Things are hotting up in the Dinorwig slate quarries, with yet another high standard route less than a week after Pete Robins new F8b, The New Slatesman.

This time it’s James McHaffie’s turn to take a bow, for his stunning line, Sauron F8b on the Heaven Walls section of Lost World. James cleaned, bolted and despatched the route in remarkably quick time, spending only two separate full sessions on the route before he did it.

Sauron follows a thin crackline with a lower F8a+ section of desperate sustained climbing, largely devoid of helpful footholds, leading into an easier (but still F7c) finish, where a fall is not out of the question.

Slate is a deceptive medium, indeed when James first inspected the line he thought it would make a good F7b+, but closer analysis revealed a much tougher proposition. Luckily James had been training hard and was able to take the unexpected hike in difficulty in his stride.

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