Major Swanage Repeat

Bob Hickish makes the second ascent of Palace Of The Brine (8a+)

Bob looks up at the awesome twenty-metre wide ceiling of 'Palace Of The Brine' after his successful second ascent.

Taking advantage of a fine spell of weather in June, rising star of the UK climbing scene Bob Hickish made a very quick second ascent of Pete Oxley's outrageous central line through the big cave at Fisherman's Ledge, Swanage. The route was established way back in 1991, making this one of the longest periods between a first and second ascent of any cutting-edge route in the UK. At the time of its first ascent, Palace Of The Brine was perhaps the hardest roof climb in Britain. It remains one of the country's hardest ceilings, featuring almost twenty metres of extremely complex horizontal climbing. The old bolts used by Oxley had rusted away, and Hickish replaced them with new stainless steel bolts prior to his successful ascent, giving one of Britain's most spectacular sport pitches a long overdue revival.

Palace Of The Brine, with its new lease of life, now brushes shoulders with the awesome Mandela (8a+) at Kilnsey Crag in Yorkshire, and Infinite Gravity (also 8a+) at nearby Blacker's Hole in Swanage in the hit-list of Britain's best sport roof pitches.

Bob making the spectacular moves to cross the lip of the roof on 'Palace Of The Brine', which form the last of the route's four separate cruxes.  

- all photographs copyright David Pickford, www.davidpickford.com -

Bob Hickish blogs regularly on planetFear. Keep up to date with his latest projects and achievements on his blog page here.