[Paul B]

Hmmm I just find the leading Tweet the night before and then quite a blase start to a blog a bit hard to swallow but maybe I'm being overly cynical (its not unusual) due to previous postings, like the one you've highlighted..

[slackline]

You cynical?  And I thought I was the only cynical person round here 

Maybe the tweet was whilst articulating his thoughts into the blog post.

[cofe]

ditto. i reckon he strongly implied that he thinks EW is at least E11 and probably E12, given he thinks it's pretty dangerous.

The first part of that blog was all a little  with just how "un-bothered" he was by all of it.

I disagree Paul. I'm no cheerleader for Dave Mac but I thought his IF blog post gently punctured the balloon of hype/mystique surrounding the route rather than popping it loudly and making everyone jump.  This was in stark contrast to the 'My elbows were fucked so I went to Devon to downgrade Walk of Life' from last year...

yeah, his WOL post was a bit blah blah I thought.

[Rocksteady]

I read the blog on IF as a sort of interaction between the hype/mystique that surrounds the route and Dave's subjective experience while climbing it. I think he's in a bit of a unique position of having more really dangerous and cutting edge trad experience than anyone else who's tried it (with no disrespect to those others who've led it, as in their day they were the 'cutting edge'). I think it makes sense that he was a little underwhelmed by 7bish wall climbing with a death-fall compared to his prior 8c/+ish overhanging climbing with a death-fall.

Though I did feel he was bigging up his Echo Wall route a little (ditto re: Walk of Life). The trouble with the footage of him doing Echo Wall IMO is that it doesn't effectively convey how difficult and dangerous that route is. We see DMC shovelling snow, practising the route a bit, then cruising it. Don't really get an impression of how small the holds are and how bad the gear is. Anyway, sorry 

Basically well done Dave, again. 

[T_B]

I can't believe  no-one has been geeky enough to spot that in the film where he originally tries it, he's wearing a pair of Scarpa Magos! FFS, I'm not surprised his toes were kiilin him - they're a very stiff, turned down boot designed for high-end sport climbing, not trad shufflin. Climbing anything less than 30 degrees overhanging in those babies means instant excruiating pain. Total punter on footwear choice!

good effort on the classic tick tho 

[Johnny Brown]

Though I did feel he was bigging up his Echo Wall route a little

Seems fair enough, it being britain's hardest route n'all. Must be galling to find Indian Face three grades easier and then have the punters wailing about the biggest feat of the last ten years.

[shark]

Jeez- it must be more stressful blogging on this stuff knowing that its going to get dissected and deconstructed than doing the route.

The answer is for him to get a dog and write about that.

[Will Hunt]

Though I did feel he was bigging up his Echo Wall route a little

Seems fair enough, it being britain's hardest route n'all. Must be galling to find Indian Face three grades easier and then have the punters wailing about the biggest feat of the last ten years.

Once again, Johnny, I think you've struck the nail firmly on the head there.

The first part of that blog was all a little  with just how "un-bothered" he was by all of it.

I disagree. I thought it was, as someone else (who I forget) said, an insight into the state of mind he was in on this particular death route. It was interesting to see the use of the term "woke up" again. I can't remember for certain but I'm sure that the last time that particular phrase was used was in Gresham's write up of his IF ascent. Also, to be fair to DMC he has got a bit of history of cruising E9 slab routes. Considering WOL is, I believe, technically harder than IF and he said that he found the climbing very easy.

In a way its nice that the bubble around IF has burst. The other three IF climbers up till know have added to the aura of it being the absolute living end (fair enough in the time they did it) and now that DMC has changed the trend in how it is seen by the public it'll see more traffic.

The line of people on UKC begging for an upgrade and proclaiming it the hardest trad route in the UK was embarrassing.

[Tom de Gay]

Perhaps one of the reasons it went unrepeated following Gresham/Dixon is that when Leo onsighted Master's not long after ('96?), the game changed and the onsight seemed like a real possibility. There was certainly hype about this prospect at the time. Had Dave done the route 10 years ago (he was certainly capable) I think it would have been regarded as less newsworthy than it seems to be today!

[GCW]

From Committed

[Johnny Brown]

Perhaps one of the reasons it went unrepeated following Gresham/Dixon is that when Leo onsighted Master's not long after ('96?), the game changed and the onsight seemed like a real possibility. There was certainly hype about this prospect at the time.

Nail on head there Tom. It was a bit later though, '98/'99 maybe. I remember one of Leo's early lectures where he helped the audience imagine Cloggy, then drew on the line of Indian Face, and then stated an onsight was 'the greatest challenge in british climbing'.

I think we're actually further away from an onsight attempt than we were then - the nature of the beast is rather better known now, and folk are more wary of the route's misleading blind alleys than of the difficulty. And of course the idiot pedants would say knowing that invalidates the onsight anyway.

[Tom de Gay]

It was a bit later though, '98/'99 maybe.

Not sure - wasn't he 16 at the time? Think it was in the first OTE I ever bought (the one with Bent Spoon footless on El Poussah on cover) so left an impression. Cracking stuff.

[GCW]

I'm pretty sure it was 1996.

[Johnny Brown]

If he was 16 then it would have been.  In fact, just dug the El Poussah OTE off the shelf and there it is - Oct '96 issue. Other highlights include Crimping Arthur Harris at Rubicon and the Grimer/ Jerry naked article...

[KH]

I can't believe  no-one has been geeky enough to spot that in the film where he originally tries it, he's wearing a pair of Scarpa Magos! FFS, I'm not surprised his toes were kiilin him - they're a very stiff, turned down boot designed for high-end sport climbing, not trad shufflin. Climbing anything less than 30 degrees overhanging in those babies means instant excruiating pain. Total punter on footwear choice!

good effort on the classic tick tho 

You're bang on, although the shoe he's wearing is the Stix slip on.  They're very down toed and rubbish for slabs, although they are great on edges.

Great to see Dave MaC getting this done!

[Steve R]

If he was 16 then it would have been.  In fact, just dug the El Poussah OTE off the shelf and there it is - Oct '96 issue. Other highlights include Crimping Arthur Harris at Rubicon and the Grimer/ Jerry naked article...

As chance would have it, I found this very issue alone on a bookshelf in France earlier this year.  Great read!

Anyway, nice one Dave - good to hear If 6 was 9 and Echo Wall put into context.

[chillax]

You're bang on, although the shoe he's wearing is the Stix slip on.  They're very down toed and rubbish for slabs, although they are great on edges.

Check the video, 2.06, for shoes to be slip-ons don't they require the abscence of laces? They're Magos.

Great effort to DMC.

[slackline]

Looks like he stuck with the Magos 

[T_B]

I think we have some confusion here. Clearly, when he first tried in (See Committed Vol I) he was wearing Magos (avec laces) in some of the footage.

His recent ascent (photo above) was in the much more appropriate Stix (still turned down, but a softer shoe with more 'feel')

So simply a matter of the correct footwear

[slackline]

  Clearly I'm not overly familiar with the Scarpa range.

[cofe]

Consider that a good thing...

[BB]

Consider that a good thing...

The scarpa stix is a fine shoe. I just wish i could still buy them in my size.

[Neil F]

Anyone else impressed by the metamorphosis of Indian Face, from steep slab to overhanging wall?  More impressive is the rate of change, as it definitely looked like a steep slab when I was up there just 2 days previously...

 

[Probes]

The twatty thought just entered my head, 'the scarpa stix is a fine shoe, not a notch on a pair of ballets'. Wonder how IF would feel in pair of them?! Hard E9?   

[Jaspersharpe]

Worse than that didn't Johnny do IF in a pair of Kamets or some such shitness?