A month after making a swift ascent of Le Voyage, E10, Robbie Phillips has made the first ascent of a new hard route on Ben Loyal in Scotland.

Valinor (E9 7a), is Robbie's second hardest FA, after his 2021 route at Duntelchaig, What we do in the Shadows (E10 7a).

Describing the route on instagram, Robbie said that the route is 'about as varied as it gets, with a nice easy crack to start with leading into hollow flakes, then a bouldery sequence (crux) through crimps and a flared crack'. After the crux there is an 'easier, albeit technical' compression sequence, which leads to 'the final offwidth'.

As for the grade of the route, Robbie struggled to make the final decision:

'I've never been so confused about a trad grade in my life… I wrestled with whether to give E8 or E9. It's harder than any E8 I've done, but as it's safe, it doesn't feel hard enough to be E9. But then the gear that protects the crux would be tricky to place onsight, and there's a risk that the hollow flake could mean the gear fails, making it a more serious route than I gave it credit for'.

'The French grade is hard 8a+, but certainly not 8b… The crux is harder than Le Voyage (8b+) (E10 7a), but has an easier start… and it took more goes to do than Achemine (E9 6c), but I still think Achemine is harder'.

'I think repetitions are the only way to decide ultimately, so I'll leave it at soft E9 for now and see what folk say. It may just not suit me, or it might confusedly be one of those "in-the-middle" sort of climbs. Regardless of the grade, it's one of my proudest First Ascents'.

Robbie's main reason for attempting Le Voyage last month was, in his own words, 'to attempt a hard trad line early in the season to hopefully prepare me for some big plans back home this year'. Whilst an E10 7a repeat and an E9 7a first ascent marks an impressive start to the season, Robbie's sign off - 'Now to get stuck into the really hard projects' - suggests that there's plenty more to come.