E2's outside Edinburgh

Just a quick blogpost to document a little of a milestone on my climbing journey, my first E2 on sight! I feel once you can on sight a grade you can safely say you can lead that grade, so I guess that makes me an E2 leader. E3 here I come!

I first spotted the line of Shear Fear (E2 5c) on my first trip to Ratho quarry, however after having only led one route that day the rain came in and made the rock (Dolerite for you geologists) which is frictionless enough as it is even more frictionless. Sadly me and Joe had to call it a day as the rain didn't look like it would stop very soon. 

Since this slightly disappointing experience I've wanted to go back and have a decent length of days cragging in the quarry. When the opportunity finally arose I was super keen to test how strong I still was having barely done any trad over the winter.

I met Joe after lectures on probably the nicest day of the year so far (a good omen) after lectures for the trip to Edinburgh. We arrived at the quarry at roughly 2 pm and quickly got to work on the warm up.

Making our way into the quarry

The day began with Joe giving a hilarious send of Ouroborus (HVS 5b) a technical line following a left inclined diagonal ramp from the bottom of shear fear all the way to the left corner of the east wall. After taking the wrong start and having to down climb through a tree, Joe made his way through the difficulties of the route. The crux is an off balance mantle with nothing to hold onto. Both of us opted for the beached whale technique, which while requiring next to no technique always makes the climb more memorable

Elegant as always

After topping out I psyched myself up for my first serious attempt at an E2 lead.

Shear fear follows the line of 2 steep flakes, at first you follow the larger flake on the right until about mid-height at which point you transition across to the smaller left flake, and finish either by making a huge step out left onto another route (Joe's finish of choice) or straight up the left flake (which is more of a finger crack by this point) both options are the crux of the route and are roughly the same in difficulty.

The twin flakes of "shear fear" (E2 5c)

I carefully selected my rack to cut down on weight. I opted to take mainly cams and doubled up on the green and pink sizes. Nuts never seem to go very well into dolerite. The route begins easily by scrambling up a couple of ledges to the bottom of the right flake. I Placed my first piece of gear deep behind this flake at about 5m. At this point you must commit to the climb or bail off. I wasn't about to disappoint myself so I swung into action and began quick progress up the slightly overhanging wall.

Making Progress up the first flake

I placed my second piece (green) in the left flake now being about 4 metres above my last piece. After placing this I pulled up onto a break in the right flake at about half height, by jamming my right arm behind it I could get a good rest and an opportunity to place another cam (green) in relative comfort.

Moving away from the rest

Moving away from the rest requires you to transition from the flake on the right across to the left hand one requiring good body tension. I now began to progress up the left flake, by jamming my hands and feet in the crack (credit to wild country crack school). The crux of my chosen finish required me to jam both feet in the flake and then mantle up over onto a ledge. After passing the difficulties I celebrated. I knew the rest of the route was comparatively easy. I soon dispatched the last 6 metres of climbing and made it to the top! My first E2 on sight, and what a climb!!

Finishing up on easier ground

Success!!

I quickly lowered off the route and stripped all of the gear so that Joe could go for his ascent of the route. Joe quickly and easily made his progress up the twin flakes and topped out on his first ever E2 as well, a successful day all round!

After having achieved the main goal of our day, we messed around on some easier routes before I finished up on Shoskred (HVS 5a) a blocky and exposed route on the opposite side of the quarry to shear fear.

I think I was most pleased with that Shear Fear didn't actually feel too hard, I got a little tired on the route but nothing a short break couldn't solve (and nothing like how pumped I was on Right Unconquerable), all in all it makes me confident for my first E3 onsight happening sooner rather than later, I just need to spy a worthwhile line first!

The top out on Shoskred at the end of a great day