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Meritricious, disappointing, and bogus blocs!? (Read 12523 times)

tomtom

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For completeness can we have a thread for climbs on Blocs (!) that look shit - and climb like shit too :)

cheque

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The following is  :offtopic:  :sorry:

Bertie's Bugbear at Wimberry looks quality and is a low grade classic. In the end it was a slippery scary mess. My gear fell out as I tried to back off the damp greenness I'd ended up on. And as if it wasn't slippery enough already there was an actual banana skin stuck in the crack/groove!

 :lol: What a “classic”! It is great climbing under there I reckon. I enjoyed it...  :look:

Wimberry’s the north Peak’s Black Rocks- lots of good and even great low-grade climbing but mostly in styles that most modern low-grade climbers are rubbish at and wary of, with an aspect and non-climbing clientele that covers them in moss and litter if they’re not climbed regularly, so a vicious circle of dirty/ not enough traffic/ dirtier/ even less traffic etc. ensues.

Psyched locals are of course the key to fixing these problems but not many fitting that description want to clean HVDs on abseil... the day I did Bertie’s my Chew local partner was so embarrassed by the state of the place and inspired by my tales of how nice I got BR with a bit of effort that he tried to drum up volunteers for a clean-up day on the Chew Facebook group- most of the responses were old blokes saying things like “don’t use a stiff brush” and “it doesn’t need cleaning, just a dry day”. They obviously hadn’t been on any of the routes for decades.  ::)

SA Chris

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Deliverance. The problem is great and all, but the siege squad of absolute weapons with their half dozen massive snap pads, baggy solutions scrabbling at feet which are accompanied by massive tick marks whether they are useful or not, and just generally being chodes fucking ruins the problem for me.

Problem with Deliverpants is it's in such a prominent spot, that just about anyone walking down from that part of Stanage walks past it, and that it's reasonably easy to pull into position on, but about a half dozen different choices of ways to get close to, but not actually do it. So you get bunches of folk "sessioning" on it, each one trying the other's beta with the same lack of result, as the rock gets steadily more polished.

sdm

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Magic Wood. Crowded with choads, no views, every problem starts in a pit/doesn't top out/has a really dodge landing. I love bouldering in switz but thought this was awful. Maybe it comes into it's own in the 8s?
I feel a need to stick up for Magic Wood. Lack of views and crowds are fair critiques although there are some stunning views a short walk/drive away. There seemed to be a higher number of dickheads there than anywhere else I've climbed and the climbing, campsite and surrounding areas are suffering from traffic and misuse. But there's loads of climbing there so it's easy to avoid the crowds and we met some great people there too.

Landings can be bad and getting around can be a pain because of the terrain. But most of the awkward landings have been sanitised. We only took one or two pads each and I can't remember walking away from any problems due to the landing.

But the great thing about Magic Wood is the huge concentration of great climbs across the grades. Wherever you go, you're never more than about a 1 minute walk from a classic climb in the 6s, 7s and 8s.

You don't need a car once you're there and it's such an easy place to go for a mixed ability group.

Danny

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For completeness can we have a thread for climbs on Blocs (!) that look shit - and climb like shit too :)

The likelihood that geology and related alchemy will produce: (i) not choss; (ii) nice looking features; (iii) climbable features; (iv) comfortable holds; (v) not too many holds; (vi) interesting and challenging movement; (vii) good landings...and the rest, is vanishingly small.

Rarity seems to me to be the very thing that makes good boulders so fucking cool. And indeed why I think they're often so much cooler than routes, where these things are rarer still. It's the gift of chance. 99% of all stuff I've ever found would fit the bill of 'looks shit and climbs like shit'. Although the problems described in this thread are in the frustrating 'looks amazing but climbs shit' category, there's nothing more galling to me than 'looks amazing but is unclimbable'. Fuck that category to hell and back.

Coops_13

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Magic Wood. Crowded with choads, no views, every problem starts in a pit/doesn't top out/has a really dodge landing. I love bouldering in switz but thought this was awful. Maybe it comes into it's own in the 8s?
I feel a need to stick up for Magic Wood. Lack of views and crowds are fair critiques although there are some stunning views a short walk/drive away. There seemed to be a higher number of dickheads there than anywhere else I've climbed and the climbing, campsite and surrounding areas are suffering from traffic and misuse. But there's loads of climbing there so it's easy to avoid the crowds and we met some great people there too.

Landings can be bad and getting around can be a pain because of the terrain. But most of the awkward landings have been sanitised. We only took one or two pads each and I can't remember walking away from any problems due to the landing.

But the great thing about Magic Wood is the huge concentration of great climbs across the grades. Wherever you go, you're never more than about a 1 minute walk from a classic climb in the 6s, 7s and 8s.

You don't need a car once you're there and it's such an easy place to go for a mixed ability group.
Agreed, such a high concentration of stunners is insane.

Fiend

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Just my thinking, a sorry read indeed, 'Classics I found harder than I wanted them to be'. Anyone slagging NTBTA needs to stick to their shitty eliminate cave they presumably prefer. And don't get me started on the irony of not liking Deliverance because its popular.


Do people really get annoyed with opinions which differ from their own nowdays? Well I never!

Possible correlation with "Stanage and Burbage Blocs that showpony laps weekly" and "Meritricious and bogus bloc entries that showpony is outraged by their inclusion on the list"  :lol:

 

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