Tom de Gay

Close but no cigar.

Back then, I misguidedly thought that naming and recording new boulder problems was pretentious; now I’m troubled by the thought that I might have done things and forgotten them. Perhaps that’s why I took this photo: to preserve that perfectly crisp gritstone moment. As it turned out, I can recall the climb quite vividly, but had no idea I'd taken a picture until unearthing it a few days ago.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for me to reconsider writing up the climb. But to keep to the rules it needed to be a route, and have a route grade – so I gave it E5 6c. To be fair, out there on my own, no spotters and just a single pad, throwing one on for the top, it felt like I was earning a few E points.

On the name, Suavito is a track by Senõr Coconut, a German electronic music producer known for Latin arrangements of Kraftwerk tracks. Looking at the note in my guidebook, I was going to call it ‘Grip’, but that’s pretty been strongly scribbled out. [1]

References

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

References

[1] On The Edge, issue 114

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Z5ftVe6rA

References

[1] On The Edge issue 110, page 10

References

[1] On The Edge Issue 84, page 11

Without side runners.

The first go up, I matched the seam, launched into the dyno, made contact but didn’t stick. A generous helping of air. The cam ripped but the RPs held and I narrowly cleared the ledge. So, up again, jump again, peel off again. This time the cam stayed put, but slammed me sideways into the wall, my thigh brutally colliding with a spiky boss, creating a burning meteor of bruising. I hobbled off to heal.

An overcast day in September brought cooler temps. The seam felt crisp: jump! I caught the sloper again, swung out again… and stuck it, glancing at the loop of slack arcing out below. Yes!

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/C0RIoWGqBe2/?img_index=1

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/DBtn_JIq1Lf/