31/05/2008Return of the Belgians

As fate would have it, Adam Wainwright got a surprise as he abseiled in to do Quartz Icicle in Gogarth's Wen Zawn: hanging opposite him was a Belgian photographer and across the way was Nicolas Favresse a.k.a Nico, on the belay at the top of pitch one of The Mad Brown E7 (6a/b, 6b, 5b, 6a), a route Adam had made the first ascent of in 1996 with George Smith. And until today it had not had a second ascent, let alone one in a day.

Nico and Sean had clearly developed a taste for the loose eccentricities of climbing on the back wall of Wen Zawn from the Meet, during which both Nico and Sean made an ascent Mr Softy (E6) and Sean also climbed Conan the Librarian (E6). They left fully aware of the kudos involved in repeating The Mad Brown and Adam had sent them a pdf giving a rough idea of where the route went, since they were staying on in the U.K.

Returning from a visit to the Peak they wasted little time in setting about The Mad Brown. When Sean reached Leo Houlding's high-point from a repeat attempt, marked by a quickdraw on the second pitch, Adam was able to shout directions as to where to go next. Sean and Nico were relying on their memory from what they'd seen of the topo up on screen. The Belgians did the climb in three pitches, running the second one into the traverse of the original third pitch.

Adam commented: "Its really impressive just rocking up in Britain and trying such a specialised North Wales route. They seemed to have much greater faith in the quality of the rock than me and George had!"

George and Adam alternated leads when they made the first ascent, originally trying it ground-up, getting close to the end of pitch two. The route was eventually completed after abseil inspection. They reckoned no single pitch was E7 but taking into account the belays on in-situ ice pegs, the difficulty of escape from the first two pitches and the mosaic of rubble crossed, it fully deserved the grade. Leo had speculated it was perhaps even E8.

Photos:

top: Nicolas Favresse and Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll gearing up in North Stack car park during the recent BMC International Meet. © Ray Wood

middle: Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll enjoying the "big atmosphere" on the second pitch of The Mad Brown E7, Gogarth. © Adam wainwright

lower: Nicolas Favresse pulling through the steepness on the final pitch of The Mad Brown E7, Gogarth. © Adam Wainwright