But nothing could compare with Angel Falls - the granddaddy of tepui big walls. We tried it in 2002 and again in 2003, but not until 2005 did we manage to assemble the best team with the best equipment and an unshakeable conviction that this time it would go free. The main 1000m wall had been climbed only once before, and it is testimony to its difficulty and inacessibility that this A4 aid route is still unrepeated after 15 years. Our free line covered much of the same first half as the aid line but then headed off into virgin territory to finish within a stone's throw of the falls' glistening spout. In all nine E7 pitches were climbed, five onsight. Two of these fell to me, one being pitch 29 of the route's 31 pitches and climbed on the seventeenth consecutive day of climbing effort. Such an adventure is going to be hard to follow!