Climbing Mowgli

Park Nab, the crag that i will always associate with the beginning of my climbing, had a great buttress that contained some of the areas finest routes. One very wet day in the 90's, the Buttress gave way and collapsed leaving a scared area of rock, from which Mowgli was born.

The route on first glances looks impossible, an almost featureless slab of rock, but it is climbed at the resonable grade of E1 5b.

I had always gazed upon this slab, and imagined how good E1 climbers must be, as i walked from Severe to Severe and i always told myself that this was one of my climbing goals, something i would aim to achieve, perhaps before i left the area for University.

The time came however, much quicker than i expected.

2 October, one of those calm, clear days that is perfect for climbing. We had climbed E1 before, but they were less serious E1's that perhaps were overgraded, this however felt serious. Today was perfect though, so we climbed it. Something, we had never noticed was that the route traversed in from the right arete, therefore what looked like featureless wall, WAS featureless wall and the route avoided it!

It fell with remarkable ease, considering the look of the climb. Even so, it was a serious undertaking, the blocks below are scary, and the lack of gear means that a solo is the norm.

The picture illustates the severity of failure.

P.S On the 6th of January 2008, the Direct start to Mowgli fell, it is a technical climb that was solved well by my climbing partner Franco, i quickly followed and we agreed on E2 5c* for the tricky 'Achilles Last Stand'.