Climbs

Originally given 8c but upgraded following repeats. Jerry Moffatt named the route in memory of his brother, who loved Liquidambar trees.

8c/+ on trad gear. The breakdown is roughly an 8A boulder in to 8b route in to 7C boulder. Footholds, some glue-reinforced, have broken since the first ascent.

References

[1] https://www.hazel-findlay.com/blog/reflecting-on-magic-line

[2] https://eu.blackdiamondequipment.com/blogs/stories/q-a-babsi-and-jacopo-send-magic-line

Named after Jerry Moffatt who decked from the upper reaches of the route on a previous attempt at the FA. Miraculously he survived relatively unscathed, using up one of his nine lives. Having completed all the hard, dangerous climbing and found a good runner he was stumped by the dirty top section so decided to lower off the runner. The runner failed and he landed flat on his back and was knocked unconscious, but miraculously awoke unscathed.

Alan Carne recalls

I thought he was dead. He landed flat on his back and was completely unconscious, immobile and I just looked at him and thought 'oh, my god, he's dead'.

Tried extensively by Ben Moon. Despite coming close around 1995 was unable to finish the route due to a combination of poor conditions and injury. Steve McClure's successful ascent in July 2000 represented a passing of the torch, with him taking on the mantle as the UK's pre-eminent sport climber by finishing off Ben's old project.