Mike Owen's blog: The Yorkshire Triple Crown (possibly the three best 8a+'s in the world).

Yesterday my Facebook memory was a couple of photos of The Groove at Malham Cove, that Pete Cummings shared six years ago. They were taken in the summer of 1990, a long time ago indeed. I then got an idea for a blog about the Yorkshire Triple Crown (Supercool, The Groove and Urgent Action, probably the best three 8a+'s in the UK, maybe in the world).

Early that summer I finished my teaching degree (at the ripe old age of 32). Suddenly I had lots of free time before starting teaching in September. It was time to get stuck into North Stack Wall and realise one of my dreams. That chapter of my life has already been well documented, so I won't write anymore about it here.

Finally Elaine finished work for the summer and we found ourselves climbing on Yorkshire's "big three", ie. Malham Cove, Gordale Scar and Kilnsey. It was a glorious summer; long sunny days, the crags were dry and quiet. Our mate Phil Davidson joined us, camping at Gordale (he was making a return to climbing, after a six year layoff, due to his serious addiction with white water canoeing). Often we'd climb at Gordale until the sun arrived, then we'd go round to Malham in the afternoon, sometimes via Beck Hall for tea and cakes.

Elaine morphed into a sport climber, working her way through the gnarly classic Malham Catwalk 7a's, 7a+'s and 7b's, such as Bolt Revolt, Appetite, Consenting Adults, Free n Even Easier and Something Stupid. Davo on-sighted Obsession and red-pointed New Dawn, Mescalito, L'Obsession, Defcon 3 and Man With a Gun (all pretty impressive for someone who was having difficulty remembering worked sequences!). I managed to red-point Cave Route Lefthand, Defcon 3 and Let Them Eat Jelly Beans (aka The Bulge). Also there at the same time was a strong Spanish team, consisting of Xavier Morales and famous photographer David Munilla. Xavier managed a very impressive ascent of The Austrian Oak in the middle of summer!

At Gordale Tim Lowe (who introduced me to sport climbing in 1987) was trying Supercool. Now Supercool is a gobsmacking pitch that goes up the immense wall left of Cave Route Lefthand. It's long (about 35 metres), pumpy and technical, with the crux high up, even after that it's possible to fall off a tricky sting-in-the-tail sequence before it finally eases. It's a Martin Atkinson masterpiece, one of the first routes equipped specifically as a sport climb in 1987. Furthermore, Supercool was immortalised in a brilliant Ian Horrocks photo of sun tanned George Michael lookalike Mick Lovatt (self named The Perfect Man), in a DMM advert. Very kindly Tim gave me all the beta, which inevitably saved me a lot of time, and I was very happy to succeed on my first try on the second day, under the watchful eyes of Joe Healey, Jerry Peel, Martin Berzins and Chris Sowden. I remember the bolts were mostly those horrible Mammut ring bolts, that lay flat against the rock and were often hard to clip because the rings often got stiff. Also there was a lot of debate about clipping the penultimate bolt, after a hold had broken. At the time, there was a long red tape sling hanging off, which enabled you to clip it from the best position before the tricky finish. Some people even clipped it a second time after doing the move. I agreed with Mick, who firmly felt that you should only clip it once. Well said TPM. I imagine the route has been re-equipped since and all the bolts are in the correct places now.

After success on Supercool, it was natural to look for another similar project nearby. The Groove was perfect. I actually played a very small part in the original first ascent by John Dunne, when he climbed Totally Free in 1988. (Totally Free consists of what nowadays people know as The Groove, followed by Free n Easy, followed by a notorious roof.) That day I was trying Free n Easy and had to wait ages as JD was waiting for the best conditions. As I became more and more impatient for my turn, he actually asked me if I wanted him to do his route (implying, I suppose, that I was only thinking about myself). As everyone knows, JD did do his route in one massive single pitch of about 70 metres from the Catwalk to the top of the crag. Most people also know that JD's belayer (Andy Jack) re-belayed him from the bottom of Free n Easy (half way up the route, where The Groove finishes) to lessen the rope drag. What most people don't know, however, is that it was me who took over the belaying, whilst JD waited for "The Jack" to arrive at the intermediate belay (he had to walk up the hillside and traverse in below the start of Obsession, etc.). There you go, my little bit of fame. Of course, we were all made up for JD, and completely blown away by his flawless ascent that looked so easy. And I did manage to do Free n Easy straight afterwards, the holds were still warm from JD smoking up them just a few minutes earlier. The late Ian McMullin ("Ashwood") was my climbing partner that day, we used to climb quite a lot together back then, especially during the month of September, after all the workers had finished their holidays.

In 1989 visiting Australian climber, Geoff Weigand, repeated the lower half of Totally Free (naming it The Groove) but failed on the top roof. (I'm not mentioning anything else, as it's not for me to say.) The Groove became instantly popular for the consumers lower down the climbing chain (especially after it was re-bolted, thus eliminating the need for ugly long slings on the original bolts). The Groove starts by climbing Something Stupid (a hard 7b) before attacking an intimidating bulge (where a determined and forceful approach helps). Then the main feature, the groove itself, leads strenuously to a good hold and rest on the right. From there, hard moves up lead to the start of the crux sequence, a hard slopey leftwards traverse, followed by another hard move up that leads to glory. Clipping that chain is one of the best feelings, ever. Incredibly the summer of 1990 saw JB Tribout and Simon Nadin both climb it on-sight! I managed it sometime that August, after a couple of days working it. The day I saw JD make the first ascent, I never would have believed that I'd be able to do it just two years later.

Urgent Action has always been "Under the Thumb" to me. I even suggested that name to Pete Gommersall around the time when he made the first ascent, because it's basically a wild, direct line which takes you to the crux of The Thumb (another classic Gommy route, that follows an impressive leftwards curving overlap on Kilnsey's massive North Buttress). Neither he nor Bonny Masson (his partner at the time) seemed very amused, though it wasn't meant as a dig at their relationship. Still, I was surprised to see it written up as Urgent Action, wtf? Anyway, it's only a name, what matters is the climbing. This is the steepest of the Triple Crown routes by a long way. The climbing is very strenuous, pumpy and surprisingly varied too. There are some small crimpy holds, some big jugs, big moves, some meaty undercuts and no real rests anywhere. It very quickly developed a reputation for spitting people off at just about any point, but especially on the crux traverse left on those butch undercuts, or the next dynamic move to get the flat slopey ledge. Ask Al Murray, he spent a very long time on/off before finally succeeding. In fact, Al's battle put me off trying it for a couple of years, I was too scared and didn't want to fall off the neccessary number of times needed. However, it's surprising how easily you can change your mind.

After sieging Over the Moon for as long as it took TPM to do Mussel Beach at LPT, in early 1992, I was reasonably fit and found myself doing The Thumb quite quickly. So next on the cards was obviously Urgent Action. I can't remember how many falls I took, though it couldn't have been many because I did it on my second day, after a day at school in fact and belayed by the ever smiling Dave Peace. You should have seen the big cheesy grin on my face whilst driving back home that evening.

Ok, so there you are; three of the best 8a+'s in the world, all in North Yorkshire. Get yourself fit during this period of lockdown and isolation, and do them once climbing outside is possible again. Maybe in a day, just like Steve McClure (who cycled from crag to crag!).

The DMM advert featuring the photo of George Michael, no, Mick Lovatt on Supercool, taken by Ian Horrocks.

Pete Chadwick high on Supercool, taken by Kev Avery.

Cave Route Lefthand, taken by David Munilla.

Another fantastic photo by Ian Horrocks, showing John Dunne on The Groove, a couple of days after the first ascent of Totally Free during a photo shoot.