[shark]

Is the Stanton Moor one the traverse of the break?

[Bonjoy]

That's the one. Didn't you and/or Seb try it back in the day?

[comPiler]

Filming the Wide and Wonderful - Part 3
1 August 2011, 8:29 pm

Day 7 – OgwenWe thought we would make a short trip up to George’s Crack in the Ogwen Valley today as it has some good wide pony technique going on. I think, although not sure, Will Perrin and Tom might be the only people to onsight this problem, which is quite surprising for a V5 I guess they just know how to tickle that trout. Anyway I also managed to onsight the problem aswell. Its pretty simple really, just involves some nice hand/fist stacking and abit of wide ponying.There’s a short video of me climbing the problem below:

Anyway after this short little warm up we decided to have a go on Cobalt Dream which is high up on the other side of the valley. After a walk in which I expected to be shorter then it was, we realised that we only had time for one lead. Me and Tom flipped for the lead and I lost which meant I was sent up first. It’s E1ish up to the roof, which was unfortunately looking bigger by the time I got up there.

I just thought, stick to what your good at and get the invert on, so I went upside down for most of the roof then pivoted left side in, in the end slot. It was a bit of nightmare to get fully into the slot with a rack on, but you just had to keep moving an inch at a time.In the end I was pretty glad I didn’t fall off as Tom was getting the real E5 treatment on belay from death by midges. After telling me he was thinking about jumping off the top after walking up because they were so bad, I wasn’t entirely sure whether he was holding the other end of the ropes, especially as I also had to untie one end because the rope wasn’t long enough!

Day 8Today was quite restful as Richie wanted some falling off shots for a Helium Promo. So I did some jumping off Offspring which was fun. Well really it wasn’t jumping off at all, it was falling because I’m so weak.Tom did a bit of chat for this Crack  School thing as he is good at that and I’m a complete punter at it, and that’s about it really.Day 9 – Cellar sessionPossibly the physically hardest part of the last 9 days was saved until last. Tom’s cellar. Paul wanted to get some footage of some of the training we have done down there recently.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Paul filming (c) Wild Country[/td][/tr]

[/table]

Fortunately it turned out that the session wasn’t as hardcore as usual, so that was a relief, as usually it feels like you should be trying harder then you are as all Tom's motivational messages seem intimidating!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Motivational message (apparently)[/td][/tr]

[/table]

I think the Hastonater seemed to cause the most amusement as Tom showed me a new exercise he had been doing in it. The chicken wing and deadbar curls. Destined to be a favourite over the next 6 weeks I reckon.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Crack sit ups[/td][/tr]

[/table]

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Tom on the wide pony[/td][/tr]

[/table]

Anyway I’ve been on 2 days rest now, Tom is probably still driving around trying to find Ratho, Theres 6 weeks until we go to America and we are psyched!!!



Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[SA Chris]

You are both unwell in the head. Brilliant!

[comPiler]

Want More Wide in Your Life?
11 August 2011, 9:49 am

If you'd like more wide in your life, more crack in your backyard and more brutal chickens in your nightmares, then look no further.....! Pete and I (well, it's mainly me actually as I'm the geek) have decided to dip into the murky world of Twitter and we'll updating our adventures on the Twitter account TomRandall2.

So please do follow us if you DON'T know what's best for you!

Tweet me up baby



Photo: Pete showing Paul his Wide Pony. Naughty.  (c) Richie Patterson

We'll be keeping you in touch with all the American stuff, madness in the cellar and of course everytime Pete gets on a Wide Pony..... don't ask!

Also.........................................................

We're really proud to be now supported by Sterling for our ropes and also ClimbOn (to recover from multiple scabbing injuries). Sterling make some flipping brilliant ropes and I'm looking forward to having my ass saved over a few more sharp edges! The "Marathon" single that we've used so far has already taken a harsh beating and no signs of any problems yet.

Thanks Sterling!





Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[comPiler]

The Original Ray's Roof Solo
15 August 2011, 7:56 am

A while back when Pete and I originally soloed Ray's Roof, we wrote a few thoughts on the matter. I'm not sure that I ever did anything with those thoughts, so here they are to enjoy. Looking back at it, I'm not sure who took the piss out of who, more effectively.

Cue Time Warp............................

•  
  
  As many people know, the first ascent of Ray's Roof was done by the visiting american, Ray Jardine. A pioneer of hard, burly cracks in the US, it was no surprise that he managed to put up a "real fighter" on God's own rock. Much like many of his rarely repeated US offwidths, he gave his Baldstones route a fairly modest grade of 5.11c, which comes in around E4. I'm guessing that he never ventured over to Ramshaw to see how Ramshaw Crack (at the same grade, but not difficulty!) compared....
  
  Over the following decades, Ray's Roof saw the odd repeat by local obsessives and crack deviants. However, it wasn't until Dawes, Plant and Woodward decided to have a very public tussle with this roof crack that it really began to build a reputation. These demi-gods were thoroughly shut down and shut out - even the enigmatic Dawes with his 3D (or is that 4D??!) brain couldn't work out an appropriate sequence. Tales of hidden pebbles, gardening glove ascents and missing chockstones only added to the mystery of yet another desperate Jardine test-piece.  
  
  It wasn't until myself and Pete Whittaker headed over to the Baldstones to climb Ray's Roof in 2008, that the spell of this route started to break. After working out a more reasonable sequence of moves and passing these on to other local climbers, a number of stylish ascents followed over the next couple of years. Hearing of even the crimp-master personified - Ryan Pasquill - ascend this beauty, we knew it was time to set the next challenge. No ropes, no cams.... just some pads, friends and a load of finger tape.
  
  Pete and I have described each other's ascents, so you can tell what's going on inside the twisted mind of an offwidther. It's not pretty, it's not very complimentary and it's certainly not fair. Enjoy:
  
  Tom
  
  So here we were again, sat underneath Ray's Roof. Our last soloing attempt had been aborted over a year ago after I'd catapulted over Pete's mum's head in an over-eager handjam dyno and the winds had picked up to near hurricane levels.... This time though, it was going to be different; we'd spent countless hours hanging by our feet in offwidths around Europe and picked off most of the hardest that anyone could throw at us. We felt confident.
  
  Pete stepped up to the plate first, mainly because I let him. Mostly with these tough offwidths it's best to let your adversary go first as they'll waste untold amounts of energy working the beta out for you and perfectly lining all the best jams with chalk. Unfortunately, Pete looked really rather at ease on his warm-up attempt and pushed straight on for the leg-jam rest. As he's quite a bit weaker than me, he tends to hang around on his feet considerably more, so my hands rubbed in glee as I watched him slowly look more tired in this position. As with most offwidths, it's a considerable advantage to have small knees and large fists; something Pete is extremely well endowed with. Obviously as this makes most offwidths hugely easier for him, I try to employ ample amounts of tight rope (so he can't move up), bad beta (so he falls off), spit in his chalk (for poor friction) and demoralising shouts (come on Pete, just fall off so we can all go home...). He was too fast for me this time though - my calls of "it's starting to rain" and "I think I've just seen a buzzard nesting in the break" did little to stifle his enthusiastic jams through the crux. Damn, he'd just made the first solo ascent; as a bloody warm-up.
  
  Pete
  
  We were back - taping up at the bottom of Ray’s pondering the best way to start it.Without the “Staffordshire Reach” it is impossible to reach into the good part of the crack from the good foot and hand holds and so most people who live outside of Staffordshire have to find a different way to get into the crack. Some things just aren’t fair are they?!
  
  As Tom can actually only jam, he couldn’t use my safer crimp beta to get into the crack. As a result he had to take the bolder flake approach on the left, which seeing as though he is getting on a bit, I thought was a fine effort. This approach is fine when leading the route, but when soloing it could probably leave you over at Gib Torr if you got it wrong, as it involves a massive cut loose and swing from a horizontal position with your head actually slightly lower then your feet.
  
  After getting through this section without any of the mishaps of last time, which involved a dismount face first into the grass slope, he crossed the roof section with relative ease. On approaching the lip he realised the offwidth genetics that had been passed on by his mother and father were all wrong and his mini-fists didn’t fit to well, so had to drop off for a re think and more importantly - a re-tape.
  
  After redoing his tape job, which now looked more like a plaster cast, he set off again. On reaching the lip he managed to get a better seated jam, went hunting for dung at the back of the crack and pushed on. After a lot of shuffling, followed by some well executed randy humping, he found himself halfway round the lip with a dodgy knee jam. I gave no sympathy to him here as he does have skinny knees (a useful offwidthing tool) so watched and went for the arms folded, classic “British Spotting Technique” as he struggled to get a knee jam seated properly and grunt up to the top.With relief and “an emotional experience” he eventually landed himself on the funnel and left the Staffordshire boys standing at the bottom with their chins on the floor!
  
  

Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[comPiler]

8c offwidth. Surely not...
26 August 2011, 7:31 pm

A long time ago..... in a far, far land..... Well, Kalymnos to be exact, myself and Pete dreamed up this concept of an offwidth cellar underneath my house. It seemed like a total pipedream that would never happen at the time (partly because I'd still not actually agreed a price on the house!) but with a bit of psyche, hard work and a few kitchen worktops a cellar like no other was born.

Photo: Pete on the original prototype

At first, we worked quite hard to just do a couple of laps on the 7 inch horizontal offwidth, but with time, tape and a LOT of training, it all seemed to come together. I remember when we both first did a 100ft continuous section of roof crack and being so wasted that we could hardly walk afterwards. The lactic acid had consumed almost our entire body - biceps, hands, core and legs were destroyed.

Photo: Tape gloves had to be reinforced with duct tape the abrasion was so bad over 100ft reps.

After quite some time and with even more additions to my strange cellar (a 9-inch roof crack, The Hastonator and Kneebar sit-up machine), we came up with an ultimate Offwidth Link-Up. Miles of hand fist stacking, into double fist stacking, into handjams and bathangs. When we considered a 200ft section of continuous roof climbing to be fairly reasonable (and definitely repeatable in sets) this ultimate link up seemed the living end. Nothing could be harder it seemed and in our minds we set that if we were able to do this before leaving for America, then our conditioning would be complete.



Photo: Pete focussed and working hard. (c) Richie Patterson

Sure enough, last week both Pete and I completed this 8c link-up that we'd dreamt up. Who knows if it's the grade or if it'll even be useful for a Vedauwoo 5.9, but what I do know is it makes anything else I've done seem pretty light. In many ways I think I feel more scared about the trip now that I have done this link as I know there's no excuse physically. Everything else will be in the mind.

Please dear God, some beta on Lucille would be great...  

Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[comPiler]

Hairy Welsh Cracks, Hannah and (H)Ireland
28 August 2011, 8:01 pm

As it's only a couple of weeks before heading off to America, Pete and I have been up to a few random things - some fillers, some projects and some general trad climbing.

At the moment, Pete is over in Ireland in the Mourne Mountains. No doubt, he'll be smearing his way up some desperate slabs somewhere in the mist. I spoke to him on the phone yesterday and it sounded like he'd already had "an emotional experience" on an E4 sandbag. Must be all that offwidthing that's wrecked your footwork Pete!

Photo: Pete most definitely not working on his footwork!

The previous week I headed over with my wife and daughter, to South Wales to have another look at a couple of cracks. Last year I spent a day trying a roof crack project at Dinas Rock, which splits a pretty sizeable roof on finger-locks. Simon Rawlinson had very kindly done some of the cleaning for me, but it was really to no avail as I was out of shape and the jams were just hideously painful. This year however, I vowed to return in slightly better form and to be a bit more careful how I treated my fingers.

Photo: I'm working the roof on the left-hand side of the pic. (Thanks to Robin Richmond for taking the photo)

I was really pleased this time to get all the moves on the crux crack sequence done, but still quite way from linking sections or large sequences together. I think it'll end up being around V11 for the roof crack and a tricky 20ft section to get there. Something to come back to in the future!

On the second day we braved a bushwacking walk-in with a pushchair (Hannah and wife were not amused!) to go and repeat a really unique looking roof crack on sandstone. The Clart Mountain Project was established by a mate of mine (Si Rawlinson) after it was donated to him by a local bolter and activist. Whilst it did seem unusual to have bolted the line, I can't really say I blamed them considering that every other route in the entire quarry was bolted. All in all, a great little crack and would be around 7b or E6 6b on trad gear.

Photo: Simon on the 1st ascent of the Clart Moutain Project.

The last "H" in this blog will be Hannah, my daughter. It's been a huge challenge over the last few months trying to fit in family life, keep on top of my work and still train hard. The one thing that has kept me going though, when I'm totally knackered and feeling like I can't face yet another session in the cellar has been the little cheeky grin on Hannah's face. It's absolutely brilliant; like liquid-happiness.





Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[comPiler]

Indoor Offwidths and The Spread of Wide Love
2 September 2011, 7:37 pm

Most people think of indoor climbing as being a pleasant experience. Bright blue crimps splattered all over a gently overhanging wall and funky wrestling with resin volumes at The Climbing Works. Think again....



Photo: Gaz Parry approaching a Wide Pony (c) Mike Langley

Over a year ago, myself and Pete were invited down to the Castle Climbing Centre in London to guest route set for their "King of the Mezz" boulder competition. Unfortunately I don't think Mike (the big man on campus) quite factored in how silly things can get when we double team at events. Normally, (I'm a route setter by trade) it's all quite reserved and I will set pretty standard stuff at most walls and comps, but for some reason as soon as Pete steps into the building with a drill in his hand anything can happen!!

Video of the Indoor Offwidth:

To cut a long story short - at the King of the Mezz comp, we ended up setting some hideous V8 overhanging offwidth that required invert technique, hand-fist stacks and more than a little risk taking. All the wads from London turned up expecting 45 degree crimping and all they got were upside-down shuffling and Whittaker's V5 "Quarryman Problem" which was bloody impossible. Heads were shaken, lapis brushes were snapped and and steely-fingered beasts were shut down. We walked away from that comp expecting never to be invited back again and for the Castle to set an official policy of NO OFFWIDTHS ALLOWED.

That all changed when I received an email this week from route setting manager at The Castle - Mike Langley ..................

Photo: Mike trying the conceptual "Air Armbar" and failing....

"...In the true spirit of country “Wide” pride I  thought I would drop the chiefs of the Mega-Ming a quick message of how  we roll down on the South Side. No longer is it "London flicks" whilst  sipping the perfectly foamed Cappuccino – us crazy  men are now true aficionados of The Wide and would like to put our  names forward and join the world wide elite and become BOYZ!

A truly rank set of foot stacks was set in the  Castle’s roof yesterday by Gaz Parry, Mike Langley and Alex Lemel. In  true Wide style the bloc was completed using a climbing shoe on one foot  and a 5.10 trainer on the other from Gaz and a  pair of sweaty stiff hire shoes from Mike. As for Alex he tried to  flick his way through off the volumes edges..."



Good work BOYZ!!

Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[comPiler]

Off to America! It could be emotional....
11 September 2011, 9:54 pm

Tom and I finally set off to America tomorrow. Having been waiting for  so long now, it might not be possible to contain ourselves fully on the  journey – I can see us having to whip the size 5s and 6s out in the  airport and crack out some upside down sit-ups!

Hopefully we  should arrive at Vedauwoo, Wyoming on Wednesday morning. I say  “hopefully” though as it’s not fully guaranteed with our amazing sense  of direction that we’ll actually get anywhere further than oversized  baggage at Heathrow.

For our final blog post before we go away  we thought it would be good to see how each person was feeling about the  trip. We decided to do this by asking each other some questions – some  sensible, others not so!

 Photo: Tom trying to bite his own face off in preparation for "American Pain."

QUESTIONS BY PETE

(Q)PETE: Tom, I've  heard and witnessed that you travelled back from Ilkley to Sheffield via  Birmingham and that when checking weather forecasts on the internet for  Yorkshire you used the postcode for Llanberis. How do you actually  expect to find any of the crags you want to climb on whilst out in  America?

(A)TOM: It is true that I get lost even trying to find the  bathroom in my house, but I have a secret weapon up my sleeve; a MAP!  Yup, I've heard (from your Dad) that you're a reliable map reader and  boy am I going to be using this resource a lot. I'd say that Alex Ekins  might help out, but I know he's absolutely diabolical with directions as  well, so we might end up waiting in a US airport until Kim arrives!

PETE:  If you make it to the crag, you may realize that we’ve actually climbed  very few offwidths on real rock, how do you think the training that we  have done will transfer?

TOM: My suspicion is that the training will  transfer pretty well on the really steep stuff, but we'll still be  pretty rubbish at the vertical stuff. I'd like to say that it's because  the American's have so many more vertical offwidths to practice on, but  in reality it's the size of their biceps and cowboy boots that really  counts....  

PETE: What part of the trip are you most looking forward to and what part are you most nervous about?

TOM:  I've been told by Kim (my wife) that I have to say it's our daughter  coming out to visit, that I'm most looking forward to... I might also  add that I'm psyched out of my tree for Belly Full of Bad Berries, The  Crack House and more new routing shenanigans with your good self.

The  part of the trip I'm most apprehensive about is trying Lucille in  Vedauwoo (it's such a hugely significant route) or realising that I've  actually booked our flights for the wrong country and we’re off to  Yemen.

       

Pete trying some more "facial training"

QUESTIONS BY TOM

(Q)TOM: So Pete, we've done loads  of training and preparation for this trip now. What shall we do if we  start falling off all the 5.9s?!

(A) PETE: I'm actually expecting to  fall of all the 5.9s, especially in Vedauwoo where its meant to be  sandbag city. However whenever you fall off something easy its best to  just get on something much harder and steeper and fail on that instead  because it will make you feel better and your mates won't think you're  as much of a punter. Failing that i'll send you up everything and say  i'm still jet lagged from a month ago.

TOM: What do you reckon of all these American offwidth wads?

PETE:  America isn't just known for its offwidths, but like you say, the  offwidth wads that it breeds. I have spoken to a few of the wads by  email and my assessment is...that they are going to be well hardcore and  I might get scared and run away!!! From the stories I've read and  pictures I've seen these people feel no pain brother.

I also think  they will have really slick technique and I may get to witness something  really special, which is the illusion they can create when it looks  like they slip up offwidths. I'll be psyched to see this as i've only  ever seen you stuck in one...

TOM: What part of the trip are you most looking forward to?

PETE:  I think 99.9% of people wouldn't look forward to anything we have  planned on this trip, (offwidths, crying babies and no sense of  direction...hmmmmmm!) However I couldn't be more excited. There are so  many parts I am looking forward to...getting to climb a load of  different offwidths; meeting new people; coming away from Vedauwoo with  some skin and alive; climbing new routes; getting jet lag (never had it,  want to see what all the fuss is about); getting to watch you and  others feel pain; Kim, Laura and Hannah coming, man the list is endless.

But really there is one part and route that stands out...I think you know what that is. Should be a good adventure!!



 Photo: Wild Country come up with the goods. Thanks guys - you're legends!

Photo: Toilet rolls or Strappal Support?!



Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[SA Chris]

That rack just fills me with horror. Good luck boys

[comPiler]

First Stop - Vedauwoo. Fat Crack City.
18 September 2011, 11:22 pm

We’ve finally made it over to America – the plane didn’t get turned around and customs didn’t find my huge stash of offwidth pr0n. Pete, Alex and I touched down in Salt Lake City to perfect blue skies and 20 degrees temperatures. The start to the trip was pretty much perfect and it went steadily downhill from there...



Getting to Vedauwoo, wasn’t too difficult; although we did have a few issues with the gaps between petrol stations and what a “pickle chip” was. After driving through the night we arrived at a brilliant little campground surrounded by complex domes of rock. Pete and I couldn’t really contain our excitement and ended up running off into the woods with head torches looking for any route we knew.

The next day dawned with drizzle. It then turned to steady rain and finally mist with some more rain mixed in. Arse. The ultimate British holiday take-down had struck – a whole pile of shit weather. Forlornly we searched in the rain for some of the test pieces we’d climb later in the trip. For a day and half we traipsed around in the rain, desperately trying to find something dry [Pete insists that he didn’t traipse, but “soared like an eagle”]. Fucking rain – it’s such a killer of climbing psyche.

Photo: Pete gets psyched as he finally spots some clear sky!

On Wednesday a trip was made back to Laramie to nurse our weather-depression with coffee and cakes. Local crack legend Justin Edl came to meet up with us and eventually reassured us that the trip wasn’t going to be a total disaster care of the rain. He gave us a tick list of glory to be going on with and we ventured back up into the Vedauwoo mist.

We'll put up a blog post in a few days once we've hopefully ticked some more stuff and can put it all together. Until then, there's some cool photos on Alex Ekins' blog of our first forays onto the lovely coarse rock of Vedauwoo http://alexekins.co.uk/wide-boyz-in-vedauwoo-part-one/





Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[comPiler]

First week in Fat Crack City - Vedauwoo!
21 September 2011, 6:56 pm

The last blog post that we stuck up a few days after arriving in the States was mostly filled with doom and gloom... Rain, rain and more rain. Despite being British, I think we're terrible at coping with bad weather when we travel away from the UK - we expect perfect blue skies in every other country!

Fortunately that all changed after a few days and we finally got stuck into some nasty, flared wide cracks. All the time sitting in a rain-swept tent we had pondered how sandbagged we'd get, how much skin we'd lose and whether every 5.9 would shut us down.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Vedauwoo as the storms clear[/td][/tr]

[/table]We're a week into the trip now and we've finally got some routes and boulders done - we've experienced the Vedauwoo Sandbag, the invert shuffle and armbar-induced hyperventillation. We've met up with some really cool and helpful US offwidthers who've showed us the way to some of the best stuff. Many thanks Justin, Brad, Adam and Eric!

Rather than dissect every route and boulder problem for the moment (grades, cruxes etc etc!) we've opted to give a bit of summary of the stuff we've done and some links to photos that Alex Ekins has put up on his blog. Hope you enjoy them...

Alex Ekins photos

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete shows off his terrible taste in hats[/td][/tr]

[/table]Thursday

Man, what a shit day. It rained and rained, but by the afternoon there was a break in the cloud and we dashed out to some boulder problems with towels and chalk socks. First up in "The Dungeon" were Life Without Parole (V4) and The Warden (V7-8, 5.12c) which Pete flashed in very fine style. It's worth pointing out that he did possibly the world's biggest sit-up on The Warden, so I'm tempted to award him extra points! It was great to finally get some climbing done and actually realise that we weren't complete punters.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Tom on Life Without Parole, V4[/td][/tr]

[/table]Friday

On our second day of climbing we decided to follow up on the bouldering front (as suggested by local Justin Edl) and get on Desiderata (V5) and Monsters Inc (V8, 5.13a). Desiderata was a superb roof splitter much like the famous "Cedar Eater" in Yosemite. This served as a quick warm up for Monster Inc later that afternoon, (see photo below).

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Desiderata, V5[/td][/tr]

[/table]Monsters Inc is a pretty strange boulder propblem because its probably just as long as quite a few of the hard offwidth routes in Vedauwoo. It's a 5 inch crack that splits a 45 degree roof for perhaps 40ft. Unfortunately Pete and I didn't quite realise where the problem started so we ended up ticking a shorter version of the problem weighing in at about 5.12d. We were totally gutted when we realised we missed the start and so we'll have to go back up there next week to finish off the full 5.13 version. Oh well!!

Saturday

We promised at the beginning of the trip that we would never do more then "2 days on", however we found ourselves taping up under Bob Scarpelli's testpiece Squat (5.12b) on Saturday. Pete duly dispatched the route on his warm up to make possibly the first ever onsight of the route. Good effort! After a few more tries I found myself groveling over the top after seating the crux knee lock properly.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Looking up at the roof of Squat, 5.12b[/td][/tr]

[/table]Sunday

REST, flipping heck we needed that.

Monday

In the morning we succeeded in climbing what is touted as possibly Vedauwoo's hardest offwidth route - Spatial Relations (5.13a, put up by Pamela Pack). We were pretty pleased to get the route done in just a couple of hours. Overall we thought it was a really good route with some unique moves including an invert pivot-to-chicken-wing.

In the afternoon we went out to an old school classic, Worm Drive (5.11b). Plenty of people have this as a sandbag for the grade so we were again pleased to onsight and flash the route.

Tuesday

Our next day's objective was Trip Master Monkey (5.12b) another Scarpelli testpiece from back in the day. Modern day offwidthers ave called this anything from 5.12c - 5.13a, which prepared us for a possible massive sandbagging. Neither of us onsighted the route but I managed to fudge it on my second go and Pete got it 30 minutes later. We thought this route was definitely a sandbag and would rate considerably harder then Ray's Roof.

In the afternoon we persuaded Justin to show us an offwidth that had been put up recently by Pamela Pack and Patrick Kingsbury, The Wing (5.12c). Yet another invert test piece presented itself on the side of a dome shaped like a vulture. I stubbornly attacked the route  in my usual upside manner but 3D Pete put his thinking cap on and came up with a brilliant sequence of tenuous chicken wings and palm smearing. As a result he quickly ticked the route that afternoon and I'll be coming back on a different day to use this beta.

Finally at the end of our tether Justin put us on one of his classic boulders, Crack Named Sue (V5). We were so tired our arms felt a little numb but we managed to both top out first try.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Feeling papped on Crack Named Sue[/td][/tr]

[/table]

Wednesday - REST!!!!!! - So we're thankful for a rest day now, My shoulder looks like I've just had a motorbike crash and Pete's triceps feel like he ran a lawnmower over them. Bring on the Climb On cream, Savlon and Tremadol.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Trip Master leaves its first mark[/td][/tr]

[/table]Alex Ekins has been with us on each of the routes and you can see some really great pictures over on his blog at http://alexekins.co.uk/category/blog/

Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[Fiend]

Very much liking Pete's hat there!

[comPiler]

Big Bro's, Big Pink and Big Psyche
24 September 2011, 1:10 am

It's been a couple more days up in the freezing cold of the Vedauwoo campsite - we've been caught speeding at 25mph, eaten a whole Jamaican Schlong and ticked a few more Wide Cracks. Both of us have hit some serious low points in mental ability, with one epic day spent looking for one route for hours in the woods, only to realise we didn't know the difference between East and West. I thought the offwidths would just be cruel on the body, but the mind has definitely suffered in equal proportions....

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]I'm starting to see strange signs[/td][/tr]

[/table]

The last 2 days have been filled mainly with two thought processes; Big Bros and Big Pink.

Big Bros

It's nothing to do with a family relationship - it's actually a form of protection. A key piece of protection that takes us from Wild Country 6 to....... BIG!! Really big. Unfortunately we need some for Pamela Pack's testpiece Gabriel 5.13c/d in the desert that we've been obsessessing about. Yup, we've not even finished at Vedauwoo and we're thinking about the next invert masterpiece. I think we need a shrink.

Yesterday saw me ticking On a Wing and Prayer (5.12c) which is a pretty spicy invert offiwdth flare, put up by Pamela Pack. It's mainly spicy because when you fall off, the dive is totally hideous and you whack your head back into the crack in an upside position - I definitely tested that one!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]On a Wing and a Prayer (c) Alex Ekins[/td][/tr]

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In the afternoon, we headed over to do Justin Edl's hardest offwidth "Simiantics" at V9. Pete pulled off some powerful kneelocks and foot-jibbery to get an ascent - Good work young Whittaker! Justin also put us to shame by cruising the problem right in front of our eyes; I think we're still complete beginners at knee-locking compared to him... Some photos of the problem on Alex Ekins' website!

Big Pink

Ever since we arrived in Vedauwoo, the locals and internet pundits have been going on about a route called "Big Pink." Our tick list of all the hard stuff was pushed aside - "Man you guys have to man up and do Big Pink. That thing is so classic!"

Basically, this means you're going to get a massive sandbagging. When everyone is telling you to forget the 5.13 invert and get stuck into a 5.11b vertical shuffle you know you're in trouble. Pete and I managed to put the route off for a week, but in the end we knew we'd have to get it done eventually. To make our life a bit easier (read, get some excuses in early) we tried it on a boiling hot day in full sun and totally fucked from the previous day's climbing. We were very nervous about this one! Fortunately, Pete did it as his warm-up, onsight and I flashed it 10 minutes later. Thank God for that; we weren't total punters.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Two plonkers divided by a "Big Pink"[/td][/tr]

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Some more photos can be found on Alex Ekins' website, covering our last 2 days.

http://alexekins.co.uk/wide-boyz-in-vedauwoo-part-twothree/

Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[Fiend]

Glad to see you're joining in the cap action, and glad to see the trip is going well and you're getting properly stuck in!

[comPiler]

Loving Lucille
29 September 2011, 7:36 pm

I remember seeing a guidebook topo for Lucille about 2 and a half years ago and I didn’t know what the scale of the route was. I thought it was an upside down shuffle with your feet inverted above you and your bum on the wall below...how wrong I was. The next photo I saw of this big bad offwidth was a picture of Craig Luebben making the second ascent and first onsight of the route. I couldn’t believe how small he looked turning the lip compared to the rest of the route and couldn’t work out how he had got through that massive 40ft roof.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]One Scary MoFo - Lucille[/td][/tr]

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It was then 2 and a half years later that I somehow found myself taping up on the slabs below trying to convince myself that the roof wasn’t that big and everything in Britain was way more intimidating. It’s not just the line that is intimidating it is the history behind the route; the tale from the first ascentionist, the onsights that have followed, the stories of failures, epics and puking on route. Everything about this route had built up in my mind and it felt like a big deal to me.

When Tom and I got to the belay I already knew I was up first as we had flipped a coin the night before to see who it would be. Unfortunately I lost out and had to go first.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The rack for Lucille[/td][/tr]

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I was so nervous at the beginning of the route I could barely pull off finger lock moves of about 5.8 difficulty. However I got to a ledge filled with greasy bird poo and it made me feel like I was back in England and I soon realised I was even more at home as my head and upper body were stuck in a massive crack. With all nerves completely settled I found the sequence to conquer the 40ft roof and got myself into a “side winder position”. I got into such a rhythm of advancing chicken wings and armbars that when I started to turn the bulge I forgot to move my last Friend #6 with me and didn’t place my #5. Suddenly I found the chicken wings became a lot less secure and I had to really do some hip scumming to get to the secure knee lock. With a mild amount of swearing, thankfully the knee lock appeared (knee lock and hand stack combined = belay), I then knew I wasn’t falling out of there and punched it out to the top, fortunately without my rope getting stuck behind the lobe of my last Friend miles beneath.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete finally reaching easier ground on his onsight[/td][/tr]

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I got back down the belay cave and found Tom shaking away, I told him not to worry and that this puppy would warm him up. He told me he wasn’t cold but nervous. I had actually never seen him this nervous before a route so reassured him that it was his style of climbing, (even though I knew we had done nothing like this before) and that because he looked after chickens he was really good at chicken winging. Tom put in a solid effort on his first go but got stopped by a massive flapper on his palm and the full body exhaustion. However an hour later he sent that wide crack in super style. Quickly, efficiently and without any swearing and made it look about E2. Well good!!!

So what about the grading? There is no trick to this route like many of the other offwidths in Vedauwoo, which is why I believe it has been onsighted a few times and some of the easier graded ones haven’t. To climb the route you’ve got to build a threshold to sickness, seat a chicken wing and get moving. The grade of the route comes through its continuity not the difficultly of a few single moves that are hard to read, like on some of the other wide ones out here. Awesome route Jay.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete showing off his chicken wing on 8oz[/td][/tr]

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Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[csurfleet]

That looks proper awesome. I'm never going near it though... 

[comPiler]

Trench, Century and Gabriel
12 October 2011, 1:56 am

Ok, so much has happened in the last week or so!!

Trench Warfare 5.12d (flash Tom)

Trench Warfare exentension first ascent 5.13a (flash Pete)

Trench solo (Tom)

Century Crack first ascent.... grade??? (Tom and Pete)

Gabriel 5.13c (Tom and Pete)

Unfortunately this has all coincided with our worst internet connection yet. It literally took about 6 hours just to send through a report from Century Crack for Alan James at UKC. So, basically, we have lots and lots to say but no form of connectivity..... which will hopefully be sorted out in the next couple of days.

We'll have:

THE WORD on the grade on Century

How Tom didn't completely crap his pants on Trench

Pete's prognosis on formely the hardest offwidth in the States - Gabriel.

And a WHOLE LOAD of pictures.

Over and out for now....

Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[Fiend]

Look forward to it. Can't you use Alex's internet connection, that seems to be working fine.....................

[chillax]

Look forward to it. Can't you use Alex's internet connection, that seems to be working fine.....................

I'm guessing they have a kind of "wildlife documentary" dynamic going on. No matter how much he might want to, Alex isn't allowed interfere with the lunatics in their natural environment.... much like a gazelle getting savaged by a pride of lions, sometimes you just have to let nature take its course!

Great effort lads, looking forward to what ye have to say!

[andy_e]

I think in this case, the pride of lions is getting savaged by the gazelles. Or roe deer, in this case.

[comPiler]

A week of Wide Madness
13 October 2011, 9:41 pm

Man, the last week has gone by so quickly – so much has happened in such a short space of time, that I hardly feel like I’ve had time to think. We’ve travelled down to Moab (ticking Trench Warfare on the way) to try Century Crack and then moved straight on to Zion to try and repeat the USA’s hardest offwidth, Gabriel.

It was all kind of going to plan originally and then things just got messy.....

I think it partially started with Trench Warfare, 5.12d. After us both flashing the route (this route couldn’t have suited us better) I decided to go for a tickle without a rope. Generally I’m a complete pansy about stuff like this, but I just felt so good on the day the option of decking out on my head from 20ft without spotters didn’t even cross my mind. After doing this I think Pete and I definitely hit a new level of confidence and we finally started to believe in ourselves a bit more.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Tom bouldering on Trench Warfare. [/td][/tr]

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Century Crack (by Pete)

Moving on from Trench Warfare we were now into double figures of the number of hours left before we were able to get onto Century. Two years ago when we started training for this route it seemed like a joke that we’d ever reach the base, but now we only had 48hours until we could actually get on the thing. The morning of the first day on the route I think we could both barely contain ourselves when looking up at the route. The roof is actually the biggest, baddest thing I’ve ever seen. In fact it’s so big it dwarfs its own proportions.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete feeling like he's back in my cellar[/td][/tr]

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We didn’t mess around and tried not to get too psyched out. We did all of the roof section in 10-20ft sections (resting after each section) straight off, putting the cams in on lead as we went. I couldn’t believe that we’d both just rinsed across the roof so quickly on our first go. It felt like I was back down Tom’s cellar ticking sets of 100ft sections of Wide Pony again. I thought;

“Well this is a bonus. Tom’s built a cellar out of old kitchen worktops, which seems to have worked as it feels as if I’ve been working on Century back in Sheffield for two years. Niceeeeee!”

We worked the crux end barrel and the heart-breaker grovel top out which had a slightly different sequence of knee locks, leg hooks and dangling squeeze chimneys, then called it a day.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete nearing the lip on Century[/td][/tr]

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The next day we wondered whether we were being to over optimistic and that actually linking the whole thing together would be monumental. Luckily, we’d spent too many hours hanging upside down like a fruit bat for that to be true. Hanging upside down with hand stacks on this thing felt like being asleep. Well, not quite true - it actually still felt like a ‘tricky little number’ especially with the rope drag at the end that nearly pulled me off.

Overall the massively specific (you could say lucky?!) training had paid off in huge bundles of Edale hay stacks.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete topping up on his training just before getting Century[/td][/tr]

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So, that morning we both had a bit of Century Crack for breakfast, and that was a two year project done. BOOM!

It was also pretty cool that Crusher Bartlett (who solo aided the route back in 2001) was there with us to share the final chapter of our massive journey with us. He also conjured up some killer tortilla wraps as well!

Well what shall I do with my life now? Hmmmmm go and climb some more wide I think........

Gabriel (by Tom)

Fresh from our success on Century, we arrived in Zion a few days later nearly healed on the scab-front. Whilst I felt physically in the best shape of my life, my mental state was far from it. It was almost as if I’d achieved on Century too early – I’d built the route up to be bigger than it was and I just wasn’t ready to move on. I’d almost go as far as to say I felt deflated from getting Century so quickly and so when I arrived at Gabriel I just wasn’t as hungry as usual. Some of the fight and keenness had gone...

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Gabriel vs a Valley Giant[/td][/tr]

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Fortunately Pete, was being his usual silly self and soon cheered me up with some crag-antics. Big Bros were fondled with, the “Private Pirate” was simulated and gritstone thrutches remembered. Anyway, enough of my moaning..... the route, the route! The climb and first free ascentionist, Pamela Pack were the recipients of the Golden Piton award a couple of years back for trad climbing and in some ways I was a little confused when I found half the route’s gear to be bolts – perhaps it’s a sport/trad hybrid??!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Looking up at the roof crack of Gabriel[/td][/tr]

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That aside, the climbing is absolutely fantastic. Invert squeeze with groundfall potential, into some hardcore “Private Pirate” into a final section of invert and blue collar grovelling. We did the route in the same style as the first ascentionist with the gear already in place from our working attempts. Overall, the climbing was harder than Gobbler’s Roof (5.13b) and very similar to Thai Boxing (5.13c in ours and Haston’s opinion) – so perhaps 5.13c? Compared to the Vedauwoo routes we’ve done earlier in the trip, it’s really quite a bit harder and all credit to the FA for getting this done.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Do we actually know what we're doing?![/td][/tr]

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After working on the route for only a couple of hours, Pete duly dispatched the route in front of Chris Alstrin’s rolling cameras and I had to come back the next day for the mop-up duties. What was interesting about this route for me, was that I couldn’t fudge the sequence at the crux, which indicated that it really was quite hard. I had to get it exactly right to pass the 2nd and 3rd quickdraw and no amount of burl could box me out of the situation. Many other routes on this trip, we’ve tended to tick with somewhat poor beta, but this route didn’t allow that.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Chris Alstrin filming some of the usual grunting[/td][/tr]

[/table]So how does it compare to Century I guess might be the question on some peoples’ lips? Well, for us it is significantly easier (although still very tough) and not a route that utterly destroys your body. 1 year ago I could have definitely done Gabriel (albeit in a longer time) but I’d say I would have completely failed on Century. We have one more route to do before making a decision on the Century grade and then I guess it’s up to the internet forum pundits to fight it out..... oh dear!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]My daughter Hannah testing gear

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]I owe these 2 girls A LOT! My wife and daughter...[/td][/tr]

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Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[comPiler]

Century Crack Grade
19 October 2011, 3:34 pm

Ok, so I suppose it’s finally time to lay our nuts on the table and come up with a grade for Century Crack. There have been stories of superlative climbing events over the years that have been surrounded by grading controversies, climbing style arguments and conflicting personalities battling it out for the first ascent. I’m not sure that Century is any different from this; Stevie’s had his say, certain keyboard heroes have mass debated and the 9a grade has been thrown around.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete on the business end (c) Alex Ekins[/td][/tr]

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All the while, Pete and I have generally been getting on with enjoying our climbing trip around the US. We’ve repeated 8 x 5.13a or harder offwidths (some flash/onsight) – including repeats of the hardest offwidths in Vedauwoo, Zion and Indian Creek. This has all been in with loads of other routes in the 5.12a-5.12d range and mostly on a 2:1 climbing to rest day ratio. Overall, we finally feel like we’re starting to know where everything lies relative to everything else and feel fairly confident that we are performing to our own expectations. It’s been knackering, but very much worth it!

Right.............. I’ll rant no more on that subject. Grades – let’s talk grades!

For Century Crack, we are proposing 5.14b or French grade 8c.

We’ve spent hours and hours debating this number amongst ourselves and it’s sort of been a tough decision, but also an easy one. Our gut feeling as soon as we’d both topped out was 5.14b, but we thought we’d sleep on it, repeat some more routes and see how we got on. In the end, we’re going with that same grade. It’s not an astronomical grade like 9a/+ and neither is it a trade route 8b. I guess time will only tell...

Below, I’ve put together some of our main trains of thought/rants on the grade matter. Most of it will be pretty boring to people out there, but it’s certainly of interest to some.

The Cellar Effect

As many people know, Pete and I spent 2 years slogging our guts out in a crack cellar underneath my house.

We trained so specifically for Century Crack – we had an almost exact replica of the whole route and we trained....and trained.... and trained.... We did over 17,000ft of Century Crack climbing in 2 years, which equates to having already climbed it 42 times each! It’s this point I really want to hammer home – I know it sounds like a short time to do a major project in 2 days, but in effect, we’d already had countless sessions on it back at home. All of this training was carefully periodised to bring about peak performance for our American trip and to avoid chronic overuse injuries.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Climbing wooden offwidths til it felt like our eyes bled[/td][/tr]

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In Comparison to other US hard offwidths

The two hardest offwidths that we’ve come across in the States so far have been “Gabriel” in Zion and “Price of Evil” in Indian Creek. Gabriel we found to be like a soft 5.13c and Price of Evil a hard 5.13b. Both of these routes were a country mile in difficulty away from Century and if we had these routes back in the UK, we’d happily run laps on them. This is not just to boast, but more to illustrate that once we knew the sequence for a 5.13, then we weren’t taxed to our limit by them. In contrast, Century totally wiped us out in just 1 go and we wouldn’t dream of attempting the route twice in a day.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Warming up and onsighting 5.12b/c[/td][/tr]

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Comparing to another well known crack – Greenspit

Although it’s not really a fair comparison, I thought it was useful when debating the grade with Pete on this route to compare it to another hard crack, Greenspit (8b or 5.13d), that we’d done a couple of years back. If you take Century vs. Greenspit then the former completely trounces the latter. They’re miles apart in difficulty and as Pete pointed out to me this evening he climbed Greenspit with almost no specific training – just a few pull-ups and some core conditioning! Also Stevie Haston flashed Greenspit, yet after a number of sessions could only work Century with 3 hanging rests.

So................. apologies for the rant – I had to get it down on paper. I still don’t exactly know what I think, but above is detailed at least some of mine and Pete’s most common thoughts.

A final word from Pete....

I think any grade for the route, whether its 6c or 8c gives little sense into what it is like to climb the thing. To get a feel of what it’s really all about you need to go down there and actually stand under it and give it ago. This is the only way to feel the real monstrosity of the beast. So get down there, it would be good to get a concensus on this thing!!



Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[Fiend]

Ahhh you can't resist the joys of grades :D

But no E-grade?? Tut! 


P.S. Maybe you could do a Dave Mac "It's impossible to grade things beyond your limits blah blah grade not important blah blah but must be at least 5 E-grades harder than Ray's Roof blah"