By the Power of RAAA & Brane Damage

Written by LakesBloc Monday, 30 July 2007 00:00

After weeks of poor weather it seems an age since we had anything much to report, but, as proved time and again, the British are a resolute bunch. So with the arrival of a decent weekend, and in somewhat of a defiant riposte to the weather, we have some news! Our first report comes from the west coast seaside spot of St. Bees Head, where Dan Varian has added a cool new highball to the Apiary Wall area. The line was an obvious challenge and has been listed on the LakesBloc projects database for a couple of years. By the Power of RAAA ("proper" 7c/V9) is located on the crag itself and climbs the wall and seam to the rear of the classic run-up problem Chipper's Wall, and immediately left of the sport route Honey Pot. At 6m high it's not one for the faint of heart although it does have a decent landing and finishes at a vague ledge, Dan recommended clipping a sling to the 3rd bolt of Honey Pot to make things a bit safer on the top-out.

Next up we have another highball/longball problem, this time at the little known south lakes venue of Cringlesport in Yealand. Greg Chapman has added a big(ish) link to the crag which starts at the end of Curtain Call , and reverses this to the start of the 2 bolt micro route Discohesion (F7a+ or 7a/V6) at the left end of the crag before finishing up this. The line has been called Brane Damage, tally's up at roughly 7c/V9 and apparently offers a real mix of thuggy, technical and sustained climbing.

Finally, we have a snippet of news from Trowbarrow Quarry which was reported during a brief weather window a couple of weeks back. Ned Feehally climbed a filler-in line on the Shelter Stone which starts matched on the big sidepull/jug (the start of the 6c/V4 groove) and go leftwards (reversing the central section of Wheelbarrow) into the positive edge on The Pit Problem, before toping out as for this, the grade is 7b/V8 or thereabouts.

Image right: By the Power of RAAA (7c/V9).