Master's Edge at Millstone is arguably one of the most coveted routes of its grade on grit. At E7 6b, it has been screaming out for an on-sight ascent. There have been some stylish ground-up ascents, but no-one has pulled off the true on-sight. Last night it spit off yet another suitor. Nic Sellers coolly climbed to the shot holes, placed two tri-cams and made it to within a whisker of glory before greasing off a tiny edge and taking the big whipper. "So what" you might say, but where it's easy to talk about saving a route such as this for an on-sight attempt, it's a lot more difficult to actually commit to having a go! It was warm at Millstone yesterday evening, but Nic didn't want to put it off any longer and made a damn good effort. A few degrees cooler and maybe he would have held the edge? He pulled his ropes and climbed it effortlessly next go.
I'm sure Shaun Hutson told me he fell off the last move on his first attempt. Dave Musgrove isn't really a well known name and he sort of flashed it, certainly proved he had the ablity to on-sight it given the circumstances of his ascent.
Ah, I thought this might cause a bit of upset. There seems to be this notion that because certain soft touch grit E8s (End of the affair, Gaia etc) get headpointed by every man and his dog, that the same goes for on-sighting grit E7? There are a few routes (e.g. Strangeness at Caley, Mind bomb at Ilkley, Kaluza Klein) which have seen this treatment, but it's still a rare occurence. Believe me, I would have said 'flash' if it was a flash. If Nic has watched Hard Grit properly, then he certainly was putting on a good display of knowing bugger all about what the moves are. The reason the news story is there is because I was holding the ropes. This style of ascent (i.e. ground up, 1 fall) of a proper grit E7 deserves a mention.
Although Dave is a phenomenal climber and a completely unsung hero of grit, even if he'd top roped Master's 5 years prior to his ascent last year, it isn't the same as starting from the bottom and going for the shot holes, not knowing whether you can do the move. My understanding was that Shaun Hutson's ascent was 'ground up' as per Nic's.
Watching Richard Ekehead on Hard Grit hardly invalidates the onsight I think. Remembering the sequences while you're actually on the route must be bloody difficult.
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