Split Flies

Beta for 'Split Flies' follows.

As suspected, 'Split Flies' requires its man. After a sustained first five or six metres off the ledge, struggling with every piece of gear one is faced with a distinct, hard, crux move. Paul was feeding me running beta: stretch up off the low undercut, two fingers in the notch on the flake, lock off, smear both feet on the blank wall to the right, and do the 6 foot stretch up left to the jug.

Fat chance.

I slumped, disheartened, onto the peg. I retreated to the ledge, and Paul led through for his first clean ascent in fine, confident style. Back on the blunt end, the crux move still felt utterly impossible. I could get the top joint of my fingers in the sharp notch, but even taking my weight on it, let alone yarding wildly, saw me weighting the rope. Another approach was clearly called for. Instead of reaching for the notch, I pinched the flake lower down in a sort of half side pull, half undercut. A better hold, one that didn't feel as if it would slice off my fingers in the event of a fall, but one which would make the already long stretch even longer. I could now lay off more comfortably facing to the right, inching my right foot into a small dimple at about knee height. An intermediate sidepull for my left hand kept me in balance whilst stretching for the jug. I managed - just - to get my finger tips on it and now had to face the mantle with my already throbbing fore arms. The rest of the route is a formality. Paul had said this would be an extraordinarily hard on-sight, and he's right - the sustained nature of the moves leading up to the crux gives you very little time to think and work out the sequence. The crux move, even the way I did it in the end, is probably the single hardest move I've encountered on a route. Pretty damn hard for E2 5c if you ask me. But then again, there is good gear, if you have the strength and zen to place it. The crux itself is protected by a peg, conveniently extended by some tied cord to make it clippable from where it counts. The difficulties are butch but brief. Now, looking back, I think I'm able to do this, having had the time to work out the moves, and knowing what gear goes where. But the E2 band at Fly Wall seems to be where it's at.

We then did the top pitch of the neighbouring 'Ecliptic' (E1 4c, 5b), which I at least led without incident. The guide book write-up is unduly harsh on this route. I found it well-protected, steady and not at all loose. Quite nice, actually. To show off, Paul then proceeded to down-climb this route after he seconded it, and then repeated 'Split Flies' again in the fading light. He's climbing better than I've ever seen him.