Having lost out on the first ascent of In Heaven, Chris Doyle took solace picking off another superb cave link, albeit at a more approachable standard. Lip Service low start V8/7b+ follows the Clever Beaver low start out into the original stand up line.

Lip Service itself had been causing some consternation with would be repeaters. Despite its relatively modest grade (it was originally graded V7/7a+ by Tommy Chammings) it had stopped all comers, bar Jimmy ‘big guns’ McCormack, and even he couldn’t repeat the feat on a subsequent day. Tommy's original sequence involved a very forceful pull, the slightly directional left hand hold feeling particularly unhelpful.

At the end of a long session on other projects, and a somewhat leaden in the the arms, Chris got close to repeating the line with this method, but then experimented with a more funky foot position (right foot stretched out right on a spike, left foot upside down in the break) and bingo it worked!

The next day Chris was back to take the obvious low start link, which adds around 10 pumpy moves to the stand up version. Opinions still vary on the grade of the stand up, but something in the V7/8/7a+/b range is likely.

Relevant links: