A November Experience

I suppose that I am old enough to know better, but once again I fell for John Temple's line that Soap Gut (VS, 4c, **) on the Milestone Buttress is the crag classic and that it is nowhere near so bad as it used to be. Maybe so, but it still didn't look too good when we approached and saw the green dripping slime oozing down the sharply cut corner. Classic it looked indeed, but I'm not sure about in condition, and I'm also not sure that it was any better than it had ever been! But with increasing admiration for the first ascentionists I took the lead. Not only did it look slippery, it certainly was, and it was not long before things were looking a bit desperate. Fortunately the pro is bomber, and frequent. Gradually getting the hang of gripping slimy holds I inched up to what would normally be the first belay. To get to this involved a mantleshelf onto a very slippery ledge and it took some convincing, backed up by the choice that it was either that or be rescued, before it was successfully completed. Staying on the shelf was none too easy either, and I even tried John's suggestion of taking off my boots and climbing in socks. All very well this; it certainly provides excellent grip on slippery surfaces, but the toe jam needed for the next move back onto the righthand face was too painful to be accomplished. So, back on went the boots, and with it the manic dance necessary to stay put. Lots of gear placements later and I was on the wall after having made yet another committing move and marvelling once again at the skill and tenacity of the early climbers. A few more moves and I was at the second belay and ready to bring up John. What seemed like ages later he arrived, muttering something about good leads, and it was his turn to attempt the next pitch; the Chimney Route continuation round to the right.

Well, this was exciting. We were both slipping and sliding all over the place, and even belaying was a major problem. John grovelled in the damp corner and began a crazy foot shuffle while I desperately tried to stand upright. The problem wasn't helped by the fact that the next move needed a friction (what a laugh!) move across the slab to gain an unprotected corner. John was having no luck at all so very inelegantly we changed places to let me have a go. I fared even worse than John, so there we were both jigging about back on the slippery belay. All was not lost though since the spike to which we were belayed also offered the opportunity for a face-saving retreat. The excitement was not yet over, however, since it wasn't only our little corner that was slippery - the whole b***** face was! But at least I tried to use my feet on the abseil. John, on the other hand, rather dirtied his nice white trousers by using them as a cleaning cloth on the way down, and I am sure that he never used his feet once. Had I known I would have gone second since the rock would then have been much cleaner ……!

Derek 24^th November 1999

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