Pete Whittaker climbs new grit E9 7a

by Jack Geldard – UKC Pete Whittaker has continued his Burbage campaign and has climbed the oft tried arete start to Braille Trail at Burbage South.This comes just a few weeks after his bold first ascent of Grandad´s Slab E7 6c – the direct finish to Braille Trail. Pete reports: “I climbed the direct start to Braille Trail on Friday evening. I called it Dynamics of Change and I gave it E9 7a.Sorry about the late report, I was busy over the weekend with school work and stuff.” John Arran, author of several of gritstone´s hardest test pieces has tried the line and is impressed; “That´s a fantastic effort by Pete. I threw a rope on it last year to look at the possibility of a Braille Trail direct start and it seemed like it may be possible for someone, but it was way too hard for me that day. It´s technically at least 2 grades harder than BT and unless you´re able to reach left into the BT slot for gear you´d be looking at doing the crux of BT with a possible ground fall, which would make it definitely E9 and maybe harder. Even with the BT gear it´s still cutting-edge stuff.” We hope to have more details and photo´s of the ascent soon.

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