Violent New Breed | 9a+ Sport route at Giggleswick South

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Simon Panton, from an interview with John Gaskins in 2002:

The G-Spot is a small, steep sector of Giggleswick Scar, set away from the main crag. You may have visited it to do Harry Tuttle F7b+ or Militia F8a+, and perhaps you noticed the absurd looking project line just right of Harry Tuttle. This project has a rather intriguing history. It was first bolted by John [Gaskins] in '93. During the summer of '94, whilst working on Hubble, John made a number of visits, beginning the process of move familiarisation that precedes a hard redpoint. Early in '95 one of the key holds on the crux section broke off in John's hand. Luckily his brother Tim, who was belaying, tracked the trajectory of the departing hold to the ground. The hold was retrieved and the decision was made to glue it back in place. Throughout '95 John spent 40-50 days attempting the line, finally falling off going for the finishing ledge late in the year. Throughout the winter of '95/'96 John trained hard, specifically focusing on replica moves of the project which John felt certain would be 9a. In march '96, he returned to the G-spot , spending more time reaccquaintinghimself with complexities of the movement over a three to four week period. Then, one day in early April as John arrived at the crag, he was greeted by a curious site. A large chalk arrow had been drawn on the rock, The arrow pointed to the top crmp that John had previously reinforced with glue. The words 'Tut tut' had also been written next to the hold in chalk. As John pulled up the rope to inspect the crimp, he realised to his horror that the main part of the hold had disappeared.

Understandably, John was devastated. He had invested so much time and effort in to this line, to have it all taken away from him through this anonymous act was heartbreaking. John took it personally, and a mood of delusion quickly set in. He describes it as a turning point in his climbing career. He abandoned sport climbing and channeled his energies exclusively in to bouldering for the next four years.

During my research work for this article I bumped in to John Dunne, and I told him about meeting John Gaskins and seeing some of his hard boulder problems in the south Lakes. Almost by chance I happened to mention the G-spot incident, and immediately JD's expression changed to that of recognition. It turns out that JD knew the full story. He told me that he had gone along to the G-spot with Andy Long to have a look at the project line. They had a good look at the route and both felt uneasy about the nature of the final crimp. To them it seemed like a badly glued artificial hold, so they decided to knock it off with a nut key. They then drew the arrow and the 'Tut Tut' comment on the wall and left the crag. I have spoken to both Andy and JD about the nature of the glued hold. Both were adamant that the hold they removed was entirely artificial, stressing that they meant no malice towards John, but felt that an ethical crime had been committed.

When I told John Gaskins about this he was equally adamant that all he had done was re-glue an existing hold back in it's original position. John was obviously upset by the incident, but, in the end, philosophical about the turn of events. He knew he would have completed the line in '96. It would have been the zenith of his climbing career and certainly a step forward for British sport climbing. But it was not to be. The edge has gone and time has healed much of John's disappointment. He told me that he has actually been back and done the move with the tiny remaining edge: "...it was probably V14, or say F9a before, whereas now it might be V15...the crux move is significantly harder than the crux move on Hubble. When I was doing Hubble , if I just pulled on in position; I could do the move statically every time, whereas the thing at Giggleswick, I can't do it every go and certainly can't do it statically. When I went back in the summer of 2000, it took me five days to do the move, even though I knew exactly how to do it."

John says he is keen to complete the line when he finds time away from his other projects. [1]

References

[1] On The Edge 120, page 52.