Another Winter Route in the Bag

Following a short stormy mild spell the temperatures have again dropped and with a brief ridge of high pressure this gave us another chance for some more pre-Xmas exploratory winter climbing and to revisit another new line on Slabby Ribs which normally banks out later in the winter, this time I took several BIG hexes though save weight with the rope!
A few years ago I’d climbed some banked out icy variations on the crag which meant the difficulties were fun and steep but very short lived and I’d always meant to climb the routes in early season nick as they looked very interesting as mixed lines.
The last time at the crag we climbed the far left line Advent Crack at II/4. This time it was the line slightly to the right that climbs the shallow corner and twin cracks up the flakey middle rib.
Not much gear on the first pitch but its easy and good hexes, if somewhat big, on the steep bit.
The climbing involved several secure stacked axes, some wide bridging and foot jams.
I thought it was fun but Fi wasn’t so sure!!
A few big bits of good gear meant that despite cramp with the wide bridging, I was fairly relaxed though had me wishing I’d tied in as a double rope.
Despite its modest length due to the sustained crux difficulty and the zig zagging, the protection for Fi coming up as second was not the best!
The last pitch is a short gully with a few steps to the top and later becomes corniced.
I’d originally graded it as Flakey Rib III/4 but on reflection the crux is quite hard for a tech 4 and is at least tech II/5, if you have a BIG hex, although the crux is only 6-8 metres and the whole route around 35 metres!!!!
The video was edited in GoPro Quik although it was actually filmed with my Huawei P30 Pro phone, an old Panasonic LUMIX tough camera and the tiny insta Go2 backup camera for the pov headcam footage before the battery ran out!
I also had a GoPro Hero 11 to use with the Quik app but as usual it crashed and wouldn’t turn on and now has been sent back again under warranty!

[@garrygrant2827]

Hi ron hope you are feeling better as you said you were a bit unwell . That was a lovely wee climb blow the cobwebbs of i enjoy your videos a lot thank you

[@RonWalkerCairngormGuides]

Yes feeling a bit fitter compared to last week though having COVID and a Flue bug along with being an OAP doesn’t help😉 Glad you enjoy the videos and hopefully lots more to come 😊

[@fawthro]

For a minute i thought you were wearing a santa suit

[@RonWalkerCairngormGuides]

Haha, a few chimney routes for Xmas day 😂

[@Craigsoutdooradventures]

This looks fantastic, I really need to learn this

[@RonWalkerCairngormGuides]

We run guided days and private instruction!

[@Craigsoutdooradventures]

@@RonWalkerCairngormGuides could you drop me some details please? Or a link

[@Craigsoutdooradventures]

@@RonWalkerCairngormGuides ace can you send me details or a link please?