Johnny Dawes, a gritstone legend, has predicted how the route could be mastered. Supposedly it would take someone with very short legs and very long arms to climb it. Well, he must have been wrong. After a bit of bouldering in top rope, James Pearson managed to scale "The Groove" in Cratcliffe in the Peak District. One-handed snapping on, pulling on little pebbles, dynoing that makes climbers drop to the ground in the case of failers, and plenty of round and very open grips are what it takes. But James Pearson, who has already climbed two degree E10 routes, showed he has the nerve to take on a challenge of this magnitude and climbed the route in the snow on a Monday morning, in icy conditions.
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