[shark]

What an amazing crag. Really; it's completely incredible. Cool features. Enormous routes. Beautiful locations. There aren't any 8a's here. I don't even know why we came.

 

[robertostallioni]

Problem > Solved.

[Stu Littlefair]

I feel unclean.

[north_country_boy]

I feel unclean.

That'll be the water off a duck's back....

[SA Chris]

A new level of wrong has just been reached, especially the botom left one.

[robertostallioni]

Zed: Bring out the Duckie.
Maynard: Duckie's sleeping.
Zed: Well, I guess you're gonna have to go wake him up now, won't you?

[comPiler]

Double Crush!
3 October 2011, 2:06 pm

One of the great things about epic sieges is that you never have to ask "where shall we climb today?". Back from France, back to Malham. The unseasonal weather had worked its charm and the cove, which we left sulking under a coat of black is pristine again.

Plans to climb on saturday are quickly shelved. The mercury rises to record heights, and paint peels from fences. This is not the day to be sat at the focus of an 80-m wide reflector. Instead we visit Jenny and Bruno and their new arrival Sam, who is the definition of adorable; lively and with a wide range of interesting facial expressions. Cafes and gentle walks are a perfect match for the 30-degree heat. In the evening we drive to Malham and have dinner in the Listers, where we encounter some fools who tried to climb, sitting in the shade and peeling their blistered skin.

Sunday brings rain, warm air and cloying humidity. Not perfect sending temps. On my first dog up Bat Route it is quite obvious that things are against me: conditions are gash; my new shoes feel clumpy and don't work in the crucial heel-hook. Worst of all, my hurty elbow has acquired a new trick, and my left bicep appears to have gone to sleep. It simply won't recruit, and seems to have no power. This is disappointing because if there's one thing you want on a roof full of undercuts, it's some guns to brag about.

Jules is looking in better shape on Predator. In fact I've never seen her so strong on it. It's still a bit wet, and she's carrying a towel up with her to dry footholds on redpoint, but it's game on I'd say. And so we start.

Round 1I fall off the roof; something I haven't done for ages. Jules cruises to the crux, but fails to get through it.

Round 2I fall off the roof again. Biceps would clearly be of some use here. Jules gets through crux but then gets muddled up and falls getting her feet up.

Round 3I'm through the roof! God knows how, but still. My mum-made kneepads work like a dream and I get loads back in the knee bars. Which is a good job, because the runout above is horrendous; I smear and stab and grease my way through the pinches; I've never come so close to taking the lob. This is proving to be a massive fight; obviously I've got no chance. But here's something funny; I'm not pumped. All that French grade chasing must have done something for my fitness and I leave the rest feeling good. In fact, I fully crush my way through the crispy headwall and onto the French 6b finish. It's in the bag! Except....

On the walk in, Jules asked me if my route stayed dry in the rain. "Of course", I answered. I should have thought about that a bit more. The top wall is soaked. Naturally, I keep my cool, which is to say I wobble and scream my way to the ledge. My screams of "Oh christ! It's so wet!" cause much mirth around the cove but it's done. Finis. Nothing to do but lower off and enjoy the exposure one last time.

Back down to earth and I am ecstatic. But, poor Jules. How many more people must she see complete their projects before she nails hers? She congratulates me, of course, but the disappointment and sadness shows through, and I feel crushed. She deserves it so much more; why did it have to be me to tick today?

She still has a chance though; her third red point sees her through the crux again, and in cruise control this time. She looks strong and composed and she falls from the moves at the first chain again. No! How can she do this? No-one falls there. Certainly not twice. Certainly not three times! How can she be so cheated? Obviously, at this point Jules is pretty angry. It's not helped by the fact that the damp is coming through; holds on the start are wet. The top tufas are slimy. Will she get another chance this year? Amid all this pressure, she dusts herself down, and sets off for

Round 4Shaky and wheel-spinning through the start. A bad sign. Leaving the half-height rest she looks good but stalls on the traverse; feet shaky and a few wild slaps. I hold my breath. She makes it, and powers through the crux and onto the easier headwall. Surely this time? You can't drop it from here four times, can you? I hold my breath. She does not; aggression and power screams pouring down the wall. She's there! Across from the first belay and into a monster rest; one bolt from the chains. The cove is crushed into silence. I glance across at Keefe and raise my hands in silent prayer. Aeons pass. She sets off and cruises to the chain. Clip. Silence. I think she's a bit confused by what just happened. Then it hits, and her face is split by a grin of pure joy.

Double Crush! Chapeau Team Littlefair! It goes without saying that we celebrate with a massive McDonald's blowout. Today I feel a little queasy. But dead chuffed.

Source: The Spherical Cow

[Doylo]

Good crushing scene! 

[Wood FT]

Excellent, great siege action!

[richieb]

What a great read! Congrats on the ticking.

[Teaboy]

Whe-hey, well deserved, those must have been among the worst conditions up there all year! Congratulations

[SA Chris]

Nice one team LF.

[nik at work]

Luvvverly jubbberly

[uptown]

I'm happy you're both happy. SYKE me!!

[Fiend]

But, poor Jules. How many more people must she see complete their projects before she nails hers? She congratulates me, of course, but the disappointment and sadness shows through, and I feel crushed.

That's the downside with being focused on getting the tick, isn't it.

Well done though, good entertaining post.

[Nibile]

great last two posts stu. being in Chironico with 34 degrees gives time to think and i really found myself in your lines, crushing aside. thank you.

[Bonjoy]

  Splendid efforts

[comPiler]

Coach Randall done good!
9 October 2011, 9:39 pm

I'm not going to write much about my weekend, because it was wet and fairly unimpressive on the climbing front. On saturday I went to the Works with the two mini-Ruperts (age 33 and <1year, respectively). On Sunday Jules and I went back to Malham to get some pics. It was horrid, so we drove from there to the Tor, which was also horrid, so we drove to the Foundry. Which was dry, at least.

Much more exciting though, is that Coach Randall destroyed his U.S project, the only off-width visible from space! The ascent has made a bit of a splash in the news, with UKC articles, a great blog post from Alex Ekins, and some grumbling from Stevie Haston, one of the great heroes, who's lost a project to a younger man.

What I like about this news story is the backdrop of obsession and quirkiness that lies behind it. Developing an unhealthy attraction to off-widths is pretty rare behaviour for anyone, but is right out of left-field in the UK, where we don't have much of this particular type of climbing. It's so impressive that Tom and Pete buried themselves in their cellar, burdened themselves with huge weights and hung from parallel joints of wood until their eyes bled, their muscles burst and their sanity cracked. There's something oddly British about emerging from a small cellar as two of the best crack climbers in the world. As someone posted on supertopo.com -  "this is the attitude that built the British Empire". What a pair of legends!

Source: The Spherical Cow

[comPiler]

Wall
26 October 2011, 9:13 pm

You can't climb every weekend. This weekend the wife and I went up to the quiet county to walk sections of Hadrian's Wall with my mother-in-law. We stayed in the excellent beggar bog B&B which is o'er the wall from Queen's Crag, run by a climber and does really excellent cooked breakfasts. Heartily recommended for those looking for a luxury bouldering break.

I found the days walking along the wall fascinating. Mind-boggling to think a centurion could stand on that wall looking south, let his minds eye roam over thousands of miles to the edge of the Sahara and know it was all one single Roman empire. It struck me how much the pace of life has changed out of all recognition. The wall was built over a ten year period, by two teams starting from either end of the country. That's an average of 16 metres a day, though they would have to have gone a bit faster than that since they also built forts and milecastles in those ten years. How could they stand it? There are sections on the wall where you can see to the end of the earth, and they would have inched along those hillsides at a measly 16 metres every day. It must have felt like their entire lives would be spend placing bricks in a line.

Was this as unbearable as I think it must be, or has our modern pace of life changed our sense of time forever? If something takes me ten days I begin to think of it as a ceaseless task. On our way along the wall we met a man who was walking the route from coast to coast with two fell-ponies, descendants of the original ponies who helped build the wall. He was doing it to draw attention to the plight of the ponies who, apparently, are endangered. The ponies make slow progress on the rough terrain and he was moving at around five miles a day. We met him on Saturday and again on Sunday, barely any further on. It will take him over two weeks to complete the walk, at which point he'll turn round and start walking back...

Some shots below.



Source: The Spherical Cow

[Fiend]

If something takes me ten days I begin to think of it as a ceaseless task.

Like redpointing a project??

Nice post.

[Nibile]

really nice. AVE CAESAR STU.

[grimer]

I once read a short story called, I think, Great Wall of China, by, I think, Franz Kafka. It was unsurprisingly about the building of said edifice although there was probably a metaphor in there that passed me by.

It talked about that crushing psychology of just adding bricks to the end of a wall with no end in sight, so each village or community was give a one mile section at random along the length of the line of the wall. This community was then given a generation to build its mile. That way there was always something for it to be aiming for, a target, and not just a process.

I always remember that story. Although I may have forgotten most of it.

[grimer]

If you're interested

http://www.kafka-online.info/the-great-wall-of-china.html

[Nibile]

sometimes the process is the target.
nice one Grimer.

[Johnny Brown]

Having done a bit of work in construction 16 metres a day seems astonishingly fast, really impressive. I have to wonder at the numbers of men involved - never mind building the thing, who was getting that amount of stone from quarry to wall every day, and how? And who did the catering?

In my experience straightforward manual labour is actually very satisfying as long as you can see the job progress. Which these guys would have done. Though most of them were probably slaves, which would make 'job satisfaction' a rather facile term.