The China Glide 9a by Graham Owens (16)

Graham Owens has done The China Glide 9a at Rumney which is a link-up of China Beach and Livin' Astro. "Months of dedication for one moment of perfect execution. All worth it. Feels so surreal to climb a 9th grade route, now time to dream bigger!"

So how was those months of dedication?
It was a pretty big mental battle for me. I thought I’d be able to send without too much trouble, as I knew the sections of the route quite well. However, I struggled a lot with skin, conditions, and staying motivated after a lot of reverse progress. I set my high point (the finishing jump move to the arete) in June, matched it once in July, and finally took it down now in September. But that just made the send even more special!

Could you please describe the route?
The route is a linkup of the two best routes at the cliff, China Beach (8c) and Livin’ Astro (8c+). China Beach is very resistant and sustained, with barely any places to chalk up or clip. After climbing basically all of that route, you have to do a 7B+ boulder problem to traverse into Livin Astro. This boulder is not so bad in isolation, but it has one rose move that’s very hard to do when you’re pumped. After sticking the move you jump to a nice jug where you can recover pretty well. Then there’s the mental crux, a committing 7C or 7C+ boulder problem (maybe a bit easier for tall climbers) that’s shared with Livin Astro. It revolves around a mono-stack hold, which you have to grab perfectly in order to jump way outright to a prominent arete feature. Sticking this move and holding the swing is a pretty amazing feeling, and then you just have two easy moves to clip the chains.