New Spicy Trad Starts up Hard Boulder
Matt Heliker has extended a V11 to the top of a cliff up some run-out terrain in the U.K.
Matt Heliker has made the first ascent of Race at Priest Cover in the U.K., a spicy new trad route that starts up the boulder problem Race Against Death V11. The boulder is a newer addition first climbed by Solly Kemball-Dorey.
Heliker, who works as an international mountain guide, said Race is his most demanding trad route to date. Since being awarded the Denali Pro Mountaineer of the Year in 2011 for assisting in the rescue of climbers stuck in a storm at 6,000 metres on Denali, Heliker has gone on to climb 5.14+ on rock and WI7 on ice. He was also nominated for a Piolet d’Or.
About the grade, he said, “If you dropped the second boulder without any gear the ground fall could be bad as you could miss the ‘floating’ pads and crater into a bad landing, if the gear ripped, which is possible in the broken vein it would be death as the runout above is big and you would hit the ground, with all of this combined with the unpredictable nature of pillow lava rock and its snappiness and high tech moves, maybe this grade feels about right, but then also maybe not?”
Watch an ascent of Race Against Death below to see what kind of a burly start this trad route has.
Race Against Death
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