[Muenchener]

the thread name is genius too.

iirc "Long, Hard and Free" was the title of an article by Pete Livesey about his and Ron's early ascent of Astroman.

But I suspect I may be one of rather few people here old enough to remember that. Duncan, can I borrow your sig picture?

[duncan]

the thread name is genius too.

iirc "Long, Hard and Free" was the title of an article by Pete Livesey about his and Ron's early ascent of Astroman.

But I suspect I may be one of rather few people here old enough to remember that. Duncan, can I borrow your sig picture?

I'm old enough to remember Mountain 79 which had a great article by Mark Hudon.



(The issue also had Gill Kent on the West Face of El Cap. with Ron, an interview with Bridwell, Leonard Coyne on a new route in the Black Canyon of the Gunninson, and an account of Phil Burke and Tom Proctor on the E. Face of Cerro Torre. All this and Jim Collins on the front cover too)


The Wendenstock sounds superb and a place for a steady team.  This gives a flavour:


<disapproving noises about sponsors here>

The hanging arete on the left of that feature is Bears on Toast, hand-drilled by some London punter with a Troll caving bolt kit in the late '80s and named after a typo on the menu board in the Longlands cafe in Hathersage.

A must-do!

[Muenchener]

the thread name is genius too.

iirc "Long, Hard and Free" was the title of an article by Pete Livesey about his and Ron's early ascent of Astroman.

But I suspect I may be one of rather few people here old enough to remember that. Duncan, can I borrow your sig picture?

I'm old enough to remember Mountain 79 which had a great article by Mark Hudon.

That's the one I was thinking of too, but it's all so long ago the memory is fading and I misremembered it being our Pete (and/ or our Ron)

[ghisino]

btw on my facebook i have this swiss-italian climber who's looking for a belay on zahir (the route on the pou video)

his current staus id something like "desperately looking for a professional belayer, if not too expensive"

 

[Stu Littlefair]

Wasn't Pete's Astroman article titled 'a short walk with ron'?

[SA Chris]

Before I go mad with suggestions, are you considering stuff in Scotland and/or South Africa?

[duncan]

Before I go mad with suggestions, are you considering stuff in Scotland and/or South Africa?

Feel free to go stark, raving bonkers.  I'd consider either.  I've spent some time attempting to climb in Scotland but achieved very little...  SA is a complete unknown to me.

I'd love to do Big John, the chances of fitness, partner and weather coinciding put it in the highly unlikely category, but that is partly what this thread is for.   

[SA Chris]

Most routes on Table Mountain itself don't quite get up to 8 pitches (although one or two do) , but check out Yellowwood Ampitheatre http://www.climb.co.za/wiki/index.php/Yellowwood_Amphitheatre for starters

[SA Chris]

Then there's Klein Winterhoek with several routes including Oceans of Fear (you can see the original vid here http://www.steepedge.com/all-films/uk-climbing/oceans-of-fear.html or Leo doing it in Psyche II)

And the Hex River Ampitheatre http://www.climb.co.za/2010/03/ben-heatlie-free-at-last/

And Milner Peak http://www.alardsbigwallclimbing.com/milner.htm

[Johnny Brown]

If you've not been to Strone you really should, its totally unique in the UK for quality long free routes. I think gneiss is amazing for long routes, more varied than granite on the small scale but with similarly grand architecture.

Not done loads abroad but you should think again about the Grand Cap - go up the Italian side and you avoid Cham and get a very short walk-in - under an hour, mostly downhill, and the only crevasse big enough to get in is the bergschrund. Certainly sounds a lot less epic getting in and out than some of the non-glaciated options mentioned above, and the surroundings are off the scale spectacular. Perfect, clean, featured golden granite with US style trad - ie lots of pegs and bolted belays/ ab lines.

I can recommend the Lotus Flower - not all of the route is brilliant bit the headwall is every bit as good as it looks, and the whole adventure of flying in and camping 100 miles from a road is incredible.

[SA Chris]

Strone / Sron?

Elsewhere in Scotland there are a couple of routes on the Main Bastion of the Shelterstone that run to 8 pitches or so and are 3* routes; Haystack E3, Steeple E2, The Needle E1, Stone Bastion E5. Not done them myself, but they look excellent. There are a few on Creag an Dubh Loch too, although most of the harder routes only run to 5 or 6 pitches.

[duncan]

If you've not been to Strone you really should, its totally unique in the UK for quality long free routes. I think gneiss is amazing for long routes, more varied than granite on the small scale but with similarly grand architecture.

Not done loads abroad but you should think again about the Grand Cap - go up the Italian side and you avoid Cham and get a very short walk-in - under an hour, mostly downhill, and the only crevasse big enough to get in is the bergschrund. Certainly sounds a lot less epic getting in and out than some of the non-glaciated options mentioned above, and the surroundings are off the scale spectacular. Perfect, clean, featured golden granite with US style trad - ie lots of pegs and bolted belays/ ab lines.

I can recommend the Lotus Flower - not all of the route is brilliant bit the headwall is every bit as good as it looks, and the whole adventure of flying in and camping 100 miles from a road is incredible.

Thanks JB.  You lot are chipping away at my resolve to steer clear of The Alps.  I don't mind epic approaches, they are often part of the whole experience, it's the death potential that concerns me.  It's mainly an emotional rather than objective response though.

I'm waiting for IO#2 to move to BC before suggesting we do Lotus Flower Tower.

[andy popp]

I was going to say you shouldn't dismiss the Alps out of hand - the approach to the Blat, for example, could hardly be simpler and the death potential (which would come very largely from stone fall, certainly not crevasses, inescapability etc.) would be no greater than many of the other recommendations that have been made.

[SA Chris]

I almost forgot about Blouberg!

http://www.climb.co.za/wiki/index.php/Blouberg

[slackline]

What about the Dolomites, plenty to go at there without glacial ascents (although rock-fall is fairly common).

[Johnny Brown]

Pah. Weather in The Cirque is bad only by North American/ South of France standards. Compared to the average summer weekend on Skye its a fucking picnic.

[Pantontino]

Can't recommend Naranjo highly enough, it fits the bill perfectly - not only Rabada-Navarro but also Murciana (7a/A0 or 7c+/8a).

Andy,  I was hoping you'd reply.  Naranjo has been in my sights since some pals did the first Brit. ascent of the R-N in 1978.  Tentatively next summer...  Any idea how much aid the the Murciana needs at 7a?

It really is a remarkable piece of stone. Its a along time ago but perhaps 40ft of bolt ladder (actually a slightly spooky golo ladder when Nick and I did it, hopefully its been beefed up now). The 7a is a complete guess to be honest. Didn't do the R-N, but did do the excellent Amistad Con El Diable (about E2 I think) on the superb East Face, everything here looks brill but not quite give you the length you're looking for.

Another rec for Amistad Con El Diable - a really cool route. Quite a few bolts, but we were glad of cams and wires to reduce the runouts. Saw a French guide do it with nothing but 8 quick draws on his rack, running it out for miles!

[AndyR]

I'm waiting for IO#2 to move to BC before suggesting we do Lotus Flower Tower.

Hmmm ... can I refer you to 5:25 - 6:10 in here:

Genius timing - met with Sparky this weekend and we made plans for the Lotus Flower Tower next summer - your name was mentioned - fancy it?

[Muenchener]

I did a route called Sternschnuppe in the Berchtesgaden Alps yesterday. Very much Wassersymphonie's little brother: same area, same first ascentionists. Wassersymphonie is 15 pitches, crux UIAA VIII-, predominantly VI/VII. Sternschnuppe 11 pitches, crux VII- (ok, VI+ A0 ), predominantly V/VI.

And I have to report: a worthwhile day out, but not *that* impressed. The areas is very beautiful but the situation isn't impressive compared to say, the Dolomites or Verdon. "Just" a thousand feet of high quality limestone sitting at the top of a lot more than a thousand feet of wooded hillside (wooded hillside that is more tiring to hike down in the evening than it is to hike up in the morning). The climbing was decent enough, nice solid water-worn limestone, but there was only one pitch that I really thought was "wow". Pitch nine would be a three star HVS in, say, Dovedale, but one three star pitch isn't enough to make a 400 metre route into a classic. Maybe limestone just doesn't lend itself to really classic lines at easy grades. There was certainly plenty of amazing-looking ground to the left and right, taken by much harder routes.

What about the Dolomites, plenty to go at there without glacial ascents (although rock-fall is fairly common).

Erm, his first post said the whole thing was inspired by doing the Comici on the Cima Grande, and mentioned Don Quixote on the Marmolada as one of the next candidates.

[Teaboy]

While we're on the subject does anyone have any beta on Vilanova de Meia? Heading there and Riglos in November but don't know anything about the former and little about the latter

[duncan]

While we're on the subject does anyone have any beta on Vilanova de Meia?

Only to the extent of driving past - it looked very good.

Heading there and Riglos in November but don't know anything about the former and little about the latter

Riglos is great.  It's a rather attractive part of Spain and a popular weekend destination with more than just climbers.  The birdlife is amazing, especially the Lammergeiers.  There is convenience store, bar and refugio.  The latter was full of noisy teenagers when we were there.  We bivied discretely which seemed to be tolerated.  It might be getting chilly in November, it seemed like a September-October or April-May venue on the basis of a single visit in late April. 


El Visor with the line of That Route


Moskitos

The climbing is solid and well-bolted on the well-known routes but looked like it could get quite adventurous rather quickly if you went off-piste.  There is a bit of history to the climbing there which I liked (and the polish to with it on easy classics like El Puro - still well worth doing).  It must have needed some cojones to climb there when the place was first developed.


Old bolts on El Puro

[SA Chris]

Just looking at those bolts made my fingers go sweaty.

[ghisino]

"bolts" ???

[SA Chris]

OK, lumps of iron mullered into drilled holes then.

[Chris Craggs]

Wasn't Pete's Astroman article titled 'a short walk with ron'?

I t was called "Only the Best Route in the World".

Chris