True North 8c

A long time ago I witnessed a ground breaking fast ascent of True North 8c. That day I had the pleasure of holding Ian Vickers ropes as he worked the route and redpointed it on his first attempt all within 2hrs. Even by today's standards this would be considered a fast ascent of an 8c. Since then the seed had been sowed that one day I would clip the chains having repeated True North. Finally that day arrived and on Tuesday I got the tick.
A few years ago I came close, failing on the last moves. A few days later I returned only to find the line wet. When the rain comes the North Buttress and in particular True North can get wet in minutes. I returned later in the season and after another day of work i went home hoping that on the next visit it would go. Again the rain put an end to that. Frustrated and annoyed at the British weather I vowed I would never come back but annoyingly the tug of such a fantastic line always remained.
Fast forward 3 years and i find myself with a few weeks to spare and a dry North Buttress. This time I was determined not to be beaten. I decided I would grind True North into submission.
My first few days back on the line were strange to say the least. Fairly unfit and a little weak I found the start (Full Tilt) nails.

Hard crimp moves as I pass the belay on Full Tilt.

I spent ages fine tuning my sequence. The top section felt a lot easier than before though.....maybe the steep juggy climbing I had been doing in Spain was more in keeping with this section of the route.
On day 5 I had two good redpoints, on the first I fell a move from a large hold before the last clip.

My first real redpoint this year i fell from this burly move. The next go I fell slapping the last hold.

The next day I returned confident it would go down quickly, three massive burns later and three falls from the last move, I knew the key to success would be a little more power.
A few rest days and a session at the British Bouldering Champions I returned with Keith Sharples. After warm up session consisting of doing the last moves about 10 times. Keith took over bely duty and Dave Sutcliffe, the maker of the Quest Bouldering DVD assumed his position high on the face with camera in hand.
The redpointed went pretty smooth really the only difference was that I actually felt tired on the lower 3/4 of the route, but when i arrived at the last move I focused on allowing my right arm to recover. It didn't really matter if my left was beasted as I wouldn't really need it again. Two more crimps a bit of a power scream and I found myself shaking out on the rail of Urgent Action.....and as they the rest is history. Not ground breaking like when Ian did it but to me it is one of the most significant climbs I have ever done. Thanks Ian for inspiring me to keep plugging way at this route, at last I can lay it to rest.

Focus now....the Urgent Action rail is inches away.



Watching the cows at Kilnsey. Mick Lovatt on the left who finally ticked his life long goal of Urgent Action after around 20 years of effort. Nice one Mick.

BBC 2009

Well this years BBC was better than ever. A fantastic crowd made the final really special. Thanks to Graeme Alderson the event goes from strength to strength and hopefully next year will host not only the BBC but also a World Cup. The weekend was filmed for a sky documentary which should be ready for sept.



Big thanks to Matt Heason for building Cliffhanger to become a must not miss weekend and with the support from BMC and hold suppliers Holdz its only going to get better.

Having not bouldered seriously for a year now i wasnt really expecting much. Attending just for fun and team selection for next years World Cups i was just hoping for a final place. That achieved i managed a great start in the final and flashed the first three boulders. Lack of pure strength was more noticeable after that though and i failed on the last two. I was fuly made up though to get a podium place and its always good to remind them youngsters that next year they need to watch out.



Great to see Ned and Dave looking so strong. Bring on 2010.

Gotta go now as its off to Ratho to get utterly pumped at the BLCC

The Spider

Just got this from a friend. We filmed it last spring and it is finally available on Vimeo for all to see. If 8a is your grade then The Spider is a must do route. An amazing trip through some of the steepest peak limestone and the best bit is it's not polished. A really cool route up one of the most imposing buttresses in the country.

Gaz Parry on The Spider f8a, Spring 08. from Joe Bream on Vimeo.

New routes in Norway.

After a month in Spain I am back in the UK. This trip is going to be the longest since I left the UK in December. First up was a sunny few days in London. I am really beginning to appreciate the capital. I couldn’t ever imagine living there but it is a fantastic place to spend a few days. After a session at the Arch with Yann and Tyler we had dinner on the banks of the Thames watching the sun set over the river and sharing the wonderful weather with hundreds of others. After two days setting at the Castle I packed my bag for a whistle stop tour of Southern Norway. I had been invited out by Borre “The Bolter” to go and check some unclimbed routes prior to a festival in Skarvann. The routes will be offered to all climbers to try for a first ascent with the best performance taking £1000. The wall for the event is a full 40m, it is really fantastic, last years “final route” is now named “The King Of Bolting 8a+” and still awaits an extension.

The amazing King Of Bolting climbs the long grey streak.

Borre is the King Of Bolting, he has developed loads of crags and bolted more routes that probably anyone else on the planet. A combination of the amount of time Borre spends bolting and not climbing and the lack of climbers in Norway means there are literally hundreds of projects all over the place. On my first day we visited a crag local to my fantastic host ex pat Mathew. Where I managed to bag a couple of first ascents. A nicely technical and almost grit like route I called Nuts at 7a+ and a bouldery 7b I named Crunchy.

Crunchy 7b 1st Ascent

I finished the day with a repeat of the classic 7b called Pistachio which probably explains the names!!!

Norway is somewhere I had wished we had visited on the road trip. It is a beautiful country and full of fantastic leggy blondes. With tones and tones of rock it is definitely a place to be explored. Check out the Skarvann


Activity Park for Borres latest project not only is he bolting around 200 routes most of which await a first ascent he is creating a fantastic activity park for people to climb, hike, bike and walk in.

Catch Up

I am sure now most of you have read, watched and followed our trip across Europe. If you haven’t seen the latest few posts then check out the Summit Series Road Trip Blog and the final instalments. Thankfully the trip is over but it will certainly be something i will never forget. Some odd goings on in Font with James.

Some words from Unclesomebody. “The final stop of the roadtrip was also to the longest, with 3 days planned out at the climbing festival of Melloblocco. The 72 hours of planned relaxation and bouldering turned into 66 hours of manic editing, filming, and route climbing. The final 6 hours were spent partying away with the throngs of climbers from all over the world. In one small tent in a valley of Italy, 100’s of people from all over the world were gathered for the same thing, the love of climbing. This is why we continue to push ourselves, this is why we spend many dark days training, this is why we continue to explore the unknown and exciting potential that the world of rock climbing has to offer. We do it for nothing but love.
“the hardest 8a of the Trip”
50,000 words, 15,000 km, 47 days, 30 hours of video, 22 borders, 14 countries, a load of climbing, and a whole load of new friends later, the Summit Series Road Trip was a great success and a journey I feel privileged to have been involved with. James summed it up with “The SSRT was one of the best times of my life. It was harder work than I could ever have imagined but I feel this just made the many good times even sweeter”. Given the opportunity to undertake something like this again, the only question would be “When do we start?”.

If you fancy seeing some of the videos on the big screen then get yourselves down to the Cliffhanger event. Not only can you see me at 3.30 in the lecture tent but there are loads of other events happening and of course the Senior BBC will be held on Sunday. Check out the Cliffhanger for more details.

When the SSRT was over I went from one fantastic adventure to another. Hopping on plane from Milan to Alicante I went home to my new house. Kate had been there for a few weeks or so already. When i arrived it was straight to work on a horse shelter…..no climbing for Gaz this week.Mine or should i say Kate and Joes shelter is under construction. Joe being Kates horse.

A quick week back in the UK for setting at The Arch, The Castle and some coaching at Craggy Island meant another week with no real climbing. Returning to Spain I was determined to get at least a few routes in but this month really had to focus on jobs around the house and my land. A few nice days out and I managed 3 8a+ one of which was a first ascent, an 8a os in a new sector at Sella and another hard 8a rp at the hardest crag in Spain Murla. We had visit from Yann and Kates sister allowing us to be the tour guides and treat ourselves to some relaxing evenings on the beach.
My new 1st new route in Spain. "XPat 8a+"

12 days in

Oh my god this trip is just full on. Every day is rammed with stuff to do....climb, coach, lecture and then usually to finish the day off we find ourselves driving for a few hours. After the ferry we quested through Denmark and into Sweeden, over some of the most expensive toll bridges on the planet.



We were on our way to do some euro routes. Abstrakt is one of Sweeden classics, climbed in 1991 and following a really nice flake line with only a few foot holds. We met Jens from 8a.nu at the crag and he gave us the low down.



In the evening we headed round the the 8a.nu headquarters and then our for some pear cider in Gothenberg.



Next up was a lecture in Goth then we headed over to Copenhagen for a full day of coaching and an evening lecture. We finally left Copenhagen at around 11.30 pm and began our 9 hr drive to Eindhoven for more coaching and another lecture.



On a brief visit to Belgium we checked out the waffles and the pissing boy....pretty disapointing really but the city and its buildings are really nice.



Yesterday we climbed at the old Belgium crag of Freyer and were suitably impressed. A beautiful crag in a beautiful setting. We climbed the 1987 route God Save The Queen a really old school route involving some really technical climbing and some small holds. After trying the onsight and slipping high on the route James flashed it and i managed it first go.

Uk to Euro

Well that's it we have completed our 4 days in the uk and I have both routes in the bag. Yesterday we were at Malham and it was Cold! Raindogs felt really hard fighting the cold fingers was a real test. I tried it placing the draws but fell from the last move. I nailed it second go. James got the tick on his third attempt after taking the obligatory ride from the chain twice. We are now just leaving matlock to catch a 6pm ferry from Harwich.