Ascensiones en Statham's Quarry por Kym Campbell

Step back in time to quarry climbing in the '60s - felt more like a 16 to me.

Pleasant. Pity it's so short.

Short, harder than 16 at the bottom, way easier than 16 at the top, not a lot going for it.

Short, but easy to protect with big, chunky gear. Good route to build up some trad leading confidence.

Warm up in the shade.

Very technical line on very nice rock. Great climb to get some sun on a cool morning.

A pretty horrid effort tonight. Working on my weaknesses, which is basically this whole route.

I did maybe 25% of the moves legitimately, and then cheated without restraint, but not without shame, on the rest to get to the top. Much work to do.

Sustained crimpy nightmare crux after the easy start, then some steep slab, then a nice finish up the corner. This is a good climb, but hard for the grade. It's 23 in the blue book, not sure why it's been downgraded here.

Easy start, but with a high first clip to keep you focused, then it's crimpy, technical and balancy with a nervy finish. Well worth doing.

a bit insecure at the top, especially if it's windy

Thin through the middle section. Ok warm up.

Decent climb that requires trust in your feet.

Fell at the first clip trying for the onsight. Came back down and finished clean on 2nd attempt. Hard at the bottom and easy at the top. No stars.

Pretty easy, though you could get into trouble at the crux if you're not careful.

A nice trad practice route, tolerably well protected with a mix of small and medium nuts and cams.

it gets vertical and quite run out after the 3rd bolt, but it's juggy enough not to be too big a deal

Tricky start, but heading up the slab to the base of the arete is not as hard as it looks. Getting onto the arete from there is the crux.

Sandbagged

Not just trad anymore, 2 rings and 2 bolts to loweroffs so take a couple of bolt plates. Runout at the top, but the climbing there is secure.

Feels easier than 16, but how do you grade slab routes?

Difficult to like.

Not bad. Juggy sections alternate with small footholds and crimps to keep things interesting.

one balancy move getting to the shothole

the slab before the first bolt is somewhat precarious

No stars.

Top roped this after Steve went up Short Circuit. There are more and better holds than it looks like from the ground, but it's over fairly quickly and I'm not a fan of Short Circuit itself, so all up it's pretty average.

It's ok, I suppose. Not worth 2 stars though.

First look. Very doable first half (via Shorter Circuit), then it gets to a hard section that's going to take some working out. A lot more questions than answers at this stage.

Started working the route on top rope. There's the odd desperate move here and there, but a lot of it's reasonably solid. On second attempt I got to the final mantle move, then ran out of ideas.

2 more top rope attempts. The first was truly ugly, but at least I eventually worked out the top mantle. Second was almost clean except I slipped on the mantle after doing the hard work, taking essentially the last possible opportunity to fall.

2 top rope ascents, both of them clean, neither of them totally convincing, but some time I'm going to have to think about the lead.

First lead attempt. Fell at the 4th clip, went upside down and spilled all my chalk, not quite the glorious ascent I'd envisaged. Next time I try this I might put a helmet on.

One fall, going up to the undercling, and another sort of fall when a draw on my harness sneakily clipped itself to the draw on the bolt below the mantle as I climbed past, which stopped me in my tracks.

Job done. Great route with a great variety of committing moves.

Hard boulder problem to the second clip, then it becomes much more manageable. Some nice moves along the way with good rests and a cool top out. Hopefully the start will feel better with some practice, then it should go.

Beta finding session. Nearly pulled through the bottom section after a bunch of attempts. Totally baulked at the big move past the 6th bolt above the ledge.

It's all coming together. Time to put a serious effort in.

Nearly a dog. First time topping out. Still struggling with the low crux.

Not much closer than last time, but it's nice climbing, so that's kind of ok.

Double send. Slight beta change made the start much better. Once I got going I didn't want to do it a second time, so I milked the rests and stayed fresh. Backed up by Paul sending in the wind and rain. Great session on a really satisfying climb.

Doesn't look like much but it's quite fun to work. Sequency, technical and balancy

Still doing some fact finding. Basically figured out 1 move today

Refinement and practice