So a good friend James McHaffie has just soloed 100 Lakeland Extremes in a day, which is an amazing achievement. I am sure when the dust settles and the video comes out of his achievement that people will see just how amazing this achievement is. Things like number of pitches or metres climbed and distance travelled between crags.
I have done two big enchainments in North Wales, and none included an extreme grade route or 100% soloing. Both were 12 hour efforts and both destroyed me physically and mentally by the end, they are the climbing equivalent of the ironman. Needing good mountain sense and fitness to get between the routes and then great crag mans skills to climb the routes quickly and efficiently.
I’d like to think that those two enchainments have given me a slight appreciation of what caff has achieve. Although we kept going for 7 hours less than caff and he climbed 10 times as many routes at a much higher grade. What I can say is that the getting between the crags is much harder than you think and getting enough food and liquid in you becomes problematic on such an endurance event.
Caff has climbed E9+ on many different rock types, F9a on limestone, F8c+ on Slate, Freed Multiple Big Wall Routes and now this, I know he doesn’t like being in the limelight all that much but as Adam Hocking said this probably puts him in the top 10 of all British Climbers. I am not sure about that as I am struggling to think of 9 people who have achieved so much so I might put him in the top 5.
If you really want to have an appreciation of this achievement then why not try you own mini enchainment with a rope. The days are still long for another month and hopefully the weather is good. There are two to choose from in North Wales (Ogwen and Snowdon) and you can try and tick as many 3* routes at Stanage in your grade as another.
Anyway such a great achievement by Caff and I would keep an eye on his blog to see what he has to say about it!