[Fiend]

I did Canoe at E2 6a pre-pads. Not my first E2 tho.

Not really making a point as such, more like it's a definite part of the explanation (along with various other factors).

[Jaspersharpe]

There are tons of examples like this. Is it time to roll out my Chalkstorm comment again?

Billy Whizz and Boulevard must be the most stupid example of nonsense grit grading though.

[Tommy]

FWIW Tom (Randall) you are obviously correct i.e. flashable usually does mean soft, given that the grade is for an onsight, and you do have a point RE all the routes you mention. There are quite a lot of grades which seem to make no sense if that's how you measure your climbing on grit. I found it a lot easier just to give up on them and pick what you think you can do, hence why it took me about a decade after first onsighting grit E6 (and a few after doing E7!) before taking on something like Ulysses, and even then it was above a few pads and some snow. Everyone who knows the crags well is aware of this though aren't they? I mean I'd always have more respect for someone who went out and pissed up Nectar, Hurricane, Right Eliminate or something like that, genuinely made them look easy, than for someone who doesn't really climb much grit trad standing on a ledge and reaching the top of Life Assurance, regardless of the "numbers". I guess in a roundabout way I'm agreeing with The Verve - "The Grades Don't Work". But I don't think that matters.

I know, it really doesn't make sense sometimes! I have previously avoided getting dragged into thinking there's an issue and just riding the wave, but I've realised that there's so many routes that keep getting swept under the grade carpet that maybe (or maybe not?!) someone could voice these stand outs and take the hit. Yeah, it will make my ticklist look crap, but that's the way it is sometimes. 

Hurricane, Nectar etc why not bring them in line? Didn't we all fall off Nectar at least once when we'd onsighted loads of E5s? Hurricane, I thought was harder and more scary than Committed. So why not E5?

I'm still going to make a list (fuck it, I need that kind of boredom in my life) but you're probably right Nige. Does it really matter???

[Tommy]

There are tons of examples like this. Is it time to roll out my Chalkstorm comment again?

Billy Whizz and Boulevard must be the most stupid example of nonsense grit grading though.

Everyone comments publicly on these lower graded route though. I think there's very few who do it at the high end. I think it's mainly because it's really hard to take the ego out of it (especially good climbers?) and also because we're all generally mates with each other and we don't want to piss on each other's fires. If Reeve went and flashed X-E7 I'd definitely find it hard to tell him I thought it was E6 because I'd think I was being unkind. Like-wise Pete, has done the 2nd ascents of some of my routes and not suggested a downgrade because I think he probably doesn't want to offend me. 

[Jaspersharpe]

Yes that's fair enough but you were also talking about established lower grade stuff like Profit.

Top end and especially newish stuff is always going to take time to settle but doing a wholesale regrade of everything is another matter.

Actually, isn't that what guidebook writers are supposed to do?

[webbo]

Isn't there an urban myth that the guidebook committee voted to down grade Sentinel crack to e2 despite none of them having managed to do it. Sort of sums up grading.

[slackline]

Isn't there an urban myth that the guidebook committee voted to down grade Sentinel crack to e2 despite none of them having managed to do it. Sort of sums up grading.

I heard a version of this.  Although the version I recall was that the vote was to upgrade it (possibly to E4) and the only two people to vote for the upgrade happened to be the only two out of the group voting who'd actually done it.

[webbo]

Well its still E2 although top of the E2 graded list. However Emerald crack is E3 and higher up the list than Right Eliminate

[Nigel]

FWIW Tom (Randall) you are obviously correct i.e. flashable usually does mean soft, given that the grade is for an onsight, and you do have a point RE all the routes you mention. There are quite a lot of grades which seem to make no sense if that's how you measure your climbing on grit. I found it a lot easier just to give up on them and pick what you think you can do, hence why it took me about a decade after first onsighting grit E6 (and a few after doing E7!) before taking on something like Ulysses, and even then it was above a few pads and some snow. Everyone who knows the crags well is aware of this though aren't they? I mean I'd always have more respect for someone who went out and pissed up Nectar, Hurricane, Right Eliminate or something like that, genuinely made them look easy, than for someone who doesn't really climb much grit trad standing on a ledge and reaching the top of Life Assurance, regardless of the "numbers". I guess in a roundabout way I'm agreeing with The Verve - "The Grades Don't Work". But I don't think that matters.

I know, it really doesn't make sense sometimes! I have previously avoided getting dragged into thinking there's an issue and just riding the wave, but I've realised that there's so many routes that keep getting swept under the grade carpet that maybe (or maybe not?!) someone could voice these stand outs and take the hit. Yeah, it will make my ticklist look crap, but that's the way it is sometimes. 

Hurricane, Nectar etc why not bring them in line? Didn't we all fall off Nectar at least once when we'd onsighted loads of E5s? Hurricane, I thought was harder and more scary than Committed. So why not E5?

I'm still going to make a list (fuck it, I need that kind of boredom in my life) but you're probably right Nige. Does it really matter???

I still think it doesn’t matter, but that’s because I tend not to use grit grades as a yardstick for judging my own or other’s climbing. I would like to see the list though, as I do think you have a point! If it helps, I thought Braille Trail was maybe E6 (HERESY!). Seem to remember Caff may have thought similar. And for some upgrade yang: I wouldn’t throw any toys out the pram if Adrenaline Rush got E6.

P.S. Yes, I fell off Nectar on numerous occasions!

[Fiend]

As long as The Strangler goes down and Demon Rib goes up then I'll be keen to see the list too.

[a dense loner]

To nearly quote the enigma, FA of speak the truth, after hard grit came out "seb was doing 3 E7's a year I do 3 a week"

[webbo]

As long as The Strangler goes down and Demon Rib goes up then I'll be keen to see the list too.

At E3 and higher up the graded list than Stormbringer, Requiem,Cave wall and Great slab either all the holds have fallen off or who ever wrote that list if it wasn't you had taken more presciption drugs than I have.

[Wood FT]

As long as The Strangler goes down and Demon Rib goes up then I'll be keen to see the list too.

At E3 and higher up the graded list than Stormbringer, Requiem,Cave wall and Great slab either all the holds have fallen off or who ever wrote that list if it wasn't you had taken more presciption drugs than I have.

It's in the guide at E4 for now so you're both in agreement 

[Fiend]

At E3 and higher up the graded list than Stormbringer, Requiem,Cave wall and Great slab either all the holds have fallen off or who ever wrote that list if it wasn't you had taken more presciption drugs than I have.

Yeah that would be fair for The Strangler.

[comPiler]

The Grit List Shakedown
22 March 2013, 9:01 pm

Ok, here goes then. I’m going to break my own rules, and pass judgement on a load of route grades. Having mentioned that I’d do this a week or so ago, I was fairly surprised by the number of opinions expressed on whether I should do this or not! It’s really not the end of the world if an opinion is expressed and likewise it’s not the best thing since sliced bread. I do think it should be done now and again though – and the more people that did this in an open way (rather than anonymous forum posting/voting) the better. Please feel free to comment at the end of this blog on any others you’d like adding to the list.

I dare not comment on the grade on this one… I’ll apologise in advance to all my friends who read this and see that I’ve moved anything downward in grade – it’s not personal…. honest! And besides, it’s only my opinion. Also as wise man Sam Hamer pointed out to me, it’s only the lines that truly matter, not the grade.

It was a total geek posting, with a ridiculously long list of those that I’d suggest move up and those that move down. However, after a few days thought, I’ve decided to keep it to those I feel most strongly about, rather than the shady areas of “soft” or “sandbag.” I’ve formatted it so that each route is in what I think is the correct grade boundary and will have brackets afterwards to show its previous grade. I’ve only moved a grade if I think it’s a total joke at the grade – I’m quite happy with some routes out there being tough or soft.

All of these routes I have lead (bar Captain Invincible which I’ve top roped a fair bit) so I hope my opinion is as measured as possible. I’ve also kept it mostly Eastern Grit based as it’s Andi T’s duty to expose those from the dark west….

Upgrades

E9: Captain Invincible, Burbage South (E8 – makes most E8s feel like E6)

E6: Shape Shifter, Millstone (E5 – sorry, bad grading. My fault)

E5: Profit of Doom (E4, Too many wads flail on this)

E5: Hurricane, Curbar (E4: proper Gogarth E5)

E5: Nectar groove & roof (E4. P Widdy even flailed on it)

The downgrades

E8: The Zone (E9 – the climbing is too easy)

E7: Power of the Dark Side (E8 – who made a bloody massive patio??!)

E6: One Chromosone’s Missing, Harstons (E7 – gear is too good)

E6: Masters of the Universe (E7 – everyone knows this one)

E6: Speak The Truth (E7 – dangerous, but the climbing is too easy)

E5: Committed (E6 – no one ever does this without pads. Ulysses or Bust is harder)

E5: Nosferatu (E6 – sorry, it just is)

E5: Peas of Mind, Curbar (E6 – crap route, too easy to step off line)

E5: Winters Grip, Millstone (E6 – hard move much too low for E6)

E4: London Pride, Millstone (E5 – no hard moves)



Source: Tom Randall Climbing

[Muenchener]

E5: Profit of Doom (E4, Too many wads flail on this)

E.g. Randy Leavitt, who I watched spend an afternoon struggling on it, in the course of which he bent the RP 4 or 5 I lent him for it beyond all recognition or repair.

[comPiler]

The Soft Parade
27 March 2013, 9:50 am

Although a lot of people don’t know it, my main passion in climbing is “new routing.” Everyone assumes that it’s crack climbing, but in fact, the joy that I get from climbing a new route (no matter how bad they are are sometimes!) far outweighs most other climbing experiences. I’m especially lucky to have a climbing partner in Pete who also seems to hold these values highly. I remember when he was still at school, I’d pick him up every Wednesday afternoon and we’d try and get a new route in each week without fail. Some of the quality that emerged from those trips, was utterly horrendous! I think even Grimer was disappointed in Pete’s standards…

Pete and I after another day of new routing. Whacked! There is one combination of climbing experience that trumps everything; a new route that’s also a crack. The backs of my hands tingle even thinking about it. Unfortunately, it’s really hard to find routes of this type in the UK as they form many of the most obvious lines and hence were climbed years ago.

Last week however, I struck gold and found a lovely unclimbed ultra-thin crack at Hallmoor Quarry, where I’d previously done Speak The Truth. After a session of cleaning and working out where to place the multiple RPs I gave Pete a call to tell him about the line. Once I’d explained that the crux involved a move just like the one on the mono undercut on Cobra Crack in Squamish, he was sold!!

Didier showing the way on the mono-undercut. Inspiring… Returning a few days later we found that the route was a little wet, but I knew Pete wouldn’t even entertain the thought of doing something else, so we started off on the route as a warm up. My God………. I was so pumped! Everything had seemed pretty straight forward trying the moves on abseil, but now linking everything together in the damp seemed a different kettle of fish. Topping out with arms like lead balloons, I somewhat dreaded watching Pete make it look easy. Fortunately he saved my shame and did me the gracious favour of pulling out a “Full Gurn” and I silently chuckled away on belay below.

FA of Soft Parade, E6 6b. (Photo, Mike Hutton) The next week I then came across the polar opposite to a new crack route – a prow! I’d been hunting around Gardoms Edge for a few hours and came across a fairly obscure prow tucked away in the trees that starts from half way up the crag. I’m certain it would be an easy highball if it were at ground level, but as it is, if you fluff the final tricky move you’re going a loooooong way. It was great to have a local lad Kyle Rance along to make the second ascent  – big grin on his face after sketching that final move… I decided to let my 20 month old daughter name the route, so “Porride Egg” E6 6a, it is!

I gave both routes E6, but as I’ve been reminded by my own rantings about grades last week; grades can be so far out on each end of the spectrum. Soft Parade you’re not going to get up unless you’re sport climbing at least 7b+ and good on RPs, and Porride Egg you could climb as a V3 boulderer with balls. What a nightmare. I think I’ve become lost in my own mind.



Source: Tom Randall Climbing

[Johnny Brown]

Effort. Whereabouts on Gardoms is it exactly?

[Fiend]

Left arete of the groove that Gom Jabber takes the right arete of.

edit: http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=252718

Banana / porridge 

[comPiler]

Hidden Gritstone Gems
5 April 2013, 11:36 am

The recent spell on continued cold weather in Sheffield has given me one of the best periods of climbing I could possibly hope for before going away on a trip. Normally as a Brit, you spend the last 4 weeks before leaving to sunnier places cursing the terrible weather and promising that it’s going to be a “one-way-ticket” this time. The whole of March though, has been awesome! Fresh winds, good temps and plenty of time to explore the crags that lie a little off beaten track.

One of those crags that’s a bit out of fashion is Gradoms Edge. It’s often the last to retain the damp and being hidden in the trees, it’s quite hard to get psyched for the lines. They seem so much less impressive when there’s a forest of birch and oak 10m away… Once you get onto the rock though, there are some absolutely cracking lines to do: Moyers Buttress, Spanish Fly, Stormbringer, Eye of Faith. Aside from the old routes, there are also a number of first ascent projects – probably one of the best known being the direct finish to Charlotte Rampling. Having checked this out (yes, I’m too weak) I carried along the edge and thought I’d try the moves on a line I’d heard talked about by a couple of people. The front face of the Crocodile Buttress. Immediately, I realised the climbing was brilliant. Jon Fullwood had already cleaned the holds (thanks!) and so all I had to do was concentrate on learning how to “hug” my way up the leaning prow.

Top out section, where you can relax again… This week I was persuaded by Pete to go out for an early morning session to get the route done, so that we could fit a big crack training session in, in the afternoon. I’d not really worked the route very well, so was falling off the last move on link, but I trusted that Pete would give me such a good belay that I couldn’t possibly fall off. Good logic huh? End the end, we had so much fun at the crag messing around and talking crap that I completely forgot to get nervous and topped the route! Pete made the second ascent the same morning saying it was one of the best routes I’ve put up. Don’t read too much into that comment though……… I’ve established some right choss in the past! Seriously though, I think it’s a nice piece of climbing for those that like gritstone funk.

Going back to what I started saying at the beginning; it’s only 4 days until I head off to Italy with crack climbing legend Peewee Ouellet to go and repeat some trad cracks. I’m so psyched for this trip – I’m partnering up with someone pretty mad and also because of the shear quality of lines in Cadarese and Orco. I’ve been drooling over this video of the incredible looking “The Doors” at Cadarese. We’ll be doing some work out there with Alex Ekins and Hotaches on a couple of projects, so I’m sure their blogs will have some nice pics at some stage…



Source: Tom Randall Climbing

[comPiler]

Italian Crack Paradise – Cadarese, Northern Italy
12 April 2013, 9:42 am

When I was first told about a new crack climbing area in Italy, I couldn’t believe it. I was in the midst of a rush of new routing in the Orco Valley and the idea that there could be somewhere bigger, better and with more potential seemed so unlikely in a country with with thousands and thousands of climbers. As I started to be sent photos of this new area in Cadarese I realised the rumours were true. Long, perfect pitches of splitter cracks in beautiful gneiss are set in quiet woodland just an hour or so away from Milan. A trip was planned and just a few days ago I got on a plane to find out for myself.

Photo: Saro Costa I persuaded Canadian crack legend Jean-Pierre Ouellet known as “Peewee” to join me on the trip as I knew this place with it’s mulitple 8a crack pitches could be combined with a trip to Orco for some more hard crack climbing. Photographer Alex Ekins has also joined us to bring his blend of Onion-based cooking and superb photography…

Arriving in Cadarese on the first day with low cloud and drizzle, we were somewhat dejected. However, after a tour from two local climbers (thanks Saro and David!) we were shown that this crag is still totally climbable in wet weather. What a dream crag for a Brit! We quickly got stuck into some warm-ups which strangely involved bolted crack climbing. I’m not really going to pass judgement on how they’ve done things here, but it was certainly a weird experience doing a 30m hand crack with only 10 quickdraws on my harness. Perhaps if we had more of this in the UK our crack climbing skills would be better??

A bunch of crack lovers in paradise. Perfetto! (Photo: Saro Costa) The highlight of my first day was doing an amazing steep 7b+ changing corners finger crack, which went at about E6 6b on perfect friend 1′s and 0.5′s. This pitch itself could rival some of the very best crack climbing in Yosemite and I started to realise why recent visitors to Cadarese include Tommy Caldwell, Yuji Hirayama, Nico Favresse and the other mental belgians to name a few.

In the afternoon of the second day, I really wanted to try a route that I’ve heard talked about for a few years now. Turkey Crack was introduced to me as a project by an Italian friend; he told me of an incredible offwidth roof crack that a number of people had tried but no one had yet freed. I was psyched to hear this, but at the time I was training for Century Crack, so my priorities lay elsewhere. When I eventually heard that Sean O’driscoll (the mad Belgian bigwaller) had completed the task I was a bit disappointed, but I knew that I was my own fault for not being more proactive.

Wide Pony from out of the closet once more. Why not? Tying in at the start of the route I had some big friends, a full tape job and a vague promise that I might be able to get some Wide Pony action – what more can a man want?! The route travels through a perfect 6 inch roof crack that splits an 80 degree ceiling of rock. At the lip, you’re aware of the exposure as the ground lies 300ft below you – such a position! Climbing the route was a real pleasure and reminded me why I started offwidth climbing in the first place and the cherry on the top was to climb this 8a onsight. afterwards it was great to help the Italian guys with improving their technique and passing on some of the tips that I’ve learnt over the recent years. It’s so motivating to see other people come round to thinking that climbing hard offwidths is something that’s kind of cool to do.





Source: Tom Randall Climbing

[Fiend]

Tom you are a total beast, nice one. Have a great trip and please keep updating about it.

[comPiler]

Italian Trad Cracks: Part II
19 April 2013, 1:22 pm

Over the last week, Peewee, Alex Ekins and I have continued on the mission of trying out some of Italy’s finest crack climbing. Since arriving in Cadarese, I was immediately impressed with how good the quality was and after talking to the locals, I realised there were many hard crack routes that I’d never even heard of!

Meeting David Bacci, Saro Costa and Hattori Hanzo in Cadarese. Good fun! After a couple of days warming up on the cracks at Cadarese, Peewee and I went up to try an amazing splitter finger crack called The Doors, 8a+. This route didn’t even get a chance to disapppoint – not even for a single second. It’s an amazing 45m slightly overhanging finger crack that takes in almost every size possible (despite being a finger crack!) and holds back suitors with three brilliant cruxes. Climbing The Doors has to be one of my favourite climbing experiences; hard enough to be absorbing but not too difficult that you couldn’t enjoy it’s beauty and variation.

Matteo making the first trad ascent of The Doors. Brilliant! Wondering what to do next, I asked some locals about suggestions for other good finger cracks and time and time again I heard the name “Profundo Rosso” an 8a+ that Yuji Hirayama had climbed during his trip in 2011. Heading down to the crag the next morning, I couldn’t believe how good the line looked – yes it had bolts in it, no it wasn’t a perfect splitter, but I loved the tsunami wave of rock that it split. Sometimes, ugly is good.

That’s where these Five Ten pads go, right? Head-barring? (Photo: Alex Ekins) Starting off on the pitch, I had a rude awakening on the offwidth start; oh dear how rusty my handstacking and kneelock technique felt. After 40ft though, it narrows back to hands, but then starts to kick back to a much steeper angle. At the steepest section it pinches down to single isolated finger locks and some occasional edges to rest your poor skin on. Committing to the upper section, I felt reasonably at home and decided to ignore my doubts that I’d not be onsighting 8a+ today. At the last bolt I was faced with the dilemma of which hand to lead into the final finger lock – agh, right or left? Right or left? Lactic acid left me little choice and I stabbed upwards with intuition. I hit lucky and the choice was the right one. I reached up over the top of the crack towards to the belay and found a horrendous sloping pocket….. Dangling on the rope moments later I wondered if I’d made a bad choice, but searching around I found a hidden hold that I’d never have spotted. Oh well! I returned to finish the route the following day on the way to Orco Valley – overall a touch harder than The Doors and perhaps mid 8a+?

Coming back to Orco Valley after 2 years away has been a strange experience. I’d sort of got the “Orco Bug” out of my system, but within 5 miles of valley driving and constant spying of new lines to do I have been drawn in again. This valley is so good, I honestly think it’s the best trad climbing destination in the whole of Europe. Peewee is here with me to do Greenspit and I’m keen to work on two projects. One is the “Pura Pura” Project which I dreamt up a few years back where a long hard crack boulder problem is linked into an 8b roof crack route to create a Dani Andrada style mega 8b+/c crack route. Sure it’s ridiculous, but why not?! The second is a steep finger crack that Pete Whittaker and I have spent a couple of seasons trying, but not succeeded on. Hopefully this last winter’s cellar training will pay off….

Rest day climbing in Orco Valley. (Photo: Alex Ekins)



Source: Tom Randall Climbing

[comPiler]

Italian Trad Cracks: Part III
25 April 2013, 7:50 pm

Each time that I book a trip to Europe for climbing, I get so excited. I dream of perfect lines, quality rock and sunny weather. These three factors are what keep you  motivated during the long dark winter months slogging away on the training. There’s an ultimate reward for your sacrifice made at the altar of polyurethane resin and sanded wooden rungs. Not this time though. On one account I feel let down. Although the first two weeks of our trip to Italy were somewhat marred by rain on the odd day, it was negotiable. Our arrival in Orco Valley for the second week however, marked a  change in luck. In Orco, Peewee was there to try Greenspit and I wanted to do a link-up project and an unclimbed finger crack that I’ve tried for a couple of years now.   Going back to Greenspit with Peewee was great fun and kind of relived a period of my life. Getting back on the route with Peewee brought back all the memories of good times, frustrated failures and stupid antics with Sheffield mates on the belay. Each jam seemed like an old friend that I’d not seen for ages. All a bit weird, but that’s how it felt.    After showing Peewee some (decidedly dodgy!) beta, I set to work on trying a link up project I’d conjured up a while back called the “Pura Pura Project.”  It links hard low-level 8a+ crack climbing into 8b route crack, with the crux right at the end. If Dani Andrada knew what a crack was, I’m sure he would approve. Maybe?! After some work, I did the first section named “The Green Shadow” and started to think about how the whole thing would feel. By that stage a rest day was top of the list as my arms, shoulders and skin were showing signs of wear. Before taking the needed rest, I wanted to squeeze in a quick bit of time on the finger crack project that Pete and I have tried in previous years. I coud see that the weather was forecast to get a little worse for 2 days, so I ignored the temptation to pace myself and knew time logged on the project would be worth it. The line I wanted to try is a short, but steep and powerful finger crack. It starts at 45 degrees, hits a roof, then kicks back to 30 degrees, before attacking a final offwidth roof crack. Traditionally I’ve not been that  great at really powerful climbing, so I was curious to see how my winter’s training had paid off. There were two moves at the crux on powerful finger locks that I’d not even been able to do in isolation in previous years, so this was potentially a great litmus test for improvement.   Pulling into the crux sequence again, two years later, I was still dismayed by the size of the holds. The first finger lock was even poorer than I remembered, but the second matched my expectations. Frigging the gear and moves, I pulled into position to try the dyno crux off the finger lock as a starting point. Holy crap – I could do it! I didn’t expect that. Where my arms wilted in previous years, I now had a morsel of power to do something with. What a revelation. I’m sure that there are plenty of other endurance-based climbers out there like me, who will understand how amazing it is to feel – for once in your life – that there’s some muscle fibres actually doing you a favour! I was like a drug to my ego and my confidence surged. Not long after I had the even harder move setting up into the dyno done and then even whole sequences started to flow.   Feeling positive about our progress in Orco – I’d got some good links, Peewee was cruising on Greenspit – we finally allowed ourselves the rest day. That day marked the turn in weather. At first it drizzled, then it poured and finally it snowed. Everything was drenched – even the roofs were soaked. Morale plummeted as Peewee wallowed in back-to-back double expressos and I, in my jumbo pack of salted peanuts. He was developing caffeine induced twitch every time the word Greenspit was mentioned and I got slowly fatter. Even our photographer Alex Ekins, was chanting in the corner of the bedroom obsessively polishing his lenses. Before we fell into a crack-deprived coma, we pulled ourselves from the depths of despair to make a decision on what we were to do with our last two days in Italy. We’d not climbed a route for 4 days and time felt so precious. As a last resort we decided to return to Cadarese to either try an unrepeated 8b crack route called “Clenched Teeth” or at the very worst do some training laps on some perma-dry bolted cracks. Adrian Samarra from Hotaches Films had joined us by this stage so I think he was a little relieved that he’d be able to film something more interesting than me and Peewee discussing whether Nico Favresse or Yuji Hirayama was our ultimate holiday bromance.  Back in Cadarese, we found either mini-waterfalls cascading down our routes or cracks running with water. This left me with only one obvious option; to attempt a 7b+ finger crack in a waterfall (I hate cracks running with water). This climbing scenario actually required some very interesting climbing tactics. You had to wear your chalkbag in the front (or it filled with water), you couldn’t look upwards too much (your eyes filled with water) and no horizontal crimps were allowed (they were filled with water). Finally making it to the belay after copious amount of falling and 100% effort I was rewarded with a great feeling. It doesn’t really matter sometimes how bad a route is, or what grade it is. As long as you have a good laugh and try hard. What more can you want?! Finally just a 12 hrs before leaving Italy, the rain stopped and we could finally try Clenched Teeth (photo below). After a few hours, I had sore fingers and long links done but alas the redpoint crux as the final move made success unlikely on that last hour. I left Italy happy though – I’d met some great local climbers, visited brilliant crags and got to measure up if my training is heading in the right direction. Hopefully, I’ll be returning again very soon.



Source: Tom Randall Climbing

[comPiler]

The Wimberry Big One; The Prow, Death and Harry Potter
5 May 2013, 10:22 pm

The Saturday that’s just passed has got to be one of my all time best days out on grit. Ever since the day when me, Pete Whittaker and Nige Kershaw went to Millstone and did something like 10 E6-E8s between us (mostly flashed or onsighted), I’ve been wondering when it would be surpassed. I think yesterday finally did that.

The harsh skyline of Wimberry (Rockfax.com) Often when you go out with friends at the crag, one or maybe two of you come away something really ballsy in the bag. It’s just the way it works out. One of you mops up the collective pysche and cashes in, whilst the others are often happy to support and wait their turn some other day. When myself, Pete and Nathan Lee headed up to Wimberry we all had projects that we vaguely hoped we might climb that day, but it all depended on time, temperatures, sequences and luck. By the end of the day though, the planets had aligned and somehow all three of us had succeeded. It’s strange looking back on the day now and it seems with retrospect that as each person succeeded, that made the next person even more motivated and committed. It was like a tsunami of positive gritstone force was rushing up the Wimberry slopes to push gravity the other way.

Walking back down to the car park in the evening, the collective haul was the 3rd ascent (solo) of Order of the Phoenix by Nathan, the 2nd ascent of Appointment with Death by me and the 1st ascent of the Wimberry Prow project by Pete. Bloody hell, that boy can climb! I don’t really want to steal their own respective stories which I’m sure they’re keen to share, so I’ll recall a few thoughts of my own from repeating Appointment with Death.

Sam on the first ascent of his Wimberry E9 (Photo: Adam Long) I was first introduced to Sam Whittaker’s route (AwD) on the HXS film that someone bought me for Christmas one year. I think I was climbing about E1 at the time and was utterly horrified as I watched this nutter claw his way up Wimberry using tiny gritstone pebbles for his hands and feet. It seemed inconceivable that someone could do that in a position of such danger. I could barely hold onto big crimps on a gently leaning wall, so that piece of footage lodged firmly in my mind.

Fast-forwarding 10 years I have just completed a winter of unusual training methods. Mono-boarding has become the replacement for evening TV sessions, hours of crack campussing have hardened my index fingers’ skin & I discovered some important mental tricks. Combined, those factors meant that pebbles were now my friends, my skin no longer hurt and I knew how to disassociate effectively. That said, I was still the relative weakling that all my friends know me as, but there were small forces on my side now!

After a couple of sessions on the route working the moves, I realised that the lead was inevitable, but success was not. Something really bothered me about the route and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. The night before going up to Wimberry, I had the most terrible night’s sleep. I woke up twice drenched in sweat thinking about the route. I switched on my phone and googled some images of Sam Whittaker on the route. Typing the search terms into the entry box, I realised the problem. Sam had pulled a totally brilliant trick on the mind – the obsessive nature of a climber will always lead them to mull the route name over and over again in their head. In doing that the climber also unwittingly takes on the subtle reference to what might happen if it all goes wrong. It had slipped in there, so slyly I’d hardly noticed it. My problem was that for the first time in my life I was thinking about dying on a route!

The Wimberry Voodoo doll lying at the bottom of the crag not really helping matters. In the early hours of the morning I had to switch my brain back into the realms of reality. I wasn’t going to die on the route – not by a long way. Sure, if it went really badly wrong I might break a leg but that’d only be if I was unlucky. Objectively the route had to be no worse than many other gritstone frightners. It was tricks of the mind. Or was it weakness of the mind?

Part 2; continued to tomorrow. (Or this post will get very long!)



Source: Tom Randall Climbing