Braille Trail | E7 Trad climb at Burbage

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First ascent.

Second ascent.

Excellent fun. Buying and making the gear is all part of the experience. Buy hardened steel pegs, saw them to length, add tape to stop them sliding out. Buy a six inch nail with a round flat head, add tape and tie off. Easy to top rope but gets harder when you add the pegs which block your hand holds.

A good example of luck, my brother said he won 9 pieces of fried chicken in a raffle. That's luck, but it's not going to help him on a gritstone route. [1]

References

[1] Hard Grit (1998)

References

[1] Climber June 1997, page 4

I first tried it ground up in 2019, but fell off the crux and broke the cam placement. Going back a few weeks ago I threw a rope down the line and found no gear fit in the slot.

This made it feel quite a lot bolder than it used to, but also meant I'd practiced the psychological crux of Dynamics of Change.

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/jimpopeonarope/p/DHEhUBst0ME

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/DPWRkkWjLjf/

Paul Twomey:

Didn't you have a bad time on Braille Trail last summer?

Jean-minh Trin-Thieu:

Yes, it was total agony. I'd been falling on top rope 15 times in a row from the crux and beyond, and then I managed it once. I decided, like Gaia, that it was now or never. I made it but everything went wrong on the route, I was sliding everywhere. I got to the top and my friend was somewhere crying. I decided I would never do that again and yet there I was on Gaia. [1]

References

[1] On The Edge Issue 73, page 30