Senior Citizen Smith E5/6 6b/c, Gideon Quarry
Senior Citizen Smith photo topo: Si Panton
Route number two of Pete Harrison’s Gideon Quarry campaign has arrived. Senior Citizen Smith is a bolt free trad line on the right hand side of the Bone People wall. It follows the eye-catching slabby arête until a flared crack leads left across a very steep wall to connect with a hanging slabby ramp.
The initial arête has a bold 5c section, but the real fun begins once the crack is reached. A desperate sequence leads out left on a combination of jams, knee-bars, undercuts and a crucial edge on the upper wall. Although the main section of climbing on the crux traverse is well protected, the final moves do leave the pumped leader in a potentially dangerous position, unless they can remain composed enough to stuff another cam in. Thereafter the final ramp leads steadily, if boldly, to a lower off.
Having spent a few sessions cleaning and working the line Pete was ready for the big lead, and last night found a volunteer belayer in the shape of Pete ‘Golden Heels’ Robins. This is what happened:
“So pleased to have got this one done, it’s one of those new routes you dream of finding – interesting hard moves on great rock in an airy position and with a scary but safe fall onto bomber gear, and best of all no fixed gear for protection.
It had seeped a bit from the previous day’s rain and that initial right-hand pinch at the start of the crack was damp but we dried it off enough to be ok. Led it first go without any warm-up which surprised me – I guess I was pretty psyched up because I ended up loudly power-screaming my way across.”
”I wanted Pete to try it because I knew he’d burst my bubble and be super-harsh with his assessment of a grade, which he duly did, so -
I climbed a F7c which has a big, scary, but relatively safe fall from the last moves of the crux. Really powerful going off those pinches and slapping with the right into the undercut, left knee bar on and up to the flat crimp with left hand, match, then across on the undercuts to the last hard moves up to the good hold right at the end, the way I did it felt like a V7. Initially I was pretty certain of the grade – F7c R / hard E6 6c. But after Pete’s ascent I’m more confused!”
”Watching Pete flash the second ascent was an education in flawless technique and strength, he managed to use a rattley hand jam out left beyond the two cams (which I had tried using and couldn’t touch), heel hook with right foot and then also got his left foot up in there as well at the same time (f*** knows how!), from this he was able to come through with his right hand onto the flat crimp, from there he climbed the same sequence as me but he had the strength and composure to be able to knee bar on the undercuts at the end of the traverse. He thought he could have placed another cam from the kneebar he got at the end of the traverse (we didn’t have one though).”
“He said it felt E6 without the cam but thought it might be E5 if you could place the cam before doing the last hard moves. Also, without doing the moves which I did at the start (which he thought defo felt 6c after trying it that way first) he thought it was 6b. So Pete thinks maybe hard E5 6b but ‘one of those E5’s that would feel absolutely desperate to onsight for most E5 leaders’.”
”I guess that’s what happens when you let loose an in-form F8c+ climber on your E6 project! It was like watching Brazil take on Bangor FC! I think it needs more E5/6/7 leaders on it to say more clearly – the jam Pete used was simply unusable for me but seems to make for an easier sequence if you can use it, perhaps hand size dependent as Pete’s hands are a bit bigger than mine.”
The route is best approached from a direct abseil from a small tree just down from the lip of the quarry. Take jumars (to go back up your abseil rope) as the lower off does not allow access to cliff top.
Check the Gallery for a pic of Pete abseiling in on a previous attempt.
