Acting on a half-decent forecast, Steve McClure was keen to head into the (Welsh) mountains last Saturday on a mission to boldly go where (few) had been before. But straining under rucksacks bulging with climbing and camera kit we weren’t travelling light nor fast. Chances were that the walk-in would kill us never mind the climbing!

Gallt yr Ogof in Owgen was our target - more precisely, Skyline Buttress a.k.a. home to famed Mission Impossible (E8/9 7a); Neil Carson’s Nineties mega mountain line. James McHaffie had recently repeated Mission and the media had been full of the story. However, reading Jack Geldard’s blog (http://jackgeldard.com/2009/04/24/photo-heart-of-stone-e7-6b-mission-impossible-topo) Heart of Stone sounded like a legit target also. “It’s the best mountain E7 in Wales” says Jack. He adds further qualifications; “It is extremely well protected, in the F7b+/7c range of difficult, and very, very steep and strenuous. I can’t recommend it enough – very on-sightable, especially now it is once again clean”. Playing his cards close to his chest – he is a seasoned campaigned after all – Steve only ‘declared’ his interest in Mission’s (easier) sister route, Heart of Stone. I figured different though.

Against such a write-up, it would churlish not to have a pop at Heart. The walk-in took us an hour -  it ain’t called Skyline Buttress for nothing! There’s no path to follow, nor is there a warm-up to do when you get there so it’s a case of climbing up and down a couple of times on the initial (easier) section of Heart to get going. There’s an obvious point of no return at 25’ after which it gets tough. Some quick pulls and a characteristic heel-hook rest at about two thirds height set Steve up for the on-sight. However, a streak of the finest Welsh mountain seepage from one of the crucial final holds stood between Steve and the top. In the end it wasn’t really a fair contest, wet holds or not, the on-sight was in the bag. Notwithstanding a flashed ascent from Dave Pickford earlier in the year, Steve’s on-sight is reckoned to be the first on record. For anyone looking for an overhanging, well-protected E7 in the mountains, Heart of Stone is well worth a blast. Pack a few Friends and wires to supplement the several pegs which are insitu though.

Success is always short-lived though and soon Steve was wrestling with a ‘should I, shouldn’t I’ decision over Mission Impossible. Whilst he wrestled with his thoughts, I’d abseiled down to strip the gear from Heart and could see more wet streaks on Mission. “It looks wet to me mate” I shouted down to Steve, “there’s some streaks coming out of the slots up here”. But we were there and what did he have to loose? Nothing ventured; nothing gained...

Throwing caution into the wind, Steve tied in and set off. That’s Steve all over. Having climbed with him for over a decade, I’ve seen him pull some shockingly impressive stuff out of the bag – so much so that I’m almost to the point of believing the impossible is almost always possible. Committing to the hard climbing which started 35’ up Steve streamed on – up to and then past the twin tied-off pegs and to the slots (and Friends above) to the final tied-off peg. Then he stopped – dead. “Wet thumb-sprag – I’m screwed” wafted down, then “ARSE – gutted”. We’ll never know whether he’d have gotten the on-sight without the wet sprag, but as they say, nothing ventured... Still, not a bad day out – an E7 on-sight and a calendar shot to boot!

Gallt yr Ogof, Ogwen from the road – “ouch - that looks a long way up there!”