Tom Briggs – Renegade Master – Ground Up

News filtered through to us that Tom Briggs has recently managed a ground up, solo ascent of Renegade Master at Froggatt. We contacted Tom and this is what he had to say on the matter: I tried Renegade Master first with Nic Sellers who thought it might be aroute to solo ground up, or at least do without the pre-placed RPs – he´dbouldered out the start some time earlier this year.We both got throughthe crux on a wet and windy Saturday and found jumping off onto a boulderingmat from this point was not too bad.We returned after work last week andNic made another move higher, reaching up with his left hand to almost touchthe sloping top of the boulder.I had four attempts that evening – thethird of which had me momentarily holding the top with both hands beforeexploding off, missing the mat and knocking Nic down the bank.Fridaynight, Nic went clubbing in Manchester, I stayed in.I roped in BenPritchard and Al Williams and Ben´s giant sized Cordless mat.They were abit shocked by the “violence” of my 14-stone body travelling towards them asI peeled off the top again on the first go.Second time up, I slapped myleft hand that bit higher, held the sloper and matched.The mantel onto thetop was one of those ´moments´!Jerry originally did the route, goingstraight up the rounded crack/seam at the top.I think subsequent ascentshave been done as per Bentley in the Hard Grit vid and that´s the way I didit.It´s one of those funny routes which (since bouldering mats) is reallya highball boulder problem with a scary top out.The grade seems a bit of amystery and as Richie Patter put it “..it can´t be that hard, because you´rereally weak”. Jerry Moffatt originally climbed Renegade Master and graded iy E9 7b. It has subsequently been repeated a couple of times, most notably by Neil Bentley for the Hard Grit video, and downgraded to E7/8 6c.

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