New route on Lakeside in the Woods

[JSmith]

The Bull 5.14a R.
Broke bones on this thing last summer. Led it today. Climb The Gunslinger to the top of the corner and go right.

Untitled by squamishphoto, on Flickr

[slhughes]

looks piss, that. nice effort though

[tobyfk]

Is that a chin hook? How do you train those?

(congratulations Jeremy)

[squamish climber]

Nice work, Jeremy. Great to see you recover from your injuries and come back to slay it so soon. Obviously the R rating is deserved. Care to tell us more about the route and your first attempts?

[JSmith]

Spied this line while working the Gunslinger with Ben Harnden last spring, gave it a light brushing and started attempts.

I put a lot of time in to this last year, falling at the crux many times. Almost sent it a couple times, but my climbing season was shut down for the rest of the year when I fell at the wrong spot breaking bones in my hand.

This year I changed my tactics and spent 6 weeks specifically training for the route. On the first lead go this year I fell early in the crux and ripped the gear, taking a unexpected big fall. Had a few moments of second guessing but decided to give it another go just for sh*t's and giggles, and found myself topping out.

The crux is after the top of the 5.12 corner shared with The Gunslinger. Tiny crimps and huge moves with glassy or no feet. I figure about V11 to the next rest and pro, followed by a bit of a heartbreaker finish. It's safe(ish) to fall early in the crux but falling after is a really bad idea.

Thanks to all whom I wrangled into belaying me.

Here's some rough footage I threw together from last years efforts.


J.

[smallman]

Awesome photo Jeremy.

[hans]

Nice video, great send.

I threw up a bit in my mouth watching the fall. Impressive.

[squamish climber]

Great video, great effort and nice send Jeremy. Wow that upwards traverse looks very thin and slick. Impressive recovery to get back and finish it so soon.

[natsdad]

This year I changed my tactics and spent 6 weeks specifically training for the route. On the first lead go this year I fell early in the crux and ripped the gear, taking a unexpected big fall. Had a few moments of second guessing but decided to give it another go just for sh*t's and giggles, and found myself topping out.

Bravo, Jeremy. I'm amazed that you were able to place any gear during some of those moves. Nice footage, too.

Steve

[scrubber]

Nice to see some home footage of that. Getting sweaty palms like watching that old "Hard Grit" video.

K

[jonny2vests]

Nice to see some home footage of that. Getting sweaty palms like watching that old "Hard Grit" video.

K

Wow. 5.14R would make it at least E9 6c I reckon. Hard Granite! Someone should make that film
Maybe one of the wide boys will oblige us with a repeat in September.

[tobyfk]

Nice to see some home footage of that. Getting sweaty palms like watching that old "Hard Grit" video.

Wow. 5.14R would make it at least E9 6c I reckon.

And the rest. Equilibrium which is probably a roughly similar height and has similar ground-scraping/ decking potential AFAIK is reckoned to be sport 8b (ie about .13d) so about the same grade or slightly easier? That's the benchmark grit E10.

http://www.rockfax.com/publications/grades/ and click "Bold Routes"

[jonny2vests]

Equilibrium is thought to be safe 8b+ but probably a good deal shorter than this. So yeah, this is probably at least E9 6c.

I reposted it on UKC, hope that's cool.

[tobyfk]

Equilibrium is thought to be safe 8b+ but probably a good deal shorter than this.

AFAIK it is not safe at all. Ground-scraping fall from the crux, ground fall if you blow it higher up. That's why it's only had three repeats in over a decade despite being a few minutes drive from Sheffield.

UKC has a very high ratio of idiots to informed posters. If you want an authoritative answer on most Brit climbing topics, ukbouldering.com is the place to go.

[jonny2vests]

AFAIK it is not safe at all. Ground-scraping fall from the crux, ground fall if you blow it higher up. That's why it's only had three repeats in over a decade despite being a few minutes drive from Sheffield.

UKC has a very high ratio of idiots to informed posters. If you want an authoritative answer on most Brit climbing topics, ukbouldering.com is the place to go.

Lots of hard grit routes haven't had any repeats, and they're just as close.

Its considered 'safe' on The Grit List, which is about as definitive as it gets, I also used to work for the first ascensionist. As you probably know, 'safe' has a special context here, and as I understand it (I've not been on it, but I've stared at it many times, looked at the gear and done adjacent routes) with a good belayer on Equilibrium, you wont hit the ground off the main crux, hence its 'safe' tag. The GL says you could hit the ground from the high crux, but that hardly distinguishes it from many of its peers.

I'm well aware of the hoards of twunts on UKC, but I'm not sure what your point is. I can post it on UKB too if you like?