Taylor adds Olwen (E9 6c) to Rhoscolyn, Wales
- Friday 12th May 2023
James Taylor has added another new test piece to Painted Wall, Porth Saint at Rhoscolyn on Anglesey in North Wales; this time with Olwen (E9 6c).
Back in 2021, James added Prisoners of the Sun (E10 7a) to Painted Wall. Like Prisoners, James’ new route features hard sport climbing but with poor/distant protection (link to Prisoners of the Sun news here).
The route follows the “rib-like” feature in the middle of Painted Wall and has been a long-standing open project. The route is said to follow the first section of up Easel-EE (E7 6c), clipping the first three bolts on that route, before taking a direct line above. James has been climbing with Franco Cookson of late; previously, they had some time together trying Craig Matheson’s Hard Cheddar (E10 7a) in the Lakes. Although both James and Franco have spent time on the new line working it together it was James that got the first ascent.
Reporting his ascent on Instagram James described the route and his efforts with Franco to climb it.
“This route was a total team effort, with Franco unlocking some of the sequences way before me, and then showing me the way. Due to timing and conditions, I happened to make the FA - but it could easily have been the other way round. I had a good fight on lead, which I won't forget for a while, scraping through some of the moves by tiny margins with very pumped arms.
After my lead, Franco made the wise choice to bail as the sun had come round and he did not want to risk the runouts in those conditions. The week before he committed in the sun and had a difficult time grappling with the hot holds before coming off the top wall, a scary belay and not something either of us wanted to do again.”
Addressing the grade for Olwen, James explained his thinking behind the E9 6c he has offered saying, “As for the grade, as always it's difficult to tell but the route is undoubtedly harder than the neighbouring F8a sport route. I think a very runout F8a+ is a fair appraisal of the route. Of the two 5m runouts, the first has you thinking a little too much about the floor but is thankfully not too hard (British 6b). The second runout is the pumpy finale of the route and makes for some long whippers and scary moves.”
James confirms that the name – Olwen – means Goddess of the Sun in Welsh mythology.