Simon Says F8a, Pen Trwyn
Last night Pete Robins cleaned up an old project line in the Split Infinity cave (next door to Parisella’s Cave on the Marine Drive in Llandudno).
Si Panton and Neil Dyer performing some complicated rope shenanigans during the equipping job Photo: Panton collection
Simon Says F8a takes the impressive line right of Taipan, initially starting up the arête of the cave, before breaking rightwards through the big roof and continuing up through two more roofs to reach an easing on the headwall.
The line was originally equipped by Phil Smith and Tony Shelmerdine in the early 90s. It was then left abandoned until Si Panton and Neil Dyer re-bolted it in 2007.
Si Panton explains:
“Whenever I was bouldering in the Split Infinity cave I used to look up at this line and wonder what it would be like. I reasoned that the main roof looked no harder than the boulder problems I was doing down below, so I decided to give it a go.”
“The bolting job was epic as the old studs were useless and there was no gear placements to pull into the rock. It took a lot of cleaning, but in the end a brilliant route emerged from the dust. I tried it a lot, getting higher and higher and becoming more and more obsessed.”
“One time I actually made it all the way past the final roof and fell with my hands just below the big break. Then I got a bad finger injury in my left hand, which two years later has still not healed. All the hard moves on the route involve a lot of stress on your left hand, so I knew it would be foolish to try it until the injury was properly healed. In the end I officially gave up and suggested that Neil should do it. He faffed about too much and passed it on to Pete who had previously spent a session on it with me.”
“Although it is quite gutting to let it go, I’m happy that one of my mates did it and most importantly that he thought it was hard!”
“The route has three cruxes: the big roof feels like a V6 boulder problem – a burly slap straight into some powerful slopey pulls. This is followed by a poor rest and a desperate and unlikely pull on a slopey pinch to pass the second roof. This section is at least V5 on its own. You then arrive at the top roof/overlap pumped stupid and facing a final V4 sequence to gain the big break where a comparatively straightforward 5c rock up gains the belay.”
After the first ascent Pete was keen to sing its praises:
“It’s a great route, at least two stars. It’s also hard, I thought it was definitely F8a. I had quite a tussle on it”
Stop Press 13th July: Last night Neil Dyer flashed the second ascent of Simon Says, declaring it a future classic. Neil also had a good weekend on the Cheedale limestone crags in the Peak, where he flashed Powerplant F8a, Roof Warrior F8a, and Lockless Monster F7c+. He also redpointed Nemesis F8a+.
