17th November 2025 @ Blackstone Edge, 7A

Saw multiple videos, but ultimately, you find your own way up this thing! Done lots of times on three separate sessions throughout the year.

Nik’s Groove is a bit of a funny one. I remember doing the variant which includes the left arete (at 6B) in my first year of climbing. The many videos of people doing the harder 7A variant online made it look doable, but I really struggled to get anywhere. It looks like it should be easy, but when you’re sat in front of it, it’s a different matter! Like the guide says, you really do have to kind of trick yourself up it!

I revisited it over the next few years, but it was in 2025 during a warm Spring day – a day which felt like a bit of a write-off, with me having little success elsewhere – where I finally managed to do it. I’d ended up going to it on the way home as it was in the shade. After some experimentation, I found that once I’d figured out what worked for me, I could more or less repeat it at will.

I revisited it again in Spring to get some better footage, and for a while, that was part of the video. This was the same day I shot the opening three climbs of part I.

However, in the Autumn I was after maybe one or two night climbs to suit the final part of the video. I have forever struggled with the other climbs alongside this – and have put a decent amount of effort into Nik’s Left (at 6B, seems that it’s maybe 6B+ now) with minimal success. It was after yet another session failing at that in the dark when I decided to try doing this again. It put up a bit more resistance this time – I’d perhaps forgotten a bit over 6 months, and the cold night air had just started to deliver a touch of condensation to the rock, but eventually I was repeating it fairly easily. It’s not very big, but it’s a bit of a local classic.

This bit of rock is a good example of why I don’t trust grades much. It’s difficult for me to understand why this gets 7A with over 30 ascents logged on UKC, but Nik’s Left, which I still can’t do, gets 6B/+ and has single digit logged ascents. Both Nik Jennings’ problems with stars on the same bit of rock! But maybe I’m just missing something and when I’ve climbed it it’ll all make sense. I think most climbers have had experiences where they start out thinking “how can this be 6B, it must be at least 7A!” and once they’ve climbed it, they’re thinking “how can this be 6B, it must be at most 6A!” We’ll see if I ever manage to get up it.