Dubbed the 'New Keen Youth' by the film makers Hot Aches, seventeen year old Pete Whittaker has just made a cool lead of a new route into the finish of 'The Braille Trail' at Burbage South in the Peak District.

This much fancied and often tried hanging scooped prow between 'The Braille Trail' and 'Parthian Shot' is a fantastic feature that required not only nerves of steel but also dynamic and gymnastic ability, especially with a rather contorted rock over on the only good hold on the route,  to gain entry into the scoop. A very precarious balancing act is then performed to stand up in the scoop and move out onto the slab to gain the crux and finish off an existing E7, 'The Braille Trail.' With protection well below you at this point, a sickening ground fall is the likely outcome if you fluff the moves. Pete has named this fantastic new addition 'Dynamics of Change' and graded it E9 7a, a view shared by others who have tried the line including the mad Aussie Toby Benham.

He seems to have a bit of a thing about Burbage at the moment as only a month or so ago Peter climbed a new direct finish to The Braille Trail called 'Grandad's Slab' at a hard E7 6c, a photograph of which can be seen in March edition of Climb (Issue 37) and before that a new E6 on the same edge. Oh yes, and of course he had already climbed 'The Braille Trail' last May.

The weekend before his first E9 lead, he tore himself away from Burbage when he made the first ascent of 'Captain Calamity' an E7 6c at Robin Hood's Stride, which is basically the right-hand side of Kaluza Klein. On the same day as this, his sister Katy, no mean climber herself being a British Bouldering Champion and with a sport 8a and an E6 flash under her belt, ticked off Kaluza... for her first E7 lead. So all in all a couple of very talented climbers.

There will be a great photograph of 'Dynamics of Change' in the next issue of Climb so keep an eye out for it. The Hot Aches crew were also there to capture the action to add to the growing collection of hard ascents for a forthcoming film by these skilled and dedicated film makers. Check out their blog at http://hotaches.blogspot.com for more on this route and also on the other days they have filmed the Whittaker's.

Pete on his new E9. He made the first ascent two days earlier

Pete is sponsored by 5.10, Patagonia, Naked Ape and The Edge

Katy is sponsored by K2UK, 5:10, Hitch n Hike, The Edge, The Valley Gym and LaFarge

Below are images of Pete on the actual first ascent of Dynamics of Change

filmed on a gloomy Friday evening and taken from video stills kindly supplied by Hot Aches Images.