South West: All Elements 8a

Southern dark horse Tom Randall has climbed a fine looking new line at the small limestone venue of Bathford Woods (near Bath), an area also known to some locals as Sally-in-the-Woods.

Below: Tom Randall on his new problem All Elements Font8a © Tom Randall


The line itself climbs the obvious horizontal roof crack for 20+ ft - "Everything from crimps, slopers, finger jams and hand jams" - incorporating around 15-17 moves. Tom gives the full beta...

"Crimpy rail and pinch, big move to hideous baggy cupped handjam, 180 deg spin, thumb jam (oh yes!), 2 finger pocket, spin another 180 deg, 2 finger finger-jam (great move), 2 finger pocket, tricky thin-hands hand-jam, good jam (but very hard to seat), wild cut loose, loooong reach to mono-dish, 180 deg spin, bump dish-hand to good sloper-crimp (redpoint crux), round onto the headwall, a load of heel hooking and more crimps and slopey-crimps (not to bad). Top-out!"

There were some initial queries regarding the access to the venue but according to Tom the crag is "on common land so access is no problem , I've checked with the local council about this".

Below is a video of Tom on his new creation.