60 After a short abseil down the far side of the pinnacle, the next pitch is a 12a … the original crux-free pitch of Sundance E5. And it’s wet, a bit dirty and mega scrittley! If this pitch was in the Mournes, it might feel like trying a longer, bolder version of Eddie Cooper’s Last Rites at Hen, complete with runout above a rusty, lonely peg. I tried a few times to commit above the peg, moving the side runners higher each time, but in the end, it just seemed too committing to me and so plan B (or was it plan G?) was deployed. If this was plan G, then G was for gardening! A series of mossy cracks stretch up and left of Sundance’s now infamous E5 pitch. Extremely slow and tedious cleaning, and aid climbing in Miura shoes, interspersed with sporadic, vertical tree-wrestling, resulted in a very long belay for Twid (about seven hours!) and very sore feet for me. But we got a pitch higher and the aesthetic new route crack was getting nearer. The following day, Twid and I returned to camp to collect more static rope and aid gear, while Tim and Kirsten made a valiant effort to get into the aesthetic crack but abandoned ship, deeming it beyond their appetite. Twid and I then spent two days on the wall, pushing the rope up and left into the aesthetic crack. The final section involved five hours of bat hooking and hand drilling by Twid to traverse across steep blank rock into the crack. Alas, when he got there, he was not greeted with the gift from Mother Pictured this page: Kevin leading the amazing finger crack on the top pitch of Apnea (HVS, 2 pitches). Photo: Maria Hondele & Till Eusemann MOUNTAIN LOG COCHAMÓ EXPEDITION
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