UKC

Hazel Findlay has climbed Johnny Dawes' four-pitch masterpiece, The Quarryman (E8 7a) in Twll Mawr in the Llanberis slate quarries. She had climbed the spectacular groove pitch in June but returned to climb all the pitches in one push.

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In reply to UKC News:

Ever since watching Stone Monkey, I've been in absolute awe of anyone who can climb this route. I know there are physically more difficult routes out there - but this is one of those pure "wow, how can a human do that?" ones that blows my mind. 

Well done Hazel (and Angus!) - another amazing tick to add to such an impressive portfolio. 

In reply to Paul Sagar:

3d feels like a pretty mean tech grade for the groove pitch.

jcm

In reply to UKC News:

What a great achievement - well done to both of you.

I re-read Johnnie Dawes book recently and there is a great little story about him meeting Gail Zappa to ask permission to use one of his tracks 'Yo Mama' on Stone Monkey. It was the first time ever that Frank's music was used as background to a video.

In reply to UKC News:

For all the talk of height let's not forget that Johnny Dawes is pretty short - that's one of the reasons why he developed such a dynamic climbing style.

In reply to John2:

Has Mclure done it too? Or am I mixing it up with The Very Big and the Very Small...? Anyway isn't Steve, in the nicest possible way, a bit of a short arse too?

In the article they reckon 5'10 is the height you need. This is handy because I'm about 5'9 and 3/4 inches, so now I have an excuse for why I can't climb the Quarryman! 

Well done Angus and Hazel.

In reply to TobyA:

Yes, McClure has done it. It's a measure of how ahead of their time many of Dawes' routes were that repeats are still newsworthy more than 30 years later.

In reply to UKC News:

I know what she means about the quarries becoming oppressive after a while. The first few times I went I thought it was amazing but as I visit more and more it starts to feel a bit depressing. I guess the novelty wears off and you realise it is in fact a big hole full of slag. However, if I take a break for a couple of years and go back then it feels good again. 

In reply to TobyA:

About a few months after Steve did it from the Ground, me and my buddy Ian Cooper did it as well. I remember our convo - I’m 6ft and he’s much shorter than me 😂 The final crux section we found was really hard if you were between our two heights, because I could do a sort of jump move, and ian could fit into a small squished up space to do the move, but if you were in between you’d be a bit screwed haha 

I also wonder how many people have done it from the ground? I think more than the list suggests for sure. 

In reply to UKC News:

Caff and Pete ??

In reply to Robbie_Phillips:

So how short is Ian? Just asking because I want to check my excuse for not doing the Quarryman remains valid (we'll leave to one side it being 6 E points harder than anything I've ever done! ).

Good effort on the ground up.

In reply to Red Rover:

I've not done huge amounts in the quarries but I've been an infrequent visitor over the last two decades - I think the weather can make a huge difference as well. Blue skies and warm sun versus leaden skies and drizzle, I have good memories of doing hilarious finger-tip mantles with my cheek pushed against smooth warm slate and I have bad memories of doing stupid finger-tip mantles with my cheek pushed against cold miserable cold slate

In reply to TobyA:

I agree. I think I might be biased because in good weather I go to a mountain crag. So my experiences of the quarries are of dodgy weather where I'll climb a 5 meter easy sports route or do SLT for the tenth time. 

If I was a good enough climber to do the quality routes I might view the quarries differently.

In reply to TobyA:

Haha I’m honestly not sure, but I remember he said he was similar Caff/Dawes height. Me and Ian also repeated “Couer de Lion” to the left of “Quarryman” and we both agreed the crux was easier if you were shorter haha I had a hell of a time getting my foot high on the crux and ended up having to do a slightly different sequence with a worse foothold that was lower. 

In reply to UKC News:

Somebody needs to produce a very selected guide to the classic routes that sandbag the short and which regrades them accordingly. 'Hard (to reach) Rock' maybe?

In reply to Robbie_Phillips:

I'm definitely under 5' 10", more like 5'8", and I think a lot of moves on slate seem to be easier for my height  than yours! There are a couple of notable exceptions, the top crux of the first pitch of Quarryman is one of them and the foot pickup move on Meltdown is another . 

I think I'm still a fair bit taller than both Hazel and Johnny Dawes though so not sure what it'd be like for them though!!

In reply to UKC News:

Quality cranking.  One of the few climbing stories I've followed during lockdown and so good to see the team send!  The groove pitch looks dreamy.

In reply to UKC News:To those who've done it.. how does the 8a grade feel? About right? Is there anything else to compare it to? 

In reply to wbo2:

A friend of mine has done the groove pitch and I don't think it took him loads of sessions (maybe 4?).  He's not done anything harder than 7b+ before and said it was HVS skills on acid!  He is very good at corners though.  Its almost impossible to grade something that has so few really similar things to compare it to.

In reply to Somerset swede basher:

At 8a, could it be a realistic (as in unlikely but possible) onsight prospect for someone who excels at that sort of thing (and climbs hard obviously)?    

In reply to Somerset swede basher:

Ha ha that is exactly what I sed! It took me a lot less sessions than Cosmopolitan at the cornice( which I still haven’t finished!) it stoped being a hard route when Dan Arkle climbed it  I also cheated a bit by extending the crux bolt because I was afraid of taking a big fall onto the old bolt. 

In reply to wbo2:

It’s really hard to grade, but I’ve done one other pitch in the world that’s similar in style and that was the 5.13c groove pitch on Tommy Caldwell’s “Magic Mushroom” on El Cap. 5.13c equates to 8a+ in French grades and I thought by comparison it made the Quarryman groove feel about 7b+! That groove pitch on “Magic Mushroom” is about 40m long and contains two sections of much harder difficulty than “The Quarryman” separated by a ledge. I wish I could have set a belay up at that ledge and done it as two pitches 😂 
 

Giving these pitches grades is hard... I can’t compare it to normal face climbing on sport. It’s the sort of thing I could imagine 8c onsighters flailing on and some 10 y/o kid on TR just scooting up it 😅 I did belay my friend Anna on it and she almost did it and at the time she hadn’t climbed harder than 7b+. It’s a weird pitch 

In reply to Michael Gordon:

I know someone who has headpointed the groove pitch but has probably never onsighted above 7a or redpointed above 7b on British limestone (or any limestone probably). She does onsight E5 though.

In reply to UKC News:

big up the Findlay! Nice one!

In reply to UKC News:

Great work Hazel!

The route was presumably graded by the first ascensionist who is nowhere near 5'10" (more like 5'4" I would guess) so I don't understand how it can be "harder for the short" - it was graded by the short.

In reply to Removed UserTall35:

Presumably it can be harder for the short than the not-quite-as-short without it necessarily affecting the grade. Dawes isn't tall but I'd be surprised if he's 5'4?

In reply to Michael Gordon:

There are a lot of possibilities to climb it as it has a lot of potential foot holds if you can youse them, so it really doesn’t matter how tall or small you are, you just have to find the version that works for you! 

In reply to Andy Peak 1:

That may be true for the groove pitch, but the others?

In reply to Michael Gordon:

Surprising as it may be, I’m pretty sure Johnny is 5 foot 4 or 5. Always makes me stop when I begin to use lack of reach as an excuse for being crap..!

In reply to Wyre Forest Illuminati:

OK thanks