Many thanks for posting your trip report to Chockstone hpt.
Taking the time to write them up, even at 3am, allows one to relive the experience and savour it again, ... and re-reading repeats the savouring numerous times years down the track! In fact reading your report brought back strong (& fond), memories of my sojourns on Ozy, so thanks again.
When I read your planning notes I found myself thinking certain parts of it were optimistic and was consequently keen to see how you fared. I also realised again that my first attempt (partner broke his foot so we bailed), at Ozy was researched to death and yet there was still plenty of new experiences involved in the undertaking, so I doff my hat to you for effectively onsight ground up doing it, and solo to boot - a significant achievement involving three times the work of a team ascent and one that you should rightly be proud of.
You might also be interested in my rough calculation guess-statistic based on personal observations over the last 30 years, that about a third of first attempts at Ozy end in retreat for various reasons, and the ratio of team ascents to solos is probably about 25/1.
It’s interesting to see how ascents of Ozy evolve.
Fixed ropes on the south side track, use of walking poles, better belay bolts, deteriorating original bolts, etc. My big toenails of both feet have never grown back successfully after humping my solo load down the south side! No ropes or trekking poles back then, and the Gledhill bolts traversing out of the bivy were scary mank by the mid-90’s(!), although I don’t advocate replacing them, as the horizontal seam at roof juncture takes gear. |