James Squire has had a productive trip to Rocklands, South Africa, ticking Spray of Light (f8C), a Font 8C first climbed by Daniel Woods in 2015. The problem has been repeated by a number of strong climbers including Dave Graham and Shawn Raboutou. The route is a hard version of the classic Klem Loskot problem Ray of Light (f8B) which links two 8B boulder problems together.
James told UKC: 'This year I wanted to focus less on ticking a large volume of boulders and more on trying to climb a single hard problem. This is challenging when you are in Rocklands and there are so many world class lines everywhere! I had a few sessions on this boulder last year and after spending a long time finding a sequence that works, I was able to finish it off on my second session this trip. Happy would be an understatement.'
Spray of Light was James' second 8C. Last year he climbed his long project at Biblins Cave naming it The World Is Yours (f8C)
Below is a video of James climbing the problem:
Despite focussing so much of his attention on Spray of Light, James managed to sneak in ascents of The Arch (V13) (8B), Skadoosh (f8B+) (8B+), Industry of Cool (f8B) (8A+/B), Steak House (f8A+) (8A+), Green Mamba (f8A+) (8A+) and The Quintessential (V13) (8B).
This trip tops off a successful year so far for James. Earlier in the year he managed two first ascents: The Vault (f8B) (8B) at Hartland Quay and Keep It Real (f8B+) (8B+) at Biblins Cave.
The Vault was an old project on the steep Carnage Wall at Hartland Quay that starts to the right of Supercede (f8A+). James said: 'The whole wall is made up of perfect wave washed slopers which creates a powerful and tensiony climbing style. We had some crazy days in February when it felt almost 25 degrees but the humidity was still very low. I headed down and after a few hours, I managed to figure out some beta and climb the project. One of the highest quality boulders I have ever put up!'
Keep it Real was a different beast altogether. In 2014, James climbed the roof on the right-hand side of the cave (Bat Bites Back (f7C+) 7C+) but a few months later a crucial jug fell off leaving a hard project in its place. James tried to work a sequence for several years before he found a suitable method: 'I discovered you could do a large move to a sidepull above your head. Six sessions later I had climbed the project. I couldn't believe it.'
Comments
Well done James
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