Lucy Creamer climbs E8 at Curbar, Peak District

Lucy Creamer, one of Britain's most impressive all-rounders, has just repeated "Slab and Crack" E8 6c at Curbar, Peak District. In doing so Creamer becomes the second woman to climb a route of this grade, after Lisa Rands from America ascended End Of The Affair (E8 6c) at Curbar in 2004 and Gaia E8 6c at Black Rocks in 2006.

An ascent of this magnitude had been in the air for a while: Creamer had previoulsy onsighted up to E7 (Boss Hogg E7 in Pembrokeshire) and recently she had devoted attention to headpointing some gritstone testpieces, which netted her fast ascents of Janus E7 6b and Toploader E7 6c in October.

Attention then shifted to Slab and Crack and after successfully toproping the 14 meters in a single push Creamer attempted the lead on Sunday. Disaster almost struck during the attempt when, after having climbed the bold start and placed the blind RP2, she fell from the crux. Miraculously the RP2 held her fall... Creamer, whose main love is trad climbing, collected herself and successfully fought her way up the 1986 Johnny Dawes testpiece early the next afternoon.

Lucy Creamer - mini curriculum
Trad on-sight: ‘Boss Hogg’ E7 6c- Pembrokeshire,UK.
Sport on-sight: ‘Planete Groove’ f8a- Gorges du Tarn, France.
Redpoint: ‘Abregnief’ f8b- St.Leger, France.
Headpoint: ‘Slab & Crack’ E8 6c Curbar, Peak District.
Mountain route: ‘Hasse-Brandler’ UIAA VIII, 500m Cima Grande, Dolomites, Italy.
Expeditions: new route, ‘Venus Envy’ E4/5 6a, 600m The Baroness, Greenland. 2001.
Mixed new route: ‘Mighty Aphrodite’ M9x- Ouray, Colorado USA, 2002. Still unrepeated.
New boulder problem: ‘Trente-six’ Font 7c+- Veaux, France.
Best competition result: 7 times British champion, 2 World Cup Lead finals (Chamonix 2004 and Ratho 2003)