In reply to flaneur:
> My copy of A Short Walk is buried in a box somewhere but that's what Wikipedia says so you must be correct.
> In which case, who were the PyG waitresses? Leading Ivy Sepulchre (E1 5b) in 1956 - one of the hardest routes in Wales at the time - was a jolly good effort as Newby might have said.
I've had a look to check and I think wikipedia is wrong - it was Spiral Stairs, but when they got there another party was already on it and the waitresses offered / joked / threatened to take them up Ivy Sepulchre instead (to Newby's horror).
The book doesn't then state explicitly which one they actually did (hence the confusion) but it seems clear enough to me it was Spiral Stairs after waiting for the other team.