[cofe]

the main man tommy 9fingerz caldwell appears to have freed the nose in a day. effort i say.

however, apparently he isn't related to harry 5toez pennels.

[dobbin]

I wonder how he did the bit that others said was impossible for people with normal sized fingers?

[Palomides]

Ah he could only do it because he's got small fin...  

oh, no, that can't be right.



Ah! He could only do it just because he's freakishly ta...

oh, no, that can't be right either.



Ahha!! It's because he's a gir...

oh, no, no, that can't be right either.


Hmm. Maybe he's just very, very good.
And motivated.
And not put off trying things because of supposed impossibilities?

[dave]

maybe its not smaller fingers that's a prerequisite for this route, just a less fingers by mass. In fact you could say that cutting off a finger in order to gain advantage on a route is tantamount to cheating. Boo hiss.

[moose]

How closely was he supervised during the ascent - perhaps he has a range of prostheses that fit onto the missing half-digit.  A flick of the wrist and out pop skyhooks, knife blades, drills, suckers (maybe even a whole squid)... like the bastard son of taxi-driver and inspector gadget.  Cheating bastard... string him up I say....

That said,  I am currently investigating the possibilities of using static electricity to enhance my mastery of slopers.  A preliminary experiment utilising an aggressively-rubbed, large, hairy cat with amber legs was... inconclusive (and I still have the scratches).  But that's SCIENCE... not cheating...

[dobbin]

I heard he has a boiled ham strapped to his back, which at the crack section in question, he simply wips out, clips to his half digit and wedges in the top of the crack. This enables him to swing between the cracks, missing out the hard bits of climbing.

Lynn Hill used a badger.

[BenF]

I heard he has a boiled ham strapped to his back, which at the crack section in question, he simply wips out, clips to his half digit and wedges in the top of the crack. This enables him to swing between the cracks, missing out the hard bits of climbing.

Lynn Hill used a badger.

Are you sure?  My now rather faded copy of "Rock-climbing for numpties by a bloke with a beard" has no mention of such techniques.  Or is this some new development?  I would have thought mention would have been made of these techniques when I attended a recent Planet Fear coaching weekend though.

Please elaborate Dobbin.

Yours sincerely,
Puzzled of somewhere down south no where near any decent rock.

[dobbin]

The use of such items was first heralded by dark cave activist Jon Fulwood, who employs badgers, boiled hams and most notably geese in his persuit of the perfect knee bar. Sadly this bleeding edge knowledge has yet to make it into the armoury of Chris Craggs (who writes all books related to climbing, sometimes with pseudonames) and hence its not yet reached you.

[saltbeef]

so if lynn uses a badger, tommy uses a boiled ham, ru uses a small head, what does simpson use?
and is that what the selection of vermin in your post bag are for, or are they just for pleassure?!