Hard New Routes in Wales and Scotland

This winter continues to offer some of the best climbing conditions that people can remember and it shows in the number of top end new routes and repeats that are being done. Recent efforts in Wales and Scotland have produced yet more grade VIII climbs as people get into the winter groove.

In Wales Simon Frost and Dave Garry climbed Erazerhead VIII on Clogwyn Du. This takes a similar line to the summer E1 Hebenwi. Chris Parkin climbed Tora Bora on the Black Ladders VIII 7 and also made the third ascent of Travesty VIII. On top of all these mega hard new routes there have also been plenty of just plain hard new routes being done in Wales with a load of grade VII’s being put up all over the place. For the full story on all this and more visit the DMM Welsh Winter Super VIIIs Article or Mark ‘Baggy Richards Winter Blog.

In Scotland Dave MacLeod made a winter ascent of one of his own summer E8’s Called Anubis. He is still giving some thought to the grade but it’s probably safe to assume that it’s hard. He had this to say on his blog, "Quite unexpectedly, I managed to complete my long term ambition to make the first winter ascent of my own summer E8, Anubis on Ben Nevis. The number of hours to finish the lead might just be countable on one hand, and completely exhausted me for the following three days. In other words, I completely went for it." For the full story of that ascent and photos visit Dave MacLeod’s Blog.

Teaming up with Ian Parnell, visiting German climber Ines Papert also managed to get in a first ascent of Little Nipper VI 8 as well as repeating multiple hard routes including Unicorn VIII. This may well be the hardest lead by a woman in Scottish winter climbing. For the full story of her trip and for some great photos visit Ian Parnell’s Blog.

With no sign of conditions deteriorating keep an eye out for more reports of cutting edge routes as people get into the swing of things above the freezing line.

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