UKC

Angus Kille has made the 8th ascent of Indian Face on Clogwyn D'ur Arddu. The Indian Face was the first route graded E9 in the UK (therefore the world) and was climbed by legend Johnny Dawes back in 1986. It maintains its reputation as a terrifying lead to this day. Ascents were few and far between, and then with the warm weather of 2013 came three ascents in a week. Angus' ascent is the first in five years.

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In reply to UKC News:

I like this quote: "On the day I chalked up twice before leaving the house because my hands were so sweaty thinking about it."

I was surprised to see he'd climbed the route while some of it was in the sun. Surely this would have been predictable, no? Some of his other comments suggest there was a bit less in reserve than one might like!

In reply to UKC News:

My god what an exciting time for British Trad, well done Angus

In reply to UKC News:

Anyone know where the Island that Nick and Jonny did goes??

In reply to UKC News:

Great job Angus!

A point of history; "...and with the first and second ascensionists there..." i thought Nick's was the 3rd ascent? The second ascent was by Neil Gresham wasn't it?

In reply to Shani:

Pretty certain Nick did it just days before Neil. I think I remember reading Gresham saying that he probably wouldn't have done it without Dixon having broken the spell first. I remember it was an excellent article, IIRC Gresham admits that he wasn't in a great place mentally when he did it.

In reply to Shani:

see this article : INTERVIEW: Nick Dixon - Indian Face, The First Repeat

https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/nick_dixon_-_indian_face_the_f...

In reply to Kipper-Phil Smith:

Up the wall right of Drainpipe crack

In reply to TobyA:

Thanks for putting me straight.

In reply to UKC News: excuse my ignorance but who is the long haired fellow in the article photo? 

 

In reply to Motown:

Dave Greenald innit. 

In reply to Motown:

John Redhead was unavailable, so Dave Greenald took the slightly crazed 70s long-hair role. 

In reply to Michael Gordon:

It's an interesting point. My assumption is that it was a cloudy day and it came into the sun because of a break in the clouds. But I don't know for sure. I thought that those faces don't get much sun at all anyway, regardless of cloud cover, but it's been a long time since I've climbed on Cloggy.

 

In reply to stp:

In the photo it's clearly coming into the sun as he leaves the ground.

In reply to UKC News:

I hope it's been filmed because there's a dearth of footage of anyone doing the route from bottom to top.

In reply to stp:

IF comes into the sun around 6.45pm at the moment.

In reply to Southvillain:

There is: https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2013/09/exclusive_-_macleod_climbs_indian_f...

but it's asking for a password, what's that all about?

In reply to Lusk:

Vimeo needs a password, but `that' footage you're referring to is probably this - youtube.com/watch?v=c3e0AllzcgE& - bit of top roping and then a walk away...

Thanks anyway.

In reply to Southvillain:

It isn't. Hope that helps.

 

In reply to Lusk:

The video is no longer available publicly

In reply to stp:

I suppose it was predictable that it would come into the sun, but given everything else going through my head and all of the other factors I was weighing up, neither I nor James (belaying) had anticipated it. To be honest I hadn't realised the time, I had spent almost an hour getting my head straight before the lead. 

I think James thought it would have been best to down-climb from some kit backed-up with a skyhook or something, which would have been sensible, but when you've committed that far you don't really want to back down.

I was chalking up a lot more than usual, particularly while trying to fiddle in all the little RPs, but actually by the time I left the contemplation ledge it wasn't too much hotter if it were in the shade. 

In reply to UKC News:

By comparison, Face Mecca doesn't get much attention... Has it even had a second ascent?

In reply to Southvillain:

Yeah Nick actually filmed most/all of it on his phone. He put quite a good video of the crux on Facebook, he talked about putting something on Youtube too. I was going to put it on Instagram or something but it's not excellent quality.

In reply to anguskille:

OK and thanks for the clarification. Great effort too.

What's next? Something a little safer I hope.

In reply to chrishedgehog:

Johnny did it, I think. He used to show slides of it at his lectures.

 

jcm

 

In reply to chrishedgehog:

www.ukclimbing.com/news/2016/06/face_mecca_e9_6c_for_james_mchaffie-70510

In reply to anguskille:

Sod the quality, put it up somewhere and let us all know! Top effort, btw.