'At this stage I would do each move in isolation about once every ten or so attempts in good conditions'

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Alex Moore has made the long-awaited second ascent of one of gritstone's hardest and most notorious lines, Smiling Buttress (f8B), at Curbar Edge in the Peak District.

The line, which first saw fame when Ben Moon tried it in Hard Grit, was lauded as one of gritstone's last great problems. Thought to be somewhere in the 8B/8B+ range, Moon managed to do all the moves, but was unable to link them on top rope.

In 2013, sixteen years after Hard Grit's release, Moon was there to witness Tyler Landman making the boulder's first ascent.

At the time, Landman described the line as 'an amazing blend of power and technique, revolving around two very slopey holds on an gently overhanging wall. It is a gritstone classic', but declined to offer a grade. However, the film of Landman's ascent, released shortly after, ends with a grade proposal of 8A/B.

In the intervening years, Smiling Buttress saw attention from some of the strongest, and most technically gifted, climbers in the UK and beyond, including Ned Feehally, Aidan Roberts, and Nils Favre, with none quite able to piece it together. Alex added himself into the mix around a year ago, but ultimately chose to prioritise another of gritstone's unrepeated classics, James Pearson's The Groove (E9 7b) at Cratcliffe Tor.

We spoke to Alex earlier this week to find out more about his early experiences on the line, why he thinks it has taken so long to see a repeat, and how it felt to do it.

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Congratulations on climbing Smiling Buttress! When did you first come across Smiling Buttress, and what were your thoughts about it?

Thanks!

I'm not actually sure when I first came across it, but there must have been a gradual transition between never having thought about it at all, moving to thinking about it sometimes, and then to the stage where I'd wake up in the night thinking I should move my heel to the right-hand side of the-flat-bit-where-your-heel-goes.

I started climbing in the post-Hard Grit era, so it would have been something I heard people about talk about at a time when I was very new to climbing, twelve years old and living in Cornwall – so I didn't think much about it then.

I first considered trying it when I overheard someone say that Ned had tried it with a heel. I quite like a heel, and by now I must have been in the thinking-about-smiling-sometimes stage of my life, so I thought it might be fun to try it.    

When was your first session on it, and how did you get on in those early sessions?

I first tried it around this time last year, I think I had two or three short sessions on it that season. I thought I was doing quite well on it; I know now that I was wrong then, and I had terrible beta for both of the difficult moves – I had found a way of doing it static, but I think that method would have been near impossible from the pads.

The rockover onto the heel has evolved too, I used to do it in a way that trapped my left arm to the rock, and I would then have to free it via an awkward set of body position shifts. At this stage I would do each move in isolation about once every ten or so attempts in good conditions – and those odds only slightly shifted the more I would work it in the previous few weeks. Anyway, I thought that was all par for the course, and I was having a good time. 

The trouble was that I also wanted to do The Groove that year, and the grit season was coming to an end. The Groove is also difficult but only required a belay, the shade of a passing cloud, and a deep breath – whereas Smiling needed a lot more work, lots of pads, and a spot. Neither the spot nor the belay are fun jobs, and I'm very grateful to the people that came out with me on those sessions!  

How did you go about working Smiling Buttress?

Things really picked up this year when Nils Favre was visiting the area, we met earlier this year in the Rocklands and as luck would have it Nils tried Smiling the day after me on his first day in the Peak. Nils is a very talented climber, and instantly worked out a better way to do the first hard move and made good progress on the second. We had several sessions on it together while he was here and that really motivated me to try to get it done. Sadly, the end of his trip, at the point that he was ready to try above pads, was plagued by bad weather.

The next huge step in getting it done was entirely provided by Jim Pope. He made two crucial innovations – firstly he found a new way of using the right-hand crux hold – using a thumb sprag - and secondly, he wedged two pads together to make a platform in the landing. This more than halved the number of pads needed to make the boulder safe, and therefore reduced the number of people needed to carry pads to the far end of Curbar. Rather than four people and ten-ish pads it could now be attempted by two people with four pads, that's a considerable nail in a coffin logistically, as it means you're much more likely to be able to try it on a weekday rather than just the weekends, and in turn that means you can select the best conditions days.

Jim also made really good progress on the boulder that day, but unfortunately had sunk up to his knees in mud on the walk-in, and therefore didn't much fancy climbing. This incident made me consider my fleece-lined wellies as a tactical asset, rather than an extravagance.

After this session I really had the bit between my teeth and didn't try anything else, never trained too hard at the wall so that I'd not be tired, and didn't take much work so that I would be free on the good days. I also became a burden to many of my friends in my quest to find a spot at almost zero warning, Tim Blake, Sam Pratt and Ben Bransby are all owed much thanks on that note.

At around 8B, Smiling Buttress is obviously hard, but why do you think it is that it took so long to see a second ascent, especially compared to other gritstone problems at similar grades?

Interestingly, in a sense it's never been graded. Ty didn't comment, Ben said something vague about it being in the region of 8B/8B+, and the BMC video of Ty ends with "Smiling Buttress – 8A/B". 

From what I gather there has been a more or less constant interest in Smiling Buttress, but it does have some significant barriers. The logistics I mentioned earlier are important I think, someone would have to be quite committed to repeat it, especially considering the number of pads that was assumed necessary. It's north facing and just off the edge, so it's almost always cold, dark, and very windy – that means that while most things are in good condition, Smiling might still be damp, or just a horrible place to be (as it was for the majority of my sessions, one of which I had to rest in a hole in the ground to get of the wind).

But otherwise, it is just very difficult. To put it into perspective The Boss (f8B+) (given 8B+ but considered by many to be 8B) took me roughly an hour's effort over two short sessions, and The Ace (f8B) also went much quicker than Smiling, but that's having done The Joker (f8A) many years before, so I sort of knew the ropes a bit more. 

The moves on Smiling are very technical and subtle, you don't have to make much of a mistake to have a very slim chance of making the last move.

The grading system doesn't traditionally reward technical difficulty, hence it being very rare for anybody to climb 8A slab, but reasonably common place to climb steep 8B (I suppose it might also be much rarer for rock to form in a way that provides 8A slabs than 8B at 40 degrees?)

In summary, I don't think it would be odd to consider Smiling to be 8B+ rather than 8B, but all grades should be taken with a pinch of salt and the understanding that the grading system is flawed, but we have to keep using it because it's the best we have in terms of succinctly describing difficulty. (Now that was tentative grading! Basically, I think it's 8B+ and I don't want to argue about it). 

You uploaded footage of some of your attempts on Smiling Buttress where you fell from the final move - would you say that final move was the crux for you?

Yes, it's very low percentage and mistakes I had made earlier on the climb would manifest in the last move. For example, you can rockover with your heel or little finger in the wrong place or at the wrong angle, but you cannot do the last move with those errors. I could do it much more reliably in isolation, so perhaps it's more of a proof-in-the-pudding situation rather than just being really hard.

An interesting element of the final move is that your left shoe tracks up the face of the climb. It really ate up shoes, and in the end I needed one with very little toe rubber on the left side of the upper so as to reduce friction!   

You used a slightly different beta from Ty, rocking over a high-heel to set up for the final move, how did you settle on this beta?

From what I can see, the foothold Ty used has deteriorated somewhat. I never saw it in its original state so I couldn't say how much, but I'd be willing to say that that method is harder now. Regardless, I'd never have been able to do it that way, I have comparatively weak fingers and the holds are dreadful.

I actually never watched the video of Ty after I touched the holds, it's just not useful – kinda like watching a Blue Peter presenter saying "here's one I made earlier" while pulling a to-scale replica of Sistine Chaple from under a desk and me feeling hopeless looking at a pile of loo rolls and PVA glue.

The heel beta is much more my bag, I have quite flexible hips and I enjoy working out the subtlety of techy moves. I could also weight the heel a lot to take the pressure of my fingers and find the best position.       

Finally, talk us through the successful attempt - how did it feel?

Really fantastic! I think I was so used to falling off I actually looked down when I hit the hold so I could spot my landing! A total surprise, despite brilliant conditions.

I nearly didn't go to Curbar that day as my previous session on it was so awful, but my girlfriend, Emma, said that was stupid so off I went, still just intending a top rope session. Then I panicked because the conditions were so good and I didn't have a spotter, happily Ben was free and could arrive a few minutes after me at the Buttress so I had some last attempts on the rope before getting the pads out. As I topped out a passing dog walker said "well done", "thanks very much" I responded.

Happily, I did it fairly quickly that session, and I squeezed in a session at Froggatt on my way home.