UKC

Gerty Berwick repeated by James Pearson

© Adrian Gill (no duplication on other media without permission)
James Pearson has repeated Gerty Berwick at Ilkley, the former last great problem left of The New Statesman, first climbed by Ryan Pasquill on the 10th January this year. Both ascents were practiced on a top rope then led, in headpoint style. Both climbers padded the base of the climb with bouldering mats.

This vertical gritstone wall features technical and reachy moves and is unprotected in its lower half. Ilkley homeboy John Dunne described this climb at UKClimbing.com, "At the start of the route a long dyno is followed by a move to very small edge, after this a huge rock-over takes you over to a small crimp. This is followed by a long move to a good hold and finally easier climbing takes you to the top."

Gerty Berwick had been attempted by many climbers in the last twenty years including Dunne, Steve McClure, Steve Dunning and Jerry Moffatt. However it took a global rise in bouldering standards and in vogue highball bouldering for this impressive wall to yield to Ryan Pasquill, who thought it Font 8A, at a very 'highball' bouldering height, or around E9 7a in old money.

Healthy UK Climbing Scene

The UK top end climbing scene is very healthy at the moment with last great problems falling and many impressive repeats including Jordan Buys' repeat of Dunne's Widdop Wall (E9 7a / French 8b / 5.13d ), Pete Robins and Ben Bransby's ground up repeat of The Promise, Dave MacLeod's repeat of James Pearson's Walk of Life in Devon, Neil Dickson's ground up of Margins of the Mind, a John Redhead E8 at Cloggy and a whole slew of hard grit repeats by visiting Americans Kevin Jorgeson and Alex Honnold some featured in these Videos UKClimbing.com Videos. See also: End of Year: Trad 2008 by Jack Geldard - Editor.

With so many talented climbers on the scene at the moment it looks like being an interesting year on the new routes and repeat front.

James Pearson has recently achieved an onsight of End of The Affair at Curbar and has been discussing grades and style at jamespearsonclimbing.blogspot.com

James is sponsored by The North Face, Five Ten, and Wild Country.


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15 Feb, 2009
Well done that man.... crackin effort.
15 Feb, 2009
Good effort!
15 Feb, 2009
Bon Effort.
15 Feb, 2009
"The UK top end climbing scene is very healthy at the moment with several last great problems falling and several impressive repeats" Sums it up. Awesome . Might silence a few of his knockers. Enty
15 Feb, 2009
Lot of very talented climbers out there Enty, and all out there doing stuff. It is very refreshing and quite exciting to witness. Short routes, long routes, different styles, bouldering, sport, trad, the works. ....and winter and alpine.
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