[comPiler]

Project Time In The Desert
26 October 2011, 5:08 pm

Things have really slowed down in the last week – the frantic pace of trying to tick off all the hard routes has abated to a somewhat normal speed of living. We can actually enjoy a breakfast without the thought of throwing it up 3 hours later in the midst of some kind of “Pirate Topedo” move. As nearly all of the main objectives of the trip have been achieved, we’ve been able to spend a little more time searching for first ascent projects and trying a few things that aren’t necessarily what we came here for (read “pleasant/enjoyable climbing”).

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete doing some enjoyable climbing on 'Army of Darkness' 5.13d[/td][/tr]

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Indian Creek Projects...

Pete had been told of a couple of offwidth projects near to Price of Evil and so straight after ticking PoE we had a look around. Unfortunately, one was not quite a hard as we were expecting (too much bridging possible) and the other the kind of offwidth you’d find at Nesscliffe – a sandy nightmare?! This isn’t to say Pete and I aren’t into sub-standard lines (you only have to look at our Curbar new routes... urgh) it’s more that if you come to the paradise of Indian Creek then it’s only proper to put up something worthy I think.

The next day we went over to Pamela Pack’s “Event Horizon” – I think it’s either 5.13a/b? The route is a really good looking splitter offwidth through a roof on pitch 3, which apparently has some kind of 3D funkiness to negotiate. The first pitch, hasn’t been climbed yet (finger crack) and the second pitch is 5.9/5.10ish by the looks of it. Not sure of how to approach the roof, we thought we’d have a go at freeing the first pitch. Patrick Kingsbury (a regular partner of Pamela and 5.13 offwidther himself) had previously had a go at freeing this pitch, so we knew it’d be no push over. After an hour or so of mashing my fingers in tiny, tiny tips finger locks I’d done all of the moves through to easier ground but knew to lead it properly it’d take further days of work. Feeling a bit de-psyched (and knackered) that we didn’t have the tools to free climb to the roof, we decided to call it a day. On the way back to the campsite we went and climbed a cool looking wide roof called Brother from Another Planet 5.12a/b. Unique invert torpedo!

Project Time with Teacher Pizem...

After Indian Creek we arranged to meet up with long time climber and desert new-router Rob Pizem. If anyone has met “Piz” they’ll know he’s pretty much a one-man dynamo who jumps around at such a frantic pace it’s hard not to get very tired! When we found out that he’s a school teacher, I think we knew we’d met the teacher we’d all wanted when we were younger.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Teacher Pizem teaching us the way of the desert[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete getting the psyche? from Piz[/td][/tr]

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Piz, myself, Pete, Peewee (French Canadian crack climbing beast), Alex, Jesse and Brian all headed off to the White Rim for 2 days of project hunting and delving. Peewee was down there to try Piz’s long term project “Necronomicon” (huge thin hands roof crack that features in the First Ascent films) and the rest of us hoped to either find something new or repeat one of Piz’s test pieces.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Peewee on a burn of the thin hands project, 'Necronomincon'[/td][/tr]

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The first day (after receiving teacher’s orders....) me and Pete went to try an unclimbed line that Piz had shown us. Unfortunately, the line was a bit too long and too beta intensive for us to really get stuck into – more of a local’s line in reality, despite its obvious qualities. Instead we got stuck into some kind of squeeze chimney that Pete duly dispatched that afternoon. It wasn’t 100% clear if it had been done by Matt Lazenby before, but in any case it was probably around 5.13a – sort of a harder more sustained Lucille with serious deckout potential!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete finds a wide slot on the White Rim. A good dose of 'smoke in the eyes' is useful[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Forget the Valley Giant, a tipped out #6 on .13a should do just fine [/td][/tr]

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The second day we spent some time on Piz’s classic roof crack down at the White Rim – Army of Darkness, 5.13d. Brian had already been projecting, so conveniently the gear and beta was well established for Pete and me. With a couple of goes each, we got some good links and hopefully that’ll be in the bag with another trip. What really stands out from that line though, is the quality of the climbing – absolutely brilliant gymnastic roof climbing on fingers, hands, pods, offwidth and a little bit of fists. Reminds me very much of Greenspit in difficulty and quality.

Finally, to finish the day we did a little filming for Wild Country’s “Crack School” and also for the “Wide Boyz” film. As usual, it all got a bit silly and Pete ended up on the floor between my legs..... I’ll let the photos explain all!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Filming the offwidth glossary[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Peewee helping demonstrate the offwidth glossary[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]hmmmmmmm....[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Chris using his resources[/td][/tr]

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Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[Mike Tyson]

I was thinking the other day that if these boyz found a project, and succeeded on said project, that the name "Rack, crack and (Ruck) sack"" would be fitting or some other similar play on words.

[comPiler]

Blocktop and Army
31 October 2011, 8:46 pm

A few days ago me and Tom had our first tower experience with desert tower expert Crusher. The route on the agenda was ‘Blocktop’. It was a tower that Crusher had never done before so I think he was psyched to get another summit and the only (sensible) way up there was via some offwidth and squeeze chimney, so he was happy to send us up first. The route turned out to be about 5.11a, (or two pitches of E3) with some classic Llyn Peninsula choss at the top! I apologise for knocking some loose rocks down on Crusher as he then dropped his climbing shoe 300ft down the offwidth. Anyway I was pretty pleased to be able to get to do a tower and the whole experience was really enjoyable - apart from maybe the 350ft jug back out from the tower.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]"Don't fall off" Checking out Blocktop[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The White Rim view from Blocktop[/td][/tr]

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After some tower climbing with Crusher we were ready to head back down to the White Rim, with Peewee, to battle against some more roof cracks. However that wasn’t possible until we’d retrieved our lost tent, which had blown away half a mile down the road from our campsite. With a little gaffer tape, it was as good as new.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Brit/Canadian (French?) team[/td][/tr]

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The main objective for me and Tom down on The Rim was to make the 2nd ascent of ‘Army of Darkness’ 5.13d. The last time we went down to the White Rim we spent half a day just working out all the moves, but this time we were ready for some linkage.

Because ‘Army’ required some thin tape jobs, Peewee sat us down for a lesson in his extraordinary Canadian tape technique. The resulting thin hands masterpiece, with super glue and finger straps, would be enough for people to pay good money to see. The precision and technique used just to tape up was quite something - but don’t worry Peewee, the secret’s safe with me. After the schooling we gave it ago, but Tom’s started peeling round the edges before he even made it to the first jam and my wrist loop went baggy and ripped on the first sinker hand jam. After some readjustments they stayed on a little better. Ahhhh...nothing better than a Brit tape job.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Tom repairing his dodgy tape job[/td][/tr]

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Tom was first up on ‘Army’ and cruised in fine style to top out on his first redpoint attempt of the route, for the second ascent. He said he forgot a load of the sequences and “fudged it,” which in retrospect I would agree with on the start section which he absolutely puntered his foot sequence. Overall though, it looked smooth as a criminal from the belay pit. I was up next and made it on my first redpoint aswell for the 3rd ascent.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete resting in the double kneebar on 'Army of Darkness'

(c) Alex Ekins [/td][/tr]

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I reckon ‘Army of Darkness’ was one of the best repeats we have done this trip. The quality of the moves were excellent and required a good variety of crack skills from fingers, hands, wide pony and smoke in the eyes. Despite the success in ticking, the route wasn’t without a few minor mishaps, (I blame Peewee there, because nothing ever goes wrong when me and Tom climb together...) with Tom decking out whilst working the route and both Tom and Peewee each got on Angry Pirate in the eye - classic!



Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[SA Chris]

Smoke in the eyes?

Hopefully it will all be revealed on the DVD.

[metal arms]

I thought an angry pirate was something even more niche than climbing sick offwidths.

[Tommy]

Smoke in the eyes?

Hopefully it will all be revealed on the DVD.

Hmmmmmm yeah...... we did some filming for a wide crack glossary the other day and it all got a bit weird and homoerotic. Think I might regret some of that footage sometime in the future...

And as for Angry Pirates - yeah the reference was definitely noted! A "Dirty Pirate" and "Frenchman's Pirate" are always better options.

[comPiler]

Century Crack - Part Deux
6 November 2011, 7:11 am

Around a month ago, both Pete and I made the first free ascent of Century Crack, at a vaguely guessed grade of 5.14b. At the time, we were both pretty psyched to do the FFA seeing as we'd spent 2 years training specifically for this project. Although nothing compared to the legendary Stone's efforts at Raven Tor!

When we'd climbed Century and it'd all happened in a timescale that was way beyond what we expected - it was pretty weird to step away from a major goal, without some kind of massive epic fight. It'd all gone waaaay too smoothly. Despite our reservations about doing the route on preplaced gear (because of time constraints) there was still a huge feeling of satisfaction.

All that started to change a few weeks later though......

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The future for protecting wide cracks? The tied off leg...[/td][/tr]

[/table]Suddenly we found ourselves with 95% of our entire tick-list for the trip completed and 2 more weeks of free climbing time left on the trip! Holy smokes, the idea of having time to go back to Century started to dawn on us.... No longer, did we have any reason not to at least make an effort to tidy up the ascent and at any rate at least we'd know for 100% whether placing the gear on lead would make any difference.

We've just written an article for UKC which covers a lot of the reasons why we went back to Century and also some of thoughts on what the climbing was like. Aside from some of these rants and ravings, we've listed below some of our main thoughts on the whole deal - don't take it all too seriously!

1. Century Crack is no harder placing gear on lead, than it was having it pre-placed.

2. Eight Friend #5s (collectively weighing around 2kg) felt adequate to complete the route in this style.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete racked and ready for Century Crack[/td][/tr]

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3. Using the amount of gear that we used certainly made the climbing much bolder but no harder. By carrying more cams the weight of the rack might start to become noticeable and affect the climbing.

4. You can place the gear behind you or in between your legs when putting the gear in on lead, this way you don't have to step both feet round a load of cams, so reducing the amount of mini cruxes on the route.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The crucial Anasazi Blanco was placed in the crack

and stopped the rope getting caught behind the cam lobe at the lip[/td][/tr]

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5. The whole of the crack is the crux and also the whole of the crack is a rest, so you can fall off at any point, but you can also place gear at any point you want.

6. As crack master Peewee (the French Canadian one....) said - horizontal shuffling is all a piece of piss, so don't get hung up on grades, styles or anything. That was us told!



Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[comPiler]

Goodbye and Thanks for all the Fish
12 November 2011, 7:41 pm

It's a bit of a sad goodbye to the USA today - we have finally reached the end of our trip and there's no more climbing in store for us. We've had an absolutely incredible time, climbing way beyond our expectations and have met some really cool people along the way. Before we left though, we decided to check out one last offwidth project on the White Rim and also to do some easy (and nice!) climbing in Indian Creek.

The project down on the rim, looked incredible - it's a proper beast of a line. We'd found it on a drive a week before, but held off until we had a car and some skin grown back.We had enticed crack climbing specialist Mason Earle to come down to try the route with us an he seemed pretty pscyhed. Mason seems to have done 5.13+ cracks from tips to offwidth and seems like a really well rounded climber so we were excited he wanted to come with us. I think probably the offer of a possible first ascent on a pristine 50ft roof crack was something to do with it.....

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Mason Earle on Witness the Wideness[/td][/tr]

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Intially we had to overcome the problem of the Shafer Trial road that led to the climb being closed. After finding out we would get fined by the National Park Service for going down when it was closed, we took the risk and went for it. After 15minutes of trying to solve the combination on the lock, a talk with the ranger and a 75 dollar fine later we were at the route.

The climbing on the route is amazing and is split down into 3 sections. The first section involves a few thin hand jams and an invert into a squeeze chimney. The chimney then climbs like a shorter version of the sidewinder section on Lucille. This leads to a chimney rest then some de-Leavittation into a short section which climbs like the end of Gabriel. the final section is a bombay chimney with hand, fist and hand stacks in the back. All in all a pretty involved and varied route, with a number of invert squeezing techniques involved. To our surprise we all managed to tick the route one after the other in a period of about an hour.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete onsighting the FA of Witness the Wideness, 5.12d/5.13a[/td][/tr]

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Even though the roof is pretty big and looks daunting the climbing on it is not so bad and most of it is restful, so its definitely a worthwhile route for anyone seeking out this sort of madness, or for anyone wanting a bit of a training route for harder ones like Gabriel. The access to the route is one of the easiest for the White Rim, so there is no excuses for not getting down there. From the ranger station in Canyonlands its no more then a 15minute drive - convenient for getting fined by the Ranger then!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Invert armbars - lovely![/td][/tr]

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Overall we reckoned it to be around 5.12d/13a, which might seem tricky to some, but for a 50ft offwidth roof its definitely not too bad.

After leaving the White Rim for the final time, headed over to Moab for a night's kip...... and guess who we came across??? Dave Simmonite, Mike Hutton and Martin Kocsis - the UK massive! The usual banter ensued, but most importantly, Dave gave me and Pete a quick lesson on photographic composition. Half and hour later, we were psyched. Yes...... RULE OF THIRDS!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete show's he's got what it takes in a photographer's world. Holy moly.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Saw an American using Dragon Cams.... short stem sir???[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Ouellet, Ekins, Randall, Whittaker, Pack, Anderson & Kingsbury (c) Mike Hutton[/td][/tr]

[/table]Here is a google map of where 'Witness the Wideness' can be found.



...and a photo of what it looks like from below

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]'Witness the Wideness' from below...get to it![/td][/tr]

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Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[SA Chris]

Well done boys. Perversely, I'm actually looking forward to seeing the film.

I'm curious though should "bombay chimney" be "bomb bay chimney" as in the bomb bay in the fuselage of a bomber? Or is it something else entirely?

[Nibile]

legendary trip.

[metal arms]

I'm curious though should "bombay chimney" be "bomb bay chimney" as in the bomb bay in the fuselage of a bomber? Or is it something else entirely?

Nah, Bombay chimneys make you shit yourself.  Like Delhi belly innit.

[shark]

Wild Country and Rab should hire an open top double decker for the boyz triumphant return through the Sheffield city gates

 

[Duncan Disorderly]

 

Legends!

[Fiend]

They better include this in your training program, fat boy disorderly.

Also +1 vote for the open top bus.

[SA Chris]

Complete with tickerfingertape parade.

[comPiler]

The Final Count and What's Next?
2 December 2011, 11:25 am

Now that we've finally settled back into the dampness of England and unpacked 42kg of size 6 Friends, it's time for some deep reflection, pondering and musing.........

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Right, who needs a big friend? Going cheap.....[/td][/tr]

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IS IT 'ECK!

Let's get the tick list out (for the geeks amongst us) and then work out what's next?

63 Days in the Wide Wilderness

Below is a list of what Pete and I climbed during our trip to the States, which includes some boulder problems (some of which were actually longer than other routes at Vedauwoo!). I've written it down in grade order, as making it chronological would require some level of organisation. I've left the original grades of the routes on, rather than the new suggested grades, for the sake of diplomacy.

(B) Denotes boulder problem - long or short and whether I felt like I would pass out or not...

(Sb) Denotes major sandbag - Scarpelli Style.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Oh God, not another list...[/td][/tr]

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Century Crack                                                                    5.14b

Army of Darkness                                                               5.13d

Gabriel                                                                                5.13b

The Price of Evil                                                                  5.13b

Eight Ounces to Freedom (B)                                              5.13b

Simiantics (B)                                                                      5.13b

Angry Pirate Finish                                                              5.13a

Monsters Inc (B)                                                                 5.13a

Belly Full of Bad Berries                                                      5.13a

Lucille                                                                                 5.13a

Spatial Relations                                                                  5.13a

The Vag                                                                              5.13a

The Warden (B)                                                                  5.13a

Trench Warfare Extension                                                   5.13a

Witness The Wideness                                                        5.12d/5.13a

The Brad                                                                            5.12d/5.13a

Trench Warfare                                                                   5.12d

What the Big Boys Eat                                                        5.12c

On a Wing and a Prayer                                                      5.12c

New World Order (B)                                                         5.12c

World's Hardest (B)                                                            5.12b

Trip Master Monkey (Sb)                                                    5.12b

Squat                                                                                   5.12b

Brother from Another Planet                                                 5.12a/b

Big Baby                                                                              5.11b/c

Worm Drive (Sb)                                                                 5.11b

Big Pink (Sb)                                                                       5.11b

Torpedo Right (Sb)                                                              5.11a

There's probably a few I've forgotten there - and I'll have got a few of the grades wrong. It's all good though, because if anyone out there gets really psyched, all you need to do is print off this list, buy your self 7 pairs of shoes and 37metres of athletic tape!

What's Next?

That's the question that we asked ourselves many times over during the last 2 weeks of the trip. Mostly so far, it's been a mixture of doing interviews, magazine articles and preparing some lectures - which is all very normal and "back to reality." So..........................

It's time for some challenges again I think. Climbing Challenges. Nothing normal, nothing particularly sensible. Details coming up in the next blog post.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Wide Boyz Lecture? Roll up if you think you have problems. [/td][/tr]

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Source: Wide Boyz Blog

[SA Chris]

Holy crap. An impressive list!

Curious though, did you guys try anything which you were unsuccessful on? Anything to go back for?

[Tommy]

I failed on a V4 on the first day. But I ain't going back to it 

Mainly it was successful (somehow, as we really don't know what we're doing most of the time) and I'd only really go back to the States for other types of route now. Fuck the wide shit - it's a young man's game and I'm 32 after Christmas. 

If someone could find a 200ft offwidth roof................. well.................... then we'd be talking again. Until then I'll punter around on some slabs and Pete will continue to put up terrible new routes on grit.

[SA Chris]

Fuck the wide shit - it's a young man's game and I'm 32 after Christmas. 

Well I've got 10 years on you, so if you are using it as an excuse, I'm definitely going to agree.

[nash1]

Why not tick this while you are thinking about what to do... http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,18591.0/topicseen.html

[cheque]

Right, who needs a big friend? Going cheap.....

Is this a serious offer? I'd quite like a 6...

[Tommy]

Why not tick this while you are thinking about what to do... http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,18591.0/topicseen.html

Turns out it's about E6/7. Last I heard someone from the area was very close to it (via my French-Canadian spy...). Great looking line though!!

[Tommy]

Right, who needs a big friend? Going cheap.....

Is this a serious offer? I'd quite like a 6...

In all seriousness, I think we're giving a few away as prizes, and a few in charity auction-type thingys?? I'll put details of giveaways on the blog if that helps.

[Bonjoy]

You boys done Pit Pony yet?

[cheque]

In all seriousness, I think we're giving a few away as prizes, and a few in charity auction-type thingys?? I'll put details of giveaways on the blog if that helps.