[Bonjoy]

I am very grumpy today. Possibly because I have run out of coffee at work, or just the fact I am at work. In an attempt to shake this off I am going to take this opportunity to vent some spleen about things which royally piss me off in climbing. Apologies in advance if any of the following is, elitist, over the top, personally insulting, or complete nonsense. Feel free to join in the Monday rant.
•   Excessive use of stickclips. Invented ostensibly to help clip scary first/second bolts, it now seems to be common practice for people to totally frig everything they try, from ground to the belay, then spend the day toproping. Don't get me wrong stick clips have there place and I own and use one, but they are massively over-used these days leading to several thing. Firstly sport climbing can be totally reduced to a no flutter activity and as such becomes the first choice for the weak minded, hence sport crags have become overrun with punters on topropes. Secondly, in the past being able to actually dog between the clips provided a natural barrier to people trying things way way above their grade, as a consequence you are now more likely to get to your route of choice and find it occupied by someone without a cat in hells chance of ever redpointing it.  The ‘climb up to a clip and then climb down again before leaving it clipped on the redpoint' ethic, which has always been a bit loosely adhered to on harder routes, now seems to have gone totally out of the window on all routes, being replaced with the ‘whatever you can reach with the clipstick is pre-clipped' ethic.
•   People publicly abusing their belayer. Please, show some self-awareness. You are pissed off because you fell off, bite your lip, don't blame your belayer!
•   The climbing outdoors makes you weak philosophy. Indoor climbers who daren't climb outdoors because it's bad for there training regime.
•   Climbers who daren't be seen at the crag for fear of not being as good as they are supposed to be.
•   The idea that you can be a good climber by training strength alone.
•   The idea that climbs requiring strength aren't valid cos ‘they're just glorified weight lifting'.
•   People paying lip service to the diversity of UK climbing and then going to Stanage/the Tor etc, every bloody time they go climbing.
•   Bufs
•   Did I mention stick clips?

I'm sure more will come to me later.

[Houdini]

What's a buf?

Stick clips:  g-hey.  Dogging:  g-hayer.  Put some effort in scumbag and climb with the rope underneath you the way you should.  It looks shit too, no-one falls.  In short, it gives climbing a bad name.  Ra!

Glorified weightlifting etc.. quips = retard weirdy beardy luddite beardy twits.  And weakling scum who will be crushed by the Youth of Today and also my some in their mid-30's/40's too! 

Yellow mats can fuck off n'all. Humbug!  And people who only wear climbing/outdoor clothing ALL THE TIME.

 

[Bonjoy]

Ooops I meant Buff, not Buf
http://www.buff.es/default.cfm?id_familia=1&cataleg=1&adult=1&idioma=3

Somebodys attempt to con punters into buying a 6" bit of 80s lycra tights for £12!

[SA Chris]

Can I make a case for crag detritus. This includes fag ends, finger tape, litter, empty chalk balls, and chalk left all over holds/ donkey marks.

[soapy]

oi!

leave my doris-day-red'n'pink-gaye-as-a-banjo buff alone!

 


There's only really one thing that pisses me orf:

The increasing lack of civility and bonhomie that used to be present in the climbing fraternity; due in part no doubt to the explosion in popularity of extreme sports


*fiddles in pocket for werthers..*

[Bonjoy]

 
You certainly can Mr SA. Can I add to that, shitting a mere metre or so from the end of the crag, then resting an inadequately sized rock on top. Oh and pissing under overhangs where the rain never reaches, hence accumulated urinal stench.

[Pantontino]

People who steal old krabs from ab points, then drive off in their £30k SUV.

People who show off by doing boulder problems in their trainers, leaving mud on the holds for others. Or worse still (especially on grit/sandstone) causing excessive erosion by grinding grit into the footholds. If you want to impress someone, do a genuinely 'hard' problem with your (carefully cleaned) rock shoes on.

Snowdon bound hillwalkers parking their cars in the Llanberis Pass all day. They drive up to Pen y Pass, find it's full (what a surprise) then drive back down the Pass and take the first parking space they see (usually the Cromlech lay by). Then they catch the bus back up to Pen y Pass again. Why they don't use the massive car park in Nant Peris and catch the same bus up the valley and leave the laybys for the climbers who actually want to be in the Pass?!!

[conn]

anybody shorter than you attributing your few and far between moments of success down to the length of your arms

people stronger than you (or climbers as i prefer to call them) inflicting you with constant stream of rubbish beta which seems to centre more around looking fancy then efficiency, then demonstrating superiority of their beta by throwing laps on your project

excessively negative people

[Mick Ryan]

Pigeon holing, and people who can't help but oppress their points of view onto others whilst holding a holier than thou stance.

[Monolith]

My absolute one time, all-star classic hate. People rubbishing venues where they have either a) not been to  b)not been to as others rubbish it, and fear a lack of cred if they subvert this norm. Like really, that probably is the only thing that makes me boil a little inside.

(See recent Angel Bay thread all you nay sayers!  )

[LL55]

Snowdon bound hillwalkers parking their cars in the Llanberis Pass all day. They drive up to Pen y Pass, find it's full (what a surprise) then drive back down the Pass and take the first parking space they see (usually the Cromlech lay by). Then they catch the bus back up to Pen y Pass again. Why they don't use the massive car park in Nant Peris and catch the same bus up the valley and leave the laybys for the climbers who actually want to be in the Pass?!!

Second that. And the horrifc way they can't park, taking up 2 car spaces or leaving 5 foot either side of thier car, not large enough to fit a smart car in.

The 'Break, Turn left and Indicate at the same time' movement that tourists seem to have developed so well over the years also gets my feta. (Not to mention the 45 mile an hour drivers who do 45 mph all the way from Capel to Llanberis, ignoring the 30 mph signs through Nant Peris.

Oh, and when you're working a problem in a large area, someone dumps their mat next to yours and proceeds to climb with their mates on something else overlapping your problem, without asking. I'd never say no, but it's just good etiquette to ask if it's OK to disturb your siege tactics.

[Paul B]

Fun day out at malham jon? 
That place has pissed me off in the past, people on routes, sitting for hours without a redpoint attempt you politely ask if you can have a redpoint to get told: No i'm about to go in a minute... then they dont do anything for a few more hours...
Frigging around with slings and crap to add unecessary additional clips to sport routes. Fair enough if its really badly bolted but mainly it just isnt necessary.
Clipsticks, first one ok...first two ok if really badly placed bolts...but no more.
Onsight/Flash etc... you cant ask people anything if your going for the onsight.. ive sat at a crag watching a climber reverse an entire route from the 2nd off last draw to the floor, to then stand trying to coax information out of their partner in a round about fashion in order to 'preserve' the onsight, crazy.
People stealing crabs really pisses me off. A couple of years ago I was spending a lot of time at kilnsey, after topping out on tragedy i noticed the scary state of the belay and added a nice shiny snapgate to the decayed dust shedding excuse for a biner that was left. On my next visit I decided to do the route again to find some stupid idiot had taken it and opted for lowering off on the piece of shit that had rusted itself shut and was dangerously thin, what goes on in their minds?
People not adhering to eliminates: if you're going to claim to have done them then make sure you've done them right, no additional heel toe crap no additional holds or flippin' knee bars, I know theyre not everyones cup of tea but if you're going to do them.....

[Bonjoy]

On the eliminate front I have another gripe. Eliminates have their place and that's on boulder problems, not routes! Missing an arbitarily decided hold on a route just because someone in the past lacked the nouse to use it is pants. Routes such as Raindogs and Subculture should be graded for climbing the line using all the holds, not all the holds bar one.

[Paul B]

what is missed on raindogs?

[SA Chris]

oi!

The increasing lack of civility and bonhomie that used to be present in the climbing fraternity; due in part no doubt to the explosion in popularity of extreme sports

  How come some folk look at like you like you shat on their doorstep if you dare greet them, or ask a casual "how's it going?"

[Bonjoy]

 You can do the top/crux move by getting a hold on the right (still well on the line of the route), LH gastoning the pinch people traditional pinch with RH and crossing over for chain with RH. It has been suggested this lowers the grade to 7c+, fair enough call it 7c+ if that's the easiest sequence, don't turn a classic into an eliminate just to maintain a grade! BTW this is the way you have to do the move if continuing up Rainshadow, so is in some respects more valid anyway.

[Paul B]

Im not too sure about this whole finish grabbing the chain business either: Full Tilt, Rain Dogs....
I'd heard that if you clip it instead of grabbing it was harder, is this true?

[Bonjoy]

Yes it's harder to clip the chain first on Raindogs. IMO where a route has no obvious finish hold and the ones before are shit, it sometimes makes for a better more satisfying route to finish by grabbing the chain, even if it is a bit artificial. Who want's to do a route where the crux is making a hideous clip to finish?
 For example the route I did last year at Thor's Cave, Midgard Serpent. I climbed past the belay to a random undercut on the FA. But the finish felt awkward hard and arbitary, so I put a chain belay in and called it a chain grab finish at 7b instead of 7b+. IMO it is more balanced that way and the finish feels more definative. I think all subsequent ascents have finished with the chain grab.

[dontfollowme]

I have a small gripe about inaccurate boulder problem descriptions in guidebooks. On Sunday evening I was pleased as punch to have done Out of Sight at Bridestones even when met with the dish full of water. I got home to check yorkshiregrit.com to find the problem doesn't actually climb the arete at all and instead it goes up the face. 

I agree with the people wearing outdoor clothes as a fashion statement, this was very much evident at the outdoors show earlier this year.

People that blame everything but themselves for not being able to get up a problem. Comedy excuses are good but when its constant it becomes wearing.

[Toad]

People who show off by doing boulder problems in their trainers, leaving mud on the holds for others. Or worse still (especially on grit/sandstone) causing excessive erosion by grinding grit into the footholds. If you want to impress someone, do a genuinely 'hard' problem with your (carefully cleaned) rock shoes on.

To spend time under an overhang, on a piss-wet evening, cleaning, dusting and general good house keeping of said crag, only to find on your return that some muddy soled rapscallion has callously "redecorated" for you really gets my goat! 

[Pantontino]

To spend time under an overhang, on a piss-wet evening, cleaning, dusting and general good house keeping of said crag, only to find on your return that some muddy soled rapscallion has callously "redecorated" for you really gets my goat! 

Funny you should say that, as I've just had to clean some mud off a hold on roof problem I was trying this afternoon. Who are these sloppy ploppin' bastards!

Bonjoy, what's the hold on Subculture you're not supposed to use these days?

[cofe]

[dave]

things the mildly irritate me:

• people who bang on about the "original way" on powerband
• people who say "traverse" instead of "traverse"
• people who place "pro" instead of "gear"
• people who belay standing up in a pseudo-macho position, typically at stanage popular end, with ground-level anchors
• people who are never lighthearted and never have a laugh at the crag
• people who leave tickmarks all over stuff, and tickmarking holds that aren't even blind
• people who don't count fag ends as litter
• martin boysen
• people who take everything at face value, like chucking away your rope after its been fallen on once etc etc
• using photoshop to badly simulate a shallow DOF effect
• people who think bouldering is gay
• people who look down their noses at soloers as being universally wreckless
• people who moan about people who do things differently to themselves
• people who are intollerant of other people's cultures
• the dutch

[Jim]

things the mildly irritate me:

• people who look down their noses at sooers as being universally wreckless

people who can't type properly really gets my hackles up 

[dave]

are you telling me you don't know what a "sooer" is?