Lost Illusions (2 Pegs) | E7 Trad climb

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Duncan Critchley:

I worked with Andy and Martin Corbett in a climbing shop in Bristol in 1981/82 and we all climbed together a reasonable amount. Andy had a love-hate relationship with climbing and the Bristol climbing scene. He was a controversial figure for his tactic of repeatedly TRing routes before leading and also as he had 'stolen' both routes and girlfriends from other locals. He was a great natural athlete, had an enviable power-weight ratio, and was able to give up completely for a couple of years then get back into shape and onto hard routes relatively quickly. Very annoying for someone like me that has always had to work hard to maintain any kind of climbing fitness!

For one of his come-backs he chose the line that became Lost Illusions and TR soloed it almost daily for several months. He got back his fitness and had the route completely wired. He placed two pegs and led it on a single half rope with me or Steve Findlay belaying. Very modern tactics. He didn't name or claim the route, as this was against the prevailing ethics at the time (1981), thus neatly side-stepped the shitstorm that would have ensued had he done so.

The other locals may not have approved of the tactics but were wary of trying a route that was obviously hard and poorly protected and, unusually, it had no interest for a couple of years. Andy was proud of Lost Illusions and really like the climbing however he realised it was unlikely to get another ascent in the two peg form any time soon. He encouraged me to place in a third peg and I found a small cam placement he didn't use. With this extra protection I lead it 'ground-up' (in Lexicon style 😉 as in not practising the moves [a reference to James Pearson's ascent where he abseiled the line and felt some holds]) in 1983 and gave it the name. My mate Paul Smith flashed it impressively shortly after, to throw down a gauntlet to a watching Martin Crocker!

As far as I know this was Andy's last ever route as he dropped out of climbing.