Having spent a day on this in January last year... I can attest that it was an epic sandbag at 27... and that was WITH the interim belay between the 26 and 27 pitches. With the runouts, the combined pump factor of linking the upper pitches, the location and the style... this is an amazing achievement.
Nice film with a lot of great footage. My only gripe is the disconnect from them arriving at the abseil which will take them to the base of the route to suddenly having their rope connected to the summit where they slide across the tyrolean to work it on top-rope. Apart from 'how did they get the rope there?', why didn't they have a crack at going ground-up, particularly as Sonny has climbed significantly harder climbs than this?
I am much more looking forward to the film showing Lee Cossey and Andrea Hah actually going for it ground-up which is infinitely better style. I understand that Lee's effort was a truly impressive piece of climbing.
On 17/06/2016 simey wrote:
>My only gripe is the disconnect
>from them arriving at the abseil which will take them to the base of the
>route to suddenly having their rope connected to the summit
What's with calling it the ffa? It was freed a couple of years ago, doing it in one pitch isn't some radical step forward. Why the fuch does everything in pro climber videos have to be some kind of first?
On 18/06/2016 simey wrote:
>On 17/06/2016 One Day Hero wrote:
>>What's with calling it the ffa?
>
>I thought that too, but I checked the video again and they never claim
>a FFA. I think you can blame Andrew Clarke for that headline.
On 19/06/2016 ajfclark wrote:
>On 19/06/2016 Damo666 wrote:
>>It's being shared via Patagonia as the FFA due to the BD video title,
>
>Where's the BD video?
Fing awesome, brilliant climb. I feel the video gave good recognition to Ewbank and the local boys, but yeah the title is sensationalist.
I have to say though...while I usually like to take the piss out of the "wear a helmet" police...it does seem a funny choice to go for the stylish backwards baseball cap...while joking about how you hope the route doesn't fall down while you're climbing it...when you're almost standing on the scar from the rockfall that infamously almost turned Paul Pritchard into a vegetable.