Sioux Wall

Yesterday John and Ronnie climbed Sioux Wall VIII,8***, which resulted in a massive bout of FOMO for me.  I have wanted to climb Sioux Wall for ages, so managed to talk Jonny into heading up the Ben today.  This was a little above his leading limit, so it meant I had to lead the whole route.  I was secretly happy about this, as it is such a classic.

Jonny enjoying the first tricky pitch

Jonny through the tricky moves on pitch 3

It is fair to say that the it is an outstanding route.  Sustained climbing on mostly bomber hooks with thin but positive feet and excellent gear, makes this a true classic.  A must do route for the grade.

There has been a lot of ice forming, even at lower levels.  The Curtain looks to be very close and Cascade is now super fat.  Although Two Step Corner is there, none of the others seemed complete.  Hadrian's looks fat from a distance, so my guess would be that the Point etc. is in fine fettle.