Tim Blake has made the third ascent of 'The Young' at Callaly in Northumberland. Despite the route having been climbed by several variations, Tim chose to repeat the original line put up by Andy Earl, which has received just one ascent courtesy of Dan Varian in 2010.

Tim made multiple attempts to climb the route ground-up, but due to time pressure decided to throw a rope down the final section. "I couldn't make everyone's sole focus getting me up a bit of rock," Tim told UKC, "so I decided to not let my ego get in the way".

We asked Tim a few questions about his experiences on the route.

First and foremost, good effort on getting The Young done and dusted - must be something of a weight off your mind given its height (and reputation). Yours is the third 'complete' ascent of the original line, after Andy Earl made the first ascent and Dan Varian made the second. Other variations exist, but it's clear that you were gunning for the historic tick - the same way that Andy did it on the FA. Can you tell us a bit more about why this was the case and what exactly both the route and its first ascensionist meant to you?

The Young has been on my radar ever since I got into climbing, but not necessarily as something I could do. I remember the first glimpse of it I got was the footage of Micky Page, Micky Stainthorpe and Ned Feehally having a go at it and thought it looked amazing. I don't remember seeing any photos of Andy on it and the guide doesn't really give any insight into the route, so I'd only ever heard rumours about how amazing the wall and the climbing on it was.

I've known Andy for years now. I was pretty young when he was still climbing but can remember him giving my Dad a pair of hand-me-down shoes of his for me; they had his signature on and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Andy used to take a group of us around the old Climb Newcastle on a Wednesday night every week and even though he never really spoke about his own climbing his attitude towards it was still very apparent - a really brutal no messing about approach. He would always tell you if you were being s***. He helped my climbing massively in that period of time just by shouting at me and the others. There's no way I could say I'd done Earl's 'The Young' without doing it properly; I can just imagine what he'd say to that!

Watch a video of Micky Page, Ned Feehally and Mickey Stainthorpe attempt The Young:

How did you go about doing the route? Given its height this is quite a serious proposition, something you clearly bore the brunt of when falling from near the top during a previous effort.

I'd been up there about 2 years previously with another group. From memory, I did it ground-up to the first patina pretty quick, but was having a bit of trouble focusing that day so let it be. We went back about a week ago and I soon realised that if I wanted to ground-up it then I might have had to spend a couple more sessions on it and I didn't really have the time, as I was heading back to Wales on the 17th and had promised to help my girlfriend Jasmine move into a new house. I couldn't make everyone's sole focus getting me up a bit of rock, so I decided to not let my ego get in the way and just threw a rope down for the top moves (which turned out not to be too nightmarish). I basically just did the top moves and cleaned the holds, never linking it from bottom to top, so it still felt like more of a challenge than it could have if I'd had the whole thing wired.

On the note of the aforementioned fall, how big actually is it and how much did it hurt?!?

It wasn't too bad actually. Most of the times when I've taken really big lobs from highballs they've been planned (jumped off rather than fallen off), in this case I fell off so I didn't really have time to think about anything and just happened to land perfectly. I did take another big one almost landing right on top of my Dad. I think it's around 9m?

The rock itself looks incredible, with that unique shield feature low down and those similarly unique 'pancakes' (as the guidebook refers to them as) above. Can you tell us a bit more about the moves, the difficulty, and what grade it may or may not be?

The rock is incredible and the moves match it. The first bit of climbing up the shield is great, the rock quality is brilliant. The best moves are right in the middle, you get your heel in a really good heel hook and do a series of roll-over moves to a mono and a couple of shallow two finger pockets; this can grow quite tiring after a while and wears you out. The quality just stays the same after that as you dance past the rest of the dinner plates with a bit of tech.

It feels hard to grade and took me more goes than The Dark Side (E9 7b) did. So it's in the same ballpark. I thought around Font 8A, but with the mixture of difficulty in the 8A category in the county (where some feel steady and others feel really hard) it's difficult to tell. You don't want to be sandbagging or over-grading; however, given that a lot of strong people have tried it or had a go and not done it, it must be hard-ish.

Of the 'Earl Trilogy' you've now done The Young and The Dark Side, but - correct me if I'm wrong - are yet to do The Prow (E9 7a). I'm presuming this is on the menu sometime soon?

The Prow is definitely on the list, I've always wanted to do that too! Hopefully I can give that a bash when I'm next staying in the county for a bit. I'm off to try Mark Savage's Cataclysm (E6 7a) in the next couple of days so that's also high on the list.

Outside of bouldering/highballing are you tempted to don the rack and ropes in order to climb some of Andy's longer routes such as Endless Flight Direct or Masterclass at Rothley? I'm also guessing that - if you are - routes like Malcolm Smith's Transcendence or Adam Watson's Purgatory are on the list too.

Again I'm also really keen for those. I had a couple of sessions a while ago trying to do Endless Flight (Direct) (E8 7a) ground-up with Dan when he did it. I think I'd probably have more luck now. I'd love to get all the hard routes in the county done as it's not an unachievable goal here as there aren't a million!

Further away from home, you are currently studying at Bangor University. What's on the menu for whilst you're in North Wales (aside from work and partying)?

Getting more stuck into uni I think, I do Forestry and Conservation and I'm just about to start my second year. I think like most keen climbers who've been to Bangor Uni, most of my first year was spent trying to go out climbing in between lectures and going to the pub. Hopefully I can get some bouldering projects ticked off then hit LPT and the slate!