Dan Varian makes first ascent of Weeping Arete (Font 8B+)
- Wednesday 10th July 2024
Dan Varian has recently made the first ascent of Weeping Arete (Font 8B+) at Brimham in Yorkshire adding yet another first ascent of a “last great problem' to his already long list.
Many 'last great problems' typically have an in-built defence system; some are in demanding locations or are very conditions-dependent, others have very specific holds demanding a specialist skill set whilst others favour or even require a particular body height or ape index. Weeping Arete is a case in point. As referenced in Dan’s name, Weeping Arete is often wet late – typically, well into late spring/summer. Weeping Arete seemed to require a massive reach too; Dan’s cunning solution however out-smarted that albeit requiring the ability to use some very demanding holds. Time and further attention by others will shed more light on just how tall or how strong you have to be to make Dan’s method work.
Perhaps Weeping Arete’s final defence is that it’s very definitely in the realm of highball. Dan’s record is top-notch on all these aspects so it’s no surprise that he’s chalked up yet another amazing first ascent. It’s not, however, been either a fast or effortless ascent; undoubtedly that will have added to Dan’s satisfaction.
Climber have been in touch with Dan for the details about Weeping Arete, how he approached it and his views on where it sits within his first ascents not only in terms of difficulty but in terms of quality and the satisfaction it gave him making the FA.
On the broader and more nuanced issues of bouldering, Dan also shares his thoughts on how he develops boulders, what attracts others to certain boulders, the remaining “last great problems” still out there and whether he sees the UK has an “international bouldering destination”.
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Firstly, congrats on adding yet another first ascent of yet another 'last great problem' to your already very long list of first ascents; how satisfying was it to close this one out?
Thanks, it’s an inspiring feature so I’m glad it’s in the climbing world now. It’s been nice to get through a bunch of lines in the past year or two that I’ve always dreamt of. That’s been a nice part of getting older in still finding bits of time for great days out on lines this good.
You first looked at the line over a decade ago; since then you’ve continued to expand your business interests, had a family etc. and as a result, are much more time-starved. Does that help you to prioritise and so zero in more on specific projects?
Yeah, basically I’m lucky in where I live in that there are still great lines like this under two hours away from my house. My life is busy enough now that I think without these really interesting challenges I could happily drift along a bit more but I needed to be in half-decent shape for stuff like this so they help give everything a little bit more purpose
You’ve also been wrestling with injuries recently. Do you use your projects to help you keep motivated and get through the rehab?
That’s the story of my thirties, mostly it is fixing things I overused in my twenties and imbalances I ignored. I do like to be healthy just generally moving about as life is just more fun that way.
Let’s drill into the detail a little of Weeping Arete. Others before you had been able to link the lower section but everyone, including yourself initially, drew a blank on the upper section. How did you finally crack the sequence for the upper section, how elated were you at that point and were you then pretty sure you could climb it?
It took a lot of blue sky thinking really. It actually is quite a basic solution it’s just that when the tiny seam had moss in and the toe hook to get there were both pretty big barriers/hurdles to overcome when you’re just staring at blank rock wondering how to escape from the end of the rail. That realisation basically took years of experience and climbing with younger more talented climbers like Aidan Roberts. In some ways, it's a bit of a shirk off left away from the arete but it’s the last move and I’d be amazed if anyone under 6’ 8” ever solves it differently.
I really like the final solution as it has a mix of styles and packs in some great variety in its 7m length. Back in 2021 when I realised it was possible I was really chuffed to have been the one to stick with it and figure it out as whether it was myself who got to climb it or not it was special to effectively unlock the dead end on such a great feature.
It went pretty smoothly really. I’d had such a frustrating time waiting for the weeping to stop on the arête that I was fairly over-prepared. I wanted it to be like that as due to the height and the barn door release everything needed to be controlled. On the day I had two goes where I readjusted too much on the lower section and lost too much skin hardness and then on the third go I just powered up that bit without readjusting on the holds and that meant I arrived at the crux with slightly harder skin that gave me the confidence to execute the crux safely. Considering we had just gone down for a family day at Brimham and it was just two friends turning up with extra pads that made an attempt possible there wasn’t a huge amount of pressure but I’m old enough to know when to go up the gears to reel in the big fish.
Out of all your first ascents where do you place Weeping Arete in that list; not only from a difficulty and a quality perspective but also on a personal satisfaction perspective (and dare we say it even...) as an older climber?
It’s a great climb. It’s in my top three favourite new climbs. Along with Bombadil and Magna Strata but really Bombadil is my favourite ever climb and experience. The feature of Weeping Arete is more striking and brutal but I’ve always loved the subtlety of sandstone the most in climbing so it’s going to be hard to beat that for me. I don’t ever expect to be honest as there is only so much rock in the UK and once you whittle down needing a 6-9m chunk of super compact stone the list gets incredibly short quickly for where that’s even possible.
One thing I am good at is, in effect, a geology to climbing conversion specialist as that’s how you find and appreciate these big lines and certain rocks only produce certain features. Hence why we have so few granite pocket climbers in this country. So I try and really appreciate the big lines when I find them as they aren’t a given. I mean the last time a line got climbed on grit this big at 8B or harder was over a decade ago. In Yorkshire, there’s High Fidelity from 2003, so that’s 21 years old now, and Lanny Bassham in 2009. So there have been two of these in history up to now and 21 years is a long time in climbing, if there were lots of these I’d hope we’d have come up with more than three by now for all the years of activity in Yorkshire.
Without wanting to get too bogged down on grades, Font 8B+ seems to be your 'go-to' ceiling; given your historical record and experience, is there any chance it might it be an incy bit conservative?
Yeah basically it just means it took me a while with the same beta and my system helps me grade things quickly and easily. If I spend too long thinking about grades I get frustrated at just how inconsistent they are. Basically in the higher grades, there are loads of factors that can affect if something is possible and I just think they're a nonsense and personal to whoever put them up and what mood they're in. The deciding factors on a line this good for the top boulders will be their height, crimp strength and fingertip size in the slot. That’ll create a huge swing from 8A+ to 8C+ I reckon depending on who you cherrypick to get on it.
If I compare it to something like Monk Life then undoubtedly it’s a good deal harder but if I compare it to some Lakes test pieces it’s for sure way easier so this is my way of still bothering to offer a grade to climbers. Grades are mainly a currency for news headlines in climbing. Ascents and speed of them are the real true ability marker in climbing, many incredible feats get overlooked due to a lack of a big grade as do many failures. As a developer with more in common with OS maps than a guidebook, I just stare at blank gaps which have no grades most of the time, you need certain skills to climb the gaps so I try to adapt and acquire the skills if I don't have them, it’s the climbers with the right skills who solve the gaps. As Napoleon Dynamite said, “You gotta have skills”.
Widening the conversation slightly, some of your boulders, such as The Rail at Bowden Doors, haven’t seen a lot of attention since you made the first ascents. Do you have any insight as why that might be and then turning to Weeping Arete do you think this will see more attention?
Everyone’s got their own path in climbing and people climb for different motivations. I think Weeping Arete will be very frustrating for some people due to the wetness in the colder seasons that suit grit. There is a groundswell when a new line gets put up and often if that period passes without a repeat then lines can often die for a while as the kudos leaves them for another new thing.
Weeping Arete is in the highball grit niche and whilst Brimham is super easy to get lots of pads to hard grit highballing hasn't been super fashionable in the past 5-10 years. It had a real buzz around 2002-2010 and many of the best test pieces got put up in that era. So I can see it going either way. I think once The Rail gets a repeat it’ll suddenly see a few as again it just takes one person to light up the belief fires and suddenly the aura of these things comes tumbling down, it’s been tried enough by very good climbers to know it’s a decent challenge for them but there are so many challenges and goals out there in outdoor climbing now that when you factor in the British weather it’s natural that some stuff falls through the gaps in the scene. I’m privy to info that makes me think Weeping Arete will hopefully see a repeat before it gets wet again in autumn but all it would take is a wet September and all bets would be off.
Basically tall climbers good at crimping with narrow fingers, unless some new beta gets found. For the Brits we have loads of talented climbers who could do it nowadays, I climb with Aidan Roberts and Tim Blake quite often so naturally back them for the home team. Leeds has a huge pool of local talent. Our one international bouldering visitor Niky Ceria is maybe due back in September and was planning to climb in Northumberland again but he’d be a great candidate.
You’ve talked previously about how many climbers watch videos to soak up beta these days. Videod ascents are now commonplace these days not only for the purposes of 'proving' a climber has done the problem/route concerned but they’re also an excellent vehicle for a climber to increase their media profile. As your ascent of Weeping Arete was videoed (by others) do you think that will reduce the mystique somewhat and make it more likely to encourage others to go and check it out?
I don't know really. Videos are a weird one in that they’re a nice memory but they also are the answer book for many climbs. Nowadays they are surpassing guidebooks and you see instafamous problems riddled with chalk just because they are well known or have a buzz but 10m away you can have a total classic getting overgrown. I’d hope that Weeping Arete gets people trying it who just want a challenge on a massive grit feature.
Like a number of your problems, Weeping Arete has been hiding in plain sight forever! Do you think that the list of 'last great problems' in the UK is drying up or do you think there are still plenty out there awaiting 'discovery'?
This is a big question and one you could almost write a book on! Every guidebook always starts with a similar caveat of almost nothing's left. At Brimham this season I’ve put up four other Font 8A or harder additions and I still have a few projects left there. I think there’ll be ten 8A and above additions to do on the Northern Edges part of Brimham by the end of next season. Then in Yorkshire as a whole the recent finds by Oliver Parkinson and Liam Hutchinson show how much that grit still has to give. Oliver’s ascent of Howling at the Moon at Great Wolfrey was also a LGP which a few of us did in 2019. So it all depends on where you set the bar.
Each generation comes with a new set of skills and I’m excited to see what they bring to grit if it becomes in vogue. I worry that with the new generation focussing so heavily on indoors and having an upbringing there, there is almost a blasé attitude to the outdoors that projects will just jump out at them if they ever decide to head out but without a seasoned guide I think a lot would be missed, and already has been. So it’ll take a combination of the talent and having “the eye” as climbers say to piece it together or knowing the right person.
I’d speculate that the parkour style and run and jump niche hasn't yet exploited some of the blank gaps on grit and that may well be to come but if you set the bar at massive highball gritstone aretes that are still undone then no, there really aren't many which have holds on, so this is a rare occurrence. Whilst Weeping Arete (by the way it’s called that literally because the arete weeps) uses the rail and slot on the wall to make it possible, without those holds the arete feature would be totally unclimbable. so you’re always going to need something.
I must admit that I still have a decent list of projects left in the north and having spent my twenties outdoors at all these crags instead of doing my stretching and ancap day down the wall as listed in my plan then I’ve effectively become the gatekeeper to them for the next generation as well as myself. I’ve not got time to do lots of searching nowadays so the list is definitely shrinking as the years go on rather than growing like it did in my twenties.
Looking at the UK as a bouldering destination it’s surely becoming a more attractive prospect for the world cognoscenti than it has ever been and, yes, of course, that means making due allowance for the weather! Do you agree with that and would you welcome that?
It’d be really weird to be honest if it did. Great to see though. When Niky started coming over years ago it’s been nice to see him work his way north through the gritstone to the sandstone but he’s very much one of a kind for the top boulderers. I find it really odd that the Dutch never come to Northumberland as it's zero driving and an overnight ferry. Maybe just the cost and the allure of Font being five hours away is enough to sway it but I mean it’s literally a hundred to (almost) none and the season in Northumberland is far more diverse than Font with hard climbing possible year-round thanks to the high hills. But yeah I’d welcome it, but pigs might fly! The best chance of that happening is when mainland Europe sees consistent summer heatwaves to push people north.
As one of the UK’s most prolific developers, many people will be very interested in what and where you will be focusing on next from your undoubtedly long list of ongoing projects. Whilst we await news of an ascent can we be sure that the Dan Varian project machine is well-fuelled and raring to go?!
Well, I just did a new climb at Harehope Canyon called The Long Patrol that was physically harder than Weeping Arête for me but not highball and I closed it out quicker so I gave it 8B but basically it’s an amazing giant egg feature that is a harder version of the challenges like Awooga Sit (Font 8A+) and A Bigger Berry Sit (Font 8A+) which have become real classics of the County. I’m really happy with that addition. It’s in a tiny canyon with a stream running through and the setting is pretty idyllic and shady. I’ve got loads of other projects to get on, too many to mention but keep your eyes peeled for some action in Northumberland this year if the stars align and hopefully not from me!