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John Gaskins interview - the video at last (Read 109825 times)

Schnell

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Wonderful stuff, really enjoyed it. Thanks guys. Great to see what a pleasant and happy sort he seems, I'd presumed he was all joyless dedication.

douglas

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Really interesting to watch. Thanks john.

rainbow

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Brilliant stuff indeed. So humble, and its great to see him look back and still enjoy those past moments. Well done to all involved. Who's next?  :2thumbsup:

dav

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How about Ian Vickers?

Bubba

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John Gill?

tomtom

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John Gill?

Good call.

While we're on the Johns, how about Mr Dunne?

sxrxg

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Malc?

Greg C

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What a legend!!

Has anyone else been on/repeated A Moment of Clarity at Thorn? How tall is it? Surely must be the hardest route on Grit, if it is a route?

Yes other people have been on it, but no one else has climbed MOC up at Thorn and it is most definitely not a boulder problem - its at least 9m (from the grounds lowest point).


Nigel

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Although with modern eyes and if you've tried it on a rope it could arguably be approached as a highball - the hard bit looks to finish at 5m or so and is definitely above a flat landing. Top section looks at a guess to be UK 6a sort of ground, so after practice should be a formality (?!). That said, my definition of "modern eyes" would include 20 pads and loads of spotters. Suspect John had 2 pads max unless he was stashing them at crag. Might be interested to ab this over Xmas Greg, just to see what script is....you may recall that I wanted to ab it that time I went on my own to clean top of ROTF in the mist, but I was too scared! Got overcome, its spooky up there on your own, no-one gonna hear you scream.  John doing MOC on his own must have been terrifying!

andy popp

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Does it go up the flakes on the left side of the arete? Not such a great landing on that side.

Anyway,  it's certainly a thing of beauty.

Monolith

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Got overcome, its spooky up there on your own, no-one gonna hear you scream.

That day at Hyning Wood (I think you said it was?) did something to you didn't it Nige!? I wish I could remember that ghost story.

Greg C

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Does it go up the flakes on the left side of the arete? Not such a great landing on that side.

Anyway,  it's certainly a thing of beauty.

This is an extract from an email John sent me:
Quote
I climbed the arête on its’ right i.e. the Last Temptation side (so more above the flatish and higher ground rather than the jumble of blocks).


I assume John is mixing his right and left up here, but essentially I interpret this as he climbed it on the left side (as viewed in that picture) above the "higher ground" left of the "jumble of blocks". I must say it does always look like you'd be over the blocks almost immediately, never mind after 5m. If you look carefully at that pic above, you can see the flat landing on the left runs out well before it meets the prow/arete and all the holds worth their salt are nearer to the arete.... of course I don't climb technical 8B so I may be way off the mark in my assessment of how you would climb it.

Nigel

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That description doesn't make sense, Last Temptation is on the left! Although assuming a left/right mix-up it would fit with my "mental sequence" which I made up in my head, starting off the higher level of blocks but immediately swinging rightwards, so you're above the flat yet further away landing directly beneath the prow. This did look how it would maybe climb although obviously guessing an 8B grit sequence blind when you don't climb 8B and can't see any holds makes this a bit of a fool's game. Again though this doesn't fit with the description of the "flatish and higher ground"??? Will have to have a look if its dry.

r-man

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    • LANCASHIRE BOULDERING GUIDEBOOK
He said the same to me in an email - sounds like it's on the left:

Quote
a fall would land you on the flat ground on the Last Temptation side of the arête

Greg C

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He said the same to me in an email - sounds like it's on the left:

Quote
a fall would land you on the flat ground on the Last Temptation side of the arête

That makes little sense.... unless you were holding the crack with your LH (?), in which case I wouldn't have thought you could reach  the prow. If the crack was not used the direction in which the (available terrible) holds face suggest you would fall to the right and thus it seems unlikely you'd fall on the flat higher landing? My assumption from various 'viewings' was you would either use Nige's suggested sequence or you would come in from down to the right, i.e. just left of Dr Shippman's.

Eth

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Thanks to all involved for putting this together. Not sure what I was expecting but he came across as a nice chap, quietly going about his business without any fuss. Looking forward to the shed session for some post-Christmas inspiration :strongbench:

Tom de Gay

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That description doesn't make sense, Last Temptation is on the left!
Could he be confusing Last Temptation with Shipman's, rather than his left and right?


Anyway, great interview; thank you.

Jaspersharpe

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Can we have Dunne next please and then Medwards and then Scotty and then Si O.

Correct me if the order is incorrect.

Jaspersharpe

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Nigel, r-man. Greg C. The fact that none of that makes sense or adds up still doesn't make you think anything other than that you need to abb the line to work it out.

Amazing. I'm truly bemused.

cofe

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Finally got round to watching it. Nice one Simon, thanks.

Fiend

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What does it make you think, Jasper?

Ru

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Interesting interview, thanks Simon and Guy. He doesn't look to have aged at all in the 6 years or so since I last met him.

Greg, from the description given of Shadowplay, do you think holds may have broken off? I can't remember much about it from a cursory look about 5 years ago, but I do remember seeing very few holds, even counting tiny ones. John talks about a "series" of sidepulls and layaways to get to a left hand layaway then better holds above. I seem to remember there being only a pair of bad start holds and a single, thin, left hand side pull about 4 feet above them, off which it looked like you had to do a massive move to a right hand matchbox edge (that wasn't very good) then jugs. There may be holds I'm not remembering.

Nigel

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Nigel, r-man. Greg C. The fact that none of that makes sense or adds up still doesn't make you think anything other than that you need to abb the line to work it out.

Amazing. I'm truly bemused.

Well if I'm going to have an opinion (and lets face it that's all it will ever be) one way or the other then I would like it to have some grounding. That's all. With these things if you have a preconceived opinion you can fit the facts to suit your story e.g. left / right mix up = liar! vs left / right mix-up = getting names of Last Temptation and Shipman's Surgery the wrong way round (thanks for pointing out Tom, this could well be the case). Pointing out the glaringly obvious if people are going to call out John's claim on this Thorn Crag thing then they are definitely in the realms of circumstantial evidence, as I know of absolutely no-one who has abbed it. Most haven't even been to Thorn Crag. Yes there is an air of mystery to it and John's description is certainly erroneous in some way, but I would say that's cause to have a look rather than shout him down.

Doylo

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Interesting interview, thanks Simon and Guy. He doesn't look to have aged at all in the 6 years or so since I last met him.

I guess bald people age slower than the rest of us.....

tomtom

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you mean the hairloss part of the ageing process is squeezed into a smaller period - that happens prematurely ;)

 

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