UKC

Indian Face E9 for James McHaffie

© Jack Geldard

Sophie Evitt and James McHaffie at Brimham Rocks, Yorkshire.  © Jack Geldard
Sophie Evitt and James McHaffie at Brimham Rocks, Yorkshire.
© Jack Geldard
James McHaffie has repeated The Indian Face (E9 6c) on Clogwyn Du'r'Arddu (Cloggy), North Wales. This is one of the most famous hard climbs in the UK and is renowned for its extreme boldness.

The gear was considerably worse than I expected! I didn't decide I was going to do it till I was half way up...

 

James McHaffie commits himself to The Indian Face - E9 6c

James has also recently repeated Gribbin Wall Climb (E9 6c) on Clogwyn y Tarw, Ogwen valley, North Wales. We were going to write a report about this ascent but James has only gone and knocked his own news off our to-do list with his Indian Face ascent.

James is one of the UK's top climbers - both sport and trad - and first had an adventure with this blank featureless wall of Cloggy twelve years ago when he attempted to onsight the E7 of Master's Wall. James found himself off route, in between Master's Wall and The Indian Face, with no protection, and no chance of climbing up or down. He was eventually rescued in what could be one of the most harrowing events in British trad climbing history.

Cloggy East Buttress  © Jack Geldard
Cloggy East Buttress
© Jack Geldard
We asked James to tell us a little more about his ascent of The Indian Face:

"I messed about on it for a couple of hours on a GriGri in the morning checking the harder moves and then led it in the afternoon with George Ullrich belaying. I could say a lot about this climb but suffice to say I was happy to do it first day, minus the epic twelve years ago."

We will bring you more information on James' recent exploits soon on UKC - watch this space...


James McHaffie is sponsored by Arc'teryx , DMM , Sterling Rope and Five Ten


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9 Jul, 2013
Lots of hard climbing going on at the moment, very inspirational stuff! Please keep up the good stuff.
9 Jul, 2013
Has Popshot not heard about this yet? I'd have thought that he'd have been moaning about it being the Indian Face coming over here, stealing all our chop routes, what's wrong with the English Face.... Huge congratulations to James. I started climbing the summer after IF was put up and it's always been the pinnacle of British climbing to me; the arguments that went on, and continue to go on around it, and the mythology which has developed are things that I love about our sport.
9 Jul, 2013
Ah, there he is...
9 Jul, 2013
ah, now that was just too obvious...
9 Jul, 2013
Amazing stuff. Can't believe this is only the fourth ascent (not that I'm queuing up to get on it!). Is this the first person to get this in a day?
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