UKC

Dave MacLeod has made the third ascent of Neil Gresham's Lexicon E11 7a at Pavey Ark, Cumbria. The route shares the start of Impact Day E8 6c up to a break, before leading straight up an overhanging headwall on small crimps with marginal footholds.

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Chris must be really pleased with that shot. What a cracker.

Another great insight into Lexicon. That’s what I love about following hard UK trad - being 43 and being the youngest ascensionist just goes to show how important that cumulative experience, risk analysis and mental resilience is for performing at the top end. Hats off to the three of ya!

Enjoyed that piece

Was thinking the same. Brilliant pic. 

Fortunately not an April fool!

Fascinating, insightful interview, and obviously a fantastic bit of climbing. Well done Dave. You've youth on your side!

Cool interview! Especially to read his thoughts about the relative difficulty of Rhapsody and Mind Riot too. It must be so hard to grade at that level when these routes are, by their very nature, quite rare to find and even rarer to successfully climb.

It’d be interesting to hear a group of the UK’s most experienced E9+ climbers discuss what they view as being benchmark, middle-of-the-grade routes for E9 and above. I’d guess that a blind poll would deliver very different answers, and not just due to the inevitable variation for climbers’ body types, climbing styles, headgames etc.

Great send, well done Dave. Also really interesting article, made a very enjoyable read. Always good to keep getting proof that I'm not too old to try hard routes too. (no comment on whether I'm too weak and fat however...)

The laugh out loud moment for me was "It was good to see that [Steve] didn't hit the ground,", like hitting the ground is a fairly standard thing in (hard) climbing but it was a nice surprise that it didn't happen this time!

Yeah, yeah, I know I see meanings that aren't there but it's a good way to keep myself entertained ;D

What an astounding picture. 

Agreed, I especially like the 2-level "distant" background of Stickle Tarn and then the Langdale Valley floor.

Also, that BD/skyhook combo might be above the gear in the break but it's not exactly waist-high on the crux 😁