[galpinos]

That post is up there with Nige's on Ioan Doyle.

Link please?

[cheque]

Here.

[jwi]

Tasermuit fjord has pretty stable weather in July. Similar to Kvaløya in Troms but colder. The logistics are not too tricky from what I gather. Most people I know who have gone there have been able to climb at least one or a few routes, utilising that due to the the arctic summer nights climbing around the clock is possible and an ability to climb in light drizzle.

[Ged]

We had amazing weather in tasermuit fjord, despite the human eating mosquitoes. Logistics were fairly straightforward but its really frickin expensive. This was back in 2008,but we had MEF and BMC grants, and it still bankrupted me.

[jwi]

My mate shipped the gear by boat a few months in advance to keep down the cost. Maybe that help as he's been at least four times if not five.

[Ged]

Yeah we did the same but flights and boat transfers were a lot.

[Alex-the-Alex]

Until I read the second sentence I thought the first reference to Bugs was insects

.. and the young bouldering Shibari enthusiast are really into urban bloc and cute japanese dog breeds 

[MischaHY]

YYFY to this thread 

Must say my favourite style is ala PaulB i.e. big days smashing out the route as fast and light as possible. However in recent years I've been fascinated by the idea of a hybrid style which doesn't adopt the slow grind of traditional bigwall but does involve a night or two and lots of hard pitches. Equipment seems to be catching up this style as well with ledges like the G7 offering a much more attractive packsize/weight. Places like VdM or Gran Paradiso look ideal for it. Anyone done a bit of this and can offer some beta on things to do/take or even better route recommendations for getting into the swing of it?

[Yossarian]

YYFY to this thread 

Must say my favourite style is ala PaulB i.e. big days smashing out the route as fast and light as possible. However in recent years I've been fascinated by the idea of a hybrid style which doesn't adopt the slow grind of traditional bigwall but does involve a night or two and lots of hard pitches. Equipment seems to be catching up this style as well with ledges like the G7 offering a much more attractive packsize/weight. Places like VdM or Gran Paradiso look ideal for it. Anyone done a bit of this and can offer some beta on things to do/take or even better route recommendations for getting into the swing of it?

I think that, if there's a spectrum from what you describe to holidays tips from Silvia Vidal, I'm thinking firmly at the former end.

I guess it's basically taking an alpine approach vs taking cragging to its ultimate level. I listened to the Factor Two podcasts about Leo and Patch, etc in Yosemite the other day and there was a lot of talk about cragging on El Cap, Astroman becoming like an afternoon jaunt, etc. But I imagine for older mortals to get anywhere near that kind of causualness you'd have to be there full time. I think the purpose of this tread is related to acknowledging that, and then working on the basis that there are probably quite a lot of hardcore possibilities out there, but they would require some more time, commitment, etc...

I think the LFT is probably the archetypal example of the kind of thing I have in mind... I'd previously summed it up as a search for the Trango Tower for E4 leaders who can spare a reasonable amount of time or money (or possibly both).

[duncan]

Exclusion criteria for the original FLMH&MF were routes the BMC rock insurance wouldn't cover you for. They go here.

If you can make it back to the pizzeria at the end of the day it probably goes in that thread. If your pizza has been cooked by the expedition chef in a mud oven fuelled by dried yak dung it definitely goes here.

[i_a_coops]

The pizza scale of wall remoteness goes from 0 to 17, where 1 means you can ab off and get pizza if you decide to bail (eg Verdon), and 17 means there's no pizza on the entire continent (eg Antarctica).

The reason it got extended to 0 is that for some of the walls in Rio de Janeiro (the Corcovado wall is pretty meaty, 800m, minimum 7b obligatory and easiest free route is 8a+ I think), you can ab off and get pizza, alternatively you can top out, get a gourmet pizza at the summit while being mobbed by tourists taking selfies with you, then get a cable car back down and get all-you-can-eat pizza right outside the cable car station at the bottom.

[Duncan campbell]

The pizza scale of wall remoteness goes from 0 to 17, where 1 means you can ab off and get pizza if you decide to bail (eg Verdon), and 17 means there's no pizza on the entire continent (eg Antarctica).

The reason it got extended to 0 is that for some of the walls in Rio de Janeiro (the Corcovado wall is pretty meaty, 800m, minimum 7b obligatory and easiest free route is 8a+ I think), you can ab off and get pizza, alternatively you can top out, get a gourmet pizza at the summit while being mobbed by tourists taking selfies with you, then get a cable car back down and get all-you-can-eat pizza right outside the cable car station at the bottom.

Antarctica will defo have pizza! Probs with bits of penguin on top  but I do really like this pizza scale thing. tbh rio de janeiro sounds pretty dreamy (if the routes were a touch easier)

[i_a_coops]

The only route I did on the Corcovado was this one:

https://www.8a.nu/news/via-oitavo-passageiro-rj

Which goes at 7b/+, A0 and about E4 I think - the featured slabs and walls are bolted, the cracks aren't, and the totally blank section is a bolt ladder (quite an unusual one - the bolts are utterly enormous P bolts that look like they're for mooring ships rather than climbing, and you have to mantel each one, match hands and feet on it, stand up, and stretch/dyno clip the next one, then repeat for an entire pitch). The hardest trad pitch might not be E4 if there are no hornets nests to avoid, but probably harder than E4 if you go direct through the hornets.

There are easier 400-500m things on the Sugarloaf, including an amazing 7a/E5ish route I've forgotten the name of and a bunch of things in the French 6s. Think there's also a gnarly Pou brothers ~F8b there too.

[i_a_coops]

The problem with Rio is the humidity, I went in the middle of their winter and it was still really bad. The big gnarly sport crag there is insane, it's like Berlin sector at Ceuse but taller and made out of beautifuly golden granite with perfectly sculpted crimps. Grades start at 7c. The bouldering also looks amazing but I think night sessions are pretty crucial. You can also get a bus to the Sella dos Orgaos national park, which just about fits the criteria for this thread (think it's the hardest approach I've ever done by a mile, it took us 24h to cover 2k of extremely steep jungle, had to drink water from carnivourous plants, then ab down a freezing cold waterfall). Think it's pretty easy to get a permit to climb if you just ask at the office on the way in and let them know what route you're going for.

Trip report here

https://biviartistry.wordpress.com/2016/08/01/