[dave]

http://www.planetfear.com/climbing/news/item.html?id=790

Thats fairly hard I would say. Nice one son - rizpek

 :eek3:

[Bubba]

'Twas the power of The Lord ! :batangel:

Maybe if I start being a bit more devout, I'll be able to get up anything harder than a V7 again.

[dave]

I wonder if he's ever going to do that F9a+ project right of hubble - that would truly put the cat amongst the pigeons. :up:

[Big Frank]

V15!!!  

Good effort  :worthy:

[Bubba]

that F9a+ project right of hubble

Is that the one he's been working on for a while already?

[dave]

Yeah - i think he mentioned it on that cragx interview article. I belive it sort of goes direct into Make It Funky - or summert like that.

He's one crazy strong mofo.

[Bubba]

I like the way he power-squeaks along that nasty traverse at Woodwell in Stick It. Has us in stitches every time  :D

[Bubba]

Would like to get up to visit that South Lakes stuff, but probably soaked for the winter now.

[Pantontino]

Everybody who has the vaguest interest in the subculture of bouldering should at some point in their life, go and stand underneath John's Trowbarrow project (i.e. the rudely overhanging wall left of Isla de Encanta).
Absolutely f***ing gobsmacking!

If he does this, then Malcolm, Ben, Jerry etc may as well burn their stinky rock shoes in a symbolic funeral pyre marking their submission to the dominance of the mighty Gaskins.

Or more likely, it will be ignored by the big boys because it's too far to drive (funny how John has made it to Raven Tor nearly every week all summer) and that Walk Away thing is just a sit down start (sounds a bit like 8 Ball, which John repeated easily) and blah, blah, blah...

John rang me up last week and told me about the Walk Away sit down. He wasn't sure about the grade and we started to wonder who might be up for a repeat attempt. When you start to think about it, is there anybody in this country who is up to the job? I'm not sure anymore. It seems like Gaskins is beginning to operate in a different league. Maybe we need a visit from Fred or Bernd Zangerl?

Malcolm and Ben are in Meschia this week with that globetrotting playboy photographer Ray Wood. Lets hope they come back, all guns blazing, ready to answer the challenge of John's remarkable South Lakes test pieces.

The man is operating in a vacuum, imagine how hard he would climb with the push of genuine competition?

Cheers, Simon.

[Bubba]

Without doubt it's an awesome achievement, and puts him into the very exclusive band who've bouldered 8c - Zangl/Nicole and who else? Dave Graham repeated Dreamtime, but has anyone else repeated any of these super-problems? Loskot?

Maybe it's what's finally needed to attract some of the worlds best over to give our scene the whuppin' shake up that's long overdue. I agree, it'll be interesting to see if there's any other brits who are lining up to try the thing. Not many people do seem to make the trek over there - the only major repeat I've heard of is Vickers' of Anasthesia, the aforementioned squeaky traverse.

Is this new version to get a new name, or will it just be "the sit start..."?

Here's a pic of "Isla de Encanta" (V13) at Woodwell:




And another one of Johns (several!) other V13's at Woodwell, "Cloning Technology":

[hongkongstuey]

Here's a pic of "Isla de Encanta" (V13) at Woodwell

Trowbarrow Mike, come on, get the facts right!

[Bubba]

I'm glad somebody spotted my deliberate mistake.....ahem! eerrrrrmmmm...yes...that's Trowbarrow. Sorry, it was late :?

[Bubba]

but has anyone else repeated any of these super-problems? Loskot?

Nope, not Loskot as far as I can tell. Zangerl has also done "Dreamtime", making it an V15 trade-route (!) with 3 ascents, but nobody else. There's quite a few who've reached V14 though, so maybe it won't be long.


There's an interview with John and more pics at cragx.com

And there's topos of the South Lakes limestone at cragx.com and megagrip

[dobbin]

Didn't Klem give that Australian cave monster thing about v14? is that only 8b? i'll get me coat.

[dave]

On the general subject of 8cs, it will be interesting to see if any of them hold their grade after a few repeats - it seems normal in hard bouldering for the living end problems to go down a notch or two in time. Remember when Klem and big Fred were downgrading easch others problems left right and centre, and even Vickers thought Anesthesia was 8a+. Or of course on the other hand some of them may turn out to be V16....... only time will tell.

[Bubba]

V14 is 8b+ - piece of piss!

[dobbin]

Bloody warm up

[Bubba]

descent route, more like  :wink:

[fatboySlimfast]

Aiiiiiii, bet hes never done owt at um, well um um um
BELL HAGG
yeah bald jeezus freak punter
im off for another pie

[Bubba]

On the general subject of 8cs, it will be interesting to see if any of them hold their grade after a few repeats

Nobody seems to be disputing Dreamtime though, but I agree, things do often drop when people find out that new crafty technique, etc.

[Bubba]

Just read on 8a.nu, that there's another 8C:

"Banshousha", on the Ogawayama Crystal Slab, in Japan is....wait for it.....a slab!!

Ohmigod - what sort of technical horrorshow will this be?

[hongkongstuey]

keep meaning to do a quick trip to Japan - easily doable for a long weekend from here (especially with this cheap flight thing i've got) - and now you've given another reason to go peek at the bouldering around Tokyo - i can only imagine that if its a slab its got about the same number of holds on it as that wall right of Ulysses!

[Bubba]

I'm hoping to get out there some day too - my brother and his wife live there and I'd like to experience the place - it's supposed to be a completely bizarre place for a westerner visiting for the first time.

Have you seen "Frequent Flyers"? That's the only bouldering footage I've seen of Japan and some of it looks really good, although the filiming wasn't as good as in the rest of the video imho.

Also there's this guide on cragx.com

[hongkongstuey]

It does look pretty damn nice on Frequent Fliers doesn't it - i think Autumn would be the time to go - getting colours like that surrounding you whilst climbing would add a nice ambience to the place (aswell as looking good in any footage you may happen to shoot)

Found the stuff on CragX a whoile back but other than that there seems to be relatively little info out there (in English anyway)

A few Jap climbers use the same bouldering wall i do so i think i'll start befriending!

[Bubba]

Yeah, especially that stuff right at the end, when they're down by the river. Looks absolutely mint. I liked the attitude of the boulderers too, just flinging themselves at stuff until they got up it - well impressive.

I suppose communication would be the major problem. Can you speak any Japanese? My brother can't and he's been there for years, although my sister was fluent(ish!) after  putting in a couple of years worth of effort.

[hongkongstuey]

Can you speak any Japanese?

Don't be daft i'm British! - to be honest, i;'ve lived in HK for best part of three years and not progressed passed the directing taxi's and ordering a pint stage with Cantonese so my chances with Japanese are fairly minimal - i think the main problem out there is that theres no sign in English - makes normally simple things like navigating the underground a major expedition aparently.

Scanned in a few bouldering shots of Oz yesterday - will send you a link to them when i get them uploaded

[Bubba]

Yeah, that's what I'd heard - apparantly it can be quite disconcerting in Japan - you're lost, you can't read any signs, you can't read the street map,  Nightmare!

And we have news that Sharma has repeated Dreamtime!

It'll be a measly 8b+ soon - anyway, it is just a stamina problem  

As http://8a.nu rightly point out, this puts Graham and Sharma at the top of the scale of those who boulder and route-climb to the very highest levels.

[Bubba]

Apparantly Klem LockStock has finally done a project of his that has taken him four years. It's safe to say that it's probably a bit tricky.

Although Klem doesn't grade stuff anymore, "it is rumoured to be between 8b+ and 8c" according to 8a.nu....which means it's rumoured to be 8b++ ?

Go on Klem, give it 8c!

[dave]

Do you know if its one of those that were pictured in that OTE article about him a while back? Some of them looked "rad", "ill", and indeed "sick".

[Bubba]

No idea if it's the same, although I do have a hazy recollection of that article.

Checking http://8a.nu again today reveals that a man like Bernd Zangerl has done yet another 8C at "Magic Wood" (no, not that one!!) in Switzerland.

This makes him the only person to have done 3 8C's and probably makes him top boy unless there's any publicity-shy bouldering gurus out there who are silently cranking out 9b's in solitude somewhere.

[dave]

Jesus wept! :crying:

Its getting silly now. There really are some strong mofos out there.

 I like where he says:

"because my new boulderproblem has only 11 moves and is quite different."

ONLY 11 moves! Thats longer than most walk-ins I do.

[Bubba]

Yeah, it just means that they're Stamina problems really. Bet the moves are really easy  :wink:

Maybe it'll go like this for a while....most 8Cs will link more hard moves, but the individual moves won't get any harder. It's easier to make improvements in stamina than power I guess. I think someone else has said this on there before, but maybe the real jump in standards will be when we're getting 3 move 8Cs.

[dave]

With that kind of power-stamina some of these guys ought to rope-up now and again - surely with hard8c under your belt you'd stand a fighting change of putting up F9a+/F9b routes - and i'm sure the rock for that kinda shiz exists in Europe by the bucketfull.

[Bubba]

That's what Sharma and Graham are doing at the moment I suppose, applying bouldering skillz to routes, et vica versa.....Not sure if Zangerl does routes at all though.

[dave]

This is slightly related to this thread:

Yesterday i was idly thumbing through the latest OTE in Smiths, having a quick scan of Jezzer's SA article. I didn't really read it, but spotted a bit where he was on about the grades there. He said the grades in SA seemed to be quite soft, and he reconed the 8b FA he'd done would only be 8a+ in the UK. So I was thinking does that mean Big Fred's 8c Black Eagle (sit down start) is really a measly 8b+? Just a thought.......

[hongkongstuey]

having a quick scan of Jezzer's SA article. I didn't really read it

good call as its probably the worst article i've read for a long time as far as the text is concerned - Jerry should just stick to climbing!

[Bubba]

Not like the Moffat to downplay his grades, is it ?

Maybe he's getting all modest in his old age  

[dave]

I can just see him now, coming out of TJ Huges in some beige slip-ons, trousers up to his armpits, rolled-up Daily Star in the side pocket of a sagging tweed sports jacket, woodbines in top pocket, one of those vinyl tartan trolleys full of stale bread for the pigeons and some tripe for his tea, gurning at passers by.

[Bubba]

ha ha ha!!! That's very funny indeed Dave  :D

(I would say LOL but then I'd have to kill myself)

[dave]

Or even worse, ROTFLMOA

Double Death  

[Doylo]

I've envisaged a possible font 8c link up in Parissellas Cave but Dave Grahams gonna have to move to Llandudno for it to get done!

[Pantontino]

Chris, would that be Lou Ferrino into Trigger Cut? Rock Attrocity into TC, The Big Link into TC or Crucial Times into Trigger Cut?
Or how about somebody just finishing the natural extension to Lou Ferrino to the cave lip?

Any one of these connections would warrant a very big number.

PS I have used a picture of you on Fast Cars for some advertising posters for the new guide. You should get yourself an agent. Because of the late arrival of the baby I didn't go to Kendal, and Mark Katz stepped in and covered for me. He took up a batch of glossy posters, which hopefully have been prominently displayed.

[Doylo]

Right check this out for hard Simon: Left wall traverese into starting jug of RA (V10?) into Sams project (v11) into Trigger Cut from the Ramp (V13?).  Makes the Big Link look like a piece of piss! Roadrunner is good but the Cave is where the really hard link ups lie!

Cheers for the publicity, always welcome, look forward to seeing myself plastered around Sheffield!

Chris

[Doylo]

You could be right about getting an agent. Check out the belayer on the front cover of the December issue of High when it comes out!

[Bubba]

This 8c mularky is becoming easy - today there's news of yet another one, but this time it's an upgrade from 8b+ and not a new problem.

The problem is "Gossip", by Markus Bock.

[Bubba]

At last, some info on Banshousha

See here for a rather iffy translation of the page showing the location of the only 8c in Asia.

[dave]

If anyone can be bothered to read all that and summarize it into the Queen's english i'd much appreciate it.

[Bubba]

Guess we don't have many who are fluent in japanese reading this board - the original link is: http://www.bouldering.net/japan/closeup/5dan/5dan.html

[mozzer]

I cant understand much of that - happy just to look at the piccie. Looks about font 5+ to me.

[Bubba]

You're probably right, Font 5+ could be anything from 3+ to 8c.

[mozzer]

Ah, I can tell youve been to font more than once...

desperate!

[Bubba]

Apparantly a hold has snapped on Fred Nicole's Black Eagle sit-start in SA,  so an 8c may have been lost to the world.

[dave]

Dang!

So all my training had been wasted.....