Anna Hazlett makes first female ascent of Walk of Life E9 in UK
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On Sunday 19 June American climber Anna Hazlett, who online goes by the name of Anna Hazelnutt, made the coveted first female ascent of The Walk of Life, the bold E9 6c on the huge Dyer's Lookout slab in North Devon, UK.
Providing the equivalent of "8a+/soft 8b" climbing but on marginal trad gear, the line was first ascended by James Pearson in September 2008 and repeated at the start of 2009 by Dave Macleod, then by Dave Birkett in 2010 and James McHaffie in 2018.
Hazlett worked the route for 6 days and then sent the nigh 50m route on her first lead attempt on day 7, placing all the gear on lead and telling planetmountain.com "Such a beautiful slab with incredible sequences! Bold start and sustained climbing all the way through. Classic."
In October 2021 Hazlett repeated the climb immediately to the left, Once Upon a Time in the Southwest and caused quite a stir not only due to the route's E9 6c difficulty, but also because this was basically her first-ever UK trad route!
Hazlett is one of the very few women to have climbed British E9, having joined the likes of Hazel Findlay (2011), Emma Twyford (2013), Eve Lancashire (2016), Barbara Zangerl (2016) and Madeleine Cope (2018).
Below are photos of Hazlett on the route, taken by Alastair Lee for next season's Brit Rock Film Tour.
