Braille Trail | E7 Trad climb at Burbage

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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