Climbing History

Dawes' first ascent account:

'Johnny, frustrated but proud, placed a bolt like a dog pissing to mark his territory and retreated to recover, an 80-foot cameo "The Tormented Ejaculation" graded E8, 7a, a small Matisse sketch, fresh but perhaps unfinished, rests in his Portfolio; but the line remained… Jerry arrived, chopped the bolt and the Master's Wall remained ... The climbing itself is hard and with eight bolts would rate about E6, 6c but there is only half a bolt and that stares at you while you laugh at your runners, a tribute to both a man's vision and his shortsightedness. John Redhead's voyages on the wall deserve special praise ... Imagine the wall. It is a random woven wire mesh tilted so that it steepens towards the top. At the base of the wall the two thick cables disappear in the turf. The lights in the town flicker as you touch the rock. Each move forms an electric circuit between your hands, you see. As you move, you worry about the outcome of that move. The tension at present resides in a dull "Dinorwig Power Generator" hum. Then I make a false move and the rock barks out a spark, a whip sizzles down my arm and fades to a sickly warmth in my shoulders; I try another hold but which one to use, use the wrong one and retreat may be impossible. The gear is poor and a bad mistake could mean a death jolt full across the heart. So you move taking note of your position and the holds, but as you move higher the voltage grows, and amongst the myriad connections there lie false trails that can kill ... I went up with sticky rubber soles which do not conduct electricity and two friends who knew the score … Hundred foot up, out above the last gear, I'm faced with the first of the hardest moves, my anxiety has made me enter the moves before reflection and the rock is all in the wrong place. My body feels heavy and lumpy. I slapped out right, a move that should be static and was committed to the crux; a precarious mantel onto a rounded boss. If I fell off this move the gear would rip as it was off to the left and the gear was only in downward-pulling placements. Once on this you can rest and clip the tied-off rurp, which is most comforting. You stand on your heels, your hands by your side. At this point I noticed a friend who l'd met while on holiday in Verdon, on the belay of Great Wall. His face spoke volumes ... I went for the crux. The motion startling me like a car unexpectedly in gear in a crowded parking lot. I swarm through the roundness of the bulge to a crank on a brittle spike for a cluster of three crystals on the right; each finger crucial and separate like the keys for a piano chord. I change feet three times to rest my lower legs, each time having to jump my foot out to put my other in. The finger holds are too poor to hang on should the toes catch on each other. All those foot changing mistakes on easy moves by runners come into my mind. There is no resting, I must go and climb for the top. swarm up towards the sunlight, gasping for air. A brittle hold holds under mistreatment and then I really blow it; fearful of a smear on now non-sticky boots I use an edge and move up, a fall now fatal. But the automaton stabs back through, wobbling but giving its all, and I grasp a large sidepull and tube upward, the ropes dangling uselessly from my waist. Arthur Birtwistle on Diagonal, I grasp incuts and the vectors recede. 'Indian Face' is climbed and I can rest and feel proud. Longland's, the Drainpipe Crack, Troach Troach, Great Wall; and Midsummer's smile in me again, but like fine antiques in the gallery. [5]

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMX4NAw0NSE

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNb5_PYRhQA

[3] Photos from the first ascent by Jonathan Reti. Jonathan was the only person at the crag that day with a camera. Later pictures of Johnny in white vest were not of the actual ascent. https://www.flickr.com/photos/30814373@N02/albums/72157712866661618/

That top crux was difficult for him and his method was pretty snatchy, which is why I moved out of the fall line in case he fluffed it. Shockingly bold.

[4] Mountain Issue 112, page 17 /library/11111/mountain-112

[5] Clogwyn Du’r Arddu Climber’s Club guidebook by Nick Dixon

References

[1] https://www.friflyt.no/klatring/klippeklatring/joakim-louis-saether-forstebestiger-8c

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcDWhfJM9PI/

[2] https://www.threads.com/share/JUxCWLrpp/

References.

[1] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcDWhfJM9PI/

[2] https://www.threads.com/share/JUxCWLrpp/

Perhaps the most celebrated and revered route in the UK, Johnny Dawes' ascent in 1986 gave the country its first E9. Although only around 7b/+ to top rope, the route is exceptionally bold, running it out way above bodyweight-only RPs in suspect placements. A fall from the precarious crux at around 40m would likely end on the ground.

A narrow resting foothold before the crux sequence allows the leader a moment's respite and an opportunity to contemplate their fate. Neil Gresham remarked that without this 'ledge' the route might only be E8.

Memorably described in Paul Williams' 1989 guidebook as follows:

Standard: E9; Exceptionally Severe (Excessively so). Rubbers.

It has been said that up the face to the right of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a pitch of such appalling difficulty as to be almost beyond the realms of human comprehension has been ascended without mechanical machinations or other insidious practices normally associated with a route of this calibre. The crux is as fearsome a piece of climbing as has yet been seen in Snowdonia; harder than the Horned Crag, or perhaps even the Gambit Climb of Crib y Ddysgl (though this may be to overstate).

A preliminary inspection on the rope is certainly advisable. Where the crux (of an obduracy to satisfy even the most advanced of ambitions) to be even so little as two feet longer, it is a matter much to be doubted whether even so much as a single man possessed of the necessary capacities of temperament, physique and moral character could be found in these islands capable of fulfilling the requirements of such an exacting ascent. Skill and confidence — and both in abundance — are required, though a greater premium may be placed upon fingers possessed of some of the characteristics of tempered steel.

The climbing is on holds unremittingly exiguous in nature — their paucity proving such a drain upon mental faculties as to daunt the heart of a would-be leader, even though he may be the stoutest of fellows.

Protection is at best illusory; the whole sweep of rock affords not so much as a single nubbin on which the thinnest line may be secured, nor a single crack in which the most vestigial of chockstones could hope to gain lodgment. Should the leader fail to negotiate the crux, or be seized by a palsy high on the pitch, disaster must be imminent — nay, inevitable, the ground below which would receive his fall being by no means accommodating to such a contingency. The second's faculties should comprehend any eventuality, no matter how dire, which may befall, though medical qualification is supernumary, spiritual rather than temporal care being of more direct assistance in the aftermath of an abrupt descent. Scatological preoccupations are most likely amongst the preliminaries to an ascent, though it is questionable whether abstinence from carnal pleasure the preceding week would prove advantageous to a man of such moral fibre as would dare to contemplate so audacious an undertaking.

The party should most conveniently number two, the compet- ence of the leader should, as has previously been noted, be of an exceptionally high order, whilst that of the second should not lag far behind.

Rope: A full 150 feet of Alpine line will be found necessary for each member of the party, though more would add to the comfort, both mental and spiritual.

...

The successful leader, even though he be of a modest disposition, may relax, and justifiably award himself a 'pat on the back'. [1]

After the first ascent there was some controversy, with a flake parting company with the route and John Redhead painting a picture in the scar left behind. This was subsequently removed and became a further source of prime beef between the pair. In 1980, John had made some extraordinary efforts to climb the line, resulting in The Tormented Ejaculation and he took umbrage with Dawes top-roping the line of Indian Face before leading it.

Johnny Dawes:

The real shame is that John [Redhead] can't accept that other people are special too. John thinks he's special. Well a lot of other people are special too John. [2]

At some point a mystery chipped nut placement appeared which would have made the route substantially safer. This was filled in with epoxy resin by Johnny Dawes in 1990. [3]

The route was repeated in 1994 by Neil Gresham and Nick Dixon. In 1996 following Leo Houlding's onsight ascent of Master's Wall, up which the route starts, there was speculation about the possibility of an onsight of Indian Face. However, once Leo discovered Yosemite, Welsh death routes no longer seemed so appealing [4] and James McHaffie's epic on Master's Wall in 2000 quenched the onsight dream, seemingly for good.

The route was then neglected for some time, its aura growing. Dave MacLeod backed off it in 2007, before returning better-prepared in 2010 to make a flawless headpoint. A relative flood of repeats in a similar style followed in the dry summer 2013, with McHaffie dispatching the route in a day. Morus Sanderson unintentionally channeled some of the spirit of earlier adventures on the wall with a harrowing repeat on wet holds in 2023. Rachel Pearce made the first female ascent in 2026.

References

[1] Paul Williams. Clogwyn Du'r Arddu. United Kingdom: Climbers' Club, 1989.

[2] E9 6c

[3] Mountain Issue 134 (1990), page 14 /library/11317/mountain-134

[4] https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jam-crack-the-niall-grimes-climbing-podcast/id1065991509?i=1000637614429

Perhaps the most celebrated and revered route in the UK, Johnny Dawes' ascent in 1986 gave the country its first E9. Although only around 7b/+ to top rope, the route is exceptionally bold, running it out way above bodyweight-only RPs in suspect placements. A fall from the precarious crux at around 40m would likely end on the ground.

A narrow resting foothold before the crux sequence allows the leader a moment's respite and an opportunity to contemplate their fate. Neil Gresham remarked that without this 'ledge' the route might only be E8.

Memorably described in Paul Williams' 1989 guidebook as follows:

Standard: E9; Exceptionally Severe (Excessively so). Rubbers

It has been said that up the face to the right of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a pitch of such appalling difficulty as to be almost beyond the realms of human comprehension has been ascended without mechanical machinations or other insidious practices normally associated with a route of this calibre. The crux is as fearsome a piece of climbing as has yet been seen in Snowdonia; harder than the Horned Crag, or perhaps even the Gambit Climb of Crib y Ddysgl (though this may be to overstate).

A preliminary inspection on the rope is certainly advisable. Where the crux (of an obduracy to satisfy even the most advanced of ambitions) to be even so little as two feet longer, it is a matter much to be doubted whether even so much as a single man possessed of the necessary capacities of temperament, physique and moral character could be found in these islands capable of fulfilling the requirements of such an exacting ascent. Skill and confidence — and both in abundance — are required, though a greater premium may be placed upon fingers possessed of some of the characteristics of tempered steel.

The climbing is on holds unremittingly exiguous in nature — their paucity proving such a drain upon mental faculties as to daunt the heart of a would-be leader, even though he may be the stoutest of fellows.

Protection is at best illusory; the whole sweep of rock affords not so much as a single nubbin on which the thinnest line may be secured, nor a single crack in which the most vestigial of chockstones could hope to gain lodgment. Should the leader fail to negotiate the crux, or be seized by a palsy high on the pitch, disaster must be imminent — nay, inevitable, the ground below which would receive his fall being by no means accommodating to such a contingency. The second's faculties should comprehend any eventuality, no matter how dire, which may befall, though medical qualification is supernumary, spiritual rather than temporal care being of more direct assistance in the aftermath of an abrupt descent. Scatological preoccupations are most likely amongst the preliminaries to an ascent, though it is questionable whether abstinence from carnal pleasure the preceding week would prove advantageous to a man of such moral fibre as would dare to contemplate so audacious an undertaking.

The party should most conveniently number two, the compet- ence of the leader should, as has previously been noted, be of an exceptionally high order, whilst that of the second should not lag far behind.

Rope: A full 150 feet of Alpine line will be found necessary for each member of the party, though more would add to the comfort, both mental and spiritual.

...

The successful leader, even though he be of a modest disposition, may relax, and justifiably award himself a 'pat on the back'. [1]

After the first ascent there was some controversy, with a flake parting company with the route and John Redhead painting a picture in the scar left behind. This was subsequently removed and became a further source of prime beef between the pair. In 1980, John had made some extraordinary efforts to climb the line, resulting in The Tormented Ejaculation and he took umbrage with Dawes top-roping the line of Indian Face before leading it.

Johnny Dawes:

The real shame is that John [Redhead] can't accept that other people are special too. John thinks he's special. Well a lot of other people are special too John. [2]

At some point a mystery chipped nut placement appeared which would have made the route substantially safer. This was filled in with epoxy resin by Johnny Dawes in 1990. [3]

The route was repeated in 1994 by Neil Gresham and Nick Dixon. In 1996 following Leo Houlding's onsight ascent of Master's Wall, up which the route starts, there was speculation about the possibility of an onsight of Indian Face. However, once Leo discovered Yosemite, Welsh death routes no longer seemed so appealing [4] and James McHaffie's epic on Master's Wall in 2000 quenched the onsight dream, seemingly for good.

The route was then neglected for some time, its aura growing. Dave MacLeod backed off it in 2007, before returning better-prepared in 2010 to make a flawless headpoint. A relative flood of repeats in a similar style followed in the dry summer 2013, with McHaffie dispatching the route in a day. Morus Sanderson unintentionally channeled some of the spirit of earlier adventures on the wall with a harrowing repeat on wet holds in 2023. Rachel Pearce made the first female ascent in 2026.

References

[1] Paul Williams. Clogwyn Du'r Arddu. United Kingdom: Climbers' Club, 1989.

[2] E9 6c

[3] Mountain Issue 134 (1990), page 14 /library/11317/mountain-134

[4] https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jam-crack-the-niall-grimes-climbing-podcast/id1065991509?i=1000637614429

TO PHIL JEWELL, better known as 'Jim' — whose tragic death in 1987 robbed the climbing scene of one of its best loved sons.

'Big Jim' was a great friend, and one of Cloggy's most fervent disciples.

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References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcJfIBDqOCx/

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