Lord Of The Flies and Pretty Girls

We had a long standing arrangement to film one of the best female rock climbers based in the UK. Jude Spancken is an F8a sport climber as well as a very strong trad climber. On-sighting is her trad preference so we met up to film a couple of superb E6s in the Llanberis Pass.

Jude Spanken on Lord of The Flies, The Cromlech, Llanberis Pass, North Wales

Lord Of The Flies at The Cromlech is a route that anyone climbing near around that grade would aspire to. A fantastic line in a spectacular location, a full 35/40m (110ft) pitch with a reputation for being quite bold.

Jude is one of the most graceful climbers I have ever seen. The ascent was beautiful, precise, effortless.

Jude attempting Pretty Girls Make Graves

The next day in marked contrast she went to climb Pretty Girls which is a mean, nasty, tough E6 6b that she promised would involve plenty of slapping, fighting and screaming! (She had seconded it several years ago so it wouldn't be a true on-sight) We weren’t disappointed, great fun. Thanks Jude.

Jude is also an excellent photographer, see her website.

Also that day we filmed Kev Shields on a route that, well, we don’t know what it was actually. Kev’s climbing grade is not as high as others in the movie, but leading up to E4 without any fingers on his left hand is pretty challenging and inspiring stuff.

Kev Shields topping out on his route (??) in the pass. Photos: Claire MacLeod

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Dave