God's Own Rock Climb

"There you go," said Tony, pointing "Bishop's Rib." According to the guidebook this E1 5b, 5a was "a beautifully proportioned climb; technical, strenuous, exposed……"

I had a good look around but, to tell the truth, couldn't see a climb at all; all I could see was a soaring blank slab leading to an overhang, and there was no obvious way up without wings. The view and the geology were amazing though - we were directly above the sea overlooking a troll cave and what was clearly a small dinosaur nest. More disturbingly, we were also above Suicide Pool - presumably named for people who hadn't made it up Bishop's Rib.

Undaunted by reading that the crux gear had been ripped off by Rock fall, Tony swam smoothly up the tiny crack splitting the face, defying gravity by using nonexistent holds and placing minute nuts at intervals, aiming for a small ledge. At my climbing level, a ledge is something you can hold a party on; here, it was a slight forgiveness in the rock which, if you were lucky, you could get a couple of toes on. Tony used it to shakeout via an interesting wiggle then somehow sprang up and over the overhang onto a comfortable ledge and the first belay at 45 feet, with me desperately pulling the rope through to keep up.

A few moments later, my lurching progress up the wall came to an abrupt halt beneath the overhang. I moved left, I move right, I moved up (slowly, several times), I moved down (quickly, more times) but I seemed destined to spend the rest of the weekend bouncing on the end of the rope yelling "I'm off…again!" until, a long time later, with some assistance from (a by this time rather bored) Tony, I manage to grab the only decent hold, frantically lifted both feet off the slab and beached myself at his feet.

The second pitch was a leftwards hand traverse - tricky - followed by the "splits" to reach God's own rock above; a vertical 70 foot crack, with holds exactly where needed and enormous exposure. Tony disappeared from view. I could hear expressions of pleasure (what was he doing up there? I didn't want to lean any further over the abyss to find out) and realised why when I followed - it was a brilliant pitch, a stairway to the heavens. And I stayed on!

This was one of the most enjoyable routes I've done - climbed gracefully and expertly by at least one of the team - and on my tick list for when I'm leading extreme (only don't hold your breath!).

Jo