My First New Route

I have owned a full set of allen keys for a while now and at the back of my mind there was always my desire to do some new routing, the only question was where? The answer was so obvious that I should have realised earlier, my local indoor wall. Some people have said that the leading there is of little significance and certainly not worth the trip. It also has the advantage that the lead routes are changed infrequently, combine this with the fact that it is quite far from a good lead wall and there is a chance that someone might even climb it other than me.

Now, though not completely ethical I have decided to put up this route without consulting any of the wall staff, but sometimes you have to push the boundaries to achieve your dreams. My method was to take advantage of quiet periods at the wall and get to work discreetly with my allen key. Also, in order to remain under the radar, I was constricted to simply rotating some of the holds on an existing route.

The route of choice Blue, f7a, that I have felt all the holds on many times, perhaps a 1 star route but I felt that it could be improved. Its main fault as I saw it was that all of the positive holds were in the wrong orientation, so holds that should be jugs had been placed as undercuts! A few rotations of my allen key soon remedied this. I also feel that routes indoors do not replicate the outdoor experience as they should, so I loosened some of the holds on the surrounding routes that were not essential to my masterpiece, to recreate a true quarry experience. 

Creating the route and working the route was not without incident. On some occasions I had difficulty persuading anyone of the merit of my route (fools) and was forced to work alone. This meant staying under the height of the first bolt, pretending to boulder, in line with wall rules. On one of these occasions, whilst working the start, I fell and actually decked, probably falling upwards of 2000 mm.

After weeks of work my project was complete now for my redpoint attempts and indeed the first ascent. I managed to persuade a friendly, though inexperienced climber at the wall to hold the ropes for me, I just hoped he could belay.  Conditions weren't ideal; whilst maintaining my allen keys I had managed to smear grease not only on them but on my shoes, but rather than waiting for better conditions, or cleaning my shoes, I decided it was time to go for it.

First attempt:  unfortunately the afformentioned grease on my shoes caused me to take an unfortunate fall as I went through the mid section.

Second attempt: thrown off by one of the loose footholds on the neighbouring red route that I attempted to utilise through the crux section, serves me right for creating such an authentic experience!

Third attempt: I was now tired but composed myself for one final attempt, I gave it my all and suddenly everything flowed, I found new sequences using some of the loose red holds, but given their looseness, if anything they add to the difficulty. I neared the top and for me the crux, I was facing a clip from what had been a poor undercut, feeling my grip loosening I leapt for the chains (a la Rain Dogs), grabbed them, clipped and lowered. Redpoint completed!

I persuaded my belayer to climb it, unfortunately he was new to climbing and had never led so top roped it instead, he enjoyed it but agreed that the grease (from my shoes) on some of the holds made it difficult.

Now for the all important question of the grade, I didn't want to make a Pearsonesque mistake so I took my time with this.  Originally 7a, my belayer suggested with its modifications it may be 6a, however he is a complete beginner and not really able to accurately make such calls. I on the other hand have worked hard routes before and this route also felt very hard to me. Add in the potential to deck if you have not got any safety back up, the dodgy belaying, the grease on my shoes and some of the holds and the loose holds on the adjacent route and I feel confident in giving a grade of F6b+, it is certainly at least that to onsight.

Some people may disagree, or mention that sport grades are defined solely on the absolute technical difficulty of the route with pre-placed draws, or that grabbing the chains is not normally in. But I challenge those people to onsight this route with grease on their shoes, a dodgy belayer, no in situ draws, and with the possibility of not clipping the draws thus creating a decking potential, and not find it in the region of f6b+ (and also not grab the chains).

Blue Thunder, 15m, f6b+ *** - Take the line of blue rotated undercuts to the top, watch out for loose holds on adjacent routes, grabbing chain optional (recommended) F.A. Sidewinder 16/04/2009.