Si Panton proved there was life in the old dog yet when he climbed a superb new line in his favourite winter retreat, Parisella’s Cave. Bust Lip breaks out right from the first crux section of Parisella’s Original (i.e. after the finger jam move) making wild moves rightwards into the big diagonal side pull on the highball finish to Beaver Cleaver, and pulling up to the high juggy ledge system as for this line.

Clearly pleased with his new problem, Panton gushed like a proud father, “This problem rocks! You bail up Parisella’s Original, which has got one of the best sequences in the cave, and then you make some pretty optimistic manoeuvres out right to gain the big side hold. I still had a bit of a panic there catching an intermediate fossil hold, before matching and crossing up to a good jug. I’m not sure about the grade, but in keeping with the ‘cave of justice’ tradition I’ll give it V7/7a+.”

In spite of its recent popular revival, Parisella’s Cave is far from worked out, there are still a number of significant unclimbed independent lines.

Relevant links:
      Parisella's Original story and image
       Big version of main image (go to: 2005 season)