Chatting with Chris Hardy about this the other day, he reckoned that the way the route is described these days is wrong, and that Dougie traversed in from the block on the left - because he couldn't reach the holds the other way. Has anyone repeated it this way?

I couldn't reach direct either... but I came in from the right. Not sure there is any point in defining things too narrowly - either way its really hard.

a bit more to add to the history of Doug's ascent, the holds have since slightly improved and Doug did not use any mats.

Does it count as a solo with 4 plus mats and a spotter? ;-)