UKC

Jacopo Larcher has made the fourth ascent of the 'post-break' Parthian Shot, E10 6c, at Burbage South Edge in the Peak District. 

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Great stuff.

No mention of the quite high looking side runner in Brooks' Crack on the right though. Would be interesting to know if that has any impact on the grade or not.

Not intending to criticise, I think the routes Jacopo (and Babsi) have done across the world are extremely impressive and inspiring. He's certainly more than welcome to use whatever side runners he wants, I'm just intrigued.

Hi, I watched the videos of Ben and Siebe climbing the route and placed the side runner where they also did. 

I believe Ben Bransby had a side runner in the crack too, high enough to prevent a ground fall from the crux if the flake failed (but probably not from the finish?). Not sure about the other ascents.

When it's a question of climbing a couple of moves up and down an easy crack to place a runner vs. risking it all on a hollow flake in the name of purity, I know what I would do!

A summer ascent should add two e-grades!!! 😉

Great stuff.

Thanks for the response. I had also seen that Ben Bransby used the same side runner (don't think I watched the Sieve Vanhee video), but I don't remember reading anything about it then either (maybe there was something that I've forgotten). I didn't mean to single you out, so apologies if I did.

Basically I was really wondering if the side runner is high enough to keep a climber off the ground if they fluffed the foot swap move and if that's been tested or not, thinking in the classic hard grit fashion of throwing a bag of rocks off the top.

Following on from that I was wondering if the grading assumes you'd hit the ground from the footswap or not, or if it's a very extreme version of 'scary but actually safe'. I have very little idea how hard Parthian Shot is physically, which I think would go some way towards answering my question. Is it an F8c and actually it's safe or is it F8a+ and death, or somewhere in-between? Is it the case that really it's two routes in one, physical E8/9/10 relatively safe with siderunner, then into an E8/9/10 relatively easy but very dangerous top section which in total adds up to roughly E10? My original understanding was that it was medium hard (for E10) but very scary/dangerous because of the dodgy flake, but also sort of ok because the flake seems to hold most of the time and I was wondering if that understanding was wrong because the siderunner (which if I remember correctly from when I did Brooks' Crack is good and looks roughly to me high enough to keep you off the ground from near the top) doesn't change the grade.

Questions aren't specifically directed at Jacopo, just anyone who knows.

Also agree with the above, definitely extra impressive to do it in summer!

I'm sure if I ever got on Parthian Shot a side runner wouldn't be remotely close to enough for me! I'd want a toprope

From the logbooks "A sport grade of 8b is found to be useful information by some. © Rockfax"

Ah haha, I should have looked more carefully. I did look at the logbook for the pre-break version and that doesn't mention a sport grade, should have clicked one over.

Awesome effort, especially during the summer. It may have been cooler than normal, but humidity would probably have been higher than in winter.

I’ve honestly no idea about the e grade Parthian Shot deserves and I’ve never talked about it. I think it’s a very nice and historical route, which I’d always wanted to climb. I think the side runner will keep you off the deck if you fall off the crux, but probably not if you fall from higher up. 

Oi! I've done Brooks Crack as one of my limited number of grit HVS onsights, so I resent the "easy" description. ;⁠-⁠)

Well done Jacopo! It's an amazing looking route.

Jonny Dawes actually seeing (way back then) that it was possible to climb the line was pretty amazing even if he didn't get to lead it.

Just climbed Parthian Shot and you’re…”looking forward to getting back in shape”. 🤣