Beluga

The project, which was initially dubbed Cake Of Power (the root meaning of chav-jar the original name for Caviar), then Cavi’arder or Caviar d’est, finally came to rest as Beluga, a classier, less flippant name which complements and balances with the other new Caviar variant Barracuda I think. Since doing it on Sat 02-08-08 it has had three more ascents, from the Harris, Roy and Ted, all with a different sequences but all going along with the 8a+ and quality assessment. This is just about the most repeats any of my routes has had, except for the lovely Midgard Serpent at Thor’s Cave. Quite mad really given it’s only a few days old and also probably my hardest new route (though I reckon Pistol Finger might well be 8a+ too, as does the only other ascentionist Jon Clark)! It’s a shame LTQ and Thor’s cave aren’t so close to Sheff, it’d be nice to get more feedback on Escape to Valhalla (I rate this as my best new route and as good or better than all the other peak 7c+s), Spear Of Odin, Mosey on Down The Crow Road etc. I do love new routing. It’s a lot of work and probably not the most beneficial thing for fitness but it is a mighty fun process. I have a few ideas for new/redeveloped things in the pipeline…