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Slackers E7 6b
Just around from Birthday Groove, on Curbar Edge, is a fine square-cut arete hanging precariously above a steep bank of peat and tumbled boulders. The top half of the arete had been gained from the left by Paul Mitchell in 1979, called Diet Of Worms and currently graded E4 5c. First climbed by Robin Barker in 1994, the direct start up the arete had been obvious for some time, and was even mentioned in the last guidebook. Robin named the route Slackers and graded it top-end E6 6b. Since then a couple of repeats occured, Neil Bentley fell off it and persuaded Robin to grade it E7, and Sam Whittaker beta-flashed it in 1998, where-upon the route gained the dubious honour of featuring on the front cover of On The Edge magazine. Now the floodgates have opened, and the route has seen at least another four ascents by April 1999. The grade will probably settle out now at E6 6b. But it's the route that counts not the grade, afterall! |
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