Neil Gresham in his own words

by Mick Ryan Neil Gresham dws The Flying Dutchman, Lundy Last week we reported of an impressive deep water solo by Neil Gresham on Lundy. There was plenty of interest and comment on this event at the forums at UKClimbing.com at this thread which had 2,344 views. You can read the original news item lower down this page. The news item got amended and updated as the day progressed with contributions from Paul Harrison and Dave Thomas (Dave Thomas was one of the first ascensionists of Flying Dutchman along with Nick White).Such is the dynamic nature of the internet. However Neil has just sent his own version of events and his opinion, kindly illustrated with a photo by Nial Grimes. Neil told us, “´The Flying Dutchman, is one of the most exciting Deep Water Solos I´ve ever done and it is a safe and logical undertaking providing the tides are right and the second pitch is avoided. An easy escape can be made rightward from the first belay at HVS.Regarding grades, a few people have suggested that it ´feels´ 7c if you are climbing completely onsight and the route isn´t chalked. The difficulties with the Dutchman are more technical than physical and both my falls were taken as a result of going off-route. It´s very unobvious where you´re supposed to enter the top crack. However, with the climb fully chalked and with beta, it would probably feel more like 7b/ 7b+. For the record, one of the falls I took was about 40 feet and the other was 50ft.”