[Bonjoy]

Just received a phone call from a very pleased Kim Thompson. Kim has finally completed his long standing project near Headbanger, in the rambling hinterland twixt High Neb and Cock o' the rock. Solomon's Seal is a slightly overhanging face with awesome slappy moves between poor small holds. The line was spotted and cleaned by Iain Farrar a few years back. Kim got close after several visits last year and finally bagged it today after a few near misses.
 Also today up this end of Stanage Kim managed to link the sit start onto The Green Room Slap at V9/7b+ (he said V8/7b but I reckon  V9/7c so the grades a compromise).

[Johnny Brown]

Good effort - its a decent line. I spotted this last summer but forgot about it - damn!! Need to start writin this shit down.

[dave]

where bouts is it?

[Bonjoy]

where bouts is it?

 300m right of High Neb. Where the path breaks off left for high neb from the causway look straight up hill and you should see an east facing square wall. Solomon's seal goes up the middle of this.

[dave]

is this the wall right of headbanger then (sounds like that fits the 2-11), or something totally seperate?

[Johnny Brown]

That's what I've got in mind. Doesn't face east tho, faces south. There ain't much at stanage what faces east 'cept for Brad Pit

[dave]

probably south-east innit?

i tend to think of stanage as being roughly North-south, but i think a lot of people tend to think of it as being west-east (if you see the way rockfax label the sides of the pebble in t'bouldering guide).

[Johnny Brown]

i think a lot of people tend to think of it as being west-east (if you see the way rockfax label the sides of the pebble in t'bouldering guide).

...these people don't sound fit to be writin guides. Its not difficult :wink:

[AndyR]

More or less NW to SE along the main edge and then swinging round to E-W near Hampers Hang and the Cowperstone.

This might show it:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=424600&y=383800&z=3&sv=424600,383800&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf&dn=843

[jonP]

http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?x=424035&y=383987&scale=5000

Spot the Pebble.

[Bonjoy]

South or East, who am I to say. The wall right of headbanger it is. Shady in the afternoon and good friction is pretty critical.

[Bonjoy]

Sounds like a perfect contender for the V8+ grade!

g

 I was under the impresion V8+ had gone the way of the dodo and the B grade. ie 7b+ = top end V8 or bottom end V9. For the simple reason that if you make V grades fit font grades, they no longer fit V grades elsewhere. In other words you can't put a square peg in a round hole.

[Doylo]

You thought v8+ was a good idea at Heasons party Jon! Whats happened since?  Nice one Kim.

[Bonjoy]

You thought v8+ was a good idea at Heasons party Jon! Whats happened since?  Nice one Kim.

 I just thought about it more and it doesn't seem to make sense. If you are going to use V because it is widespread and well understood, you loose the direct comprability if you then introduce V8+. For example if describing a V8+ prob to a yank would you call it v8 or v9 as they dont have the plus. My preference is to use both, then everybody understands at least half of what you are saying ( so a 7b+ prob can be v8 or v9). I also think if you use V8+ it would alter the way people graded V8s and V9, so these grades would expand to accomadate V8+ and therefore be less in line with elsewhere.
  Does any of that make sense or am I just bored at work and talking shit? :?

[AndyR]

Does any of that make sense or am I just bored at work and talking shit? :?

Makes perfect sense to me - if you want to use V grades, excellent.  If you want to use Font grades, also excellent.  Why you'd use a strange hybrid between them kind of beats me, but then, what do I know.

[dave]

ditto - the V8+ system is just font grades dressed at V-grades - the fact is there is no direct 1-1 equivalant for the systems.

my back of an envelope conversion goes a bit like this:

the only anchored 1-1 grades are taken to be V6=7a and V11=8a and the rest is worked out on this basis:

[AndyR]

Excellent - literally back of the envelope

[Johnny Brown]

Wasted no time in checking this out today :D

No doubt the down-graders will be on it soon, but it certainly felt hard to me. A little spoiled by being so close to the arete, tho this depends on how you climb it I guess. Also by far the most impressive tick-marks I've seen in a long time. 'marks' doesn't really do em justice :wink: can I recommend specsavers?

How tall is Kim? I can see this being easier fo the tall. Might also explain why he can't see his feet :wink:

[Bonjoy]

The arete could be potentially in reach as a foothold for the unscrupulous, this wasn't used by Kim BTW.
 Kim is fairly tall. I can't pull on as I ain't tall enough (or maybe I could if I was strong).
 As for eyesight, the green monkey may be to blame   :wink: .  Or quite possibly it's the actions of a desperate man, he has used up a lot of time, effort and skin on this one.

[dave]

or maybe he'd just come back from font or summert? the bleausiders love a 9-foot donkeyline.

[Doylo]

Makes sense Jon, i think in Wales though V8 and V9 is still comparable to elsewhere. The use of V8+ doesn't seem to have had too much impact on its surrounding grades. Most font 7b+s in Wales used to get V9, these now get V8+ and consequently V9 is now a more consistent grade. Thinking about it too much turns the brain to mush but at the end of day in Wales at least,the V8+ scale gives an accurate and consistent indicator of difficulty which is what grades are designed for.

[Bonjoy]

Fair does. It's V8+ in the new guide then i take it?
 BTW you should try Solomon's Seal, it would suite a lanky crimp-demon like yourself :ev:

[Doylo]

As far as i know it is, yeah SS sounds good. How you coping with the deskjob then, must piss you off on glorious days like today!

[Bonjoy]

Work sucks the fat one. Find myself contributing more than I consider a healthy amount to this forum. On the up-side at least i'm not freezing my tits off and knackering my body hanging off tall buildings anymore. Give it a few months and i'll be able to get outside after work, which be a very new experience :D