Colmcille Climbers

Start of Something New, which I led at the 2011 Climbfest, is a completely mental route, but safe enough I reckon. A fair few of the cams don't look amazing but I tugged the life out of almost every bit of gear before moving on and reckon it's all pretty dam good. Safety in numbers anyway.

On my first blast at the crux I back-stepped onto a rather creaky and moving smear, which quickly resulted in a downclimb to flick off what was a sizeable chunk of rock. I really should have cleaned the groove aswell seeing as I'd previously abbed in to rid the fur off the upper slab. But it surely made for an adventure poking out loose smears (there are no real holds until the really really steep bit) on 6a terrain!

At the top of the groove I stretched up on the most strenuous and pop-off-able bridging smears you could imagine, to slide in a cam in a flared crack high above my head. Without the position or strength to hang about and test it before moving on, I took the sensible but painful decision to down climb to the last rest (the ground) and make sure it was good. I was pretty much wrecked at this stage, gagging for just one crimp. Somehow I managed to down climb the groove unaided. Rested on some nettles on the ground and then tugged the cam till I was happy to go for it properly this time.

Next time it went down a treat, with gear and holds improving with height. The final hold to unlock the puzzle through the roof was covered in cobwebs and it took several journeys from the resting place beneath the cap to realise there was a hold there at all. Man I was never so pleased to stick three fingers in a cobweb before.

I laughed to myself at the belay and couldn't believe I actually downclimbed the crux of the hardest route of my life in a moment of complete and utter exhaustion.

Just shows you what you are really capable of.

Either that or the route is E2!