Tim Blake has climbed arguably the best, and certainly the hardest line on Clogfaen Cashmere at Tan y Grisiau. Declarative Memory (8B+) links the Hippocampus sitting start into The Way of the Hippo to give a sustained trip up this steep face.

”This was my first session attempting to link it. I had done Hippocampus in early 2021, and did that quite fast then. Think that was the only repeat since Hock, as far as I’m aware. Then did Way of the Hippo when Osian did it in 2023. I then pieced Hippocampus back together [Editor’s note: it had become harder after hold breakage in 2023] and did it all together yesterday.”

Said Tim after the ascent, before adding:

”Hippocampus is deffo harder now, so it’s solidly in the 8A+ range if your my height I’d suspect, and your straight into Osian’s one after. I’m holding fire on giving it a definite grade overall. It’ll be in that 8B+ range, but it’ll be handy to see some other people on it.”

“Was funny, I hadn’t even really intended on trying it properly. I’d had food poisoning a couple nights prior. Felt good for a while, but the go I did it absolutely did me in, felt awful again afterwards.”