Opening the account

For about three years now I've had one particular route in the back of my mind. That's because it's the best hard sport route on UK limestone, bar none. To be honest, many of the hard sport routes in the UK are minging - the holds are too small and nasty, or the rock is a bit poor. Some of the best climbing are on traverses (like Dog's Dinner) or arbitrary link ups in Parisella's Cave or the Tor, but it's hard to get psyched for them, unless you are Alex Barrows.

The exception that proves the rule is Rainshadow. Steve Mac put up this masterpiece in 2003, and it's seen two repeats since then. It is flipping amazing. The rock is damn near perfect and the moves are funky. Most importantly all of the holds are nice - no grim crimps here!

Steve Mac on Rainshadow. Screenshot from Gresham's Training DVD.

The route climbs Raindogs (best 8a at Malham) to a poor shake below a Font 7c+ boulder problem through the roof, with burly 8a/8a+ climbing to get to the belay above. It's a BIG step up from anything I've done to-date. Together with Tom Randall I've been basing my training over the last three years around getting into good enough shape to do this route. To be honest, a lot has gone wrong over that time period, and I had to sit out almost all of last year, and a few months of this one, due to finger injuries. Maybe that will prevent me from realising my goal this year, but the time has finally come to start trying, and see how close I can get.

This weekend I spent three days on the route. It's amazing, but so, so hard. The roof boulder problem is so beta intensive, it took me the whole weekend to work out a sequence. I'm using Steve's heel-toe sequence, which no-one else uses, but after trying several different pairs of Sportiva shoes I've got the knack and think it's the way forward. Raindogs at least is easy, but there's a heartbreaker move at the very top that's got me really worried. The whole deal may be too hard, and perhaps my ego has written a cheque my body can't cash. Too bad. I'm supposed to be back at work, but I can't think of anything else. I see Rainshadow holds in my cup of tea. I load google to search for work papers and somehow find myself watching Rainshadow videos. For better or worse I'm committed to this project! See you at Malham...