Lakes strong lad, Aidan Roberts, has climbed a fiercely difficult sit down start to David Fidler’s Hustled at Bwtres Carreg-filltir/Milestone Buttress in Dyffryn Ogwen. See page 308 in the NWB 3.1 guide.

”The style is utterly savage crimping. Likely some of the smallest holds I've used in my time to be honest. It’s actually rather unique to climb all the crux moves on solid quartz holds, but don't be fooled into thinking the holds themselves are comfortable.”

Explained Aidan, before adding:

It’s a nice milestone for me this year as I have been out of the game due to injury, so I’m pleased with that. Regarding the difficulty, I’d say probably 8B... never too sure about these but it felt a bunch harder than Isles and suits my style well so I think that's safe.”

The line had been sniffed by a few of the top boys, for example, Jack Palmieri had done the moves on it, but had not returned to complete the ascent. It’ll be interesting to see if him or any of the locals give it a shot once the cooler temperatures come back.

Aidan has been spending a bit of time in North Wales of late. Despite the hot, sweaty conditions he has made quick work of test pieces such as Isles of Wonder (8B) and Sway On (8A), which he made an impressive flash of on a very hot day.

Sam Lawson (Wedge Climbing) has been capturing the exciting action on film. See the link below to his first film featuring Aidan and Jim Pope’s earlier visit this year, which features Aidan making real progress on the much talked about sds project to Isles of Wonder. Sam will be releasing a second film soon, which will include footage of Hustled sds.

Jim Pope also climbed a harder direct variation on Fiddled, staying more on the face and slapping higher up the arête than Chris Doyle had done on the first ascent.

Relevant links:
      Wads in Wales film