Alex commented:

"I went out on a two week trip to try Fabelita as I had unfinished business with it having had some time on it last spring. In the end it only took three days this year, but the ascent was a total battle - I deserved to fall off off at least three times but somehow managed to pull it out of the bag, complete with my finest power-whimpers.

The route is amazing - steep, burly climbing with a tough traverse section in the middle and a pumpy upper wall with a cool move off a mono and an all too blowable slap near the top!"

Alex hadn't expected to climb the route so quickly, but still had several days of holiday left over:

"Feeling a bit lost after ticking Fabelita I decided to go on Ingravids, a slightly more bouldery 8c in the back of the cave. A lot of people use an index finger mono on the crux of this, but being a wimp I decided it was too scary, declared it 'unjustifiable', and found a really nice alternative method involving a small pinch and a really deep drop knee. After two days this was in the bag, again unexpectedly fast, so I decided it was time to go big or go home and try the 8c+ extension. Unfortunately it wasn't to be, as I fell off the last hard move on the final morning of my trip!"

When asked what his future plans were, Alex commented:

"Now it's back to my real goal, burning Bob Hickish and Stu Littlefair off on eliminates at the tor..."

Also on the same trip was Eddie Barbour who climbed the classic 8b+ of the cave with his ascent of Rollito Sharma.

Well done Alex and Eddie!

Thanks go to Neil Mawson, Robbie Meade and Henning Wang for the photos in this report.