Alex Moore makes true second ascent of The Groove (E9 7b)
- Monday 11th March 2024
Alex Moore has made the true second ascent of The Groove (E9 7b) at Cratcliffe Tor in the Peak District, 16 years after the first ascent.
Back in the day, this striking feature was high on the list of the last great unclimbed gritstone lines and had been tried by a fair few top climbers of the time, including Johnny Dawes and Mark Edwards (who managed to top-rope the line in one go but no lead). It waited until 2008 when a youthful James Pearson set about The Groove and made the first ascent on a cold February day. He found a cunning way of climbing the crux lower section by laybacking a tiny crimp with his left hand on the arête of the groove before a snatch for a good break. Above he climbed a direct line to the top of the crag via the diminishing groove and rounded rib (this section is around E7 6c).
After his first ascent, James described the route: “The holds on The Groove are small and far apart but in the traditional sense of the word, they are not really holds. Perhaps a better way to describe it is the groove feature is one big hold and to climb it you have to move your body, into different positions, using different parts of the one hold, almost like climbing a whole problem on nothing but ‘intermediate’ holds. The whole route flows together very nicely, after making it up the initial groove via a series of futuristic slaps, you find yourself on easier ground where you have a chance to place gear and psyche up for the top arête. The top arête is hard in its own right and is climbed by a series of powerful, yet subtle laybacks on smears and slopers. It feels very insecure and is easily fall-offable, especially when nervous. Once you have slapped the final jugs, you have a chance to take in the surroundings and the accomplishment, as you enjoy the last few easy moves up Fern Hill to the top of the crag.”
Moving forward to later in 2008, a trio of Americans came over to the UK to try out the fabled grit lines. ‘Team America’, consisting of Alex Honnold, Matt Seagal and Kevin Jorgeson, ticked off lines with aplomb before Jorgeson set his sights on the second ascent of The Groove. Whilst he managed to climb the lower groove in quick time, he failed to climb the upper section of James’s route, instead opting to finish up the E2, Fern Hill. Jorgenson was credited with repeating The Groove in some news outlets when, in fact, he only climbed the groove section, thus the route was still waiting for a second ascent.
Moving forward to March 2024, Alex Moore had been giving the route his attention, finally succeeding in leading the entire route and making the true second ascent. We asked Alex a few questions about his ascent:
Congratulations on your ascent Alex. When did you first try the route and how long did it take? What was your method of working it?
I first tried the route a couple of months ago, about mid-January. I’ve recently moved to Manchester from the Lakes in an effort to make the grit more accessible but maintain access to Wales, the Lakes and Yorkshire – see, not a bad location – which seems to be working. In total, I think I had three sessions on it, including the successful session. I worked it by myself on a Taz Lov 3, it’s a really good bit of kit that tracks the rope like a Micro-traction or a shunt but also descends like a Gri-gri.
I worked the lower section following James and Kevin’s beta, that went quite smoothly and I got it to work quite quickly but I needed the extra session to make it feel secure, falling off while setting up for the move is totally fine but a foot slip on the jump would lead to a fairly big fall, possibly onto the ground/pads.
You chose to climb the lower crux groove section similar to James’s layback and snatch method. How did you find this?
They’re brilliant moves and I think that’s a huge part of the draw of the route, that lower crux is almost totally unique and I very much doubt there’s another way of covering that bit of wall. However, like I said before, the moves are incredibly insecure, just holding the position is difficult so generating the momentum to explode out of it is tricky, to say the least. Anyone who’s done The Joker or The Ace Will be familiar with this feeling.
Having the beta was a major advantage, it must have been a difficult process finding those moves for James!
Both James and Kevin didn’t use pads under the route but you did – can you explain why you chose to use them?
Put simply, I used pads because I can’t afford to break my legs and they’re the easiest piece of gear you’ll ever place! Otherwise though, when the route was first done there was a fairly major debate about using pads for routes where there was a chance you’d hit the floor, James was a proponent of the sans pad approach and so he chose to not use them. Kevin went along with that for reasons I don’t fully understand (avoiding criticism? Remaining true to the first ascent? etc..) He certainly used them on Ambrosia, but I suppose that doesn’t also have gear... Basically, the ethics around pads weren’t set, people struggle to adapt to change but they have now and we use them on pretty much any occasion. Is it Seb Grieve who said hard grit is about controlling danger? Well, pads help us to gain that control.
How did you find the continuation rounded rib, after all, Kevin Jorgenson didn’t manage it, saying something about it being reachy? Is it true you jumped through part of this?
Yeah, so that section of the climb is pretty morpho in a way, if you’re as tall as James you can reach a crimp on the arête from a good foot, if you’re any shorter you have to use a series of very poor feet but it can be done. It’s also very condition-dependent as the crimp is quite poor. I chose instead to dyno to the break from the left hand James uses to pull up into the arête. So the beta is very different but we use the same holds. Unlike the lower section, there is more than one way to climb the upper section of the route, both have their difficulties and both are about English 6c/7a and quite safe. What I can say about the dyno is – my goodness that’s a big jump and it takes some nerves, we’re talking about an all-points-off dyno!
How did you find the entire route when linking the lower and upper sections together? Did you find a rest between them?
Yeah, there are jugs and hand jams in the middle of the route so the breakdown of it suits my boulder style very well, the gear is also very good and that helps psychologically. The top section being difficult makes the chance you’ll have to do the bottom section again more likely and that makes it a more challenging prospect.
Why do you think the route has waited this long for the true second ascent?
Well, for one thing, it’s very difficult but more than that I think its reputation was somewhat marred by the controversy of its two previous ascents. First with James and the matter of the grade, then with Kevin and not doing the top. Also, the top is escapable (evidenced by Kevin meandering up an E2 for 15 or 20 metres) and that’s often a thorn in the side of hard routes, the example that springs to mind is The Young, which climbs next to a VS crack (but is still one of the best lines in the country!).
Moreover, maybe hard grit is less fashionable now, it’s fallen out of vogue, it’s really difficult, it’s difficult to do, you can’t Lattice training plan your way out, it is still and will always be dangerous. But for those very same reasons, many people still love it and many more will come and I’m sure The Groove will be climbed again, with pads and with a different beta at the top.
Do you have your eye on other hard grit routes crying out for repeats – Doctor Dolittle at Curbar, Sleepy Hollow at the Roaches and Gerty Berwick at Ilkley spring to mind – or are you going to focus on other styles of climbing?
I’m not huge on planning, there’s no tick-list on the back page of a training diary or anything but I do like to work on things. I’ve literally never heard of Doctor Dolittle and I didn’t know Sleepy Hollow was at the Roaches! I always want to get better at climbing and I think people get better at what they enjoy, so I’ll always climb whatever I want to whenever I can! Also, my girlfriend has broken her knee so her return to climbing will necessitate a lot of sport climbing – I imagine you’ll be able to find me at Kilnsey in Yorkshire over the summer.
Finally, we reached out to James Pearson about Alex’s repeat and he had this to say:
“I’m overjoyed that somebody finally repeated The Groove, and honoured that Alex thought it important enough to respect the history of the route and climb it in the way I’d imagined. I always found it a little disappointing what happened after Kevin climbed his own version, almost as if the controversy around his ascent and the grade I gave it put people off getting involved. I think Alex sums it up pretty well when he says “The rock is the star”. Our ascents will only ever be interpretations of that rock, and this piece of gritstone really is one of the very best. Congrats Alex.”
Watch James Pearson on the first ascent below: