After staying out until 4 in the morning the night before and having to eat my breakfast in the car on the way to the crag, I didn't have high hopes for my day at Ilkley. Josh and I had decided to have a go at Cindy Crawford. This John Dunne test piece blasts straight out the extremely steep valley face of the calf boulder and tops out at a dizzying 7 or 8 meters. The grade is around E7 or font 7C depending on which system you would prefer to use. Luckily we were able to stuff more pads into the back of Josh's two door Toyota Yaris than you might think!
It's a bit of a strange one because after Big John did it way back in 2000, it lay unrepeated for 13 years until Dave Sutcliffe ground upped it earlier this year. I have absolutely no idea why it's seen so little attention; it's a sweet line and well within the capabilities of quite a lot of climbers in the UK at the moment.
Out of nowhere I managed to flash the line, thus making the third ascent after John Dunne and Dave Sutcliffe.
It was one of those rare moments in climbing where everything falls into place and hard moves feel effortless. I wasn't concentrating on anything really, how high I was off the ground, how small the holds were, exactly what sequence I was going to use, success, failure... It all just faded into the background. Until everything flashed back to reality and I was cutting loose with my right hand holding a green sloper on the lip of the boulder. Deep breaths. Take it easy. Over the top. A perfect climbing experience.
I remember reading a Johnny Dawes quote somewhere about how you can climb every day for a year and only get a couple of moments like that. I think I'd agree with him.
Still feeling warm and psyched I decided to try and repeat it five minutes later, this time with the cameras out:
Cindy Crawford from
Jacob Cook on
Vimeo.
And some more photos...
