14th September 2013
Lower Sharpnose – Middle Fin North Face
Clawtrack – HVS 4c – Lead
Despite the loss of an old and faithful piece of Kit, I coudnt help but feel it was a fitting end for my No 3 CAM. As the third owner of the unit in what has obviously been a hard lifetime, I would have hated to see it rotting away in my shed for fear of use.
As it happened it was sacrificed in rather scary circumstances. Clawtrack is the lessor neighbor of the fabulous Lunakhod, although it does a good job of trying to match it. Described as requiring lots of big gear it probably wasnt the best choice for this day as we only had a limited amount. Still, with a wacking great pebble in my pocket I set off up what looks like a great line.
It didnt disappoint. As it happens you dont need masses of big gear. There are smaller placements to be found, just not in the obvious places. This resulted in me hanging onto my No 4 Camalot for the entire route and never using it. However the pebble proved to be invaluable for the top crack. The crux of the route is actually low down imo. Although the upper reaches are exposed they are not so technical or balancey.
Chris, on his first vist to Sharpnose, loved it right up to the point I told him we had to ab off the old tat at the top of Lunakhod. The ab is always a scary bit and having safely got to the bottom we decided to take the safe option and climb out on the high tide escape route.
Bad move… I missed the left turn and ended up in a big pile of loose, moving and steep shit. Some of the most scary moments of my climbing to date especially as bits rained down on Chris and large sections moved off their own accord. The yellow No 3 was sacrificed in a crappy crack which stood more cahnce of killing both me and chris if any weight was applied (it was for mental reassurance as by then I was about 40ft above my last piece of gear). Having got to safe ground I pulled the ropes and abandoned the gear, only saving the lower pieces by traversing back in on the correct route. Never again I say. Next time I’ll take the bold E2. Much safer.
