by Mick Ryan click to enlarge Women and climbing are a popular topic down the UKClimbing.com forums. You can read discussions about Notable first ascents by women, here, Women…strength…campus boards, here and even the condescending,Why are women happy to be 2nd?, here But apart from the big hitters like Lucy Creamer (website), Karin Magog (website), Silvia Fitzpatrick, Katherine Shirrmacher and Jude Spancken we don´t hear much from the rank and file.Here´s one. Last Saturday (11th August) Lucy Ellis (35) of Epsom onsighted the imposing Darkinbad the Brightdayler E5 6a at Pentire in Cornwall first established by Pat Littlejohn in 1972 and free´d by Ron Fawcett in 1976. Lucy has been climbing E5 since she was 18 but recently has been on a bit of a roll including a first redpoint of Chiselling The Dragon a 7c sport route at Malham Cove, as well as numerous hard trad and sport routes all over the UK. The photograph up and left by Darren Holman is of Lucy on White Slabs Blunt, an E3 6a at Wilton in Lancashire. Lucy took her time on Darkinbad, there were no chalked holds and she said she spent a lot of time standing around placing gear. She has her sights set on Raindogs, an 8a sport route at Malham Cove, previous attempts have seen her a couple of moves from the belay chains as well as hard trad climb objectives. If you hear of any women doing hard extremes, drop us an email.
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