Trad climbs

Leo Houlding's swansong on El Capitan. The route takes in over 1000 ft of sustained hard climbing including the notorious Devil's Dyno and the crux A1 Beauty seam.

Leo started trying the route ground-up in 2001. Will Stanhope describes the climbing:

Picture this: You’re halfway up the right side of El Capitan. Below you is a string of maybe-hold-bodyweight pieces plugged into the scaly grey stone. The footholds are crispy and slowly spitting gravel away at the sides, so you’re gently rocking your weight back and forth on each foot to avoid one snapping off altogether. The most feasible line heads left, around a bulge, maybe. It looks hard. There’s no way to tell if it leads to decent gear, or to better holds. All around you the rock is sharp, fractured and overhanging. Alarm bells are going off. This doesn’t feel right.

What would you do? Forge on, running on faith, trusting in your own abilities, or back off? Nobody would blame you at this point for throwing in the towel. They’d likely just call it good judgement. It is the smart thing to do. If you go, you’re deeply committed.

This isn’t a fictional story. Leo Houlding actually went for it around the bulge, yanked the smallest of micro-wires into a bottoming seam, then promptly fell onto it, core-shotting one of his ropes. He eventually completed the pitch, dubbing it “The Screamer.” Having been there, I can’t imagine a bolder effort. Some would use the term “reckless”, and they might be right in that description. [1]

The ground-up attempts ended with Leo's partner Jason Pickles hospitalised with a broken pelvis after falling off a pitch and hitting a ledge. [2]

They eventually completed the route in 2010. Determined to climb it in a single push, the pair were marooned in a severe storm high on El Cap for five days before Leo pulled it out the bag to finish the job.

Named after the C. J. Bolland track of the same name.

References

[1] https://gripped.com/news/the-prophet-el-capitan/

[2] https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jam-crack-the-niall-grimes-climbing-podcast/id1065991509?i=1000774041461

In 1988 a portion of the flake was snapped off when a paid of climbers attempted to use a car-jack to retrieve a stuck cam. [1]

References

[1] Mountain Issue 123 (1988), page 19 /library/11309/mountain-123

Allan Austin:

One startling development of this period, beginning with Whillans' lead of the Sloth, was the conquest of some of the great ceilings. These overhangs or nebs are characteristic of gritstone and most edges abound in them. Perhaps the way of future development lies here? The most impressive of all is the great barrier of the Roaches. A ten foot overhang stretching across the top of the Great Slab, this barrier is crossed in only one place by a green crack, the way of the Sloth. The Sloth, a route of fantastic exposure, must be one of the best and most spectacular routes on gritstone. Surprisingly, it is neither very difficult nor unusually strenuous; but it is an incredibly fierce lead and enjoys a unique and unrivalled status in gritstone climbing. [1]

References

[1] Climbers' Club Journal (1958) /library/7430/climbers-club-1958-journal

One of the first climbs to break the Brown-Whillans monopoly on new routing on Cloggy, climbed in the dry summer of 1959 when the aura of the Rock and Ice routes was starting to fade.

"Hugh (Banner)'s finest achievement was Troach on Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, an extremely blank-looking wall in the modern idiom. The name was that of a peculiarly adhesive kind of northern toffee, and typified Banner's performance". [1]

References

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/jul/04/guardianobituaries.obituaries

Formerly an aid line it was later freed by Will Stanhope and Matt Segal.

In 2022 the Snowpatch Spire suffered a huge rockfall which completely destroyed the route [1].

References

[1] https://gripped.com/news/massive-snowpatch-spire-rockfall-famous-climbs-destroyed/