UKC

15-year-old Tom Pearce has made the third ascent of Franco Cookson's Divine Moments of Truth (E9 6c) at Kay Nest, in the North York Moors.

Great effort by a very nice young chap. Thoroughly deserved

Interesting stuff. E9 at 15! Echoes of Pete Whittaker? Sounds like he used Franco's original sequence? Very impressive.

E9 after less than a year of leading!

Why a dislike on this post? 

I think he's been leading for more than a year, he's certainly been climbing for quite a while. He led Sacre Coeur easily and very competently last summer.

OK I must have missread the article. I thought it said he only started leading after the first lockdown or something.

"Tom started climbing with his dad at the age of 5, but only discovered leading routes at the end of the first lockdown last year."

So I was right then, he has led E9 after less than a year of leading. Why is my original comment getting the dislikes?

Because you asked why it was getting dislikes. The UKC child mind has kicked in.

It was getting dislikes before I asked why. Maybe people assumed I must have missread, as leading E9 after less than a year of leading is so amazing, or they though I was dissapproving somehow? I don't know, UKS seems pretty judgy these days.

Sorry for the misleading info about when I started leading. I HAD been leading for longer than a year however only up to about HS. It was headpointing that I only discovered within a year. 

Thanks for the comments though, the support means a lot to me.

Good effort. Minor detail question... Is your tie-in knot like it is on purpose, i.e. with a large loop and pushed to the side?

Great work Tom! A promising future...take care ! 

I got 7 dislikes.

I hope this comment gets 20.....

This has been bugging me as well. Either there’s a very good, specific reason for it or it’s just plain sloppy...

I did wonder if the idea had been to move the bulk of the knott to the side to allow the hips to get a fraction closer to the wall... I may have been over thinking it.  

I guess it might matter if there was any gear to clip. 

It was just me being incompetent, no specific reason for it.

I'm not sure if anyone has every died from having too big a knot loop.  

Has anyone ever tried looking? There could be a direct correlation between climbing deaths and knot loop diameter.

There could be a direct correlation between my disliker and no sense of humour

Once you can catch your knee in it I bet there is!

I'm pleased to report that Tom successfully learnt to tie a fig of 8 at the weekend,  he also made the first repeat of The Aghori, which is a properly hard H8 7a that was a LGP for years in the Moors, with a particularly nails rockover on it. It's also worth noting that Tom has to do an extra 6c move right at the end, in the no fall zone, which probably makes it a grade harder for someone of his height. 

Next up, think he's got his eye on learning a bowline. 

If he’s wired the figure of eight there’s no next to know about the bowline.  I reckon he’d do well to work on the clove hitch. I find that a super useful knot.

Bowline is more useful when someone lowers you a rope 'cos you've got stuck on something hard....

Even more useful is a screwgate cliped into a figure of 8 on the end of the lowered rope...