19th March 2025 @ Blackstone Edge, 7A (6B+-7A)

Beta seen beforehand from multiple people, in particular Ollie Wilson-Astbury’s Blackstone video, and I’m pretty sure I copied the kneebar from Paul Bird (and I think Ollie kneebars in his video for Return Of The Swing). The ascent seen is probably the third time I’d ever done it or something.

Swingers was my first “7A” inside or out, climbed just before the end of my first year climbing. Perhaps that tells you something about its difficulty – i.e. I found it to be closer to the 6B+ side of the above grade range, at least the way I climbed it. I imagine shorter people will find it more difficult, and perhaps closer to 7A, especially if you struggle to reach the lip jug. However, it is quite a good climb, it’s just experienced climbers will find no surprises. I went up there with a friend in the Summer, and his opinion was “it’s exactly what I thought it would be.”

The reason I tried this was because it was suggested to me by Ollie. Ollie was running an improver’s course at Blochaus which I joined in April 2022 (which was well worth doing). I’d just started climbing outside by that point, and being familiar with Blackstone (his own video is worth a look, he’s a much better climber that me) he had a couple of recommendations – Swingers, and The Underdog. The Underdog was far too hard for me, but Swingers seemed doable. I think I visited it over a few sessions, the second session sorting out the top half, and then the third session working out the bottom. I was pretty psyched to get it done.

For this repeat I’d gone to do Luna and just thought I’d see how easy I found it after a couple of years. It was fine. A lot of people campus from the jug to the top, which I never really considered, (I’ve always been on the weak side without my legs) but I was quite happy with my heel beta. It would be nicer to stick that left foot to the rock though, without it striking off a bunch of scrittle from the underside of the block. That slip is shortly followed by a small amount of camera shake, probably a gust of wind, but I like to think it’s the crag itself, tremoring in rage at the miniscule harm my poor footwork caused.

What might be even nicer is dynoing to the jug and a muscle-up-mantel, maybe eliminating all other holds. That might be a bit beyond me at this point!