Rob Matheson repeats The Bells, The Bells! (E7 6b) at age 74!
- Tuesday 29th April 2025
Rob Matheson has recently repeated The Bells, The Bells! (E7 6b) on Gogarth at the ripe old age of 74!
When John Redhead made the first ascent of The Bells, The Bells! on Gogarth’s North Stack Wall it was one of the most serious routes in the UK at the time. Not only was the climbing insecure, the rock wasn’t beyond suspicion and the protection was both “extremely sparse and uninspiring”. The Cad (E5 6a) was climbed two years earlier in 1978 by Ron Fawcett on the same wall. Fawcett sank two bolts and hammered in a peg into the North Stack Wall to protect his ascent. As a renowned “last great problem”, The Cad was both a standout and controversial addition by Fawcett.
However, The Bells, The Bells! by Redhead was an entirely different prospect; such was the difficulty and seriousness of The Bells, The Bells! that it was graded E7 – the first ever in the UK. Simply put, The Bells, The Bells! overshadowed all the bold and serious routes up to that point; similar extremely serious routes were to be added on the same wall within the following year, but The Bells, The Bells! was the first and as such an utterly exceptional addition.
Whilst The Cad was repeated almost immediately by Pete Whillance, The Bells, The Bells! stood unrepeated until 1986 when Andy Pollitt made the second ascent, after which Mike Owen made the third ascent in 1990. Pollitt went on to The Bells, The Bells! on-sight, as was the prevailing ethos at the time. Pollitt succeeded in his attempt and historically recorded the second ascent; subsequently, he described it in detail in Punk in the Gym, his autobiography, saying “Second ascent, The Bells, The Bells! 22 July 1986. On-sight, and the only time in my entire climbing life I gave off that strange scent and honestly believed I was about to meet my maker.”
Since those helicon days of the Eighties, The Bells, The Bells! has seen few repeats. Last winter, however, an unlikely candidate threw his hat into the ring; Rob Matheson – a 74-year-old Lake District-based long-standing climber and new route developer. Rob released two videos over the winter cataloguing his thoughts and ambitions of repeating the iconic “chop” route as well as his approach and the protection, in Rob’s own words, “fall and retreat” – that was available.
In sub-optimal conditions in late March, Rob, having previously top-roped and “dialled” both the climbing and the protection, set off on lead. That attempt ground to a halt after Rob fell; before which, however, he had been able to get a sling over the in-situ peg. That, however, wasn’t the final act in this drama! In better weather and further prepared, Rob returned on April 24th and successfully made a rare repeat of The Bells, The Bells!, a route which remains to this day an extremely bold undertaking. Rob’s preparation was thorough; he’d inspected the route in detail and practised it on top rope. He is, however, the first climber aged 74 to have climbed not only The Bells, The Bells! but any route with such an extremely serious rating!
In due course, a video will be released, so watch this space, as they say. Meanwhile, watch the first two videos from Rob documenting his approach and the protection available below…