[Wood FT]

Great effort Tom, especially in this month's weather

[comPiler]

Master’s Edge: An Animal’s Perspective
5 February 2013, 10:38 pm

Years and years ago I remember going to Millstone in the Peak District and watching Geraldine Taylor inch her way up London Wall on a summer afternoon. She was clearly having a bit of a battle, but undeterred she carried on over the course of 2 hours and eventually topped out. What impressed me the most, when I approached her afterwards was the fact that she did this almost every year as a celebration of the years passing by. This really inspired me that even though you feel a little more cranky every year, perhaps you should set yourself a benchmark route to go back and lead every year to keep you on top of your game. Something that’s a bit of a challenge and something a bit go’ey. Master’s Edge seemed to fit that bill!

Over the last 4 years (I think that’s the right number?! Or am I getting old?) Pete Whittaker and I have been back to Millstone every year to make an ascent of Master’s Edge. We have a rule that no top roping is allowed, so as to keep the spirit of adventure high. Or my high point low…….

The first year it was carried out in big woolly socks, then the year after in suits and top hats, then as a banana and transvestite last year. Pete’s fruited ascent last year was truly a masterpiece considering the conditions and the fact that I couldn’t even top out that year.



Photo: (c) Joe Malia

This year, we’ve had a pretty harsh run of weather recently and the evening before our planned ascent had Pete and Marie up on the ledges clearing snow in the dark. Pete forgot his prussiks, so had to take his shoe laces off for Marie to use as back up They’d also forgotten any wellies and eventually soaked almost every part of their bodies. All in all, they gave a true sacrifice for the benefit of others on the following day!

We arranged to meet up at lunch time on the Sunday and considering the weather all other planned climbers bailed leaving just Pete and I looking like plonkers in Millstone carpark. There we were, Pete dressed in a smelly gorrilla outfit (it’d been to party previously) and me in a fluffy green crocodile suit. Fortunately, our respective families and a few diehard friends had come along to watch us continue with the ritual.



Photo: (c) Mike Hutton

Warming up on Technical Master was promising, and after Pete had tied back his mask with a few hair clips and I had worked out the counterbalance of my tail, we felt somewhat positive. This year (as with all other years so far) Adam Bailes had “bailed” on us and I had to take the forfeit of the bold start up to the shot holes – Adam, we’re going to get you one of these years!! Continiung on to the top arete, I felt the cold blood of my species drain from my claws and faced with the final moves I sketched a wobbly foot and took my first whipper as a Man-Croc. Back on the ground I complained of feeling a bit out of water, but Pete just grunted at me and rubbed his hairy knuckles.



Photo: (c) Mike Hutton

Ten minutes later, Pete was smeared up on the top arete, his giant gorrilla arms bulging under the stress. Nooooo………… a vision of last year’s banana on the arete crossed his mind and the blood rushed to his stomach. He was off. Back on the ground, you could see the fire in his eyes. He’d let his concetration slip, all for the sake of a measley banana. The next attempt upwards was 100% hairy heart in mouth and there he was on the jug shaking his fist at me. My croco-petitiveness immediately spurred me on with his success and my next attempt I scaled my way upwards with renewed vigour and a little more warm blood (I wasn’t doping, honest gov!). Faced with the final snap for the jug I thought of Steve Irwin and lunged like an African Croc in the Limpopo.



Bring on next year…… Anyone keen?



Source: Tom Randall Climbing

[SA Chris]

Punning is currently frowned upon round these parts. Be warned, no tears for - karma.

[Tommy]

What about crocodile tears?

[SA Chris]

So you got the joke then!

[tomtom]

So you got the joke then!

No need to be snappy...

[andyd]

Looks like The wideboys will be on look north between 6.30-7 tonight

[comPiler]

Back on The Crack Horse
8 March 2013, 10:03 pm

It often seems to be the way with me, that just as I feel like I’ve had a little bit of a break-through, I get injured. It’s happened time and time again over the years. This time, just one day after doing My Kai and Master’s Edge I injured myself fingerboarding.

I was training down in my cellar doing some assisted one-arm hangs in safe grip positions. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Then, I had this sudden urge to see what my max full-crimp hang score was….Why?? I really don’t know. Thirty seconds later I had a sharp pain down my forearm and I knew it was game over for a while.

Bad chin day. Over the years I’ve been injured far more times that I’d like to admit to myself. It’s been absolutely soul crushing sometimes, but over time I’ve learnt a really useful skill: sideways motivation deflection. Every bit of psyche that I’ve got I’ll plough with total energy into what I can do without affecting my particular injury. The list of “sideways deflection” results during the last 5 years probably now reads as the few things that I’m actually quite good at; offwidthing, hand jamming, pinky hangs, core conditioning, and index monos.

Back when the cool kids did core conditioning, not deadhanging. The ferocity at which I end up training and obsessing about these things have only been equal to the frustration that I’ve had in not being able to do “normal climbing.” So where did this leave me after the latest blow up?

After 2 weeks of total rest, I spent some time testing what I was able to do on rock. I could do some pretty intense climbing on very steep rock (big holds on >45 degrees) and any amount of finger crack climbing. With hindsight, I can look at this injury as being a good thing as it reminded me of two goals this year. My Blackers Hole Projects and an Italian Trad climbing trip to Cadarese and Orco in April. With those in mind, I was back focused and happy!

Firstly, I booked off a little time to spend down at Blackers Hole reaquainting myself with how pumped you can get on big holds. It’s totally mind boggling really as there’s hardly a crimp down there, but within 60ft your arms are exploding. It was brilliant fun though, finding that I could climb with no pain on such big holds, yet still explore a couple of new routes in the E9-10 range. Very, very psyched for this.

Heading up on Infinite Gravity. The new route breaks out from this into beefy and bold territory. (Photo: Oli Grounsell) The second half of my motivation has been directed towards making new steps forward in my crack climbing again. Pete Whittaker and I have come up with some devious ideas and some devious training methods! I love making these sorts of plans with Pete as he’s partly mad and fuels the fire for some insanely tough and unique training sessions. I’ve built around 40ft of new finger crack that’s got some amazing link ups and problems up to….. er….. well, quite a horrible grade.

Flappers don’t come in the usual places now.   So for over a month, I’ve been slogging it down to Blackers Hole and sweating away down in my cellar, with just a small dinosaur shaped paddling pool (and occasionally Pete) to keep me company. Last 10 days though, I finally felt like my injury was starting to not hurt on problems less than V6ish, so I headed out for a few days with the very talented Oli Grounsell and did The Bad and The Beautiful E7 6b, Fat Slapper E7 6c, Peas of Mind E6 6a and a rather nice 7c+/8a finger crack in Cheddar Gorge called Bursting the Wave.

Flashing Peas of Mind at Curbar. Can’t be more than E5 6a though. (Photo: Wild Country)



Source: Tom Randall Climbing

[comPiler]

Speak The Truth
13 March 2013, 8:50 am

Every winter in the UK you inevitably spend a lot of time training indoors avoiding the typically unreliable weather. It’s probably one of the main ways that we as Brits, can stay motivated. We’re slowly getting stronger and fitter during the dark months and all the while you can tell your mates about what routes you’re going to do when it stops raining (yeah, right) and of course browse the guidebooks.

As a trad climber, guidebooks are one of my main sources of inspiration. I absolutely love them. I suspect most people have a nice Tom Clancy novel next to their bed – I have most of the BMC guides with little bits of paper stuck in them! These bits of paper refer to constantly evolving ticklists and ones that contain some totally unrealistic goals and others not so…

Having been able to get out a bit more recently, I’ve found myself trawling through the guidebooks looking up things that I tend to shy away from when I’m a bit rusty. Bold routes, any aretes and anything that’s at Curbar. One route that ticks two of the boxes is Speak The Truth, an E7 6b at Hallmoor Quarry. I remember seeing a video of someone climbing this years ago and thinking I’d never do that (i.e. the bold soloing) but recently 2 things changed my opinion. One, was that Pete Whittaker had been out and flashed the route and secondly that Ethan Walker and Sam Hamer had headpointed it in the last few days, so most likely there would be plenty of chalk on the route. To further bolster my confidence, they’d posted a video up on youtube with a (hopefully?!) perfect sequence repeated twice before the camera.

With this in mind, I convinced my wife that post-night shifts she’d like to come out and spot me doing “a nice easy climb that Pete said was ace.” Poor her. There she was lugging a bouldering mat through thigh-deep brambles on a weekday morning – Thanks Kim! As I sat at the base of the route, I wondered about two things;

1.  Was Pete’s flash and casual remarks about ease of climbing to be relied on? Shame I couldn’t get him to demo to me one-handed in a pair of Five Ten trainers to show me how it really was a piece of piss. Ok, just trust Pete. He knows how crap at aretes I am. He’d not have recommended it otherwise.

2. Was Ethan and Sam’s sequence any good? Both those boys climb some big numbers and my long term sieges on V8′s isn’t exactly up with their quick V11 ticking. Hmmmmm…. but they both did it quickly. Maybe they’re Arete Jedi Monkeys? Hmmmmmm…. doubts were creeping in.

Ah sod it. Can’t be doubting myself now.

I put my boots on, quickly chalked up and thought I’d just do the first sequence of moves to take my mind off it. Ok yup, feet up and smear high. Not quite as easy as I was hoping. I’m stood up now, high enough that I’m a little scared. I look down. No…. don’t do that. Eyes up. Good hold on the arete. Yes. Good holds. Right, take them hard, and run feet up. I can see better holds higher. Surely this is the “little boulder problem” that Pete talked of. Feet so high it’s getting scary. Move my hands quickly up the arete to counterbalance. Shit. That’s not great. Just two foot moves until a good hold. They’re sandy. Ugh. Don’t cock this up. I’m totally crapping my pants. Holds reached, but I’m so gripped I’ve started cramping in my foot and I’m overgripping on everything. Relax. RELAX. Pretty much all out blind panic. I can’t really think any more and I go autopilot just to top out.

Point of no return Thank God for that. It’s over.

Sitting back down at the base I mull over the route in my mind. I was so gripped and the route is so much my anti-style (insecure, balancy and not a crack in sight) that I realise that probably this route is really rather easy. I’d been right about my earlier assumptions – I’d simply not realised how much I has batting off the wrong foot.

Back in autopilot. The more I thought about this route and some others that I’ve done recently, I came to the conclusion that it’s about time that someone spoke out about how ridiculous some of the grades on grit are. Over on 8a.nu they’re always banging on about the “personal grade” thingy and how it will lead to a better consensus. Why don’t we really do it on trad? Sure, the ego can get in the way and you’d love to take the Man Points, but surely the buck has to stop somewhere? Someone has to take the hit, downgrade all their best stuff and be honest. Well, that’s going to be me. I’m going to sacrafice my ticklist so we’ll no longer think that Nosferatu is really E6 and Profit of Doom is E4.



Time to load up the excel spreadsheet….



Source: Tom Randall Climbing

[Wood FT]

Nice one on the flash, classy arete.

Maybe it is piss but it's alright to pat yourself on the back sometimes. I'm sure there's some low grade pig that's had you before so I hope your ticklist editing goes both ways!

[SA Chris]

Time to load up the excel spreadsheet….

AKA can of worms.

[Bonjoy]

Profit of Doom E3!!??

[Fiend]

E7 for onsight without any pads *.

Beta-flash with pads gonna feel easier.

Sounds like it had high E-grade terror anyway...

Plus you're probably talking shite about not being good at aretes



* Probably a bit of an issue here with gritstone grading on ROUTES not being adapted for pads. I.e. for highballs like, errr, I dunno, Careless Torque, grading as settled down as highball grades, usually with plenty of pads. For full routes like this with only a couple of pads, the system still hasn't adapted fully....doesn't make it a highball but does make it a bit easier than snapping limbs on the hard ground. Who knows maybe it is time for grit grades to assume 2 pads (leader and belayer's) for any ascent, as surely that is the default state of protection 

[Jaspersharpe]

What Bonjoy said!

[Tom de Gay]

Enigma on first (treeless) ascent, on a humid afternoon in August '99

Note the worse landing, lack of pads and obligatory British spot.


Having said that, I wouldn't argue with E6. It's an easier proposition than Ulysees.

[Tommy]

No! Profit of Doom should be E5!! There's quite a few upgrades out there needed too.

I'm horrified that you'd think I'd go for E3 

[Jaspersharpe]

Thank fuck for that I thought the world had gone mad.

[T_B]

Good effort. But be honest, anyone who has watched the vids of speak the truth, who is into that sort of thing, would consider it to be an obvious flashable 'E7'. If something is quarried, has positive edges, and there are videos to watch.. it will feel easier than a natural grit route of the same grade. Simples.

(I personally never watch either Nathan Lee or Willackers's videos  )

[Tommy]

Good effort. But be honest, anyone who has watched the vids of speak the truth, who is into that sort of thing, would consider it to be an obvious flashable 'E7'. If something is quarried, has positive edges, and there are videos to watch.. it will feel easier than a natural grit route of the same grade. Simples.

(I personally never watch either Nathan Lee or Willackers's videos  )

I disagree Tom (although, I see what you're saying). I think that everyone who says that "x-grade" is flashable is tacitly saying that they've heard on the grapevine that something is soft or not the grade that it's given. You only have to listen to the number of people down the wall saying they're going to try and flash Nosferatu, Life Assurance, Slackers, Power of the Dark Side, Jasmine, Traveller in Time, Winters Grip etc etc.

Then on the flip side you have others that no one ever dares to say they're going to flash as they know they're desperate for the grade/the grade above!

[Johnny Brown]

Good effort. But be honest, anyone who has watched the vids of speak the truth, who is into that sort of thing, would consider it to be an obvious flashable 'E7'. If something is quarried, has positive edges...

I don't remember any positive edges on Speak the Truth, though it is a long time since I top-roped it. Great moves I do remember.

[Nigel]

Good effort. But be honest, anyone who has watched the vids of speak the truth, who is into that sort of thing, would consider it to be an obvious flashable 'E7'. If something is quarried, has positive edges, and there are videos to watch.. it will feel easier than a natural grit route of the same grade. Simples.

(I personally never watch either Nathan Lee or Willackers's videos  )

I disagree Tom (although, I see what you're saying). I think that everyone who says that "x-grade" is flashable is tacitly saying that they've heard on the grapevine that something is soft or not the grade that it's given. You only have to listen to the number of people down the wall saying they're going to try and flash Nosferatu, Life Assurance, Slackers, Power of the Dark Side, Jasmine, Traveller in Time, Winters Grip etc etc.

Then on the flip side you have others that no one ever dares to say they're going to flash as they know they're desperate for the grade/the grade above!

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.

[reeve]

Although routes that are soft for their grade are obviously going to be more flashable for their grade, surely there are lots of other variables that make a route more suitable for an onsight / flash / groundup approach? Things I'd look for would be positive holds, absence of knacky / fluffable climbing styles, and it being fairly safe (but not too safe - those are the hard ones, and some element of being scared gets you more E-points).

FWIW Tom (Randall) you are obviously correct i.e. flashable usually does mean soft, given that the grade is for an onsight...

Without any first hand experience to draw on, I will confidently assert that I actually think a lot of routes in the hard-to-onsight category are probably equivalent to other routes of their grade for headpointing.

...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.

Ain't it the truth

[TobyD]

...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.

Ain't it the truth

Profit of Doom vs Strapadictomy ... i wonder which one is more often flashed, hmm? Historically E4 and 5 respectively. I'm sure any number of examples can be wheeled out.

[Fiend]

You only have to listen to the number of people down the wall saying they're going to try and flash Nosferatu, Life Assurance, Slackers, Power of the Dark Side, Jasmine, Traveller in Time, Winters Grip etc etc.

Stacks o' pads. Made a lot of difference to Jasmine and fuck all to Profit.

[Nigel]

They do make a lot of difference in some cases, although that is a bit of a side issue. For instance your example of Jasmine - this has always been soft for E6 (i.e. probably E5) even without pads. Pads make no difference on Life Assurance either but that's still soft. Pads do make a difference on Ulysses but when you're up there, not as much as you'd like! Your point does stand obviously, I'm just trying to lead you away from a well worn but diversionary drum.

I guess the fact is that there are "big" routes and "little" ones. But like I said I don't think this is news to anyone with eyes is it? It works throughout the spectrum, not just at the upper end. Hands up whose first E3 was Right Eliminate (hello is that John Allen at the back??). Now hands up for Canoe.