[SamT]

Chip Shop Brawl platform in good nick on Saturday. Added a bit of snow, and given the size of it I'm sure it will stick around for a few days yet.

Hmm - not so sure.

Sunday was positively equatorial and it was the air temp that was high - not just in the sun.  Burbage last night was pretty devoid of any snow and the one or two clumps still about were almost visibly melting.  My companion had been at burbage on saturday and reckoned it had gone down about 5 foot or more since saturday.

[ellis]

Caught the end of the party on Saturday with Wolf Solent and Typhoon Direct. Anyone else do Youth Meat start? Good problem, but hard, maybe a 7. Used poor pocket for R hand though guide talks about L.

[r-man]

Chip Shop Brawl platform in good nick on Saturday. Added a bit of snow, and given the size of it I'm sure it will stick around for a few days yet.

Hmm - not so sure.

Sunday was positively equatorial and it was the air temp that was high - not just in the sun.  Burbage last night was pretty devoid of any snow and the one or two clumps still about were almost visibly melting.  My companion had been at burbage on saturday and reckoned it had gone down about 5 foot or more since saturday.

Blimey. On Sunday, we were shivering in down jackets at Rowtor. From what i hear though, most of the Burbage snow was already gone by the weekend?

[masonwoods101]

Heard from a mate on Sunday there was still snow at Stanage far left.... Gonna try chip shop brawl (hopes are low for snow but shall post...)

[205Chris]

For anyone who's interested but not seen it yet.

How many UKBers can you spot?

[tomtom]

Superb Chris.

[old cheese]

Excellent vid Chris. Almost sad that I missed all of the action by being in the sunshine in font!

[crimp]

Any chance of putting this on you tube?

Can't get vimeo on me phone.

Cheers

[Johnny Brown]

Fucking brilliant, its not often I get through a vid without fast-forwarding most of it. Time for a bump to the UKB frontpage?

[205Chris]

Thanks for the comments folks.

Adge - It's currently uploading to Youtube but due to the size of the file / my dire internet connection it's predicting around 3 hours. I'll post a link when it's done.

[crimp]

Thanks Chris.

Appreciated. I miss out on loads of vids. When i need new phone, have to make sure it supports vimeo.

[Duma]

Nice one Chris, love your reaction on Shine On, and 7:20 "I wouldn't slap to it but it's ok"... SLAP, and 13:20 both made me laugh.

I got:
you
B3n99
Gritlad
Oli Grounsell
bonjoy
mark20
sure there must be at least a couple more

[rich d]

Brilliant 

[205Chris]

Wow, didn't expect it to make the front page.

Adge - Here's the youtube link, hope you enjoy it:

Duma - Thanks, felt like a proper YYFY moment on Shine On. It's a route I've always wanted to do since being stood beneath the start of BAW's crawl, the HVS to the right years ago but never thought I'd have the ability / balls / skill to do it as an E7 in good style. Having failed a few days previously (it's hard to see in the vid but on that first fall I missed the mats and landed waist deep in snow!) I knew my chances were limited before the snow went. All the shoveling you see us do at the start is actually after the ascent!
I was a bit annoyed as I had some footage of you on it but turned my camera off just before your actual ascent.

I think Nan making the ascent of Weather Report is the only main one you missed

[andy popp]

Fantastic ending, beautifully captured. What's the last track?

[205Chris]

Fantastic ending, beautifully captured. What's the last track?

Thanks Andy. It's Karine Polwart - Cover Your Eyes

[crimp]

 

Hi Chris

sorry to be a nuisance. Can you enable youtube for mobile viewing.

Thanks

Adge

[nik at work]

Great video, I also watced it through without going anywhere near the FF button.

A quick question for the snowballing massive. I don't want to sound like a twat (although I think I probably will) but I remember a while back reading a piece JB had written about how he once headpointed a route (Piece of Mind??) and how it was a hollow experience for him and in retrospect he wished he hadn't done it and had instead waited to be able to onsight it. I can see that snowballing is different to that but I was wondering if there was any of the same sense? As obviously an element of the challenge of these routes has been diminished to some extent (a point acknowledged at the end of the film). Just to be clear I ask this question not in a sneery or critical way, just out of interest.
I have been in a similar situation to JB where I have regretted headpointing routes, but equally I have been very glad to have headpointed some routes. So now the snows gone do any of you retrospectively wish you'd saved one or two of the routes for a "proper" ascent?
NOTE: This isn't the fore-runner to some long ethical and stylistic debate (or at least I hope it isn't) just idle curiosity.

[Duma]

Think it depends on your ambitions. I'd never have done these climbs, and had no real ambition to, without the snow, so no, I'm just chuffed to have got the chance experience some great climbing I wouldn't have otherwise. Perhaps if you did aspire to ground up them as routes it would feel like a soft option, but surely still stylistically superior to a headpoint I'd guess.

[205Chris]

Hi Chris

sorry to be a nuisance. Can you enable youtube for mobile viewing.

Thanks

Adge

Unless I'm being a muppet youtube has disabled viewing for mobiles as a result of some of the tracks that I've used. I will try and sort it or else I'll have to upload it without music so please bear with me.

[205Chris]

Great video, I also watced it through without going anywhere near the FF button.

A quick question for the snowballing massive. I don't want to sound like a twat (although I think I probably will) but I remember a while back reading a piece JB had written about how he once headpointed a route (Piece of Mind??) and how it was a hollow experience for him and in retrospect he wished he hadn't done it and had instead waited to be able to onsight it. I can see that snowballing is different to that but I was wondering if there was any of the same sense? As obviously an element of the challenge of these routes has been diminished to some extent (a point acknowledged at the end of the film). Just to be clear I ask this question not in a sneery or critical way, just out of interest.
I have been in a similar situation to JB where I have regretted headpointing routes, but equally I have been very glad to have headpointed some routes. So now the snows gone do any of you retrospectively wish you'd saved one or two of the routes for a "proper" ascent?
NOTE: This isn't the fore-runner to some long ethical and stylistic debate (or at least I hope it isn't) just idle curiosity.

Hi Nik, good question.

I think it's fair to say (though someone can correct me if I'm wrong) the majority of the snowballing massive are / were boulderers / highballers rather than trad climbers, so like Duma said the snow opens up an opportunity that normally doesn't exist for them.

From a personal perspective I have had a long held ambition to climb the 3 Robin Barker E7s on Stanage (Black Car Burning, Shine On & Unfamiliar). I've been climbing long enough now to know that I'll probably never have the ability to onsight them and while headpointing them was always an option it's something that's never really appealed to me. The option to experience the climbing on Shine On & BCB albeit above snow was for me, too good an opportunity to miss.

So to answer your question: No, I don't regret doing them above snow. In fact I think my experience on Shine On ranks as one of the most memorable ever as having failed on it on my previous sessions I knew I was facing a race against time to climb it before the snow went, which is why I look rather happy when I do it 

[Johnny Brown]

I was away this year and missed most of it, but in total I think I've only done a handful of routes with snow that I hadn't done without. For most of the others, it varied between something so different it wasn't comparable (Ulysses this year) to just a different vibe - eg Goosey Goosey where as a trad route it is a massive pumpy faff (for me anyway) whereas as a snowball it's brilliant, you can just get on with the climbing. I'm sure there are plenty of climbers who would be be much happier leading it though, it was still very high. Horses for courses etc...

One of my problems with headpointing was it always seemed a bit of a selfish style, lots of focus on the hero whilst belayers, spotters etc stand around getting cold and bored. Highball style, whether above snow or not, is far more democratic. You all get a go, you share beta etc, its much more like a skate/ surf scene where you 'session' a spot.

The great thing about the snow for me is the magnitude of the changes it can create overnight, and the drifts are never quite the same twice. For such a developed, recorded area it's a lot like being given a brilliant new crag overnight, in many cases even well established lines can seem illogical. There are a few new 'lines' (eg Snowblind mice) that aren't likely to get repeated in any other style.

[dave]

Great video, I also watced it through without going anywhere near the FF button.

A quick question for the snowballing massive. I don't want to sound like a twat (although I think I probably will) but I remember a while back reading a piece JB had written about how he once headpointed a route (Piece of Mind??) and how it was a hollow experience for him and in retrospect he wished he hadn't done it and had instead waited to be able to onsight it. I can see that snowballing is different to that but I was wondering if there was any of the same sense? As obviously an element of the challenge of these routes has been diminished to some extent (a point acknowledged at the end of the film). Just to be clear I ask this question not in a sneery or critical way, just out of interest.
I have been in a similar situation to JB where I have regretted headpointing routes, but equally I have been very glad to have headpointed some routes. So now the snows gone do any of you retrospectively wish you'd saved one or two of the routes for a "proper" ascent?
NOTE: This isn't the fore-runner to some long ethical and stylistic debate (or at least I hope it isn't) just idle curiosity.

This is a good question Nik. Theres a few routes that I haven't done like archangel or white wand that I could have got on with a couple of mats recently and done the top 2/3rds of without killing myself but i deliberately didn't as I'd rather either do them from the deck as routes or not at all.

The stuff I'm generally psyched for in the snow is stuff like established boulder problems where instead of needing a loads of mats and spotters to sort the landing you can just use two mats (big air for example) or stuff which is way beyond anything I would get on and has a suicide landing normally, and is still technically hard, like say the promise.

The stuff in between these two extremes I'm not that arsed about, like doing E5/6/7s which with snow end up being slightly necky sub-7 highballs. For whatever I can't get that psyched about these, not sure exactly why.

[nik at work]

Thanks for the replies so far, interesting reading.

What's Snowblind Mice?

JB you make an interesting point that the snow/drifting is very variable, such that one seasons snowballed ascent of a given line could actually be very different to another seasons depending on the nature of the snow drifts etc. So a 2015 snowball of Black Car Burning could be a mighty impressive tick whereas the 2014 and 2016 vintages were tamer beasts.

I guess I'm predominately a route climber at heart and several of the lines that get snow-balled I do aspire to climb and I think I'd personally prefer to do (try) them sans snow.

I'm not sure it's as clear cut as headpointing is selfish and ground-upping (snowballing) is democratic. I have had very enjoyable headpoints with partners who are also headpointing the same line, and I've had days trying to on-sight/ground up routes where at the end of the day I've had a brilliant time but there is a nagging doubt that my spotters/belayers might have had less fun (despite their protestations that it was great). But I do take your point and I guess that's all very OT.

Also the idea that the snowballers were on the whole boulderers encroaching on the route climbers domain hadn't really occurred to me, fair point.

Dave I think I have a pretty similar point of view to you by the sounds of things. Maybe next year I'll get amongst it and find out for sure...

[Jaspersharpe]

What a great video.