Blind climber Jesse Dufton makes first ascent of new route in Morocco

British rock climber Jesse Dufton has in all likelihood become the first blind climber to establish a new multi-pitch rock climb with his first ascent of "Eye Disappear" at Heavy Rock in the Anti-Atlas mountains of Morocco. Dufton swung leads with climbing partners Molly Thompson and Paul Donnithorne to establish this three-pitch, 100m outing, and while the technical difficulties on paper appear relatively straight-forward at VS 4b,4b,4b, it goes without saying that climbing into the unknown without seeing what lies ahead involves entering into a realm of completely different proportions. Dufton, whose blind ascent of the The Old Man of Hoy seastack was applauded by the Scottish Parliament, shared the following details about his ascent.

Jesse, silly question: how much can you see?
Nothing useful. I have some light perception, so I can tell the difference between night and day. I can’t see any of the handholds, I can’t see any of the footholds, can’t see where to place the gear. All my climbing is done by touch or by listening to instructions Molly can give me over a radio.

Did you lead all 3 pitches?
No. I climbed the route with Molly Dufton and Paul Donnithorne. I led the first pitch; Paul led the second and Molly the third. We all wanted to lead and it worked out quite nicely that we all got a pitch. I think Molly’s pitch was probably the coolest, going up a big steep crack.

What about the belays?
I found a nice big flat ledge after 25/30m which seemed like a good place to stop. If it hadn’t been for the ubiquitous spiky plants, it would have been perfect. It took me a while to find decent gear to bring Molly and Paul up on, as the back-wall of the ledge was extremely compact rock with no gear opportunities, I had to feel all the way along it until I found some cracks I could build a good anchor in, 4 cams all equalised and pulling in the right direction, pretty textbook really. Fortunately, all the belays were on obvious stances, we didn’t have to use any hanging belays.

How much did you rely on your instinct rather than on listening to Molly?
Almost entirely on instinct for this one. My pitch followed a rising corner groove. Not sure Molly really had to give me any instruction at all. I was very aware that, because this was a first ascent, there may well be loose rock. So I was extremely tentative and tested everything I used. There were some small, detached rocks in the back of the groove which I threw out so that they didn’t cause a danger to Molly or Paul, if they were disturbed by my ropes as I climbed past. The route is nice and clear now, no loose rocks, the quality of the main cliff is really good.

How special was the experience?
The first time you do something is always special, this was the first time I’d ever attempted a new trad route. The big thing is the uncertainty, you have no idea what you’re going to encounter. It could be really hard or beyond your level or there might be a poorly protected section or loose rock, you have no idea what the route is going to throw at you. But to be honest this isn’t that different to my normal climbing experience, as the amount of information I get about a route before starting on it is hugely reduced relative to sighted climbers. In the end the difficulty of the climbing was fairly comfortable for me, but it could have been very different. Paul returned to the same crag the day after our ascent and did another new route that reached the same ledge I had belayed from, but this line came in from the right, he reckoned this was about E2, so not beyond my ability, but much closer to my limit than Eye Disappear turned out to be. But the main thing I got from new routing was the sense of adventure, coming up against the myriad of unknowns and finding a way through. I only wish we had longer in Morocco to attempt some other new routes, Molly and I will have to go back!