The Indian Face repeated by Dave MacLeod

The first we heard about it was via twitter. Succinct and to the point: "Can't sleep; contemplating the day's events on cloggy" These are the words Dave MacLeod chose to describe how he felt after carrying out an extremely rare ascent of The Indian Face on Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, Wales.

The fact that MacLeod was still on a buzz hours after his successful ascent is understandable and those not familiar with British climbing history may find the following information useful to fully comprehend the imporance of this ascent. The route was first ascended back in 1986 by one of Britain's most talented climbers, Johnny Dawes, who at the time left his mark not only on the gritstone outcrops and the slate mines at Llanberis, but above all up there, on the shrine of British trad climbing, Clogwyn Du'r Arddu.

Dawes' masterpiece is undoubtedly The Indian Face which resolved a problem attempted by both John Redhead and Jerry Moffatt and the route is considered one of the finest and most representative of an era in which bold trad pushed the very limits of what was psychologically possible, reaching a point which few other routes have equalled or exceeded.

The Indian Face had been repeated only twice in the past, by Nick Dixon and Neil Gresham in 1996 and the the fact that in almost a quarter of a century it has only received four ascents speaks volumes to the technical and highly committing nature of the climbing on this iconic slab.

Macleod had first checked out the route in June 2007 but at the time he decided that the climbing was simply too risky. Obviously the route remained in the back of his mind since then and yesterday, in between one bout of rain and the next, the 22-year-old carried out the long-awaited fourth ascent.

Dave MacLeod trys Indian Face E9 in 2007