Mr. Sagar's recent article got me thinking about some of the excellent route descriptions that can be found in our guidebooks. What are some of the favourites of the forum?
I'll open with the 1989 CC Cloggy description of Indian Face, which I hope people won't mind me copying here (as it can also be found on the UKC logbook entry):
*** The Indian Face 150 feet
(a.k.a. The Headmaster's Wall)
Standard: E9; Exceptionally Severe (Excessively so). Rubbers.
It has been said that up the face to the right of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a pitch of such appalling difficulty as to be almost beyond the realms of human comprehension has been ascended without mechanical machinations or other insidious practices normally associated with a route of this calibre...
Protection is at best illusory; the whole sweep of rock affords not so much as a single nubbin on which the thinnest line may be secured, nor a single crack in which the most vestigal of chockstones could hope to gain lodgement. Should the leader fail to negotiate the crux, or be seized by a palsy high on the pitch, disaster must be imminent...
The successful leader, even though he be of a modest disposition, may relax, and justifiably award himself a 'pat on the back'.