Beth Rodden on Book of Hate
After a few days rest I went up to this route with climbing legends Irish/Spanish/Belgian Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll and fellow Brit James Mcaffe.
This is the most amazing corner ever. 35 metres of perfect open book corner climbing – bridging or chimmneying – pick your tactics for battle!
We were under the impression it was 5.13a, but all internet sources say 5.13d, which is hard! I don’t really know what grade it would get, I guess it’s hard to grade this kind of thing.
Sean, pretty wasted after tearing the valley to pieces for a month, narrowly missed getting the route, but still stubbornly going for it in the blazing heat of midday sun; no one can blame him for not trying! Caff, chimney master, chimneyed his way to glory on his third attempt. Being a terrible chimneyer myself, but pretty flexible, I chose to bridge (stem) the whole thing. Stamina bridging is a crazy affair, and I really had to try at the top, also getting it on my third proper attempt.
Anyway, this route is bloody AMAZING, all I can say really.
Sean stemming for his life
