On Saturday Tom Williams climbed the sitting start to The Tracks, Dave Noden’s 8A+ stand up line in the Barrel Cave. Dead and Bloated 8B starts in the same position as the recently climbed Ropes of Maui but swerves up left with some hard moves.

Tom explains how it all came together:

“I did The Tracks about 3 weeks ago, managing to get done in a session. I returned to North Wales last Monday with the intentions of trying Isles of Wonder only to walk up there and find it dripping. So I headed to The Tracks to try and suss out the moves on the sit, I got into the starting holds on the stand a couple of times but couldn't keep it together. I went back up today and after getting warmed up and doing the starting moves on The Tracks a few times I did the sit start 2nd go of the day. Topping out in the wet was certainly undignified!”

With the addition of a hard start to an existing 8A+ it would seem logical that the extra difficulty would bump it up to 8B – nonetheless Tom was uncertain:

“I'm unsure on the grade, I think it makes sense to give it 8B, the sit moves definitely add a bit and it's a fair bit harder than some 8A+s that I've done but I'm quite tentative about giving it that grade. It could be stout 8A+; hopefully it will see some repeats and a consensus will be reached.”

Tom managed to get some footage of his attempts and the actual first ascent:

Dead and bloated 8B FA from Tom Williams on Vimeo.

Relevant links:
      Ropes of Maui news item