Climbing News Roundup

Dave Birkett in South Africa The Lakes legend Dave Birkett has escaped the wet and crappy weather for more sunnier climates in the Southern Hemisphere and has found not only warm rock but an impressive new route too. Dave joined forces with a team of locals to complete a long-standing project in the Yellow Wood Ampitheatre which is situated in a Mountain range North of Cape Town. The route is a mammoth 14 pitch route that has been a local project for over a decade. The successful ascent took place on Friday the 11th of January 2008 by a small party consisting of locals Jeremy Samson & Jamie Smith as well as Dave Birkett and Mary Jenner. They redpointed every pitch and did the whole route in 6 hours. The route is named Newborn with a crux pitch of 29 (F8a)

The route is just left of the centre of the wall.. through the yellow roofs at the top

See more photos and route description at Climb Za New Route in Scotland All the moisture in the air has been put to some use with good conditions in Scotland due to a cold wind and some heavy dumps of snow. Highland Guides report that”Steve Ashworth and Andy Turner have been out new routeing again in the full winter conditions we have here in the West Highlands (loads of fresh snow, cold temperatures, avalanches, gale force winds ? the lot!). On the 8th of Jan 2008 they completed another high quality hard route on Ben Nevis. ?Stormtrooper? VIII,8 is a fine new addition to Creag Coire na Ciste and neatly joins its Star Wars neighbour ?Darth Vader? although it is a lot more sustained than that route.” With the cold winds and wet weather set to continue, Scotland maybe the only place for new UK routes. Source: Highland Guides

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