The 2016 guide notes correctly that Ardus was not the name Vince Veevers intended for this route but, ironically, makes a further editorial mistake by saying that it was originally named Andus. This is incorrect. Vince called the route Audus which was his wife’s maiden name. Vince Veevers was my father-in-law so I’m certain on this point.
Editor’s Note:
I have done a little digging through the different editions of the Borrowdale guide and the FRCC Journals of the time to see how Ardus/Andus/Audus was recorded. The first mention of the route is in Bentley Beetham’s article ‘Shepherd’s Crag Declares a Dividend’ (FRCC Journal Vol 15-2, 1948) where it is recorded as Audas. In Jack Carwell’s ‘Climbs Old and New’ article in the 1951 FRCC Journal (Vol 16-1) there is a description to Slings which is described as starting 10 yards left of Audus; as Veevers made the first ascents of both routes it is reasonable to assume that he had the correct name for the route we now call Ardus. (Incidentally, it is odd that Veevers places the start of Slings well to the left of Audus as they are now described as starting at the same place, it seems that the original start to Audus/Ardus may have been up, or close to, the right-hand start to Ardus that was first claimed in 2010). By the time of the 1953 Borrowdale guide Beetham had written the route up as Ardus in the text but Andus in the list of First Ascents. All subsequent guidebooks have used the name Ardus, a trend that started with Beetham’s error.