Adam Wainwright has climbed a stunning new arête line in the Llanberis Pass. NASA can be found hiding away underneath a stone wall 150m down the hill from Craig y Llwyfan (home of various classics, such as Envy V5/Font 6c+ and Lizard King V8-10/Font 7b-7c+). The block was found by those ever-keen pioneers, Martin Crook and Noel Craine. Initially Noel climbed the left hand line to give Smudger’s Groove V2/Font 5+; he then smeared his way up the rounded right arête. The resulting problem proved to be very fine: HPR rates V4 from standing.

The central hanging arête line offered a more stubborn front, and after many attempts the lads decided to call in some reinforcements in the shape of Adam Wainwright who worked out and despatched the stand up version of NASA at V6/Font 7a. Adam then returned and worked out the obvious sitting start, which bumped the grade up to V7/Font 7a+.

This is a great addition to the circuit of Pass problems and is sure to become popular. The rock is perfect; the only downer is the slightly boggy landing, although this appears to have improved following attempts to divert the drainage.

A free V12 chalk bag to anybody who can guess the acronyms.

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