UKC

Back in May, we reported that James Pearson had made the first ascent of an impressive E10 7a crack line at Annot, in Provence. He named the route Le Voyage. Our Friday Night Video is made by James and documents his ascent of the route.

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In reply to UKC News:

4kN is why

Is the green superlight equal in size to an IMP 4? If so, you can get 7kN out of the same placement with a brassy.

Still, good to know that a medium-sized fall is about 5-6kN, means with my lardy arse I probably shouldnt make any kind of a runout unless I have at least 8kN minimum under me!

In reply to UKC News:
What great looking rock!

Fun video, but you might want to mute the last third.

In reply to UKC News:

Great effort!! But the constant allez must add a grade!!!!

In reply to UKC News:

Listen to the sound from 6 mins in, sounds like a gentle porno

In reply to UKC News: I've been to Annot a few times but haven't climbed there. It looks really good but I'm not sure I'd have much faith in small wires in that rock - still they seem to work.

Are the routes there clean, or a bit sandy if unclimbed?

In reply to UKC News:

I like their videos, they always seem to be really enjoying themselves.

In reply to henwardian:


They're rated to 6kN according to the WC website, but that's for the 'new for 2017' ones. Do you have amd older model rated to 4kN?

In reply to wbo:

the chambre du roi tend to be cleaner than further along on the middle terrace. It's soft sandstone so it varies from clean to a pile of choss (beware that 3* 6b down at the cascade...not one for a fall!).

It's an absolutely awesome venue but it takes a while to get to know what's where.

That French 7a start to James' E10 is brutal and sore!

In reply to Rad:
I am not sure about this video, I imagine u wud need to try to make an E10 look so dull. Give me Irish Si on End of the Affair in "Consumed" every day of the week... the "float move" a juxtaposition between ease and audacity.

In reply to UKC News:

Dreamy tune... https://soundcloud.com/thbdsultan/lost-in-the-night

In reply to Luke01:

I don't have superlight rocks so I just googled them and came up with this:
https://www.bananafingers.co.uk/superlight-rock-size-p-278.html
Which does say "4kN", but as you say, the WC site says "6kN" so I guess the real question is whether James had an old weak one or a new strong one

In reply to simon cox:

I liked the kind of low-key presentation here - makes a change from hyped-up over-excited vids. Seemed very British actually - in the best way.

In reply to Bob Kemp:


Seemed rather Anglo-Français, to me...

In reply to jon:

Hah, yes, in terms of language... but that understated approach?

In reply to Bob Kemp:
Well not really language as it's more or less English... but more that one's French, and the other isn't

In reply to henwardian:
the super light rocks have always been 6kn above the smaller sizes, the only change is the old ones size 1 and 2 are rated at 4kn and the new ones only size 1 at 4kn.

The reason I stopped using my super light rocks is for a few grams I don't think cutting the safety margin down to 6kn is worth it. I think for a nut to be almost impossible to break single pitch trad climbing it needs to be atleast 8kn and possibly 9kn. Also bare in mind on multi pitch belay anchors are unlikely to be evenly loaded and you may need stronger gear still in the case of a factor two fall on to the belay.

Apparently there used to be a lot of gate open biner failures when most of them were rated under 7/8 kn gate open but now we see much fewer as they are able to handle this.

In reply to jon:

Okay... we are of one accord really