I took a long time for The Indian Face to see any repeats, yet in the space of three days it has seen three. A truly incredible week of weather has lead to the crag being in amazing condition. Shorts and t-shirts at cloggy is a rare thing, almost as rare as ascents of the crags hardest route The Indian Face.
A route that has beenn the stuff of legends seems to have lost some but not all of its mystic. Luckily I was there to witness two of the ascents and can only say how impressive these climbers are. Caff chose to place the gear on lead and managed to get it four RP’s below the crux one of which he described as possibly being able to hold a small fall, but probably not. Caff worked the route off a gri-gri before going for it and is probably the quickest ascent so far.
Callum Muskett worked it on a gri-gri for a couple of days and top-roped the route yesterday and today, before launching up the wall with the gear preplaced. The crag fell silent as he worked his way up to the 8 RP’s he placed, again he doubted if they would hold a fall. As he reached the crack and easier ground the on lookers breathed a sigh of relief. Myself included.
I had to head down to get ready for work, but George Ullrich then had a top rope and if Caff Facebook feed is anything to go by he too made an ascent. So now the route has had seven ascents (Johnny Dawes, Nick Dixon, Neil Gresham, Dave MacLeod, Caff, Callum Muskett and George Ullrich) nearly half of them in a few days.
Why this happened is a great question, one argument is the four minute mile effect. After Bannister finally broke this record, many other managed to break it as well. As if the psychological barrier had been moved slightly. Of course it also need the runners to be in awesome condition as well. I think this is what has happened here. We seem to have so many great climbers in Wales who are in great form that it seemed inevitable. For more i psychological barriers read The Indian Face Onslaught on my coaching blog.
