Ally Smith conquers Lockdown Fatigue
- Friday 12th June 2020
Ally Smith has recently climbed Lockdown Fatigue (F8b) at Kilnsey to give one of the longest roof pitches in Yorkshire.
“The route is probably the longest roof pitch in the North of England and free climbs the massive horizontal aid route which first breached the Kilnsey roof in 1957” Ally told Climber. “Reading the description of that original aid route in my old copy of Hard Rock inspired me to go look at the line last year, before spending an afternoon bolting and cleaning the route.”
Climbing roofs is both physically and mentally exhausting especially when they are the size of Kilnsey main overhang. Climbing them is one thing but cleaning and gearing them is back breaking work; fortunately for Ally his lastest route also includes the bulk of Mandella (F8a+), Mark Leach’s 1988 testpiece which free-climbed the old aid route, Kilnsey Main Overhang.
Ally explained to Climber exactly where his new route goes: “From a ledge next to the belay of The Ashes (F7c+); gain the juggy rail above and follow it leftward - reversing the pumpy central section of Aboriginal Sin (F7c+) - until a new free section lets you join and finish along Mandela…”
Unsurprisingly, Lockdown Fatigue is a pumpy number and Ally, despite training hard during lockdown, finished pumped as he said: “I finished along Mandella with wilting, lactate infused arms!”
Ally has form at Kilnsey having climbed The Pirate (F8c) back in 2018. That route climbed through the roof in the opposite direction, ie. left to right, click here for our report into that route.