Carmen Picasso | E8 Trad climb at Upper Gorple

First ascent.

Second ascent.

Ben watched Dave MacLeod top rope the route before flashing it with the gear in place. He then repeated the route placing all the gear on lead. Dave found some extra gear that was not used on the first ascent and Ben suggested this brought the grade down to E7/8.

References

[1] https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/ben-bransby-flashes-e9-in-britain.html

[2] https://open.spotify.com/episode/1o7RLJApyhQ2CEBAwVKzvz?

[3] On The Edge Issue 103, page 10

Third ascent.

Ben [Bransby] watched me top rope it and fiddle in the RP (pumpy). I climbed back down to have a breather before leading it and Ben asked if he could tie in to my rope and climb up to check out the RP. He did, but kept going and flashed the route, brilliant effort (despite the pre-placed gear and queue jumping). So my ascent was the third. The route is definitely over-graded and is E7. [1]

References

[1] On The Edge Issue 103, page 10

With a pre-placed wire.

References

[1] A record of ground-up and on-sight climbing on Peak, Yorkshire and Lancashire gritstone