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Swaledale Outdoor Club |
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Swaledale Outdoor Club |
| > Home > Newsletter > Climbing > The Black Sheep |
The Black SheepOne long summer in the early 70's, when the mud dried up at Peak Scar, I remember I soloed the arete just right of Frenesi, as a new route, calling it Zen Bones and grading it Hard Severe. It is a good route in its own right, but it paved the way for what I consider to be the best and most enjoyable route on this crag. Frenesi itself is often regarded as the best route at Peak Scar but I have never found it to be so. An excellent series of 4b moves early in the climb are eclipsed by a lurch onto the former belay ledge and then a heartstopping peg-protected 4c move over the overhang. The mind concentrates on this horrible move and the real quality climbing is forgotten. The challenge for me was to create a 4b route up this magnificent concave wall. The solution only took 30 years. I arrived recently on a Monday morning with Caroline Corner. It started with a couple of obvious footholds at the base of the Zen Bones arete. They allowed me to move diagonally up and left, with greasy handholds, to reach the flakes of Frenesi. From here, the classic 4b moves took me right over the overhang and back left up to the ledge. Here, don't go onto the ledge, but go horizontally right along the high level traverse, and have a large sling ready for the good thread here. Continue right and your feet follow holds upwards until, just before the arete, you can pull over the overhang on endless huge jugs. Here, you are in real poser country, balanced above the overhang, with huge holds, massive exposure, solid protection. No one knows it is only 4b. I climbed diagonally left to finish sensationally as for Frenesi. Good tree belays and Caroline followed with no swearing: a sure sign of some absorbing 4b climbing. It has all been done before, so it is not a new route really. But it is the best. What do I call it ? The Black Sheep. Probably VS. Sustained 4b climbing, with a rest after each move, and good protection at each rest place. Magnificent situations. Solid rock. Classic. Try it next Club meet ( either 6 August or 3 September ) and have some real fun. Another climb at Peak Scar, long forgotten and long ignored by guidebook writers, might fill a gap on Club meets also. Pemba Chimney is a pretty desperate diff. When dryish, I can bridge it at a fairly concentrated v.diff, in my opinion. But at the Crevasse, the guidebook leads you out right up a grassy and pointless ramp- horrible! - spoiling what could be a direct quality climb. Instead, when you reach the Crevasse, go up left onto the ledge and look upwards. A leftward facing right-angled corner contains the biggest overhang any v.diff leader has ever seen close up. Is it E1 or E2 ? Keep quiet and place some good runners in the solid crack in front of you. At the overhang, huge footholds lead out rightwards. Hold yourself on with an undercut in the middle of the roof, to reach huge jugs leading all the way to the top: steep but balanced, exposed, sensational, easy. If you are not intimidated by the overhang, it is as easy as Downbeat, and much easier than Jordu. Call it Pemba Direct. Recommended poser climb for Club nights. It is not in any guidebook so no one will know that it is only v.diff! Mike Readshaw |