Progress | 8c+ Sport route at Kilnsey

Ted Kingsnorth on hold deterioration:

Regarding holds changing, there are 2 key holds that have altered a bit since the FA in 95. Firstly the crux sidepull/ pod between the second and third bolt for your left hand has got smaller due to it crumbling. Apparently it used to be significantly bigger. Secondly the slopey pod for your right hand used to have more of a lip on it in the 90's and this broke off making this bit harder. Its the redpoint crux now - this broke agin majorly last summer but was repaired back to its former state as the piece that broke was retained and put back exactly how it used to be.

Thirdly, there were some holds between the 6th and 7th bolt that broke about 8 or 9 years ago [2015/16] but a repair was done to a key crimp so this section is about the same as what it used to be (the old holds can be seen in the Chris Savage video or the Malc pics).

I understand that this year [2024] the jug by the kneebar rest higher up has crumbled plus some other sika has decayed (not sure where) but I don't have any knowledge of this as haven't been up there to look. [1]

On balance it is not possible to know whether the route has gotten noticeably harder since the first ascent because no one has tried the route in it's previous state vs. it's current state to know if the difficulty has changed.

References

[1] https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,33869.msg697741.html#msg697741