After falling at The Crux years ago and narrowly avoiding a fall, Hazel Findlay faces her fears and returns to the infamous Impact Day (E8, 6c) trad route in the Lake District.
Spent in 2012 Hazel Findlay a climbing day in their homeland, the English Lake district. She watched a couple of friends take an older test piece of Dave Birkett called Impact Day (E8, 6c) - a bold route with runouts and courageous moves with potential for falling. When her friends made short work of the line, she wanted to try it too.
"I wanted the movements to feel easy because I knew I couldn't fall."
Hazel Findlay
Although she was cold and tired, Hazel Findlay tied the rope and started climbing. "I wanted the movements to feel easy because I knew I couldn't fall," she recalls. "But being on the sharp end of the rope doesn't make the movements any easier. They were still heavy and I still couldn't fall."
Video: Hazel Findlay faces her fears in Impact Day (E8, 6c)
But the Brit fell. The force of her fall ripped the Camelot protecting her out of the wall and she fell headfirst onto a slab beneath her, the rope tangling around her neck. Luckily, Hazel Findlay escaped with a couple of bruised ribs and a nasty burn on her neck. The mental scars from the fall were probably more permanent.
In the following years, Hazel Findlay dealt intensively with the topic of mind control and repeatedly faced her fears on the rock. Last autumn, a road trip took her back to the Lake District, where she embarked on a second encounter with Route Impact Day.
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Credits: Cover Picture Black Diamond