Well it certainly was greasy and slimy...

Thanks to Dave and Simon for managing to get me up it in those conditions (combined tactics, manfully pulling on pro, standing in slings, etc - have we no shame?!). The greasy slabs above were running black and green slime and the whole area had been liberally sprayed with WD40.

For the record as of yesterday the only gear left is a number 9 nut of unknown vintage - but bomber - round the corner from the shelf behind Fat Man's Agony ie below the shelf of the stand proper.

Ali came through on time on his anticlockwise attempt, despite conditions being awful (strong winds and driving rain all across Honister to Wasdale). We had a desperately slippery descent to BS, where a diagonal abseil was needed to get down to the FMA. (Evidently 3 months of rain hasn't helped provide clean, dry rock. It took me an hour to strip the belays and get back to the summit with all the gear safely - I have much sympathy for the other team who left the rope behind three weeks ago in grotty conditions, and agree that Broad Stand isn't a place to go litter-picking in bad weather).

Despite being 30 mins ahead at Dunmail the weather deteriorated further over Helvellyn and some nav errors (new fences in the dark on Calva and Skiddaw etc) all combined to push the time over 24 hours. A fine effort IMHO for a first attempt with minimal recce time and greasy, wet and windy conditions. Given that parts of the route were entirely new, I reckon that's a good showing.

Ben B