Montagu Castles in the Sky Update

[LucH]

Starting a new thread rather than necro the original (if that's wrong I'll change this).

Wanted to climb Castles in the Sky the other day but when we arrived we found two climbs running almost parallel up the face (maybe 1 or 2m apart). Both have a stance at roughly the same spot (but again about 2m apart). The second pitch of the right-hand route starts with a large runout (maybe 3-4m) between the stance and the first bolt (which feels like a massive factor 2 fall if something went wrong)...is this the intended route or something harder than 19?
For the life of me I can't find any mention of this second route in the book (2015) or online. We ended up climbing the first pitch of the right-hand side set of bolts only.

Does anyone know:

• the grade of the right hand line

• which route (left or right) is the original castles in the sky 20/19

Thanks for any knowledge

[tygereye]

Hi Luc,
the route on the left-hand's side is relatively new. Castles goes up on the right. It is quite airy, but definitely graded correctly.

[RainbowDave]

The original Castles in the Sky route first pitch starts on the right and goes to the right hand stance about half way up and is about grade 20.
The second pitch goes up and then left from the stance and is about 19.

The new route first pitch starts on the far left and goes to the stance on the left and is about 22 or 23?
The new routes second pitch climbs up and then to the right and crosses over the original Castles in the Sky second pitch and finishes at an anchor on the right where you can abseil back down the route. The new route's second pitch is about 19 or 20?

So these two routes second pitches cross over each other.

Hope this helps.
Dave

[tygereye]

Ah, ok, thanks, Dave!