
The position of Moon Hill makes it the perfect summer crag, sitting proud on top of a karst leaves it fairly exposed and is gifted with a good breeze through out the day, staying much cooler than many of the other crags. It is also in the shade for most of the day, with only a few routes seeing the sun for the final hours at sunset, where vivid orange’s and red’s are cast across the arch. I had my eye on two particular routes that climb through either side of the arch. Lunar Tick is an impressive line, breaking leftwards from the fantastic Over The Moon, following a tufa system across the steepest part of the roof and goes at 8a. The other was Red Dragon, a Todd Skinner classic, consisting of steep, technical climbing, bat hangs and a heart breaker crux at the chains, with the grade of 8a+.
I set about getting to work on Red Dragon first. I had already had a session on it last year, where I fell at the start of the final crux before it got wet for the rest of that trip.
After a session of reaquainting myself with the moves and coming up with what seemed like a solid sequence, I was ready to tie in for a red point attempt. The route its self breaks down to a 7b+ first pitch to an ok rest, followed by big moves on good holds in steep terrain to a bat hang rest that isn’t so great. Up to there it is around 7c+ but then you arrive at the V6 crux consisting of big moves between small tufa pinches and thin pockets before the anchor.