Mat Wright snatches Ogwen plum – Eternal Fall E9 6c
- Friday 23rd September 2022
Mat Wright has made the first ascent of an Ogwen plum; a massively overhanging fin above a shocking landing.
“I’m beyond excited to have made the first ascent of such an amazing project 😍🤯” Mat said after the first ascent of this spectacular, road-side project.
Mat was tipped off about the project by David Fidler, “There’s this project in the Ogwen, a huge prow next to the waterfall. It’s been a project for too long! Probably around E9, you should do it!” Mat has been supporting his partner Anna Taylor on her Mountain Rock Tour but as soon as that was over Mat was straight back to Ogwen – a man on a mission!
Mat described how he felt when he saw it for himself, “When I first set my eyes on the massive shard of sandstone, I couldn’t believe that nobody had climbed it! I was scared to try it straight away just in case anybody saw me and wanted to do it for themselves. Bits of rock like this are extremely rare, so I wouldn’t blame them for being interested!
As soon as he could Mat got his top-rope out and started working it out. It came together quite quickly as Mat explained, “I had two sessions figuring it out on a top rope, then I did it on my third session. Felt bloody mega! 🔥”
Having done the first ascent Mat then had a problem of how to grade it given it was not only a massive highball but the landing was – in his words – “utterly atrocious”. Mat outlines his thinking for his proposed grading of E9 6c. “Grading routes is hard, and this one especially is difficult to get your head around. If the landing was flat, it would fit nicely as a highball 7B+/7C boulder problem. But since the landing is pretty awful and I really couldn’t see it ever being safe, I figured that a trad/solo grade would be more appropriate. Everybody at the crag that day agreed and so we decided that E9 6c would be a good place to start. Future ascents will always determine the actual consensus of the grade - All I know is that it felt comparable difficulty to Achemine but very different style and it was harder and bolder than any E8 I’ve done by a big margin.”
So what is it comparable to then? Mat suggested Simba’s Pride (E8 6b) at Burbage South, “Comparing this to many gritstone classics, it feels silly to propose a boulder grade since it’s situation makes for more of a solo, similar to “Simbas Pride” but with a worse landing and Font 7C.
In May earlier this year Mat made the fourth ascent of Neil Gresham’s Pavey Ark testpiece, Lexicon (E11 7a); click here for that report.