Si Panton continued his Ormes campaign with another killer addition, this time up in the neglected Dumbell Flyer, just up the hill from Parisella’s Cave. Empire of Dirt V7/7a+ starts just left of Bring Back Fred Gwynne/Tales of No Power and traces the lip of the roof leftwards past a series of poor holds to reach large, but very sloping holds leading up to an obvious jug on The Breck Road.

“I was dead pleased to get this. A really fine addition to this funky little area. It took a lot of preparing and although all the holds you use are now clean, it will benefit from some traffic. Even though it is essentially a diagonal traverse, you can’t work any of the moves in isolation as it's too high off the deck to reach into, which makes sussing out how to do it a lot of fun. Although it eases slightly towards the end, it is quite long, about 10 moves I think.”

Commented Si after his successful ascent.

There are some excellent existing problems in this area, which the NWB guide only mentions briefly. The Breck Road V5/6c+ takes the unlikely start to the parent route, whilst just left The Burning Sphincter V5/6c undercuts out to a powerful reach to a good jug. Further left a lone snapped side pull edge in the middle of the roof marks the line of John Redhead’s desperate Ring Peace V6/7/7a/+, another relic from the new route boom of the early 80s.

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