[comPiler]

drawings
26 November 2013, 4:06 pm

A1 drawings, charcoal, tape, crayon, tippex and graphite. Submitted as part of my PhD research. Made on a trip to Fontainebleau in 2013.

Click to view slideshow. 



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

evening song
5 December 2013, 12:23 pm



Happy to say I have climbed ‘evening song’ up on Carn Brea, which I think is the FA. It’s the longstanding sit start project to ‘evening son’. It adds about 7 moves to the original stand up. I have a video if anyone fancies buying me a pint for the beta, its complex! Gradewise It’s somewhere in the 7b/7c bracket. Its been mooted as a possible 7c, but it did feel easier to me once I had the right beta.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

Trencrom
30 January 2014, 5:09 pm

‘

Crow Over’ 7a+, Trencrom, West Penwith. Really very good arete problem, starts with hands chest high on flakes.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

Carn Brea
2 February 2014, 8:05 pm



Thanks to Adam for filming it and posting on YT. Obviously it’s not the 3rd assent (ascent). The problem is ‘the bloodstone arete’. I don’t know who did the first ascent? For a long time there was a cheat-stone which facilitated a hop into a mantle. Barney Carver dispatched the cheat-stone down the hill some years ago making it much harder. The proliferation of boulder mats, sometimes even stacked! started to make it easier again. This annoyed some people, so its now been done from the ground, without starting on a mat, via the hop and mantle and as shown in this video, starting from the right from the ground without a hop.

 video shows Barney climbing the original version.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

Porthleven studio
11 May 2014, 5:08 pm



Porthleven studio, art and training, filmed by Graham Gaunt in 2013.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

marks and slopers
12 May 2014, 9:00 am

After printing out some text for my PhD, I was struck by the reproduction of the above image. The sloper on the boomerang boulder, the crux of my recent attempts to traverse the boulder.I used the image to illustrate the role of the chalk marks as trace or residue of performance. I was also drawing on an analogy of bouldering being akin to the ‘event’ described by Harold Rosenberg’ in ‘The American Action Painters’ (1952). To extend this comparison it could be argued that the climber is inhabiting the event, the boulder problem and directing all his or her energies, intelectual, emotional and physical. The event is an embodied experience. 



The reproduction of the hold after printing took on an abstract quality, losing definition. The rock planes and surfaces became softer, more tonal. I began to think that they would make good drawings or paintings as well as being specific references or reprentations of boulders.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

Bits and bobs, from vimeo
26 May 2014, 12:29 pm

Currently putting together a new website and coming across old stuff. Spent a good evening session at Godrevy last week, messing around on cracked pot, sand levels were very low around trigonometry, that and high sand in the bowling alley spoiled my aims of projecting. Its such a fickle spot though, stuff falling down, holds changing.

Strange seeing problems that are no longer there, be-day is no more and Ur Hot has gone as well.

F 



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

topos
26 May 2014, 1:58 pm

I’ve put together a list of online topos. The first three are all very old and from the blocspenwith site, which no longer exists. They are out of date and not all that good, but at least they exist. The clodgy topo is much better and is the work of Barney Carver. The Rusty Peg topo of Priests Cove is also good as is the Tintagel topo.

Info for West Cornwall is pretty sparse, good or bad who knows, but there is little chance of that changing in the near future. Boulder Britain gives a smattering of info, but its not in detail and in some detail is wrong!

Godrevy topo

Bosworlas topo

Helman topo

rustypeg priests cove

Clodgy 

Gwenver

Tintagel

Hoopers Godrevy guide



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

marazion cliff slumps
30 May 2014, 10:25 am

All images taken from more or less the same spot on Marazion beach. I’ve been walking the dog along the bottom of these cliffs for five years now. They are in a constant state of slippage, boulders appear through the skin of the red earth face and then over time and slip out onto the beach. The top image although unclear is the most recent, taken after the winter storms, scoured the beach and cliff.





Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

the eternal return…Godrevy and Nietzsche.
2 June 2014, 9:19 am

For Nietzsche active nihilism was the capacity to instill value, for to project meaning is the prime expression of the will to power, the sole underlying motive force of the world.

Malcolm Bull in Anti-Nietzsche says that for Nietzsche ‘this final form of nihilism is the point of transition, the moment of metamorphosis into a new comprehensive “yes” to the world.

The collapse of meaning and value is what Nietzsche in the Will to Power calls the ‘eternal return of the same’. He envisages the world as a ‘monster of energy, without beginning, without end…a sea of forces flowing and rushing together, eternally changing, eternally flooding back, with tremendous years of recurrence, with an ebb and a flood of its forms’.

The eternal return and the capacity of man to deal with it ‘is a measure of the degree of strength of will to what extent one can do without meaning in things’.

These ideas didn’t seem to be helping me yesterday as I spent several hours working on a low and defined start to a Dan Varian addition to a problem of mine at Godrevy. My state of mind swung between the hopeless and the mundane. What was I doing wasting my time, yet what else was there to do? I thought of another problem of mine at Godrevy, I named it le tempe passé, 7b+. Its well over a decade old and what was at the time a faintly pretentious name, now seems prescient as years later I’m still bouldering at Godrevy and still attempting to extract meaning from the experience.

The value that Nietzsche rubbishes could in this case be my desire to make a better start to Dan Varians problem; it could be my desire to claim back what was a long-term project for myself. It could be the attachment of times passage to this piece of rock and my relationship to it. I make a move, this is progress, now nothing matters, I can indeed do as Nietzsche suggests and do without meaning in things.

I wasted too much time, months later and I have forgotten where the start hold is for the right foot.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

serpentine
27 June 2014, 11:28 am

 It’s amazing how exploration around West Cornwall can turn up new problems. I wouldn’t suggest that this is a great problem, but it would get stars if it had a top out, was accessible for more than a couple of hours at low tide and wasn’t either in the sun or wet!

I’ve also been motivated to get of my backside and get things done, as there are many more keen boulderers ready to come down west and get stuff done these days.

I really need to do the sit start and then I’ll be happy.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

Motivation and Mullion
14 July 2014, 10:52 am

very poor photo of Mullion project (Early July) Well I don’t know..all I can say is that motivation is at present it’s a bit low. My body feels tired and injuries seem more prevalent and nagging, the weather is too warm, the tides always seem wrong and the roads are getting busy. August is approaching and I hate August in Cornwall!… maybe I can get down to Mullion Cove and finish off a problem that has now taken half a dozen sessions. It’s not even hard, just too warm etc etc. Today though the tides are right and it’s not that warm, although it is humid. The dog sits next to me…he stinks and has fleas, he hates the summer as well. So am I any closer to understanding the slump in motivation, well the above is a start, it may also be doubts about the problem, the doubts that I have in creating new boulder problems, in spots that are at best esoteric. Mullion is accessible at least, very close to a car park and a cafe that does a mean cream tea and it has a unique walk in, via a 15 metre tunnel. It has at least a dozen problems on pretty solid hard rock. So what’s the catch, maybe the tottering choss that sits brooding above the main problems, maybe its the odd tourist that discovers the secret tunnel and comes to watch…maybe I just need to try harder!

11/07. Several days later and another session at Mullion, I think I’ve reached the end of this little period. I’m done with the place. There is no sit start to ‘serpentine’ or at least there hasn’t been on my last four visits, it’s been  buried under pebbles on each occasion. This makes coastal bouldering really frustrating at times, still I did add two other stand ups on the same area of rock. All three problems finish on the same hold. The middle problem is easiest, the left bit of wall climbing is quite hard and quite technical, 7A-ish I imagine.

I’ve put in some time at this spot and I have to now admit that it’s not quite as good a spot as I hoped. It’s a lovely spot though, I’d recommend it to anyone. It also has some very hard projects. The steepest, baldest, roof prow, that I’ve seen, which does have holds and I can imagine it being climbed. The catch, it only dries out late afternoon, evening time and needs a low tide.

Now I feel able to turn my sights to some other small and meaningful rock.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

Cactus and gaffa tape
22 August 2014, 10:44 am



 

Ok so the van has an MOT, which means we can leave Penryn, heading for Font, Switzerland, the Pyrenees, Spain, Madrid and back again.

 

 



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

cassis van!
24 August 2014, 3:29 pm



Clutch pedal, it’s broken, no it’s not, but after some wine, the problem seems fixable, metal has sheared away, maybe a broken bolt. It could be worse. The van was under water up to the sills six months ago, then left alone and desolate on a farm. Only a matter of a week and a few days and we decided that the van needed us. Today after a very long 24 hours the van has made it from Penryn to Fontainebleau. Parked up at the bivvy site in Bourron-Marlotte, the broken clutch doesn’t seem so bad, other rattles, squeaks and thumps could have manifested as a problem, never mind. Last time I was here the temp was -10 today it’s nearer 20. The Forest is soft with evening sunlight and the buzz of bees, the cicada hum, the orange light fades to dark as the late August sun drops. England seemed autumnal, maybe we will hang onto a summer, at least for a few days before adding to a flow that came from within and in trueness made all holds hang-able as the Alps call.

Too much stress the last week means that little thought had been given to bouldering, its not a week ago that we were down at Tintagel, the sharp black rock and the blue sea still a memory, whilst seaweed sticks and clings to the Franklin pad.

Postcript. It is broken, it’s in a garage, a French garage. We are in a hotel.

 



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

A6
25 August 2014, 7:39 pm

The A6 seemed such a fine road. 

This evening two days later I sit on the smoking area outside of the Ibis Hotel. The A6 tonight is particularly beautiful. Plastic chairs sit upturned against the drizzle. A woman walks past. I say ‘bon soir’, she blanks me, her walking stick click clacks across the concrete, making stable a frame of flesh that says otherwise. Her sluggish gait is confused by the staccato of her walking stick, counterpoint to the chordal surge of the lorries on the Peage. She moves away past the pot plants scattered randomly on the patio, a light comes on, and the pattern of the rainforest on her umbrella fuses in a a kind of Buaudrillardian syncopated post industrial dystopian vision of loveliness with the Hotel Ibis hydrangea.

Contribution from Jane:





Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

self portrait
8 September 2014, 9:22 am

Friday 5th September

Bouron Marlotte

Another very warm day, warm enough for me to admit a temporary defeat on Beatle Juice. The holds are at-the best of times greasy, right now they are horrible. Maybe later in the trip the temperatures will drop a bit and I’ll give it another go.

It’s very strange being here in the late summer/early autumn, much less depressing than the gloomy rainy days you get in the winter. Still I wouldn’t say I’m that I’m entirely happy, this trip has been nothing short of disaster in so many ways, breakdowns seemingly every week, hire car prangs and even today after the van is reasonably going well, this morning the wipers don’t work. I think basically the electrics are a bit screwed, we will see. The upshot though is that we don’t trust the van for the full trip, its staying put in Font. If we go elsewhere it will be by hire car, train or bus. Jane has taken the bus and is in Chamonix for the weekend. I’m a bit jealous. Hopefully we can both go to the Alps later next week, Magic Wood in cooler temps appeals a lot right now.

Thinking about luck right now, wonder if it’s time time that our luck changed. What I would like is for things to settle down a bit, letting me get in the swing of things, trusting things, like the van a bit more. I don’t feel right climbing at the moment, I’m overgripping, afraid of falling badly, afraid of getting injured and afraid of exacerbating existing injuries. I basically need to chill out, easily said and harder to do.

So what of narrative. The story of breakdowns and French garages and what else? Something else and much else are also going on and have gone on. The story of a boulderer for instance, the specific experiences of the boulderer that is I or me or Andy, who climbs like an addict, with an addiction that at times defines me. The history of climbing is littered with addicts and like all addicts I don’t know when to stop or how to act in moderation.

Today I videoed myself on a problem. I failed many times on the problem and as I contemplated the blank indifference of the boulder, sat squat and mute in a forest of beauty and tranquility that I could barely register, I saw a man approach me in the frame of the video that I barely recognised. He was older than I thought, his limbs rangey, stringy, muscles laid bare to view, by excess and lactic. He looked insane. I couldn’t say what brought him here and he couldn’t tell me. I hope we meet again. (In retrospect a day later I wonder do I want to meet him again)

Next morning the bivouac/campsite slowly clears as I make coffee. I’m attempting to recall the thoughts I had last night. I was thinking about the video image, a representation of somebody, me in fact. I was thinking along the lines of…..our need and prevalence to record our actions…

In the social media age this is nothing new. However in the context of bouldering this does cause me some problems. It takes me further from the experience of bouldering, forcing it into a representational, social arena instead. At it’s best, in my view, bouldering is a solopsistic and reflective process. It’s this aspect I’ve currently lost. A focus on performance, grades and videoing has left me deprived of the engagement with the primary experience. Videoing problems has its place, good for sponsored wads, documenting new problems, also good for recording trips with friends. But not any use for the solitary boulderer. Who cares if I climb a 7A+, the answer is no one and if videoing detracts and becomes a negative and debilitating pressure then leave the bloody camera in the bag or the van. Does this 7A+ need another video on the web, again the answer is no. Why not approach the problem as new, rather than with the clutter and prejudice of endless web beta, a horrible word that feels alien amongst the forest and birdsong, beta speaks of a digital world, that has no place in the reflexive and solitary world that I seek as a boulderer.

A day later, everything feels different, there is no black and white, experience is a layered thing and after a guilty search for beta on bleau.info, I’m at Drei Zennen trying the sit start to cocoon. It gets 8A, and that’s all that matters, it’s also not a bad line, which helps. I’m full of beta, video, grades and I’ve even been on the hateful 8a.nu. Yet even though the temperatures are high, humidity is high, my skin is sore, I’m kind of happy. I’m trying a problem that is hard, I have no camera and in fact, there is no useful beta. I’ve found the solitude that I sought and I’m deep in the processes of bouldering, not happy but IN IT.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

12 September 2014, 1:48 pm

Friday 5th September

Bouron Marlotte

Another very warm day, warm enough for me to admit a temporary defeat on Beetlejuice. The holds are at-the best of times greasy, right now they are horrible. Maybe later in the trip the temperatures will drop a bit and I’ll give it another go.

It’s very strange being here in the late summer/early autumn, much less depressing than the gloomy rainy days you get in the winter. Still I wouldn’t say I’m that happy, this trip has been nothing short of disaster in so many ways, breakdowns seemingly every week, hire car prangs and even today after the van is reasonably going well, this morning the wiper don’t work. I think basically the electrics are a bit screwed, we will see. The upshot though is that we don’t trust the van for the full trip, its staying put in Font. If we go elsewhere it will be by hire car, train or bus. Jane has taken the bus and is in Chamonix for the weekend. I’m a bit jealous. Hopefully we can both go to the Alps later next week, Magic Wood in cooler temps appeals a lot right now.

 

Thinking about luck right now, wonder if it’s time time that our luck changed. What I would like is for things to settle down a bit, letting me get in the swing of things, trusting things, like the van a bit more. I don’t feel right climbing at the moment, I’m overgripping, afraid of falling badly, afraid of getting injured and afraid of exacerbating existing injuries. I basically need to chill out, easily said and harder to do.

 

Sat 6th. So what of narrative. The story of breakdowns and French garages and what else? Something else and many other something elses are also going on and have gone on. The story of a boulderer for instance, the specific experiences of the boulderer that is I or me or Andy. An I who climbs like an addict, with an addiction that at times defines me. The history of climbing is littered with addicts and like all addicts I don’t know when to stop or how to act in moderation.

 

Today I videoed myself on a problem. I failed on the problem and as I contemplated the blank indifference of the boulder, sat squat and mute in a forest of beauty and tranquility that I could barely register, I saw a man approach me in the frame of the video that I barely recognised. He was older than I thought, his limbs rangey, stringy, muscles laid bare to view by excess and lactic. He looked insane. I couldn’t say what brought him here and he couldn’t tell me. I hope we meet again. (In retrospect a day later I wonder do I want to meet him again)

 

Saturday morning. Next morning the bivouac slowly clears as I make coffee. I’m attempting to recall the thoughts I had last night. I was thinking about the video image, a representation of somebody, me in fact. I was thinking along the lines of…..our need and prevalence to record our actions…in the social media age this is nothing new. 

 

However in the context of bouldering this does cause me some problems. It takes me further from the experience of bouldering, forcing it into a representational, social arena instead.

 

At it’s best, in my view, bouldering is a solopsistic and reflective process. It’s this aspect I’ve currently lost. A focus on performance, grades and videoing has left me deprived of the engagement with the primary experience. Videoing problems has its place, good for sponsored wads, documenting new problems and other such stuff, also good for recording trips with mates. But not any use for the solitary boulderer, who cares if I climb a 7A+,  the answer is no one and if videoing detracts and becomes a negative and debilitating pressure then leave the bloody camera in the bag or the van. Does this 7A+ need another video on the web, again the answer is no. Why not approach the problem as new, rather than with the clutter and prejudice of endless web beta, a horrible word that feels alien amongst the forest and birdsong, beta speaks of a digital world, that has no place in the reflexive and solitary world that I seek as a boulderer.

 

Saturday evening. A day later after a search for beta on bleau.info, I’m at Drei Zennen trying the sit start to cocoon. It gets 8A. I’m full of beta, video, grades and I’ve even been of the hateful 8a.nu. Yet even though the temperatures are high, humidity is high, my skin is sore, I’m kind of happy. I’m trying a problem that is hard, I have no camera and in fact, there is no useful beta. I’ve found the solitude that I sought and I’m deep in the processes of bouldering, not happy but IN IT.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

straight ups
23 September 2014, 8:22 am



Isatis car park. Got a table now so feeling pretty satisfied and civilised, drinking coffee and resting for the third day my injured knee, which is a bit of a downer. It’s fairly busy and in ones, two’s and three’s boulderers are walking into the forest. I can hear thwacks of rags as most likely Frenchmen wack the sandstone with their pof rags.

I’ve been coming to Font a long time now and I can still remember the thrill of driving down the track to Franchard that Jerry and Ben race down in the ‘real thing’. I can also remember a time when a friend said to me’ you should go to Font. you’d love it’. Unbelievably in pre-internet times it was quite possible to simply not know about something. This was the case with Font, I was a boulderer, yet had no knowledge that Font existed, I have to add that this is going back thirty years or so.

The first guide I had was the Stephen Gough guide with pictures of Stu Littlefair flashing Alta, (wearing a Poncho?). Then their was the useless but endearing Godoffe purple guide.This was followed by the groundbreaking and epoch making 7+8’s. This marked the beginning of a kind of minor obsession. Whilst sitting in the sun, I’m currently cross referencing my ticks from the old and aesthetic black and white guide into the newer and bigger colour 7+8’s, which I don’t like as much. Initially as I cross referenced, I seemed to be losing ticks, soft 7’s dropped away, this didn’t help my appreciation of the new guide. Yet a few days later as I began a second audit and pleasantly found that I had in fact missed a few, they had been hiding as circuit problems, and my count rose more than it had fallen, yet I still couldn’t love this new book. Maybe it’s because the count of problems has gone from 1115 straight up problems to 2669. I’m approaching my hundredth tick, which I may make this trip and I could see the target and feel the target, the numbers also sat well with the old tally, 100, then 16 more and I would have a target of 999. The new guide however with it’s thick, colour authority, shouts bluntly, there are too many problems, you are getting older, time is running out, and most importantly the next guide will be even bigger. Somehow these reactions are conspiring to make me see both the futility of guide book ticks and their importance as markers and signifiers in the passage of time and of course nothing will deter me from my quest.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

Magic Wood
30 September 2014, 8:48 am





Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

scratchings
13 October 2014, 8:39 am

The image shows carvings made by neolithic man, as he went about his business as a hunter gatherer. I find myself among the same boulders in the forests of Fontainebleau, under overhangs that may have sheltered the same people. Yet my preoccupations are more abstract, as I seek four more problems to complete a hundred 7’s in the 7+8’s guide.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

Sheep
13 October 2014, 9:10 am

  Couple of weeks ago at Magic Wood, we caught what I guess was the moving of sheep and cattle from the high alpine pastures down into the valley.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

Cornwall
28 October 2014, 5:41 pm

Just got back from 9 weeks in the Van. Feels very strange to be in a house again. There seems so much more to do. I miss staring into space, letting time pass. I have too much choice again, too many decisions.

In the end I managed to tick my 100th grade 7 in Font. It was an inglorious affair, humping my way over a rounded Bas Cuvier non classic, cheered on by three bellowing Germans.  I got in the van and decided I’d had enough and set off for home.

A few days later of Cornish drizzle and I’m restless.

eyelid drawing, doodles of the floating debris, seen with shut eyes.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

projects and process
1 November 2014, 4:49 pm

project and lichen Today I went out and had a bright and windy session on a new project, out on the north coast; I’d first checked this problem quite a few years ago. My memory though had played some tricks on me because on revisiting it a few months ago, it seemed very different. It was in fact much better than I could have imagined. It’s non-tidal, quick drying and very steep. Initially I’d been drawn to it for the compact rock in the upper wall, overhanging by about 25 degrees, few holds and long powerful moves. Today though, I realised the beauty of the bottom section which is a near horizontal roof. My core has been worked hard and in reality the problem may be far too hard, and I can’t even do a single move. But I did leave with a few ideas as to how to proceed. Also as is often the case with a new problem, half an eye was involved with figuring out where I would fall, if I would land on any of the boulders that surround the base, where the mats should go. All in all, it’s good, no problems with landings at all.

This session made me realise how much I love finding and working new problems. The evolution of what seems possible, revaluation as time passes with new visions and increases albeit small in strength. After a session trying one move and failing I’m happy. This is in stark contrast to my recent failures on the first move of Verdict in Font. I was failing there also on one move, but I was not enjoying it, I did enjoy it sometimes, on some of the sessions, but my last session I felt blocked. There was no joy or psyche, in the back of my mind I knew I was leaving without doing it, I was looking for excuses and in the end the injury list built to a degree that I knew it was over. Relief and a kind of depression filled me as I walked away for the last time and drove straight back to England.

Even though I had done all the other hard moves and worked out good beta for the first move, did it with what Jane described as a very small push from her, ‘one that wouldn’t have broken an egg, well almost’ she said. I could never in reality believe that I could do it; this was the problem, as well as accepting defeat. It made me feel a bit stupid, which further eroded the will and motivation. My desire to tick an 8A in Font was all I had and it wasn’t enough. Contrast this with a very surprising week in Magic Wood, with no real expectation; I was on my last day trying an 8A that I felt I had a really good chance on. I’d done the 7C version pretty quick, so was hyped and keen. I spent a day and night thinking of the problem, I was completely consumed. It didn’t happen of course, but I will be back.

It the consuming nature of a boulder project that interests me, this mainly comes from new problems rather than repeating existing problems. The quietness and back water nature of Cornwall gives me this privilege. It allows me the time to become consumed and absorbed in the process of projecting. The process can often become in itself the consuming characteristic of the activity. This also can only happen down here in Cornwall. Today I climbed alone as I often do. The ego and context generated by others is a far off idea, I’m alone to act and do as I wish, and the process is driven entirely by my relationship with the boulder and rock. There is competiveness within this I guess, the desire to keep these projects secret from the marauding folk from up country, to do it first. However I think that ‘to do it first’ is also the creative act that aligns bouldering with my art, makes it art in fact. I feel ownership of these projects, the project today comes from nowhere but me. Solipsistic I suppose, but the experience I had today feels very different from the experiences I was having in Font, bouldering with lots of people around. It’s got very busy there over the last five years or so. It feels like a climbing wall sometimes, which I don’t like; the bouldering becomes a social experience. This can be good of course, but bad for me in the way that I feel watched, that some kind of performance is taking place; stuff seems to detract from the purity and absorption of the movement and the relationship with boulder and process.

To make some reference to some theory…Maurice Merleau-Ponty writes that, ’we must avoid saying that our body is in space, or in time. It inhabits space and time’.[1] To establish this position ‘Merleau-Ponty relies on the Gestalt[2] discovery that one perceives one’s surroundings as requiring one to perform certain actions or as being appropriate for certain forms of behaviour’.[3] He describes this as the power ‘to reckon with the possible.’[4] This is directly applicable to the scenario of boulderer and boulder in that the boulderer perceives the actual surroundings, the environment they are familiar with and together with learnt, practiced motor skills, acts in an appropriate way. The key element here and one that gives this response its creative potential is that the boulderer is not passively receiving data from the world, rather they invest their environment with a bodily significance.

On another note, my dog hated today. He got freaked by the exposure; he is more cowardly than me. He then spent the next two hours, shaking, nervously. He was so keen to leave he pulled me back to the van.

[1] H Gordon and T Shlomit, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception: A Basis for Sharing the Earth, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, p.161.

[2] Gestalt theory focuses on an existential/experiential approach that emphasises the individual’s experience in the present moment. Fritz and Laura Perls and Paul Goodman developed Gestalt therapy between 1940-1950.

[3] Komarine Romdenh-Romluc, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Merleau-Ponty and Phenomenology of perception, 2011, Oxford, Routledge, p.101.

[4] Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Phenomenology of Perception, 3^rd edition, Oxford and New York, Routledge Classics, 2009, p. 127.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

stingray 7B+
28 November 2014, 2:52 pm

 Pretty sure this a new problem, starts very low left hand in a pocket, right hand on the lowest rail. Three hard moves then it meanders over into ‘blue ray’. Good news is it stays dry, bad news is that it isn’t very good…actually I like it and it kept me occupied on my visits to Tintagel when ‘AWOL apprentice’ was wet, which so far this winter has been on all of my three visits.



Source: http://andywhall.com

[comPiler]

reasons to be cheerful
18 November 2014, 8:41 pm

 

Gaskins ‘crimp problem’. Photo from The Short Span, website.  I guess I must be free [in the way Bukowski  rambles about in a depressing manner in the video below] as I scuttle around like a child on a freezing and cold day on a recent trip with Jane to Glendalough, in Ireland.

We are free and happy!

In very cold and windy conditions, I got stuck in on the Gaskins ‘crimp problem’.  I managed the move from the very small and painful rail fairly quickly but ran out of power and motivation in the cold. If I had only checked the beta beforehand I would have given it a few more goes and been a bit more professional about it. At the time I was convinced that I was starting to high, I’d been looking for a lower sit start, not realising that it started on the rail. Hindsight, what a great thing.

Back in Cornwall I’m wondering if I should add this to  my list of crimpy short 8A’s projects, that now include two problems in N wales, one in Font and one in Magic Wood. Though what it has really made me think about though is my current project in Cornwall, which is harder than all of the above and its got smaller holds or non holds than the Gaskins problem. It’s time to get stuck in and the beauty of this problem is that it stays pretty dry and is non tidal, a rare thing for these parts.

So Bukowski…he’s chauvinistic and misogynistic, yet his weariness and wiseness seems an antidote to xmas nonsense and the dreary and trivial posturings of contemporary ‘thinkers’ such as Russell Brand, with his careerist inspired student politics.

Happy xmas everyone.

 

 

 

 



Source: http://andywhall.com