[Johnny Brown]

Wasn't the story that Dawes failed on a Stoney E3 the same day as doing one of his grit desperates? No surprise really - horses for courses.

Personally I am loving the way he has gone about this, the three Macs could learn a lot - our first post-modern rock-star? Please tell me Andy F is in on the joke...

[nik at work]

I remember badly failing to second Scoop Wall(?) at Stoney and getting quite annoyed about it. A couple of other gents at the crag were offering words of encouragement and when I got back to the bottom of the crag we got chatting, I was still muttering about how desperate it was and they were very kindly saying the right things, you know "tough for the grade", "easy to get caught out" etc. Then they asked how many E2's I'd done previously. To which I said none, as at the time I hadn't done any. They replied "Oh well that's not to bad then, I mean what's the last route you did?"

Well I did Monopoly a couple of days ago.

Hilarity ensued...

I don't care whether it's E10 or not, it looks hard and if he thinks finger in the air guess that E10 is something like the grade then that's all fine and dandy by me. Even if there is a bit of "this'll get 'em going" in the mix...

And Dylan stop posting on forums and send me an email

[SA Chris]

I remember a very young Franco banging on about how unethical head pointing was and that onsite was the way forwards. That stopped when he realised he'd have to head point things to get stuff done that was hard for him.

Didn't Bonjoy challenge him to onsight E7 within a certain time or wind his neck in? Wonder if it ever got done?

[Tommy]

Nik & JB, well said.

I love how he's gone about this. He doesn't fit in a box and you can see it irks people. If everyone did everything in a normal manner life would be pretty boring.

[Wood FT]

think this has been repeated judging from coded posts on the other place

[Nibile]

Coded posts?
"They HAVE done it".
A helluva code... 
Curious as a cat right now. Dan Varian?

[Wood FT]

Coded posts?
"They HAVE done it".
A helluva code... 

yeah I gone and red tha da vinchi code and now am well gud code brekker

[Nibile]

 

[Durbs]

New proposed grade following a repeat should be E11 just to see if UKC explodes.

[moose]

If they proposed "E0" the conflation with UKC's favourite thread topic might trigger a singularity - the servers would disappear into a black hole.

[chris j]

It is indeed a tricky code to crack...

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=68270

Birkett did it and proposes E8 but has a special bit of gear that fits the mono to give bomber pro...

[Oldmanmatt]

If they proposed "E0" the conflation with UKC's favourite thread topic might trigger a singularity - the servers would disappear into a black hole.

Most posters on UKC regularly disappear up their own Blackholes...

[Will Hunt]

It looks like a super route and very high (though I think that lens will make it look taller). I love the gorilla in the pad stack!

Franco's always been purposefully antagonistic, and don't we need some good characters in climbing? I was more surprised that some from this Parish took the bait so readily.

[shark]

Andy F picked a good time to go on holiday...

[kingholmesy]

Andy F picked a good time to go on holiday...

 

[andy popp]

Seems like the boy done good.

[Grubes]

Strange Franco is still getting a load of shit on the other channel over the grade When Dave birket said the grade was not too far out for the style he climbed it.

But then I guess it should be expected again James Pearson still gets shit over there for the promise grade however many years later.

[moose]

Most of the comments I've seen are pretty complimentary to Franco - I suspect most people are amazed that it wasn't a Si O Connor style wind-up (or at most, a cunningly photographed E6 micro-route). 

The opprobrium seems mainly to be aimed at Andy F, although, even with Franco's grade proving to be roughly accurate, I still think Andy F was right.  I don't think he ever said it definitely wasn't E10.... more that Franco's track record (or, lack of) meant such a claim should be taken with a pinch of salt.  I notice that Andy hasn't been able to resist re-visiting the thread... even though he's on holiday in Turkey!  Christ knows why he's bothering - the original thread descended into armchair V-Differ's accusing him of being hateful and bitter - a saying about not wrestling pigs comes to mind.

[SA Chris]

I noticed this link too

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=52917

Moose, have you ever met Franco

[moose]

I did wonder that....... if I have met Franco it was unknowingly and I am pretty sure I have never slagged him off (obscure moorland climbs have never really piqued my interest).  Anyway, I might often be a twat, but I am rarely a hypocrite!

[andy popp]

Moose, have you ever met Franco

I haven't met Franco either, but I realized just last year that I've known his mum for ages.

[SA Chris]

"known"?

[Fiend]

Couldn't you have persuaded her to restrict his internet access??

[Danny]

Well done to both ascensionists.

For better and worse, this has been an interesting wee saga for British climbing. Someone  recently observed that Ondra has succeeded in making 9b boring and, dare I say it, whilst his achievements are clearly incomparably impressive, they can be sort of boring.

The fact that we can engage in so much spray and chatter about 10 grubby meters of esoteric sandstone is a bit weird, yes, but at least it makes climbing a little more interesting.

One thing I don't quite understand is why anyone should be required to tour the country repeating routes in order to offer a high grade. That seems strangely prescriptive.
Yes, you'll probably have a better idea, but I see no problem in offering a grade with caveats.
In any case, we all do enough bouldering these days to be able to give a decent guesstimate of cruxes on these kind of routes. The danger bit is often a vague guess, even for the experienced.     



   

[Fiend]

Cookson managed to make internet trolling boring (makes me yearn for the days of Si Connor) AND the North York Moors seem laughable despite the hard routes he's put up.

Ondra might be a 9b production line but these days most things I see and hear from him just gives me good vibes.