When sharing news of his ascent of Weeping Arete (f8B+), Dan Varian avoided the fanfare that one might associate with the first ascent of a boulder lauded as one of Gritstone's last great problems.

As with his ascent of The Magna Strata, Dan simply added the route to UKC, and described it as follows: 

A quick look at the photos of Gigglin' Crack (E6 6c) revealed magnitude of the arete in question, and brought about more questions than it did answers about how exactly it might be climbed.

A few days later, the eagle-eyed spotted some photos pop up on Dan's flickr account. The photos began to fill in the gaps, uncovering the line that the boulder followed, all the while reiterating just how blank the upper section of the wall was.

Then, a couple of days ago, a video appeared on Instagram (you can watch it at the bottom of the page), the gaps were filled, and the full line was revealed.

We got in touch with Dan to find out more about what may well be the hardest boulder on Gritstone, how he came across it, what made it so difficult, and what it felt like to stand on top of it.

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Congratulations on climbing Weeping Arete! The boulder itself looks incredible, enticing and intimidating at the same time. How did you first come across it, and when did you decide to try it?

Thanks, it's one of those Holotype lines which has redefined what might exist on grit for me. I'm not sure how many are out there but it's exciting to think of there being one or two more of these types of things on grit where a huge feature also creates such a complex and difficult challenge.

I first saw this line on one of my first visits to Brimham back in 2014. It's pretty unmissable if you drop down that end of the crag but at the same time I can imagine that people have been visiting Brimham for years and not seen it if they don't go to the northern edges.

Around that time Mike Grey was coming into Eden Rock in Carlisle fairly frequently and I remember talking to Mike about the line. He'd solved the arete and all the rail section but had no ideas for the top. I remember some loose agreement that I'd check it out to give my opinion on it but also give Mike space to try it for a while. Anyway on first acquaintance I couldn't see any solution to the top. It only looked possible for a six foot eight climber good at jumping.

At this time I'd just done The Rail (f8B+) and Hobbie Noble (f8B) in the past year (still as popular as a fart in a lift those two) I had no kids and far more free time but this line was literally beyond my comprehension at the time. I fell in line with most of the Yorkshire activists thinking on it that it's an almost but not quite climb on an incredible piece of rock.

At what point did it begin to seem possible?

I fed back to Mike that I couldn't really find a way and it disappeared from my focus for many years. In 2014 I started to climb with Aidan on a weekly basis, and as the years went by slowly it started to dawn on me that anything is a jug if youre strong enough to keep knuckles to the wall.

People shouldn't underestimate the profound impact this climbing style has had on its niche, but basically it's another piece in the climbing jigsaw that solves a certain type of movement. Before this period of realisation and Aidan taking that style to the projects in the lakes, many of the moves just weren't solved in a convincing way. Thankfully some of that soaked in to form one piece of key experience that would unlock Weeping Arete.

The other piece for myself was to break the rules of highballing that I'd made myself and get comfortable turning sideways at height. Weeping Arete is such a massive line that for me it never left the very back of my mind. Like an old friend that I know I should ring and catch up with but only manage to once a year, I'd always try and call in if I were at Brimham.

I had a phenomenal winter on the Grit in 2017/2018 just before breaking my wrist, and I repeated and established some great problems that were really fun. I put up Big Cuddles (f8A) (unrepeated afaik) and reclimbed Pinky SS (f8A) and Pinky Full Traverse (f7C) sit, but I can't remember even trying the arete in that period, despite it being twenty metres away.

After a broken wrist and another child I think I finally gave it another abseil in the 2019-2020 winter. It was around that time that I spotted the tiny seam out left of the rail, and even though its only a bity 8mm edge, I realised the potential for an escape to it off the arete as it's just within my loci if I spin sideways and toehook the arete to get it.

I think I got as far as cleaning the edge up then and checking the feasibility, but it seemed a pretty wild solution that needed alot of figuring out still to bring in an element of control. I resolved to come back in spring when it was fully dry and then the desert like Covid spring meant it may as well have been in South Africa with lockdowns.

Can you describe the rock and what it does, and doesn't, offer?

Yorkshire grit is pretty special in that it tends to be a bit more featured than Peak grit. Brimham gets a reputation for being scrittly and it's true in parts, but there is so much rock there that people miss that it actually has some of the hardest and best quality gritstone in Yorkshire as well. The rock on Bellyporker's Progress (f7B+), True Grit - Direct Start (E4 6c) etc on those northern edges is just bullet hard.

Thankfully for Weeping Arete the rock on the face where the huge Gigglin' Crack (E6 6c) block has cleaved off from the main edge is bullet hard really nice gritstone, and that's why it can support such a small hold in a seam without breaking.

Sadly the arete is made up of grit particles rougher than Toxteth. They also seep in a cruel twist. Weirdly when dry the arete bonds back into a black substance that smooths out the grains. Either way it's a massive faff as at a certain point in the season the groundwater seepage comes through and doesn't dry out well into the late spring.

Some years might be better than others but I'm still a little bit peeved at just how wet this winter was, and how long I had to wait for it to dry this season. Due to the cleave formation, the 30˚ overhanging face is basically blank bar the distinctive rail and the tiny slot, so it really is a minimalistic problem.

The level of features on offer are bit more subtle and conceptual than on its closest peers; Lanny Bassham (f8A+) or High Fidelity (f8B). Having both ground upped the latter, Aidan and myself agreed we thought it harder to get to the top of the rail on this ground up with any gas left in the tank than do High Fidelity, and then you've got the crux coming in which for me is kind of a one move 8A, but with a hard hand and foot move incorporated in that.

Did you work on the sequence with anyone else, or was sequence exploration on this one largely a solitary endeavour?

My vibes nowadays are very much a dad squeezing things in between a busy calender of kids parties, respiratory infections, and the weather. I'm lucky if I get a session a fortnight for Brimham. A big thanks to Dave Barrans and Rob Fielding for the wet winter sessions having fun on other stuff there, and to Kit and Tom for the spot and pads on the day I did it though.

Aidan would've been the only person interested whose from up north that was keen for this in particular, and as it worked out my sessions in autumn and this spring he's been away on his own bigger projects or was sessioning locally up the Ghyll, so we just had one session on it the other day after he got back where he got on well.

Hopefully this one doesn't go years before a goateed Italian drives across Europe for it. No pressure, but I'm hoping Tim or Aidan can whip in before the big man for a 'UK one-two'. Niky is back in September, but with conditions it'll be close. To be honest I'd be chuffed if he gets on it as well, but you've got to back the home team haven't you?

All of them have the tools for it, you basically need to be six foot plus with strong fingers for my beta, or shorter but with even stronger fingers and back and with a favourable tip taper for the final slot. Fat fingers are going to have a mare, and with feet at four and a half metres at that point I'd rather feel secure on those moves than be chucking for stuff. Whilst the fall is OK, it's not an all day one.

From the photos, it seems as though Weeping Arete starts up the arete before moving left onto the face of the boulder - can you talk us through the climbing?

Well as said previously basically the rail runs out five feet short of the top and the arete turns to a slopey unholdable mess above where I toehook. So you have two options there I think:

Be MASSIVE and dyno for an ok hold on the top from there with a spiky rock below (I'll get the popcorn ready for this beta). Or chicane off to the left wall to pull through on the slot for the last move to gain the top.

It was a huge realisation for me that the slot was even a viable hold, and conceptually was a big leap forward that involved time and a lot of factors to realise, as when it was full of moss it looked like literally nothing.

My sequence is the only way I could ever envisage myself climbing the feature from bottom to top, and the coolest part is how the styles switch in that last section so the whole climb feels much more involved and complex as you switch from a compression style to a micro crimping board style of movement.

Was there a distinct crux for you? If so, what was it?

The Wetness. I think once I solved the rail to the top in september 2021 I maybe should've pulled my finger out, but something about the climbing at height up there put me off from flicking the switch. I think it got wet again as well, which didn't help.

In spring 2022 I remember I was fishing for something big and inspiring again to get me off the couch, and a reason to be a #strongdad instead of #dadbod. I had a couple of sessions on it and a couple on an amazing wall in Northumberland at South Yardhope Crag.

Both have long been living rent free in the cobwebbed corners of my mind. Both sadly have an access issue, Brimham with its seasonal seepage and Yardhope with lots of serious looking military soldiers and tanks flying about.

Coupled with the fact that Yardhope seemed a tad harder with worse access, I chose Brimham, and then something went in my neck and my right arm turned to mush. It took me eight months to figure it out and fix it myself, and I had to really try hard to keep my neck from regressing.

Sometime in winter 2022/2023 it turned a corner and I really started to feel the dividends of very accurate and acute training that I do now that I'm way more time restricted. I used to spend probably twelve hours a week on steep boards in my twenties, and now I do barely two per week, but I've managed to claw back into a board shape thats at 90% of my old best on good days, but I'm much more experienced outdoors now and more rounded so far less of that goes to waste.

I had an incredible year clearing through a big list of things that were getting stale and this would've been the icing on the cake. I got the top crux feeling really reliable in November and just figured out how to get there feeling fresh and then it got wet.

So basically it's been a delayed news item since then, and I was lucky enough that there was some freak weather in June to capitalise on when it finally dried out after literally the wettest winter EVER.

Is the top as slopey and insecure as it looks? How high are you at that point?

Nah the tops easy for a highball. You're definitely pretty high. Maybe feet at seven metres. I wouldn't fancy it in the damp which it is a lot of the year, just in case the foot slipped off the final slopey foothold, but its not a big worry.

Ground up it would be scary and it'll be interesting to see if lines of this difficulty ever reach that stage where the ground up ascent is a coveted thing, but with the doom scroll world we have nowadays and the media focus heavily on numbers over style I haven't seen any scene progression in ground up highballing or trad in this country or incentive to do so from media/sponsors. It's just far easier to chuck a rope down things and get them wired in safety.

For myself I know how different the two are in style and it's night and day. I remember on the second ascent of Lanny it took three sessions to ground up to the top sloper match, but I'd got there on my first session and progress was desperate there. It felt really scrittly in 2013, a few years after Ben's ascent, and making split second decisions on sequence when a bit tired up there is hard work.

So I chucked a rope down it and the knowledge gained from doing that and cleaning it meant I just easily did the problem next go. Which was handy as I was on my own with one pad and its a decent drive from mine there, so it solved that side of things, but ultimately it was far less satisfying of an experience and it diminished the challenge. So I resolved to ground up High Fidelity, and that was super satisfying as a result.

Both Aidan and myself have some good anecdotes/vivid memories about latching the top pocket and getting the top on that, but ultimately it goes to show how ground up climbing is just 'meh' to most people nowadays that neither of those ascents were really news worthy.

With Weeping Arete I had eight+ sessions on a rope dialling in the crux. Thats a huge advantage and basically takes it out the range of myself ever conceiving of ground upping something like this.

But this is why its been great to realise the project, as it's nice to have a highball on grit with moves that are actually properly hard up high, that's why it's a holotype in effect, as it's the first of its kind on grit that proves what should be possible, but is so far a one of a kind find for the rock type.

Finally, how did the feeling of topping out Weeping Arete compare to the feeling of topping out some of your other hard projects, like Bombadil, or the Magna Strata?

The best feeling was really back in November when I knew I was stronger than the line and capable of pulling it off safely. I sussed the final few pieces of micro beta to bring it within a comfort zone for me and it all felt fine. As a result of this, and the waiting for it to dry, it wasn't really a huge physical challenge as I'd overworked the climb to a point where I had it dialled I just needed to execute.

It was still great fun but compared to something like Bombadil where it was just myself in the middle of nowhere proving something to myself after a bad bone break, it wasn't the same bundle of feelings.

Ultimately though its a line I'm hugely proud of seeing through, and I really enjoyed the time I had at brimham figuring it out. I mean the hardest big line on grit is kid friendly and has a cafe and toilets, what's not to like!

These three lines help represent my older vision for the niche of climbing I've fallen into without any chat about the number. Hopefully climbers can just look at the features and forms on the rock. Like hundreds of thousands do at Brimham each year on other rocks, and just get why it's something worth appreciating that - not only does the feature exist - but it's also a great physical challenge to climb up it.

Thats why I'm still here repping for big lines and not shuffling behind people like Caff tugging wires out somewhere, "falling off 5a moves". Those days will come no doubt as they're great too, but for now this was a really good day out with Katie and the kids.

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