The 7a milestone finally topples…sort of!

I’ve done it! I have finally done a clean ascent of a 7a. Okay, I admit, there are a few caveats. The first one being it was at a climbing wall. The second one being I was on a top rope. But general consensus says it is an accurately graded 7a, and I don’t particularly enjoy leading, so I am happy to take this as my first 7a indoor ascent. It took me 5 attempts over 2 visits to work out my way of doing it, which needless to say, is completely different to the way Jon does the crux moves. But over the years I have learnt that it is always a good idea to get suggestions from other climbers, but ultimately find my own way of doing it. For Jon my way makes the moves harder, but my strengths are different to his, so for me it is often easier and more logical to do multiple small, technical moves, than fewer long, powerful ones. So I would just like to say a very big thank you to Newcastle Climbing Centre for always having some harder, technical climbs with small crimpy holds on the vertical walls. It makes indoor climbing so much more enjoyable to have a wide range of grades on both the vertical and the steep walls, choice is everything! I expect it will be a long time before I manage this outside, I still have a 50:50 success rate with 6b’s on real rock (and that too is on a top rope), but maybe with our 3 month trip coming up, and some dedicated focus on climbing, I might nudge a bit closer to something that prior to today, always seemed beyond my reach.
–Gaynor