Success!! Naz and I racked-up for the first accent of one the bigger routes, 'Die Another Day', yesterday, having been thwarted by the rain for three consecutive days (I didn't leave England for that!!). It was a baptism of fire for Naz, who's only experience of climbing so far has been top-roping a few of the easier single pitch stuff on the beach, although he's no stranger to big trees; the route is just under 100m, adventurous (read loose and sometimes run-out) and graded about fr6a, 6b(with one really horrible move) and 6c. Although Naz breezed the first pitch, albeit with a few Nazisms (he talks very animatedly to himself and gives cries of 'aye ya!' in times of stress and concentration), he did have to be coaxed a little on the second pitch, which involved a few pendulums and a little cursing, and flat refused to try the third pitch. I was a little anxious about this one, since I knew it to be loose and dirty in places and couldn't be sure how hard the top traverse was going to be. The line takes a giant arch visible from the beach, which begins as a finger-tip/juggy layback crack and grows discouraginly into an offwidth-like, flared chimney, although luckily it also has holds, so there is little squirming and just a little, elegant bridging and chimneying. The pitch ends with a traverse along the edge of the overhang on sandy jugs to a final, heart-in-mouth (choose your holds carefully!) pull over the roof. Thankfully, all the holds stayed in place and I was able to top-out without drama. A truly excellent pitch and a stunning line - just watch out for spiders.

Al