Adam Long has made the first ground-up ascent of Angels Share at Black Rocks. Graded E8 7a and described as a contender for ´one of the hardest routes around´ it is a stunning, green-looking hanging slab tucked away in the trees at one of the more unusual of the Gritstone crags. With no protection on the slab the route is usually (albeit sporadically) climbed solo after practice on a top rope. Adam chose to climb without practice, but above four bouldering mats. Taking numerous falls from the desperately thin slab and developing really bad knees and dose of whiplash in the process, he eventually managed to work out a sequence and stick the smears long enough to top out for one of the most impressive ascents for a while. Source (including a couple of great pics): UKBouldering Gaz Parry has been pretty busy over the past week or so. On Feb 24 he made the third ascent of Directors Cut on Parisella´s Cave in Llandudno, North Wales. The Font 8b problem took him 15 visits. On the 1st of March he climbed a new problem also in the Cave; in June 04 he climbed a problem called Cave Life at V11 and in May 05 Mark Katz added a lower start (In Hell) but finished up Rock Atrocity instead of Cave Life. Gaz linked ´In Hell´ into ´Cave Life´ at Font 8a+. On Feb 28th, amidst an awesome thunderstorm he also settled an old score by climbing Diesel Power 8a on the Cromlech Boulders in the Llanberis Pass, topping out in a waterfall! Finally, on the 2nd March Gaz returned to the cave yet again to climb ´In Hell´, Font 8a+. Check out fill reports with photos and video (of Gaz screaming his way up Directors Cut) on his Blog. You can also read more about Gaz at planetFear Extra A few other bits that slipped by without appearing in the news: There was a plethora of Font 8b ascents towards the end of February: Ben Moon climbed Great White Shark Hunt in Chironico Switzerland Malcolm Smith (yes, he´s back!) climbed Dave MacLeod´s Pressure at Dumbarton Rock and Tom Peckitt climbed Real Keelhaul at Almscliffe. Source: UKClimbing All good news for Britain considering the European Championships are coming up very shortly at the Outdoors Show. planetFear will be running a competition this week to give away tickets to the Outdoors Show. Watch this space…
