It was obvious that we would find ourselves back in China after such an amazing first trip. Except on our second visit we became a little over-excited and it turned out to be a disaster. We were so eager that we returned in the rainy season and the line I bolted at White Mountain never dried out. Worse was that Seb Grieve, broke off a flake whilst bolting his project and ended up in hospital in Shanghai with a broken foot. We fled back to the UK to re-group and returned a third time in October to settle the score! Seb’s foot had just-about healed and he finished his route, except it turned out to be a fairly poor 7a and (contrary to his reputation for boldness) the bolts were placed really close together - there was no way he was chancing a fall onto his foot. My route proved to be the best yet, ‘the Axeman’ 8a, is the line of the crag - a giant and grotesquely steep, endurance test on perfect rock. With a week to spare we were shown to another cliff called Lei Pi Shan where I added ‘Single Life’ 8a+, and Mike Robertson bolted an extension which we left as a project for a talented young local lad called Abond. We were delighted to hear a month or so after our return that China now has it’s first 8b+.
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| Axeman, F8a |  | | Photo: Mike Robertson |
| Single Life 8a+ |  | | Photo: Mike Robertson |
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| Copyright © 2004-2012 Neil Gresham |
