It's so good to see Huffy's Wall, up at Sheep Pen in Nant Ffrancon, both drawing attention and being the catalyst for quality new lines. This decidedly off piste problem is one of many classic lines put up by one of the original North Wales bouldering legends, Paul Houghoughi.

Having made a quick repeat of Craig Davies brilliant new 8A, The Arbiter, Luke Fletcher got stuck into the adjacent, central line on the steep wall.

Lock and Load 7C is essentially a right exit to Huffy's Wall - it does the first move (from small left crimp and lower right side pull) then moves out right and up along some nice small edges. The crux being a big lock off a high foot then bump again to a positive pinch.

"I think it climbs pretty well, the line isn’t as appealing to look at as The Arbiter but it has some nice movement. It is my first FA, glad it’s not complete choss! As for the grade I think it’s maybe harder than Huffy’s, so 7C is probably fair; we will have to wait and see. It took me two to three goes once I had found the last missing crimp on my second session. This avoided what I thought was going to be a Zeno style last move over a not so great landing.", said Luke after the ascent.

Luke also climbed the obvious diagonal, quartz crack line from a sds at 6B.

Arbiter (8A) And 2 new ones.. from Luke Fletcher on Vimeo.

Relevant links:
      The Arbiter 8A news item