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Post your most outrageous tactics / tricks for THE SEND. (Read 13053 times)

Nibile

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I once taped a small, battery-powered fan on the rock, directly over a nasty crimp, to keep it fresh in the summer.
It's in this video: (password: direateverylevel).

Another time, for a long problem, I removed my thermal top because its long sleeves - in my mind - compressed my forearms too much, and to avoid vasoconstriction due to being barechested I climbed with my light duvet on.

These feats pale in comparison to the beauties posted before.

tomtom

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excellent Nibs.

Have a wad... and your expression having just greased off on the previous attempt is priceless!!!

(though you didn't match on the pocket/porthole :D )

andy popp

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I taped my elbow like a jamming glove to work the marginal armbars on the Beast in Me.
I regularly slog up to the boulders in winter with a hot water bottle in a wine cooler bag.
Always had gaffer tape strips on my climbing helmet to stick down marginal gear on adventure slate climbs.
Mainly I just hum the indiana Jones theme tune to myself....

I've always loved your scooter assisted descents from remote bouldering spots.

bigironhorse

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I have nothing as good as these. Only thing I can think of is taping a bunch of socks to the inside of my knee so I could endure further heel-ripping knee-smacking falls of trackside.

Last year before going to mello I was a bit worried about the offwidth pitch on oceano irrazionale, so went to curbar at about 6.30am one day before work in the week before and shunted right eliminate a bunch of times. When we got to mello the weather was so bad we didn't even have chance to get on it!

Fiend

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Extended and taped draw is something I've thought of in the past.


My next cunning plan is to build a resin replacement for the Weedkiller hold-blocking lump, and blu-tack it in place when I'm at the Tor, to get the classic testpiece experience.

JamieG

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Not really a legitimate tactic. But I once rubbed the grease from a badly prepared museum specimen of a grizzly bear skeleton onto my finger tips in the hope of gaining some super ursid crimp power. Not much of an effect but I do like salmon more now . . .

(N.B. my wife works in vertebrate zoology and commonly has random boxes of bones in the house).

Duma

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JamieG wins the thread

remus

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Had another friend who was struggling to get the rest on Body Machine to work. He resorted to cutting the toes off a sock then wearing it on his arm while climbing, when he got to the rest he'd then slide it down over hist fist so he had the width/comfort to recover enough for the top.

lagerstarfish

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I did a siege once.

A traverse.

With a rope and harness.

A route.

Not even a proper route with a grade, just something that I looked at and wondered if I could do it.

It involved some right effort in terms of organisation and talking to other people.

I spent 6 months sport climbing and diving in Thailand in '96/'97. I'd done most routes on sight and redpointed a few things. I'd done quite a few new routes in trad style and DWS style, but the thing that I put most effort into was a poxy traverse.

This was the R-L traverse of Ton Sai wall - start up Rieser Baby, cross the roof (footless) of Spanish Wreck/ Seafood Fritas (clipping bolts) , get a rest wedged in the stalactites (pull rope through to reduce drag), traverse the slopers (couple of cams) across to the top ledge of Old Chicken and Hang ten (clip bolt), across Tidal Wave to Baby Gorilla (clip belay on that) then across more slopers to go up the big crack between that and Tantrum - lower off bolt at the top of the crack.

The climbing was my thing - Font 7B sloper action leading with my good arm. I weighed fuck all due to having been living on a beach for 6 months.

The difficulty was that the traverse crosses half a dozen of the most popular routes in the country. I had to work out how to get it so no one was on the routes, they had pulled their ropes and left my draws in place - on Baby Gorilla I wanted a long sling/draw left in so I didn't have to do a move up to the belay to clip, but this got in the way of anyone wanting to do the route.

Another difficulty was that if I fell from the first sloper crux, I swung right to the floor and scraped the sand - but this was where people sat around whilst not climbing, so I had to clear the area of people before attempting it.

Best option was to wait until the sun had just come on to the routes which usually meant that most people stopped climbing, but the rock on my traverse line had not yet warmed up. I promised people that I would put their ropes back in place after my attempt (very hard work in the sun) and asked them to leave my draws in place. Occasionally people would start up a route while I was heading towards it. Language difficulties combined with the fact that I was doing something totally pointless and not even properly bolted or in a guide book.

It took me a while to sort sequences that worked in the sun.

It took a few goes to finally link the lot - on my first successful redpoint, the long sling that I had arranged to dangle down from the belay of Baby Gorilla was in place, but there was no crab at the end of it, so I had to do a hard move up to clip the belay, move back down and carry on.

I was hot tired and fed up of trying to explain to 20 people per day what I would like them to do to help me. There was very little satisfaction in finally doing the thing.

A couple of days later someone was asking me about the traverse, so I did it again. this time everyone pulled ropes and left draws in place as asked. Even the sling down from the belay of Baby Gorilla was in place. The sun had not yet come onto the traverse ledge. It didn't feel very hard.

I have never put so much effort into any other send.

Stupid shuffling.

The outrageous tactic (for me) was the pestering and cajoling of so many other climbers to get my send

** edit  **

see this for topo

https://www.thecrag.com/climbing/thailand/krabi/area/15687961
« Last Edit: July 19, 2019, 11:32:01 pm by lagerstarfish »

Nibile

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Extended and taped draw is something I've thought of in the past.
Ha! I did the same as Sasq here at my local crag, ages ago. On a short, vertical route of 15 moves, to avoid hitting the deck if falling on the crux. I might even have a pic somewhere.

Fiend

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To be fair, wtf was Nibile doing on a rope?? That's some straying from the path of righteousness.

Kingy

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On my attempts at Kaabah the year before I did it, to improve the visibility of one of the key smears on the upper wall, I put a fluorescent orange sticky tag right next to it on my initial bolt to bolt go. I was so close into the wall on the move out left to gain the 'car body filler' undercut shared with the extension that looking down I couldn't properly see where the smear was for the next move without the tag flagging it up.

In the end, I got fed up of doing this every time and sacked it off, I guess the engram had become engrained into the subconscious!

shark

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When I was trying Raindogs on cold days I’d put my hands in the Beck to numb them out and force getting hot aches (something you never get used to) so the blood would rush back to my fingers in attempt to prevent my fingers en-route.

When trying Powerplant (long before kneepads) I strapped a piece of carpet to my thigh. Curiously hessian side up worked best.

Nibile

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To be fair, wtf was Nibile doing on a rope?? That's some straying from the path of righteousness.
True, true.
But I was young, bouldering was almost unknown here and for sure we didn't know where to practice it, and in the end the route was only 15 moves long, I'm quite sure it could highballed these days.
Shame I can't find the picture!

mrjonathanr

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I got up early once. It was to do Polka des Ringards before the sun hit the sloper.

Warmed up, clips in and redpointed by 8.30 am. Don’t think it’ll catch on.

Hoseyb

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I've always loved your scooter assisted descents from remote bouldering spots.

I'm having brake issues at the moment.  Keep melting my wellies

Fiend

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This definitely needs a bump....

So, reading between the lines,  does this open the door to books strapped to feet as well then? As we used to joke about Brad pit sitter only being possible in a pair of garry glitter platforms for sub 6ft 2 types, i'm thinking a cable tied Dostoyevsky or two on the right foot would see you right on that as you're stood on a ledge with a colossal undercut. Maybe BB guns could complete the stanage guide with it literally helping him up marble wall? where there's a quill theres a way...

 :worms: This is such a grey area.... Bransby has previous form in this. He once took his chalk bag off mid bouldering comp and balanced it on the crucial foothold, enabling him to make the reach..... cool but not exactly legit.  Same goes for Indian creek splitters tape free is one thing taped is another and taped to fit yet another.... where do you stop! I’m saying a book isn’t legit( if it is Ben might well be on for the Stanage tick, he only needs a couple inch)

As this has gone totally off topic.

What about in situ kneepads? I remember watching Ted try and gaffa tape his kneepad to Bat Route (only to fall off about 5mins later). Surely you have to place the kneepad on lead? Or maybe it’s okay if you climb up, place it, then down climb back to the ground. However, Not sure how I would feel if he also tried to gaffa tape a bible to the kneepad as well. Maybe that’s too far?

Preserved for posterity. And let's not forget about Dave G's fucking hero fan carrier!

SA Chris

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I've tried to do a problem at Carrock Fell in just my pants. I was wearing jeans and couldn't get my foot high enough for a rock over. Not that the pants-only tactic worked, I still couldn't do the problem, but I got my foot on the hold.

I once stripped down to less than pants for the send. Nothing to do with difficulty, I was just alone in some boulders in South Africa in November and it felt apt. Have a self-timed slide somewhere..

Loos3-tools

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Long metal poles with carabiners on the end seem quite popular. Some people even carry them up the cliff wall on their harnesses. Clipping all fixed gear above their heads. They appear to be quite bad for building resilience to fear. I quite like the preplaced runner as a solid tactic when I’m to scared / crap / CBA to be involved in a purer experience. Can’t be as bad as the ubiquitous clip stick for a new level of sanitisation enabling the send

monkoffunk

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I've tried to do a problem at Carrock Fell in just my pants. I was wearing jeans and couldn't get my foot high enough for a rock over. Not that the pants-only tactic worked, I still couldn't do the problem, but I got my foot on the hold.

I once stripped down to less than pants for the send. Nothing to do with difficulty, I was just alone in some boulders in South Africa in November and it felt apt. Have a self-timed slide somewhere..

I once did that in desperation because I kept dabbing the pad in a low ball roof. Zero layers turned out to be the key to getting clearance. It was a quiet day, I think I got away with it...

SA Chris

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"clearance" ;)

tommytwotone

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One of the best excuses I've heard for falling off was that "I'm dressed the wrong side".

To be fair, after a bit of a rummage the problem got sent next go so it was probably legit!

SA Chris

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Yeah, that happens to me, having that massive weight off to one side puts me out of balance too.

mrjonathanr

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I was so concerned about using all my chalk on the green and greasy start, that I secreted an extra block of chalk under my beanie to crunch into my bag on the mid-height ledge.

Simply beautiful.

Just seen this. Paddington Fiend. I hope you gave that crux a really hard stare too.

Fiend

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IT gave ME a really hard stare to be honest....

Not been back to it yet either.

Rising acolyte of Lancs Bouldering, Joe Richards has been doing problems with two chalkbags on with different chalk in. Actually he says it's so he can brush the cheap stuff on to clean holds, whilst having posh friction labs powdered snake oil chalk for hand usage in the other bag. Which is all well and good but the concept of having two different chalks specifically for sweating differentials gets me really excited....

 

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