Alex Barrows has made the first ascent of a new line bolted by Neil Gresham at Kilnsey, which he has named Preposterous Tales. Alex is unsure of the grade, but estimates it to be somewhere between 8c and 9a+. The route follows Epic Adventures 8c almost to the end, before heading rightwards and finishing at the shared chains of Freakshow, Premonition, Guns in the Sky and Mandela.
"Started climbing at 17" - is this right? I haven't managed to get my 7 year olds interested yet but sounds like there's still time (and yes, I know they could still have a lot of fun even if they *don't* climb 9a...)
Yeah, I started in 6th form. I was lucky enough that my school had a small climbing wall in its sports hall. Started as a tradder (lots of going soloing down Avon because the gorge was a shorter walk than the indoor wall) and gradually ended up getting more into sport and bouldering as I got more and more obsessed. I'm definitely not one from the "been good and on the GB team since they were a kid" camp! I reckon your 7 year olds have still got plenty of potential to be 9b (or c!) crushers if they want to be
Nice one Alex! Really awesome to see you getting such a prize line on a UK crag. For a moment there I thought you were a muppet for naming it after a Pembroke cave of slime, then felt bad when I remembered the day you got that book! Tim’s lecture was legendary.