Pitch Two (5.4) begins by yarding up giant huecos, which is fun until you encounter a veritible chasm. Upon leaping across (and praying to god) a low-angled slab is then negotiated to a belay on the crest of a ridge.

Tony took off and quickly made it a third of the way up the pitch where he placed his first piece; thus assuaged my fears about his attempts to solo. A second piece quickly followed and then he disappeared over a ridge and stopped. Asking if he had found the frightening gap he said he had. "How is it", I queried? "Pretty phuking frightening mate", he called back. As he was out of sight, I had no way to help him, but attempted encouragement nonetheless. Tony quickly sussed the situation and after downclimbing a bit, stemmed the void, and ascended the far side to an anchor. I followed, shat myself at the now obviously frightening gap, and scrambled up to join him. We rejoiced our non-DEATH, switched over gear, and I lead the third pitch.

Pitch Three (5.7) begins with an exposed traverse across horrifyingly fragile rock to a ridge. A single bolt protects the scrambly moves to the Priest's summit.

After gaining the summit, I noticed the two bolt anchor sported a single Petzl Spirit biner on sun bleached webbing –yay! Tony followed only to endure a near fall as he mantled up while his rope snagged on a horn and threatened to pull him off –zoiks! Joining me atop the spire, we readied the ropes and rapped into the notch where I made an impromptu two tri-cam anchor while balancing over outrageous exposure!

Pitch Four (5.6) starts on another scary traverse, which leads to a squeeze chimney betwixt the Monk's twin summits. After fighting up a slot and gaining the top, rap to a northerly low angle notch. There is an option of skipping this summit, which we embraced wholeheartedly. If you are interested in the fifth pitch, a protectionless chimney which I contemplated for all of about ten seconds. Its description is as follows:

Pitch Five (5.4) involves chimneying up dirty rock to the top of the Pope and then rapping back to, yet another, slot.

It took all my nerve to traverse our elected double length scary traverse but, with Tony throwing all his Brit mountain hardness at me, I got it. He seconded only to have a foothold break beneath him and drop six inches where, unbelievably, he landed on another one! After another rappel into another notch from another DEATH fueled anchor, we found the best anchor of the day –praise the gods (every last one of them).

Pitch Six (5.6) is easy climbing, it just so happens to be on disgusting rock and protected by abysmal bolts. Ending on a ridge finds you rapping into a large amphitheater — the Hobbit Hole — found between the Friar and the Abbot. Bouldering out enables a long rap to the ground.

At this point I was beyond it all and scampered up the final pitch like it was nothing, much to the chagrin of Tony, who had a time of it. Gaining the top as darkness fell, we transitioned to the final DEATH fueled anchor which — of course- needed augmentation i.e. we backed it up with the last of my webbing. Abseiling into the darkness below, my LED's strained for all they were worth — it didn't help much.

I found a semi-hanging single bolt anchor — again — and clipped in. Tony abseiled past, using the bolt as a directional, and landed in the Hobbit Hole. I pulled the ropes, scrambled down, and then the search for a way out began. After a few moments, including almost both falling off into the darkened abyss, we realized we needed to boulder up a ten foot wall and then down a slab into more impenetrable darkness.