Robbie Phillips nails second ascent – and second Scottish ascent - of Project Fear
- Monday 13th July 2015
July 13th, 2015
Following on from our report yesterday Robbie Phillips has just confirmed that today he and Willis Morris did the second ascent – the second Scottish ascent – of Dave MacLoed’s Project Fear F8c, on the Cima Ovest in the Dolomites.
Robbie Phillips working the F8c during their earlier days on the wall. Photo Robbie Phillips facebook/Collection
Having ‘worked’ the route over the last few days (click through here to read our earlier report…) Robbie Phillips and his partner, Willis Morris, rested yesterday (Sunday) ready for the big redpoint attempt today. In a somewhat typical ‘spoiler’ move, the weather tried its best to mess with the best laid plans by throwing the guys a last minute curved ball in the shape of an un-forecast monster thunderstorm!
They awoke this morning – for their scheduled early start – to bad news. Robbie explains; “the walls were damp and the air was humid, but I knew I had suffered and prevailed through the same conditions last year with Bellavista. So I was dead keen not to give up and to push on with the plan!”
Robbie explains their progress on the earlier easier pitches as well as the initial hard pitch of F8a+; “The wall was damp, but we gunned through the first 100m of climbing fast and before I knew it, I was sitting at the belay of the 8c pitch feeling nicely warmed up.” Hmmm, pretty impressive stuff – and the hard pitch then? Robbie confirms; “Long story short, the 8c pitch went down first go without a hitch apart from about a dozen wet holds, but hey, that's Tre Cime!”
Robbie and Willis pose for ‘job done’ pix
So good job – as our US cousins would say. Phillips and Morris just needed to complete the climbing and get off the hill. That sadly didn’t go quite as well but after an epic they were back at the bottom by 18:00 with the second ascent – and the second Scottish ascent – of Project Fear in the bag.