'Ain't No Sunshine' 28 7c+ , Nowra Australia

A compact record of a sport route send, and the fact that matters is the one the title leaves out. Angie Scarth-Johnson climbs Ain't No Sunshine, Ewbank 28 or French 7c+, at Bomaderry Creek in the Nowra area of New South Wales. She was ten years old at the time.

This is for people who follow the early careers of top climbers and want to see where hers started. The line is steep, sustained and has no rest to the anchors, and Scarth-Johnson has said that a year earlier she could not even reach some of the moves. That is the story underneath the eleven minutes. Skip it if you want production. This is attempts and a redpoint, shot simply, with the uploader noting the rock is noticeably harder when wet.

What works is the plainness. There is no narration telling you how remarkable this is, and it is more remarkable for that. What it gets wrong is that the plainness hides the context. Nothing on screen tells you her age, the route's reputation at Nowra, or why the send mattered.

Rock Trip, The North Face film from Argentina, has Scarth-Johnson a decade later as one of nine athletes bolting new lines. Watch that to see who she became. Watch this to see the ten-year-old who could not reach the holds a year before.