UKC

Franco Cookson has made the first ascent of his long-term slab project, The Dewin Stone, 9a+, at Twll Mawr, Gwynedd, Wales.

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When you chat to him, can you ask him if he's plan on leaving his spiders web art installation of fixed ropes up permanently?

Should be gone next dry day. Unless you want it leaving?

Epic, inspiring.

They're all off now...

Well done on the route Franco, sounds full on. A pity you didn't write something about how spending time on a sailing boat going to Greenland was some kind of training for this... the continuous movement of the boat in the waves meant you were adjusting your centre of balance over your feet the whole time and led to the calculation of the vectors becoming instinctive and therefore the rockovers on the slate sea of the Meltdown felt almost as easy as sitting down on the sofa.... Johnny would have given us all something like this. 

Am I right that you led the bottom direct start with a hanging rope with knots in to clip? I'm not a rabid bolter but I think it would make sense to go and actually place the bolts? I've always found the NWB fund really helpful with lending the kit to bolt and often providing the bolts themselves at a really generous price, and I'm sure there are plenty of folk who can teach you how if you are not sure.

Apologies if I am wrong about this or that there is some ethical reason for the hanging rope.

And again good effort on it, I'm sure there are plenty of folk chomping at the bit to go look at it, which is surely the best compliment you can get.

Cracks open the popcorn 🍿and awaits the arrival of Andy F.

It's not meant to be a massive ethical statement.  I just don't really fancy drilling holes. I'd never say never, but I haven't yet placed a bolt and don't really fancy it on a wall as spectacular as this. The long term ambition is to do it on trad, which is definitely possible and would provide a really good and difficult trad route. I suppose long term, I'd prefer to be retro trading sport routes, rather than placing bolts on new lines. It's not about the cost though!

Not that I'll be in any position to repeat this route in this lifetime or the next, however this style does make the positions and number of the knots open to interpretation for any would be repeaters.  Unless you or someone else does it as a trad route in which case I suspect it would reduce the small number of candidates to repeat it, though perhaps you are not bothered about this. Personally I hate having any ropes down a route if it is avoidable as it always seems less committing and distracting even if on an individual move there is no way you could grab the rope. 

Anyway good effort. 

Well done, all very impressive stuff!

Does Meltdown Direct share the same finish as Dewin Stone going upwards when meltdown traverses right, or do you go right a bit first and take a line between DS and the normal Meltdown finish? It wasn't obvious from the picture with the coloured lines on. Not that I'll be getting on it, just interested.

My understanding is that Dewin Stone and Meltdown Direct share the same finish.

The diagram of the lines is in the article.

Cheers

Would you be adverse to someone else popping a few bolts in? I guess meltdown has been bolted since the 90’s? 

Drilling holes in slate is the purest respect to the medium. These walls are themselves the containing boundaries of a big hole. The action of your rotary chisel is homage to their origins, the act of creative destruction, a salute to the quarrymen.

It is, but it neither confirms not denies the question he asked, about whether this uses the direct finish to meltdown, since only the original line is marked...

Maybe I misunderstood but I thought the "Nails Project" and yellow dots on that diagram represented the line of the direct finish.

A great point well made! 

Chippedy-doo-dah……..

...and to the pioneering generation of slateheads

The yellow dots in Franco's topo hasn't been climbed.

Meltdown Direct follows meltdown up, left and then up, but then goes direct to the chains where meltdown goes back right and then up to the chains.

Yep, I got that much. 

Understood, thanks for clarifying. 

Dawes was trying it in the mid 80's so I guess it got bolted then

Congrats, looks ace. Wondering what slab benchmarks he has tried abroad: Cryptography? Disbelief?

Candidates for hardest slab climbs: disbelief and cryptography. Maybe you can include them in the article @UKC!

Personally I don't they're in a very comparable style. I think most people would call them face climbs, whereas Franco's new thing does feel closer to what I'd normally call a slab. All very subjective though.

If you can't take your hands off it's not a slab in my opinion.

What is the defintion of slab...

Most would argue it is about the angle of the rock (less than vertical). And quite often, they are all face climbs (as if you follow a crack on a slab, you just call it a crack).


The french do (at times) refer slabs as pieces of rock with a clean face, but the angle can be anythign from slabby to serverly overhanging. But I guess that defintion is not what majority of people think... after all, I've heard and read some confusing question arise when a guidebooks describes an overhanging slab .


Of course, some equate slab to friction climbing, so instead of holds you just smear and crimp on what ever crystal of change of texture you have....

and the Italians, and (by the look of things) the Germans and Austrians. Why they can't use 'wall' I don't know 🙄

Definition of a slab: Where the angle is sufficiently low that you  can take your hands off and fill your pipe. 

I dunno... when slabs get really steep and terrifying I often find myself 'filling my pipe'...

A slab is significantly less than vertical. The Pillar (E2 5b) is not a slab; it's a wall climb. The Long Reach (E2 5b) is a slab route.

The pillar is a slab apart from the bit at the bottom 

By which definition...

slab of rock, often means a clean face (not lot of weaknesses, obstruction and such). and as a lot of alpine countries seem to note, it does not take the angle into any consideration (see above, overhanging slab).

in some context, slab is anything of less than vertical... when used to define the angle. So 88.9 degrees is a slab. Albeit given that people are not good at estimating angles, I would say realistically climbers tend to call stuff in the 80 to 100 degree range as vertical (give or take, I'm ball parking now, perhaps 85 to 95 is better guess). So anything less than 80 (or 85) degrees is by that definition a slab.

Although 'slab' is a convenient word to describe off-vertical climbing, the European definition actually makes more sense. A lot of UK climbs described as slabs follow cracks or corners, where the actual word 'slab' doesn't make any sense. 

indeed...

You can use the term to describe the feature you are climbing (crack, slab of rock, areta, openbook).

Or the angle of the feature (slabby/slab, vertical, overhang, roof).

Or the type of climbing (face or crack climbing, slabby or perhaps insecure, smeary climbing, thuggy roof climbing).

Oddly slab (or slabby) is used in all three types... So it can be the feature, the angle or the type of climbing...