Climbs

The prow at Black Rocks is one of the most impressive and uncompromising features on gritstone and for decades was regarded as a Last Great Problem. Attention in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s focused on the prow’s left arête, with climbing said to be around 8b.

Whilst top-roping Seb Grieve on the line, Quentin Fisher suggested trying to link to a line of better holds on the right arête. With a bit of beta refinement from Dave Jones, the line of Meshuga was unlocked and Seb made his ascent in 1997. It was perhaps the boldest route on gritstone at the time, comprising unpredictable 7c climbing, a long way above a terrible landing. The name comes from the Yiddish word for Insane. [1]

Despite its boldness, it has become one of the most repeated E9s.

The left arête remains unclimbed.

Jon Read:

Not much gear until all the hard climbing is completed (though initial pocket may take a F1.5). Instead, protection would appear to take the form of several futon mattresses and a wandering clutch of Frenchmen lashed down to prevent them from running off. The landing is possibly the worst on gritstone although Neil Gresham miraculously only got concussion when he fell off the crux slap. One other thing to think about to savour the full atmosphere is that The Promontory is a historically popular suicide spot. [2]

References

[1] ‘Peak Rock’, Vertebrate Publishing, 2013.

[2] https://www.geocities.ws/readza1/climbing/gritlist/grit_e9.html

Originally given 8C but due to a chipped hold, some soft rock and vigorous brushing holds have changed and it is now more like 8B/+.

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

First climbed by Mark Leach after one of the most legendary sieges on Yorkshire limestone.

Originally 8b+, the route has been upgraded in recent guides, despite no holds having broken since the FA and an easier sequence than the original nails method on the top crux being found.