Earlier in the year Martin Smith and Micky Page had a good day at Bowden Doors in Northumberland.

Martin Smith climbed the stand up version of Working Class (Font 8a+) and Micky Page climbed the sit start (Font 8B).

Martin commented:

"There are a couple of ways to climb it. To be honest I just followed Mich's beta which was crimpy as hell, but none the less enjoyable climbing."

The description for Working Class in the UKC Logbooks is:

"Start on undercuts and use the sidepull to gain poor slopers then the finishing holds."

Martin had tried the problem three years previously, but had not had the chance to go back. On this year's visit he managed to climb it quite quickly, after aboput 1.5 hours of effort and beta from Micky Page.

Martin added:

"Having already climbed the stand start on a previous visit, Mich had been trying the sitter. Again, after around 1.5 hours of work he managed to dispatch it just before I did the stand. According to the guide the sit-start adds 'a little' but Mich thought otherwise and said the sit definitely warranted the grade of 8B."

Micky Page is one of the UK's top boulderers having climbed many extremely hard problems such as his significant repeat of the Font 8C problem From dirt grows the flowers in Chironico, Switzerland (See UKC News).

Martin Smith recently featured in Dan Varian's gritstone bouldering round up with his repeat of Brownian Motion.

Martin Smith is sponsored by Scarpa