chopper came in, hoping it was just an exercise.
as has already been mentioned above: by all accounts she held it together well in what must have been an agonising and scary situation. impressive.
regarding the gap: the boulder with the tat is intact and- as has been said already- it's just that the lowering in from the boulder is now more reachy than it was before. the first block that folk previously would have lowered their feet onto is away.
jamie bankhead's a big guy while i most definitely am not, but i managed it direct style without any difficulty- just as i've done before- immediately after the incident, so it's still a goer.
the old tat was removed by mike pescod a while back i believe (i vaguely recall him posting on here to declare he'd cleaned it- correct me if i'm wrong mike!), so i was a little surprised to arrive at the gap to find new tat. it wasn't there a few weeks prior to ian's partner's accident on my previous ascent- i don't know if the lmrt left it there on the day.
i used my own sling on the boulder on the day of the incident and expected my partner to remove it when she seconded the gap, but she being even shorter than me was unable to make the traditional move. in the end she moved to the left on the jugs above obs' gully and found this less reachy and a team of guys soloing behind us were kind enough to retrieve my sling so that she didn't have to faff with it. most of them opted for the jugs on the obs' gully side too, but i've got to be honest about this: the stuff on that side of the big boulder looks ready to disintegrate and i wouldn't fancy it... sticking to the direct descent into the gap still looks safer to me.
bolts? nope- we're a long way off needing to ab' into the gap yet! pub at the cic? hell yeah ;p