Traci Lords

Written by LakesBloc Saturday, 21 February 2004 00:00

The recent good spell of weather has lead to plenty of action. First up well traveled Lancashire duo Gaz Parry and Ian Vickers visited Kentmere and despatched most of the best problems at the Garburn Pass boulder, as well as grabbing a couple of first ascents: On The Skunt 7b/V8, climbs project 10 on the topo from sitting. F.A. Ian Vickers
Gaz managed to re-climb Paradigm minus it's missing hold at 7c/V9ish. Gaz explains his sequence - "Broken hold left hand as a shoulder with the right hand on an undercut, now right hand to cristally crack then (as on the original problem) a big move with your left hand to the small crimp and go again to the lip."

Next up John Gaskins has climbed the sit start proper to Subliminal at Heysham Head, commenting that it does not add a great deal of difficulty to the original low start 7c/V9, which is still the crux. John has also named his awesome new problem at Thorn Crag Return of the Fly (7c+/V10). This problem is described as "Johns Wall" on the topo and in the March edition of Climber magazine.

Finally, remember a few months back when we told you about a certain five star project at the Tilberthwaite Lad Stones? Well sorry its no longer a project! Greg Chapman, armed with the knowledge that John Gaskins had been for a look, pulled his finger out and climbed the line from standing to give Traci Lords, hard 7c+/V10. This superb line climbs project 4 listed on the topo i.e. the tilted wall in a small bay from opposing gaston edges upto a pinchy crimp then a big move to a reasonable hold out left, now sort your feet and go again with your left to a better hold match and slap up for the jug on the top-out ledge. This is probably the best pure hard problem in the Lakes - certainly in the mountains! Greg also climbed the sit start project to the 5+/V1 arete on the Tilted Boulder at around 7a+/V7, which is also very good if a little abrasive.