X-Ray (Pigeon)

[johno]

I got up to do this at the weekend and what a route! Paul Swail did a fantastic job of cleaning the route and also climbed it at the weekend.

The climbing is on positive holds with good gear throughout in a great position. I think the consensus was that its more like soft E4.

X-Ray and Penny Black combine to give two fantastic pitches right beside each other and only 10 minutes from the road!

John

[Swaily]

X-Ray is a well good route.  The climbing is never too hard but can be thoughtful.  The gear is wicked throughout and the peg even looks good. 

Considering it is one of our only roadside crags folk should be getting on these routes.  The rest of the crag is pretty much spotless except for planxety first pitch, so if there are any taker?

Check out hillerscapes.co.uk for a few pics

Swail

[monkey]

good work swailatron on the cleaning and nice lead john - i hear you're going well at the minute bon effort.

'Soft E4'?  I'm going to take that with a pinch of salt.  I've climbed a lot of Eddie's routes over the years and i'd be surprised if a route he gave E5 is really soft E4.  In fact i'd be surprised if it was soft E5.

Maybe you guys are climbing better than you think?

when i get my back sorted i'll def go and try it.  photos looks good.

[Danny_O]

Lets do it this weekend Ali, I'm a cripple, you're a cripple, but the lank should mitigate that a bit.

[Swaily]

I have done harder E3's across the water.  John who is the wad at the minute thought closer to E4 as he has been climbing stacks more trad than me so I have gone with that.  It surprised to to Wilson as Eddie is usually the undergrading king.  Get on it when you can walk again and see what ya think. 

Kieran O'hara and Ian Rea also added a 3 new routes to pigeon righthand buttress yesterday (9th).  One starts from the ground and the other 2 start from the big ledge just over half height.

Swail

[Danny_O]

Did this today, although it felt tricky enough with the fooked shoulder, I'd say soft E4 is spot on. Salango is harder, for example. Really good though, get it whilst it's clean.

[dayle]

Really soft touch e4?  I remember the crux being easy to fluff and a fair bit of that wall hard to work out.  Maybe soft touch for u pair of lanks 

[jmc]

i think this was harder than soft touch e4. i did make a mess of it, but i found it hard to work out the cruxy bit. i think the lank must help. 

[Swaily]

I reckon for the lanks it might be soft E4, but for short people its not hard E4.  I did after hardly doing any climbing.  Whatever the grade might be its a brilliant climbing and being so roadside everyone looking to push it a bit should have a god its safe as houses!

[Danny_O]

Fuck all you three stone wonders and your easier for the lanky type comments. You should try hauling the best part of 14 st up anything before dismissing it as easier for the tall. In fact I'll take E7 and you lot can have E3. And Jon can have HVS seeing as he's over 6 ft and under 3 st.

I win.

In all seriousness though, it's not a typical Mournes route, if it was at Tremadog, for example, it'd get E4 no questions, actually it'd get E3.
Even at the head, Salango has equally difficult moves, is steeper, and pumpier, and has a similar length of sustained climbing.