Robbie Phillips has reported on his Facebook Page that both he and Ian Cooper have climbed The Quarryman (E8 7a) in North Wales.

The four pitch route breaks down in to an E6 and E5 the famous '8a' groove pitch and a 7c+ slab to finish.

We spoke briefly to Robbie about hsi ascent - here's what he had to say:

"I've never felt so happy and yet horrified than on my initial attempts at "The Quarryman" groove. The one piece of climbing I've done that left me with less skin on my arse than my hands! You need to either succumb to the masochistic nature of the climbing or strap yourself in a rubber suit... We did a bit of both. We couldn't find a decent S&M shop in Llanberis so opted for a theraband wrapped around the right shoulder and a knee pad strapped to the right butt cheek... It's an odd look but I think it might take off?

Climbing "The Quarryman" in full was a brilliant thing for me and Ian (Cooper) to do together. Ian is a little eccentric himself so the climb really meshed well with his personality. For my first climb on the slate I really couldn't have been happier. It goes against my better judgement to choose blank featureless faces and slippery corners as projects, but this time I'm glad Ian twisted my mind ("The Quarryman" warped what was left of it).

I think a big part of the motivation for me was knowing that Jacob Cook thought it was impossible... I couldn't use Ian's beta of scissoring/backstepping up the corner (Like Johnny) so I kneebarred the hell out of it.

The other pitches were great! I loved the last pitch... I couldn't fit into the tight rock over position that Ian got so i concocted my own gnarly beta. A dead point to a 1 finger crimp of a smear on a slab! It's make-believe stuff?!

Anyway, great training for Yosemite next year... I'm positive that granite corners have more friction than slate!"

You can check out some great photos in his Facebook Post embedded below:

Robbie is sponsored by: Edelrid, Evolv, Ratho - EICA, Steedman and Company , Monkey Fist Climbing and Urban Uprising (Charity Ambassador)