It's been a good winter of development in the peak (http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=60695), i thought i'd write about one of my favourite moments of the winter.

it was the last days of November and my mind was set on the Roaches at the time, i wanted to get back and look at a project i'd checked out earlier in the year which i thought was a total cracker, classic gritstone power, short unrelenting and no footholds. Armed with some sazi velcros that have clocked over 40 font 8 scalps in the last year i was pretty confident i could push into the smears in a shoe i was practically symbiotic with when bouldering. We (Neil Mawson, James McHaffie and I) had already had a great day on a windy skyline, doing things like crystal voyager and Art Nouveau and many other classics along the way so i felt under no great pressure and it was the start of the grit season, so i had nothing but time.

After 10minutes of feet popping and it generally feeling like i was going nowhere but heel first into frustrationville i had a little rest and pulled on. I'd worked the sequence earlier in the year and i still had the incredibly basic beta in my head, the next few seconds whizzed by in a fantastic blur of hitting holds perfectly, feet staying and triple filtered focus whisking me up the problem in a blur of what was to become one of my fondest bouldering memories.

As a result the one of the 2 great Nth cloud projects has become the Nth power, and its somewhere around soft 8A+ at a guess, it could be easier it could be harder, all i know is that you'll bloody love it if you find that perfect go, and it'll drive you mad if you don't.