Just eight days after making the second female ascent of Nightmayer (E8 6c), Rachel Pearce has made another E8 ascent, this time of Day of the Triffids (E8 6c), at Clogwyn y Tarw (The Gribin Facet), Wales.

The route, first climbed by Calum Muskett in 2015, initially follows the same line as The trouble with lichen (E2 5b), before breaking away from the route to follow a ramp towards the arete of Rare Lichen (E9 6c), which it follows to the top.

Rachel, whose ascent of Nightmayer was her first at E8, initially went to look at the E9 Rare Lichen, but found herself enticed instead by the 'flake crimps' on Day of the Triffids - as well as by the fact that it is, in her own words, 'quite a lot easier and a lot a lot safer!!!' - so she decided to get on Day of the Triffids instead.

She placed all the gear, then reversed to the ground before climbing the route, which she described as 'one of the best short sequences I've done on trad'.

We got in touch with Rachel to ask about her experience on her second E8:

'It was quite different from Nightmayer. This was more of a boulder problem in the sky that felt a little insecure with the feet, above a load of RPs that I didn't have complete faith in, so it felt more of a dangerous proposition than Nightmayer'.

'In some ways I loved this top sequence even more than the crux moves of Nightmayer. Once you commit and leave the rest there's no stopping, you've got to go, and this is great practice for me as pacing is definitely a weakness of mine'.

'Latching the jug at the end of the sequence was extremely satisfying and I felt very psyched. I knew it would be an awesome feeling when I practiced it on top rope. Looking down at those RPs, they suddenly looked quite far away, it felt pretty wild!'

'Doing this in the evening sun on the solstice felt very special. My partner George has been practicing for his MCI a lot in the Ogwen recently, so being without a partner and in this area, this route was convenient to work by myself, and George could come and belay me on his walk back from scrambling'.

'I am looking forward to having George back though, and doing some onsighting, and hopefully placing gear other than RPs! I love mixing things up in climbing, sport, trad, bouldering, headpointing, steady onsighting, hard onsighting - once you get a little bored of one thing, you can do something else for a bit!'