UKC

Ferdia Earle has made what is thought to be the sixth ascent of Dave Cuthbertson's classic E8, Femme Fatale, at Whale Rock, Glen Nevis, Scotland.

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That's a fantastic write up: obsession, deep respect for those who went before, and a beautiful appreciation of a beautiful place.

Well done Ferdia.  An amazing looking climb and a really fitting write up.

Well that was a really great read…well done Ferdia, on the route and the writing.

Ferdia is one of the best we have, such a undercover crusher (maybe not so much undercover anymore)

Stonking effort AND write up!

Great effort Ferdia. And cool write up. 
made me want to do it even more, and I have wanted to go and try it for years! 

A truly superb effort and bit of writing, Ferdia's managed to capture the essence of the Glen perfectly in a few short paragraphs (which is no easy feat in itself). Stunning light, the noise of the wind rustling the trees, the shades of colour on the hillside, perfect rippled rock; a true jewel of Scottish climbing.

When it comes down to it, the routes don't really matter. It's the time we get to spend there with the people we care about and enjoying those precious moments is what we'll always remember.

I wonder when someone is going to write the book about the importance of Glen Nevis climbing in the 80's to the wider British climbing community?

Massively underrated it seems. Far from the cities, with a few trade routes that deflect attention from the rest. Compounding that, a brief low-grade selection was all that made it to the Wired guide, for a glen that has, by far, the greatest concentration of high Es in the country.

Great read Ferdia, sounded like a hell of a process.

Beautiful writing. 

Brilliant stuff Ferdia - really enjoyed the write-up!! Femme Fatale no match for a Diva!!! 

I'm not keen on the selection but think you are wrong here, for example page 226 has E2, E5, E10, E7(8?), E5.

Indeed.

As a photographer, I also think it is one of the most beautiful (if not THE most beautiful) small glens in the country. The variety of landscape types in such a small, accessible area make it unrivalled and that's not considering the variety and quality of climbing!

Thanks for the kind words.

I apparently got it wrong when I said that Dave Mac thought the route was E7 - I seem to have got the impression from somewhere that this was where the E7 grade in the new Wired guide had come from. But apparently it's only Cubby who wonders if the route might not be E8! Cubby says Dave definitely thinks E8 and found it harder than most grit E8s he was climbing at the time.

I'd hate to misquote Dave, I'll see if we can update the article.

I thought you might have mentioned who was on the FA of the first route at Whale Rock!

Good effort on the route Ferdia! I had a great time doing it myself in 2000 - at that time I'd done a handful of E8s on grit and Northumberland and thought Femme Fatale was E8 based on those. I also thought it was maybe just a tad more serious without the 'baby bouncer'. My idea was that the head point approach was a good way to dispense with the side runner, but also added a bit of consequence at the start which possibly tipped it towards E8. I wouldn't hang much on my opinion from that time - I was very inexperienced. Perhaps it's somewhere near the bottom end of the grade. Font 7B for the wee crux at the start seems right, although I remember it's really dependent on which foothold you use.

Such a beautiful write up, especially the nod to the history of the route and your experience on the actual ascent, fab stuff, thank you for sharing. 

Worth noting actually for anyone else going to attempt the route, that Ferdia also dispensed with the opposing gear on the left just before her successful lead. After catching a few falls from the crux I noticed that it wasn't actually doing much, except making the rope get in the way of her foot sometimes. It seems like it should help but kind of doesn't!

Hi, thanks for posting. Good to hear about your experience. On the day I climbed the route, I also got rid of the baby bouncer, as it would sometimes get in the way of the foothold. It was a lot less distracting not having it, which I think contributed to doing it. I don't like to give away too much gear beta usually, as figuring out how to protect these things is half the fun! Hence not going into this in the write up. But I'm not sure how much it was doing really - maybe I never had it in the best place. It was more a confidence boost I think.

really enjoyed reading that!  writes as well as she climbs!

Great write up. Well done Ferdia for the repeat and your writing about Glen Nevis is briliant.

Cubby is definitely one of the under-sung heroes of climbing. The sheer vision to climb such lines back in the day and how many of his have been upgraded (often multiple E grades) is incredible. The fact he is so modest about it all makes him even more of a legend.

'I would later meet the woman who partly inspired these names'

Andrea?

She was on the FA of the first route at Whale Rock.

3 down votes so far for hinting at it.

Cubby-MacLeod-Birkett-Small-Rodgers-Earle. That is one hell of a pedigree.

Sorry to be so boringly repetitive - because everyone has said exactly the same - but it is also one of the most engaging write-ups I've ever encountered. Absolutely tremendous. 

I figured it out, but I reckon most people were just thinking 'what's he on about?'

I have never got near this grade but I have climbed at my limit and it is always a more complete esperience than merely getting up a route. It's exactly the rich tangle of history, memory, emotions, people and place that you describe so beautifully.