In 2018, Will Stanhope and I took a trip into the Eldred Valley in search of unclimbed stone and solace after the loss of a friend. We balked at several options but finally quested up to the difficult-to-access Amon Rûdh. After a multi-hour hike through one of the last stands of old-growth forest in this once pristine valley, we settled in for a sleepless, insect-molested bivy below the wall.

The morning found us scrambling up to the left of The Mormegil (11 pitches, 5.10 C1, Cawley- Guilbault-Hodgson-Richards) on the left side of the wall. We got started with a mix of trickery and bolts and made it a few pitches before running out of bolts and motivation on the baking south-facing wall.

In late July 2020, I returned to the area to attend a grassroots climbers’ festival. With Kieran Brownie, Max Fisher, and Emilie Pellerin, along with a crew of friendly locals (who helped us porter gear to the wall!), we cruised through the now-threatened stand of ancient fir and cedar trees back to a more comfortable bivy, complete with mosquito netting. The next morning, our foursome quickly regained the 2018 high point. A total of eight long pitches plus some scrambling brought us to the summit of the formation, where we skinny-dipped in a natural infinity pool carved into the granite. We called our route The Slabs of Nim (385m, 5.11a).

— Paul McSorley, Canada