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(http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/06/welcome-to-very-wide-blog.html)
1 June 2011, 11:48 am
Welcome to a very WIDE blog.
Many people who know me or Pete or even both of us will know a certain obsession gets in the way of our normal lives…. Yup, Offwidths! We’ve both had a bit of fixation about these strange wide cracks that everyone else hates for over 2 years now and in many ways the whole process has been building towards one massive finale.
A mega tour of the USA – a MEGA WIDE TOUR!!
We’ve travelled over much of the UK and Europe to repeat and establish the hardest routes there are in this genre over the last couple of years. This pilgrimage has taken in classics like Ray’s Roof, Thai Boxing and Gobbler’s Roof to name a few. Unfortunately though, we’ve pretty much reached the end of the journey for what Europe has to offer and now there really is only one destination that cannot be avoided. The location of some of the most famous offwidths in the world and home to the very highest calibre of offwidth climber – the Grand Old USA!
Our trip to the USA for a 2 month Wide Tour this year will be documented by Hotaches and Alstrin Films to hopefully create a visual experience never before seen…. The story will be following our training and climbing exploits back in the UK before following us westwards over the Pacific. This blog will hopefully keep you all in touch with what we’re getting up to in preparation for the trip and also the epics that we undergo whilst out in America.
Neither of us have written a blog before, so apologies in advance for any major “blog gaffs” that we make and we’ll try to keep it fairly light-hearted! We’ll be posting up the tales of hardcore training, trad shuffling, Pete moaning and me falling off lots (that’s how it goes usually anyway…)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QPvZjAjbnsQ/TdAAMoYfqvI/AAAAAAAAABI/eFg65FM4uas/s320/gloves+of+war+-+Copy.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QPvZjAjbnsQ/TdAAMoYfqvI/AAAAAAAAABI/eFg65FM4uas/s1600/gloves+of+war+-+Copy.jpg)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-689167488518705692?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Peter of the Wide (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/06/peter-of-wide.html)
1 June 2011, 12:21 pm
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aeYE_PjADr4/TeYtQtvzgtI/AAAAAAAAADc/jpyRf67iahE/s320/PetePicStack.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aeYE_PjADr4/TeYtQtvzgtI/AAAAAAAAADc/jpyRf67iahE/s1600/PetePicStack.jpg)
By Tom:
It’s always a bit of a tricky thing trying to start a blog. It’s like you’re starting a new chapter in a book – and when you start, I think it’s always nice to have a bit of an introduction to the people involved in the story. As Pete and I have climbed together for a few years now and have done a huge amount of climbing together we thought it might be an idea to write a little introduction to each other. That way, we can tacitly take the piss out of each other and hopefully the other person won’t notice too much.
Many people know Pete for his general all-round trad climbing – he’s bloody good at it, so no surprises there! However, I think it’s actually his wide crack skills that he should be best known for. He’s repeated or established pretty much every single hard offwidth crack in Europe and as yet, none have withheld his shuffle*. Many good climbers would be happy with ticking Ray’s Roof alone, but when you’ve soloed this as a warm-up, done choss E8 offwidth, repeated Thai Boxing twice in a day and put up beefy test-pieces like Gloves of War…… well, you know you’re cooking!
Loads of people think Pete’s climbed these routes because he has this innate talent for climbing and that’s he’s as strong as an ox. Well, they’re wrong…. (well about one part anyway…) It’s actually his massive bloody-mindedness to never give up on anything and 100% commitment that truly wins through. It’s probably why I’ve enjoyed climbing with him so much over the years as it’s awesome to have someone who’ll get so psyched. It honestly doesn’t matter what it is half of the time. We’ve done deadhanging sessions at the bottom of crags in -10 degress, spent hours trying to climb V0 boulder problems upside-down, created a million variations on Technical Master in the pitch black of night and it’s all been amazing fun!
There is one weakness in Pete though. A true Achilles heel. Just ask him about The Holy Grail Grade Chart and The Walk of Life…. Oh shit, I’ve said it now.
* Shuffle can also be replaced with; Randy Hump/Trout Tickle/Invert Torpedo/Greek Toe
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-4204687744486027758?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Randall of the Hump (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/06/randall-of-hump.html)
1 June 2011, 12:31 pm
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YuBLgNtsT54/TeYwpXK5KjI/AAAAAAAAADg/jmF1eniZuL0/s320/Boffwidth.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YuBLgNtsT54/TeYwpXK5KjI/AAAAAAAAADg/jmF1eniZuL0/s1600/Boffwidth.jpg)
In Pete's words....
It was maybe 3 years ago when I first met Tom, although it seems longer than that, having been on many trips around the UK and abroad. Or maybe it just seems longer because of the amount of crack climbs I’ve had to suffer from being his partner.
I think the only crack that I had climbed before I met Tom was The Vice, which was tough and the very first time I tried it I couldn’t actually pull off the floor (no joke). So, in reality I wonder why did the climbing partnership stick? Well, really I’m not sure…but what I do know is that he is probably the best climbing partner I’ve ever had (maybe ever will have?).
Being well known for his crack climbing prowess and obsessed by this style it was only a matter of time until it would probably rub off on me. Really it was actually inevitable, because climbing with someone who has now climbed London Wall 32 times and had a replica of Greenspit in their living room instead of a television, maybe it was impossible not to. However it was one type of crack genre that Tom was particularly engrossed and excelled in, and that was the 5+ inch variety, or more specifically…the offwidth. I quickly got enticed.
I knew very little at the start, but puntered along trying to make it look like I knew what I was doing, (accumulating lots of scar tissue in the process,) whilst Tom looked comfy and restful in double fist stacks and hanging by his feet. Over time he taught me the way - showing me that hand jams, stacked hands, knee locks and chicken wings were all better than the Dalmatian suitcase-handle holds that go up the Five Ten wall at The Foundry.
So what is it that makes him pretty flipping good at offwidthing and often leaves me thinking ‘oh crap now I’ve got to try and second that pitch…why couldn’t he just have fallen off, then we could have all gone home…?’ Maybe it’s the tenacity and ability to push past the sickness and pain, or maybe it’s just his high class bush whacking skills? (I’m not sure)
Or perhaps it’s the list of offwidths that he crushed with relative ease, Ray’s Roof, Cedar Eater and Gloves of War. Personally I think it’s his ability to eat chocolate bars in an invert position half way up Thai Boxing, the hardest offwidth in Europe.
So where has this offwidth obsession lead him? To The U S of A in September. BOOM.
Anyway I feel like I was far too complementary in the above text, so in summary – He floundered on Ray’s Roof, looked shaky on Gloves of War and puntered Thai Boxing ;-)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-3167719095428520838?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Hehe perverts. This should be worth following.
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Word.
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The Dyno Wing (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/06/dyno-wing.html)
4 June 2011, 9:24 pm
I was out at Burbage South a while back doing some private offwidth coaching with someone (yes, I know - who'd pay for that you ask??!) and spotted a rather intriguing problem. Down on the normal boulder circuit is a rather nice flared crack which can be climbed as a simple 2 move problem, which teaches the art of double fist stacking. A good problem in itself - but as soon as you see the boulder opposite, the running jump into the crack reveals itself... well, it did to me!
The Dyno Wing is a tricky nut to crack for sure. It requires a certain belief that you won't rip your entire tricep off and also that chicken wings really are as good as a belay. I really had to convince (or is that fool?) myself of this whilst staring at the jump, but if you go and have a go you might get a nice surprise. Think of it as the next step up from Giggling Crack.
Think like Johnny, land like Johnny, feel like Johnny.........
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-3275183870625446501?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Demented :2thumbsup:
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Super Jam (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/06/super-jam.html)
11 June 2011, 8:33 pm
With a trip down to Cornwall planned, most people would be thinking of beautiful granite slabs and walls to climb. However the only route that I desperately wanted to do, was the route, which if asked to be climbed, most people would say they’d rather go and stand at the very North end of Sennen on a wavy day and wait for the tide to come in; strange one really! This little number; Super jam, is probably relatively unheard of maybe due to the fact that it is only E5, the fact that you probably never see anybody on it or possibly because there are harder graded routes of this style in the country such as Ray’s Roof and Gobbler’s Roof. (I’d only heard about and seen it when I saw some photos from the BMC international meet).
Being only E5 I couldn’t believe how flared the final section of crack looked. No wonder nobody went up there out of option, it looked horrendous; but that’s what I liked about it and went up optimistic that I could onsight it.
The start is simple, reaching off big undercuts to bomber hand jams. From these I flicked my feet above my head into the flared pod and engaged some stacks, just one shuffle leads you to the lip turn where you somehow have to get your whole body from completely inverted to the correct way up in the space of about a metre. I spent about 10/15minutes on the onsight wondering what to do; right foot in, left foot in, wide ponying, trout tickling, invert torpedo. I actually managed to get the good hold and pull round the corner on it, but my right foot had got into the most ridiculous position it cammed in so hard I couldn’t get it out. I looked back into the crack and actually wondered whether it was still attached to my leg.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1PY87-FfuRM/TfPNR0YLi0I/AAAAAAAAADo/C-Jn5EOA0VQ/s320/Getting+the+invert+on.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1PY87-FfuRM/TfPNR0YLi0I/AAAAAAAAADo/C-Jn5EOA0VQ/s1600/Getting+the+invert+on.JPG)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eBjwSr6LJ6I/TfPM0WcthPI/AAAAAAAAADk/atgb0NUzy6Y/s320/Resting.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eBjwSr6LJ6I/TfPM0WcthPI/AAAAAAAAADk/atgb0NUzy6Y/s1600/Resting.JPG)
After some more ground up battles, a sore right ankle, 2 tape rolls later and a bored Katy on belay I decided to pull on and check the foot placements. 30 seconds later the sequence was solved. The route was stripped and 30 minutes later lead, to what became a much more enjoyable experience as the sensation of nausea, full body pump and tomato heads is a natural and pleasant feeling for me now.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JZeoTsvNqQQ/TfPQJFqmcdI/AAAAAAAAADw/Wtu6l8OwkHs/s320/036.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JZeoTsvNqQQ/TfPQJFqmcdI/AAAAAAAAADw/Wtu6l8OwkHs/s1600/036.JPG)
This route emphasized even more then ever to me that grades of offwidths just mean absolutely nothing at all. Most are harsh or sandbags, simply because not many people climb them and the people that do climb them, know its all about the effort that is put in on these puppies that counts. Whether it is VS or E7, you’re usually just more relieved that it’s your second that has to go through what you just did rather then being happy with what you actually climbed! (I had to ab because nobody wanted to follow)
In comparison, I thought that Super Jam was similar in style but harder then Ray’s Roof with a broader array of offwidth skills required.So, does that mean Jardine’s original grade of E4 for Ray’s was actually correct or Super Jam is a super sandbag?
Or does it mean you should get over to Staffordshire and get the tick before some offwidth gangstas come over from America and say it really is 5.11?
It probably just means to never trust the grade and instead trust the width…(whatever that means?!?!?)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YPeLtgYFaz0/TfPONslkguI/AAAAAAAAADs/ClyWXICyqVw/s320/Resting+on+Super+Jam+%25C2%25A9+PETE+SAUNDERS.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YPeLtgYFaz0/TfPONslkguI/AAAAAAAAADs/ClyWXICyqVw/s1600/Resting+on+Super+Jam+%25C2%25A9+PETE+SAUNDERS.jpg)Thanks very much to Pete Saunders for this last photo “Resting on Super Jam". © PETE SAUNDERS
Pete(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-5393025514704495573?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Luck, Injury and Peak Performance (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/06/luck-injury-and-peak-performance.html)
20 June 2011, 11:20 pm
How the relationship between injury, luck and performance plays out over the course of a few months can be totally random - the line that we tread along these is so very thin at times. I've always liked the golfer, Gary Player's quote:
"The more I practice, the luckier I get"
I'm not sure that this works always though, if I take the last month of my life into consideration. It's seemed more like "the more I train, the unluckier I get." This is probably completely untrue, but it certainly has seemed that way. Or maybe I'm just getting paranoid about the ensuing trip to the US and not blowing out on some ridiculous bodily malfunction.
Unlucky once.....
First injury to crop up was a chronic heel injury that once put me out of climbing for 2 years. It's never come back (touch wood) until this month! 2 back-to-back sessions of heel-toe bathanging hanging with sit ups, resulted in hideously painful heels again. I thought it was due to the excessive "invert time" intially, but in fact it turns out that these new offwidthing shoes that 5.10 have sent through the post are rather aggressive on the heels. It's all ok though.... a week of iced peas and flip flops have brought me back.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pVoKCl_ELuc/Tf_THkOf5ZI/AAAAAAAAAD8/8EihRStzly8/s320/IMG_3170.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pVoKCl_ELuc/Tf_THkOf5ZI/AAAAAAAAAD8/8EihRStzly8/s1600/IMG_3170.JPG)Photo: Pete on the weighted hangs
Unlucky twice.....
Secondly, I was trying some double fist stacking laps down in the cellar and boosh, I'm out of the crack, on my back and nowhere near the mattress. Cue swollen elbow and no armbars, deadbars or dyno wings for a while. How do I miss 3 matresses and a million boulder pads?!
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EQVtss5GKDA/Tf_OrdJl0BI/AAAAAAAAAD0/ud4j7XItCAk/s320/IMG_4317.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EQVtss5GKDA/Tf_OrdJl0BI/AAAAAAAAAD0/ud4j7XItCAk/s1600/IMG_4317.JPG) Photo: No more Deadbarring for a few weeks!
Unlucky thrice....
The third instance really was a killer for me. A real moment of "have I blown the next 6 months of climbing for myself here?"Pete and I decided to take part in the Edale Fell Race a couple of weeks ago. Pete, because he's a local lad and he's done it every year (why??!) and me, because I'm an idiot. The race went pretty well to begin with, considering that we're complete fell racing punters - note that Pete wears headphones whilst competing (wtf?!) and I considered doing it in a hoodie as it was cold. We hit the top plateau over Kinder somewhere around 40th position and sustained the level of exhaustion until the drop back into Edale. At this point Pete started to run down the track like a madman and I followed like an old man. At the final steep section of wet slope I slipped over a couple times (my road running trainers didn't seem to be very adept at wet grass) and on one particularly hard fall I thought to myself "careful here old man, this just isn't worth it. Take it easy." Of course, I got up and instantly fell over again.... POP. Oh shit, the knee had gone.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Oxvw9Zcu9a0/Tf_SNudSA3I/AAAAAAAAAD4/XZd6Jr9ttsA/s320/IMG_4376.JPG) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Oxvw9Zcu9a0/Tf_SNudSA3I/AAAAAAAAAD4/XZd6Jr9ttsA/s1600/IMG_4376.JPG) Photo: Team Wide Boyz not having a clue....
Well, what am I moaning about? I had to not work or climb for a week, see some consultants and physios in the hospital (they gave me some fairly reassuring news) and get to know my pack of iced peas very well again. Apparently it's my ITB, the tear is only minor in all liklihood and the pain is only temporary. Problem? Nah.... not any more!
So it's back to the training once more. Psyche is running high and I'm can't wait for another beasting. Pete's coming round on Thursday for a massive cellar session. Bring on the pain.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CxYBpG23V08/Tf_UIj09cNI/AAAAAAAAAEA/Hnn09IP8GKM/s320/IMG_4304.JPG) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CxYBpG23V08/Tf_UIj09cNI/AAAAAAAAAEA/Hnn09IP8GKM/s1600/IMG_4304.JPG)Photo: Self-talk and motivation at your finger tips
In fact, it's only midnight - time for a quick session now.(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-8265452816747018953?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Am I right in thinking that Tom's cellar doesn't have an overhanging wall of crimps, a beastmaker or a campus board? Just a few planks at various distances from each other? ;D
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Brilliant post Tom, cheered me right up this grey morning. Get well soon.
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You'd be exactly right there Niall! ;D
Who needs deadhanging, when you've got deadbarring?
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Ondra, Wide Cracks and the Next Generation (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/07/ondra-wide-cracks-and-next-generation.html)
3 July 2011, 9:04 pm
Yesterday I had a dream. A very strange dream….
Three people came together that must never come together – if they do it could be the end of everything as we know it. Somehow my mind created the potential lethal combination of a sport uber-wad, internet media mogul and wide crack punter. All fighting over one project.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sM9QeBrYjSc/ThDWkPsHceI/AAAAAAAAAEE/o7E3R2zxeA4/s320/IMG_2372.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sM9QeBrYjSc/ThDWkPsHceI/AAAAAAAAAEE/o7E3R2zxeA4/s1600/IMG_2372.JPG) Phone rings…..
[Me] “Hello?”
[Mick Ryan] “Tom, glad to have got through to you. I’ve got something very special for you boys. You and Pete are going to love this.”
[Me] “Oh yeah? This sounds good….”
[Mick Ryan] “I’ve got this project to hand over to you. Apparently Adam Ondra has found this wide crack project in the Czech Republic and he’s been utterly shut down by it. It’s supposed to be 7 inches of limestone beauty and Adam hasn’t got a clue how to Tickle a Trout or Greek Stack”
[Me] What?! No…. you’re kidding….. this can’t be true Mick. How can this happen? Ok…. Hang on a second. I’ll ring Pete, get some flights booked and we’re on it.”
“Tom……… Tom…………. TOM!!”
Oh dear. It’s all a dream and my wife has just woken me from an afternoon nap. No Ondra, no Mick Ryan from UKC and no limestone project. I think about this for a second and then start to chuckle to myself. How on earth did my mind come up with this scenario? Ondra on wide cracks? Not a chance!!
Clearly though, as I’m an old codger (well, relative to Ondra) there needs to be a new entrant into the wide crack scene. Most of us offwidth aficionados are over 30 (Pete makes a significant break from the trend on this), male and think knee patches are the practical option and not a fashion statement. Fortunately there could be a new kid in town….
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JuXU57Hp2jw/ThDXNbJU-VI/AAAAAAAAAEI/iaEUgavDtvA/s320/IMG_4407.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JuXU57Hp2jw/ThDXNbJU-VI/AAAAAAAAAEI/iaEUgavDtvA/s1600/IMG_4407.JPG)
My wife and I were lucky enough to be bundled a little sack of joy, tears and soggy nappies last month. We’ve named her Hannah Sofia (I wasn’t allowed the Pamela/Handstack/Offwidthina/Lucille options on names) and she’s already proved to be quite feisty! I’m not sure that she ever will partake in the obsession that bothers her Dad so much, but if she ever does want to sneak down to the cellar to learn some butterfly jams I’ll be the first to point her in the opposite direction. Tennis is much more sensible!(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-6080876301034128951?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Congrats on the arrival of the sprag. I mean sprog.
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Thanks Chris.
All my mates told me how having a child would slow me down and I'd never go climbing again. I've not noticed that particular effect, but I do seem rather tired all the time and have lost 3kgs!
New climbing hard tip: have a baby - it does wonders for your waistline!
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Thanks Chris.
All my mates told me how having a child would slow me down and I'd never go climbing again. I've not noticed that particular effect, but I do seem rather tired all the time and have lost 3kgs!
New climbing hard tip: have a baby - it does wonders for your waistline!
I was the same after Logan, as after the nails first months, Sam was able to sleep when he did, and therefore was able to free me up to climb, and less sleep means more time in calorie burning mode (at least if you forget to eat more... Doh) so I dropped to my old fighting weight. Its only been since the twins that I've got rock envy.
New climbing hard tip: have one baby - it does wonders for your waistline!
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Pain Threshold Training - FOR YOU! (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/07/pain-threshold-training-for-you.html)
9 July 2011, 3:34 pm
Right before you read any further…beware this is quite a boring post that consists of very minimal pain, shuffling or pressure wounds on my behalf.
Maybe it might inflict more pain on you having to read it. I guess by reading it, it could be considered good training for offwidths then?!It’s painful but has no bruising or cuts as side effects.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hwi4L03JPuA/Thhzu0CtVmI/AAAAAAAAAEc/qvWoHWq3WGY/s320/offwidths.bmp) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hwi4L03JPuA/Thhzu0CtVmI/AAAAAAAAAEc/qvWoHWq3WGY/s1600/offwidths.bmp)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Don't worry no side affects like this will occur.[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Can’t lose really!! A free bit of training without having to break sweat or move anything but your eyes across the computer screen.So if you fancy a bit of pain threshold training read on and it might just get you up your next project. Whether you’ve got full body pump in some horrendous squeeze chimney, forearms so painful and full of lactate they feel they might explode, or the rawest tips known to man, by reading on the next time you come to one of these painful situations your mind will take you back to this painfully boring blog post and what you had to put up with when reading it and you will be able to push on easily.(btw if your still reading this, good effort).
Right, we’ll push on……
So I got a new camping mat the other day, (oh dear, that’s it, you’ve stood up haven’t you? Your shutting the computer down now, right now your leaving the room ……sorry, I told you it was going to be boring).
For those that have managed to get through that first sentence, we’ll carry on. So, yes…I got a new camping mat the other day. It is for my America trip in September. It is a right beast of a thing, it has some fare girth to it being proper thick and wide, and its still quite light. I reckon this should give me a good nights sleep whilst I’m out there snoozing away. It should help me wake up fresh and ready to go and get munched in some sharp, Vedauwoo, flared chimney!
However I think the best thing about this mat and why I decided to write this pointless post is that it’s called a ‘WIDE BOY,’ how cool is that?! I was well psyched when I found that out. It’s like it was made for me! I can feel this mat will bring me good wide fortune in the US. Hopefully it will give me that extra bit of good sleep and help me win against the wideness. (we’ll just have to see whether that happens or not).
Right I can’t believe you actually just read all that! haha. If you did manage to digest any of it all…well…I solute you sir!! Your pain threshold training is over, well done. You are now ready to go and devour that really painful project. Go on…get to it.(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-433750357238252184?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Fuck the pain, one more lap (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/07/fuck-pain-one-more-lap.html)
11 July 2011, 10:30 am
When Pete and I came up with the plan to take on the dark, painful and wonderful world of offwidth climbing, we knew that we'd have to take things to a new level - a level of offwidth climbing that's perhaps not been achieved before...
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uyXoQzLlnSg/ThrNWA4QvUI/AAAAAAAAAEo/gc8US8yv6wo/s320/DSCN0470.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uyXoQzLlnSg/ThrNWA4QvUI/AAAAAAAAAEo/gc8US8yv6wo/s1600/DSCN0470.JPG)Photo: Just another day in the office
I remember being sat down in Kalymnos a couple of years back with mine and Pete's family thinking - What would Dave Binney do? After all, Dave had been a strong influence in both of our climbing approaches; Pete through his younger years in the GB Juniors and mine as a coach for the GB Team. So, what would we do....? The resounding answer was to build a cellar like no other; no crimps, no pinches, no 45 board and no campus board. Instead I strapped to the underside of my house two different sizes of offwidth roof crack, a massive long 35ft hand crack, a 45 degree double fist offwidth and a knee-bar sit up machine.
With this strange DIY task completed, we then set about getting psyched. Very psyched indeed. I've had sessions down there where after dropping from the multiple laps I could no longer walk properly, my legs and stomach were so filled with lactic acid. I've seen Pete turn into a mushy mess where he's hardly managing to talk any more and his back has turned a colour so red that you'd have thought he would pass out from blood loss to the brain. We've broken ourselves down in that cellar and we've been happy to do it, because if you want to make a difference, it's gonna hurt.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fb8wXH6eAMA/ThrD6P2xTeI/AAAAAAAAAEg/JbHEdUtPdWI/s320/IMG_4305.JPG) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fb8wXH6eAMA/ThrD6P2xTeI/AAAAAAAAAEg/JbHEdUtPdWI/s1600/IMG_4305.JPG) Photo: The Board of Truth
So where has all this taken us? I think (and I'm starting to believe it now) it's achieved for us that new level that we'd previously hoped for - the Binney Dream of athletic development through focused training. Where previously we'd been happy to do laps on the equivalent of 8a's down the cellar, we can now do them with huge weights vests or with a 6c cruxes thrown in every 5 moves to increase the intensity of a 100 move circuit. It's still scary though, to wonder what it'll all be like when we go over to the States and actually do some of this stuff that we've dreamed of for so long.
This weekend we headed out to Gobbler's Roof with Rocketman Rob Smith to do some mileage on probably the UK's hardest offwidth, Gobbler's Roof (E7 6c). It's a filthy, dirty and dark offwidth roof crack that's probably about 8a to climb if you had to give it a sport grade and is whole new level above stuff like Ray's and Giggling. Fortunately (given how much effort we've ploughed into the training) the route feels very reasonable now and it was great to feel the gains on some real rock and not just 2 pieces of kitchen sideboard bolted 7 inches apart!
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YvLZiQfFsLw/ThrIANqUN_I/AAAAAAAAAEk/I3Ed9vzbiuc/s320/Pete+Gobblers.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YvLZiQfFsLw/ThrIANqUN_I/AAAAAAAAAEk/I3Ed9vzbiuc/s1600/Pete+Gobblers.jpg)Photo: Pete doing some eliminates on the crux lip turn of Gobbler's Roof
It was also great to see Rocketman on this route as well - in fact it was just good to go out climbing with him as he's so motivated! It's pretty rare that you meet other people out there that are so versatile with their styles of climbing and good at it too. I think when we go back for some filming with the Hotaches crew in a couple of weeks he'll definitely get the 3rd ascent of this filth-fest. Go on Rob!(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-2632589895376445587?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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New Helium Friends! (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-helium-friends.html)
17 July 2011, 10:01 pm
It's only a week away until we start with the UK part of our film project (http://www.hotaches.com/) and Wild Country have very kindly come up with some new goodies - the new Helium friends!
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--e77L_HlMwE/TiNV-i7eyNI/AAAAAAAAAE0/JkTFO_YalN0/s320/Heliums.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--e77L_HlMwE/TiNV-i7eyNI/AAAAAAAAAE0/JkTFO_YalN0/s1600/Heliums.jpg) Photo: trialing the new gear. (c) Ian Parnell (http://www.ianparnell.com/)
I was lucky enough to get a bit of sneak preview of the new friends at the beginning of the year when I headed over to Wales with Richie Patterson and Ian Parnell. Unfortunately on the day I wasn't able to spend that much time playing around with the gear as it was bloody freezing and Richie was encouraging me to speed up from my usual "snail pace!"
This week however, me and the gear could get cosy and I managed to have a proper look at the business end. There's a massive list on the Wild Country (http://www.wildcountry.co.uk/) website of all of the changes that have been made to these devices, but it's really a few things that stand out for me as the end user - trad climber.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S2319b3LD4o/TiNawU2mjAI/AAAAAAAAAE4/33gYNPtlVac/s320/IMG_4433.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S2319b3LD4o/TiNawU2mjAI/AAAAAAAAAE4/33gYNPtlVac/s1600/IMG_4433.JPG)
1. The stem is way longer - much easier to get out of deep cracks and more play in the stem on flared grit breaks
2. Soooooooooooooooo much lighter! Not really noticable on 1 friend, but take a whole rack and you're talking.
3. New thumb loop. Much that Richie P would have killed me for saying it, I always liked the Black Diamond plasticated thumb loops and I think Wild Country have made a great choice in using this with their new pieces.Comfortable, and practical.
4. I've not seen this quoted anywhere, but in my opinion the cams are a lot better in their "stickiness/adherence" to the rock. It could be something about the way they're coated in anodising, but it's really good.
Anyway, it'll be time to get them seriously dirty in some wide cracks over the coming 2 weeks. Nine days of filming and a lot of wideness to be enjoyed - I think we're climbing practically every hard wide crack in the UK in the space of a week so better eat my Shreddies!(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-4782090336383343842?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Filming the Wide and Wonderful - Part 1 (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/07/filming-wide-and-wonderful-part-1.html)
28 July 2011, 6:18 pm
The last week and a bit has been an interesting time for me and Pete - both mentally and physically! We've been out with Hotaches (http://www.hotaches.com/) filming for our US/UK wide obsession, and also a project code-named "Crack School" and............ also a Wild Country promo. Phew, it's been quite a busy time! Whilst we've learnt lots about presenting to camera (that's a major skill I do NOT have), it's been the journey re-visiting many of the UK classics that's been the real eye opener. So much training has been done and so much has been put on the line, but would all the old classics feel hard any more?
Day 1 - Millstone and Curbar
The first day started off with a bit of crack school stuff at Millstone doing some easy cracks, but the real meat of the day revolved around Right Eliminate at Curbar. Katherine Schirrmacher was out with us to either be "set up by Richie Patterson" or "learn some wide technique from Tom."
Katherine got really stuck in the with the task and put in a bloody good fighting effort. She used all the usual techniques to start with (swearing, sliding, thrutching) but soon resorted to some good old armbars, footlocks and chicken wings. It certainly didn't all quite end as plannned though........ but maybe you'll see that in footage....?
To be fair to Katherine, we didn't allow her to use any face holds and she could only employ classic offwidth technique to maintain upward progress. To add to this, the chockstone was missing making the crux much harder - and that's before excluding face holds! Certainly a good effort by her on a much harder route that its supposed E3. She'll probably never want to climb another offwidth again, but I think she's got the aptitude - she likes trying hard, is tough, and knows cracks ain't always fun.
Day 2 - Ramshaw and Baldstones
The second day started with a solo of Ray's Roof - good effort again Pete for doing this as the warm-up. I pitched off from the final knee lock over the roof and landed on Pete on my effort, which rewarded me with a sore ankle and some skin loss. Pete then had a go with a 20kg weight vest on lead....... and nearly did it! Man, that was a fine effort as he weighed nearly the same as John Dunne with that vest on. US "Wad-Beast" Brian Kim had a go, so did Katy Whittaker and also Sheffield's best looking man, Ned Freehaly. You'll have to ask them how they did though!
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-31756ZUwrVQ/TjGmQus8vkI/AAAAAAAAAFA/F7MCX11w9O0/s320/Ray%2527s+solo.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-31756ZUwrVQ/TjGmQus8vkI/AAAAAAAAAFA/F7MCX11w9O0/s1600/Ray%2527s+solo.jpg) Photo: From the original solo day (c) Andi Turner
The day was finished off getting some footage on Melvin Bragg, a V8 offwidth boulder problem that I did a couple of years ago on top of Ramshaw. With retrospect I think I might have overgraded that one, as it seems pretty ok these days. Maybe I'm just getting better though?
Day 3 - Harborough Rocks
Gobbler's Roof, E7 6c was the plan for the third day of climbing and we were lucky enough to have "Rocketman" Rob Smith along with us for the fun. Unfortunately conditions were absolutely terrible (although, that's not saying much in that cave!) and Rob couldn't quite get the third ascent we'd privately hoped for. He made a solid effort though and I think it's just a matter of time now for him. I'm proper psyched for you Rob!
Pete and I went back on the route as well, to get some footage of some upside down madness. Paul Diffley had made an incredible job of lighting up the whole cave, so it's was a really unique opportunity to get on the route without the usual gloom. The training has definitely paid off, as the roof section felt very comfortable and only the lip turn still seemed tricky - and still not one to fall off. As Rob nearly proved on one attempt....
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A1L5BTYmhZ8/TjGlB4AaV5I/AAAAAAAAAE8/LE13cASXJto/s320/IMG_4443.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A1L5BTYmhZ8/TjGlB4AaV5I/AAAAAAAAAE8/LE13cASXJto/s1600/IMG_4443.JPG) Photo: Pete Re-Livin' The Dream on Gobbler's.
Rest of the week.....
I'll split this blog post into 2 parts I'm afraid, as I'm nearly falling asleep with 8 days of constant thrutching, but to whet your appetite, there'll be:
Giggling Crack E6 6c, Solo
Me getting totally whooped on one of Pete's FAs
Liquid Armbar E4 6c, 2nd Ascent
Some Crack School stuff on George's Crack in the Ogwen Valley
Another Stevie Hastone Slate Offwidth.....
Cobalt Dream E5 6b, onsight
Pete taking a big whipper......
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasive cellar training session.(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-696724671096884695?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Filming the Wide and Wonderful - Part 2 (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/07/filming-wide-and-wonderful-part-2.html)
30 July 2011, 12:13 pm
Day 4 - Giggling Crack So after ticking and soloing the 2 hardest offwidths in the country it was time to go up to Brimham for the thrutch fest of ‘Giggling Crack’ (given E6 6c). The plan was to solo the crack. I think Bancroft may have soloed this back in the day when he was drunk, which is funny. Anyway we thought it would be cool to have a go aswell…not drunk, obviously. Tom stepped up first and to say he walked it is an understatement, he absolutely cruised it into next year, I’m not joking he made it look no more then HVS. Amazing! After Tom’s ascent I felt more nervous because of how easy he made it look. In the end it was fine and thankfully I felt solid. Infact we both felt so solid on it we went back for round 2 and put in an extra solo lap for some training mileage and Paul to get a different angle with the camera. That deadbarring seems to be paying off!
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MXYNCNzzCbA/TjPzkdYVXbI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/e1X6NobP7BQ/s320/001.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Paul with his Camera near the top of Giggling[/td][/tr]
[/table]We decided to get Richie P on it, which was funny. He definitely couldn’t have put more effort in then he did as I’ve never seen The Patterson power scream, however on the top section downward thrutching did seem to out weigh the upward thruthing and unfortunately he didn’t quite make it. Next time Richie.
Below is a video one of my first attempts of Giggling back when i was 16/17ish. I guess this just showed to me how much i have improved on this type of climbing and how much of a complete punter I was, you can see my technique is so unbelievably shocking, (i can guarantee that i won't have been arm barring and whats my left foot doing?!...puntering). Its funny that i can do this route without a rope now and it feels about E3 5c rather then feeling the E6 6c sandbag it did back then.
Day 5 - Our Forte So today I was really out for the laugh as Tom and Richie had decided to have ago on a new route I did a few months back at Stanton Moor Quarry. The line is a 15m splitter hand and finger crack which I named ‘Our Forte’ and gave E5 6b. it requires 2 sets of cams, some good core (even though it’s a slab) and good hand jamming endurance.
Tom put in a really good effort, getting past the beach section at the start, to the last move of the crux sequence and resorted to using some of the funniest traversing technique I’ve seen for a while. Round 2 is waiting for him.
After watching Tom, Richie decided to second. He also decided not to tape up and came out with the most mauled hands I’ve seen for a while. Anybody next up on the route should be fine as sequence of jams should be perfectly lined with blood.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SSHfehsyKIs/TjP0B97xgxI/AAAAAAAAAFU/MplAv_wNXAM/s320/281263_10150188126322168_37491247167_6204490_467166_n.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Richie busting the moves, seconding 'Our Forte'[/td][/tr]
[/table]Day 6 - Slate ActionWe Met up with Mark Dicken (Hosey B) today, which was cool. He was psyched to show us around a slate quarry on the other side of Llanberis where he had done some first ascents. Obvioulsy being another wide crack enthusiast his route we went to try was of the 7 inch variety. He called it Liquid Armbar. It was a good route to get on because there were minimal face holds so pure offwidth technique was needed the whole way up. The crack was a little wide for knee locks so a good dose of thigh locking was used which felt like a good bit of practice. Tom and I made the 2nd and 3rd ascent of this short little beauty. A technical classic I reckon.We also made a rare repeat of a Stevie H offwidth. It wasn’t hard but I just thought it was funny because Tom got his knee stuck from getting overly keen with a knee lock.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ihwcrWC0sTg/TjP0bFEvmmI/AAAAAAAAAFY/_Tu0cJh-GQI/s320/IMG_4451.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Team Wide in the Pass[/td][/tr]
[/table]After the filming I had a real personal mission I had wanted to do for so long. Basically it involved Vivian Quarry and a headtorch and that’s all I can bare to say at the moment…
Man, a lot has happened over the last 9 days, so the next few days, which consists of:
A lot of squeezing on Colbalt Dream, bit of wide pony action and a massive training sessionI will post up when I’ve written them.(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-3612994514842700845?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Bugger, I've had that line at Stanton on my things to try list for years, but never got round to it. Oh well, you snooze you lose. Any good?
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I'm guessing Rocketman told you about it. I'll kick his ass!
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not me, apparently Patta tipped off Pete months ago as he had known about it for years. I didn't know anything about it and have never been there. Looks very good though. We should go do it anyway
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Rocketman's right - it was Richie P who told Pete about it. He said that Plantpot had tried it but not succeeded so suggested that Pete try. He's now very gutted he told him! An absolute beauty of a line and perfect for those that like cracks.
I'll definitely go with you one eve if you fancy it? I failed to onsight it, so need to go back again if you or Rob are keen?
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Is the Stanton Moor one the traverse of the break?
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That's the one. Didn't you and/or Seb try it back in the day?
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Filming the Wide and Wonderful - Part 3 (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/08/filming-wide-and-wonderful-part-3.html)
1 August 2011, 8:29 pm
Day 7 – OgwenWe thought we would make a short trip up to George’s Crack in the Ogwen Valley today as it has some good wide pony technique going on. I think, although not sure, Will Perrin and Tom might be the only people to onsight this problem, which is quite surprising for a V5 I guess they just know how to tickle that trout. Anyway I also managed to onsight the problem aswell. Its pretty simple really, just involves some nice hand/fist stacking and abit of wide ponying.There’s a short video of me climbing the problem below:
Anyway after this short little warm up we decided to have a go on Cobalt Dream which is high up on the other side of the valley. After a walk in which I expected to be shorter then it was, we realised that we only had time for one lead. Me and Tom flipped for the lead and I lost which meant I was sent up first. It’s E1ish up to the roof, which was unfortunately looking bigger by the time I got up there.
I just thought, stick to what your good at and get the invert on, so I went upside down for most of the roof then pivoted left side in, in the end slot. It was a bit of nightmare to get fully into the slot with a rack on, but you just had to keep moving an inch at a time.In the end I was pretty glad I didn’t fall off as Tom was getting the real E5 treatment on belay from death by midges. After telling me he was thinking about jumping off the top after walking up because they were so bad, I wasn’t entirely sure whether he was holding the other end of the ropes, especially as I also had to untie one end because the rope wasn’t long enough!
Day 8Today was quite restful as Richie wanted some falling off shots for a Helium Promo. So I did some jumping off Offspring which was fun. Well really it wasn’t jumping off at all, it was falling because I’m so weak.Tom did a bit of chat for this Crack School thing as he is good at that and I’m a complete punter at it, and that’s about it really.Day 9 – Cellar sessionPossibly the physically hardest part of the last 9 days was saved until last. Tom’s cellar. Paul wanted to get some footage of some of the training we have done down there recently.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sJ-QAxQTFrU/TjcLHkcm1VI/AAAAAAAAAFo/BsENgoelzN4/s320/paul+diffley.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sJ-QAxQTFrU/TjcLHkcm1VI/AAAAAAAAAFo/BsENgoelzN4/s1600/paul+diffley.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Paul filming (c) Wild Country[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Fortunately it turned out that the session wasn’t as hardcore as usual, so that was a relief, as usually it feels like you should be trying harder then you are as all Tom's motivational messages seem intimidating!
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9eWJKrNV4T4/TjcJZbjgD-I/AAAAAAAAAFc/249LpWp3YHs/s320/psyche+note.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9eWJKrNV4T4/TjcJZbjgD-I/AAAAAAAAAFc/249LpWp3YHs/s1600/psyche+note.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Motivational message (apparently)[/td][/tr]
[/table]
I think the Hastonater seemed to cause the most amusement as Tom showed me a new exercise he had been doing in it. The chicken wing and deadbar curls. Destined to be a favourite over the next 6 weeks I reckon.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R5llf4kfhf8/TjcJwtHSyNI/AAAAAAAAAFg/uu3rezSYj74/s320/crack+sit+ups+pete.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R5llf4kfhf8/TjcJwtHSyNI/AAAAAAAAAFg/uu3rezSYj74/s1600/crack+sit+ups+pete.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Crack sit ups[/td][/tr]
[/table]
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mqX_enjDDVc/TjcJx0pSgOI/AAAAAAAAAFk/SPzGJrVu9lU/s320/crack+sit+ups+tom.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mqX_enjDDVc/TjcJx0pSgOI/AAAAAAAAAFk/SPzGJrVu9lU/s1600/crack+sit+ups+tom.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Tom on the wide pony[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Anyway I’ve been on 2 days rest now, Tom is probably still driving around trying to find Ratho, Theres 6 weeks until we go to America and we are psyched!!!
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-3408070069630784392?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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You are both unwell in the head. Brilliant!
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Want More Wide in Your Life? (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/08/want-more-wide-in-your-life.html)
11 August 2011, 9:49 am
If you'd like more wide in your life, more crack in your backyard and more brutal chickens in your nightmares, then look no further.....! Pete and I (well, it's mainly me actually as I'm the geek) have decided to dip into the murky world of Twitter and we'll updating our adventures on the Twitter account TomRandall2.
So please do follow us if you DON'T know what's best for you!
Tweet me up baby (http://twitter.com/#!/TomRandall2)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MvrWZ2_KxXc/TkOjwd8QlsI/AAAAAAAAAFs/lp3r0irVhl4/s320/Cellar+interview+pete.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MvrWZ2_KxXc/TkOjwd8QlsI/AAAAAAAAAFs/lp3r0irVhl4/s1600/Cellar+interview+pete.jpg)
Photo: Pete showing Paul his Wide Pony. Naughty. (c) Richie Patterson
We'll be keeping you in touch with all the American stuff, madness in the cellar and of course everytime Pete gets on a Wide Pony..... don't ask!
Also.........................................................
We're really proud to be now supported by Sterling for our ropes and also ClimbOn (to recover from multiple scabbing injuries). Sterling make some flipping brilliant ropes and I'm looking forward to having my ass saved over a few more sharp edges! The "Marathon" single that we've used so far has already taken a harsh beating and no signs of any problems yet.
Thanks Sterling!
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-28RmBLfi5JU/ThDbmlIytGI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/3iGLeRzeF9k/s320/STERLING+logo.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-28RmBLfi5JU/ThDbmlIytGI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/3iGLeRzeF9k/s1600/STERLING+logo.jpg)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-7567199006146035399?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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The Original Ray's Roof Solo (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/08/original-rays-roof-solo.html)
15 August 2011, 7:56 am
A while back when Pete and I originally soloed Ray's Roof, we wrote a few thoughts on the matter. I'm not sure that I ever did anything with those thoughts, so here they are to enjoy. Looking back at it, I'm not sure who took the piss out of who, more effectively.
Cue Time Warp............................
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zICwJLMXZ68/TkjPtEU9gmI/AAAAAAAAAFw/cx4TYIs0nXk/s320/Ray%2527s+Roof.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zICwJLMXZ68/TkjPtEU9gmI/AAAAAAAAAFw/cx4TYIs0nXk/s1600/Ray%2527s+Roof.jpg)
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As many people know, the first ascent of Ray's Roof was done by the visiting american, Ray Jardine. A pioneer of hard, burly cracks in the US, it was no surprise that he managed to put up a "real fighter" on God's own rock. Much like many of his rarely repeated US offwidths, he gave his Baldstones route a fairly modest grade of 5.11c, which comes in around E4. I'm guessing that he never ventured over to Ramshaw to see how Ramshaw Crack (at the same grade, but not difficulty!) compared....
Over the following decades, Ray's Roof saw the odd repeat by local obsessives and crack deviants. However, it wasn't until Dawes, Plant and Woodward decided to have a very public tussle with this roof crack that it really began to build a reputation. These demi-gods were thoroughly shut down and shut out - even the enigmatic Dawes with his 3D (or is that 4D??!) brain couldn't work out an appropriate sequence. Tales of hidden pebbles, gardening glove ascents and missing chockstones only added to the mystery of yet another desperate Jardine test-piece.
It wasn't until myself and Pete Whittaker headed over to the Baldstones to climb Ray's Roof in 2008, that the spell of this route started to break. After working out a more reasonable sequence of moves and passing these on to other local climbers, a number of stylish ascents followed over the next couple of years. Hearing of even the crimp-master personified - Ryan Pasquill - ascend this beauty, we knew it was time to set the next challenge. No ropes, no cams.... just some pads, friends and a load of finger tape.
Pete and I have described each other's ascents, so you can tell what's going on inside the twisted mind of an offwidther. It's not pretty, it's not very complimentary and it's certainly not fair. Enjoy:
Tom
So here we were again, sat underneath Ray's Roof. Our last soloing attempt had been aborted over a year ago after I'd catapulted over Pete's mum's head in an over-eager handjam dyno and the winds had picked up to near hurricane levels.... This time though, it was going to be different; we'd spent countless hours hanging by our feet in offwidths around Europe and picked off most of the hardest that anyone could throw at us. We felt confident.
Pete stepped up to the plate first, mainly because I let him. Mostly with these tough offwidths it's best to let your adversary go first as they'll waste untold amounts of energy working the beta out for you and perfectly lining all the best jams with chalk. Unfortunately, Pete looked really rather at ease on his warm-up attempt and pushed straight on for the leg-jam rest. As he's quite a bit weaker than me, he tends to hang around on his feet considerably more, so my hands rubbed in glee as I watched him slowly look more tired in this position. As with most offwidths, it's a considerable advantage to have small knees and large fists; something Pete is extremely well endowed with. Obviously as this makes most offwidths hugely easier for him, I try to employ ample amounts of tight rope (so he can't move up), bad beta (so he falls off), spit in his chalk (for poor friction) and demoralising shouts (come on Pete, just fall off so we can all go home...). He was too fast for me this time though - my calls of "it's starting to rain" and "I think I've just seen a buzzard nesting in the break" did little to stifle his enthusiastic jams through the crux. Damn, he'd just made the first solo ascent; as a bloody warm-up.
Pete
We were back - taping up at the bottom of Ray’s pondering the best way to start it.Without the “Staffordshire Reach” it is impossible to reach into the good part of the crack from the good foot and hand holds and so most people who live outside of Staffordshire have to find a different way to get into the crack. Some things just aren’t fair are they?!
As Tom can actually only jam, he couldn’t use my safer crimp beta to get into the crack. As a result he had to take the bolder flake approach on the left, which seeing as though he is getting on a bit, I thought was a fine effort. This approach is fine when leading the route, but when soloing it could probably leave you over at Gib Torr if you got it wrong, as it involves a massive cut loose and swing from a horizontal position with your head actually slightly lower then your feet.
After getting through this section without any of the mishaps of last time, which involved a dismount face first into the grass slope, he crossed the roof section with relative ease. On approaching the lip he realised the offwidth genetics that had been passed on by his mother and father were all wrong and his mini-fists didn’t fit to well, so had to drop off for a re think and more importantly - a re-tape.
After redoing his tape job, which now looked more like a plaster cast, he set off again. On reaching the lip he managed to get a better seated jam, went hunting for dung at the back of the crack and pushed on. After a lot of shuffling, followed by some well executed randy humping, he found himself halfway round the lip with a dodgy knee jam. I gave no sympathy to him here as he does have skinny knees (a useful offwidthing tool) so watched and went for the arms folded, classic “British Spotting Technique” as he struggled to get a knee jam seated properly and grunt up to the top.With relief and “an emotional experience” he eventually landed himself on the funnel and left the Staffordshire boys standing at the bottom with their chins on the floor!
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-3189984475638319031?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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8c offwidth. Surely not... (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/08/8c-offwidth-surely-not.html)
26 August 2011, 7:31 pm
A long time ago..... in a far, far land..... Well, Kalymnos to be exact, myself and Pete dreamed up this concept of an offwidth cellar underneath my house. It seemed like a total pipedream that would never happen at the time (partly because I'd still not actually agreed a price on the house!) but with a bit of psyche, hard work and a few kitchen worktops a cellar like no other was born.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1o5BE-xrpPM/TlfykMuvmMI/AAAAAAAAAF4/lZOJIhzSMDk/s320/IMG_3168.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1o5BE-xrpPM/TlfykMuvmMI/AAAAAAAAAF4/lZOJIhzSMDk/s1600/IMG_3168.JPG)Photo: Pete on the original prototype
At first, we worked quite hard to just do a couple of laps on the 7 inch horizontal offwidth, but with time, tape and a LOT of training, it all seemed to come together. I remember when we both first did a 100ft continuous section of roof crack and being so wasted that we could hardly walk afterwards. The lactic acid had consumed almost our entire body - biceps, hands, core and legs were destroyed.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oFlfprJgNdE/TlfzbTraFOI/AAAAAAAAAF8/wcG7DGbDu4k/s320/DSCN0474.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oFlfprJgNdE/TlfzbTraFOI/AAAAAAAAAF8/wcG7DGbDu4k/s1600/DSCN0474.JPG)Photo: Tape gloves had to be reinforced with duct tape the abrasion was so bad over 100ft reps.
After quite some time and with even more additions to my strange cellar (a 9-inch roof crack, The Hastonator and Kneebar sit-up machine), we came up with an ultimate Offwidth Link-Up. Miles of hand fist stacking, into double fist stacking, into handjams and bathangs. When we considered a 200ft section of continuous roof climbing to be fairly reasonable (and definitely repeatable in sets) this ultimate link up seemed the living end. Nothing could be harder it seemed and in our minds we set that if we were able to do this before leaving for America, then our conditioning would be complete.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9jVewMbjWg4/TlfxpOYBG2I/AAAAAAAAAF0/aDVz_Q003Wk/s320/pete+leg+raise.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9jVewMbjWg4/TlfxpOYBG2I/AAAAAAAAAF0/aDVz_Q003Wk/s1600/pete+leg+raise.jpg)
Photo: Pete focussed and working hard. (c) Richie Patterson
Sure enough, last week both Pete and I completed this 8c link-up that we'd dreamt up. Who knows if it's the grade or if it'll even be useful for a Vedauwoo 5.9, but what I do know is it makes anything else I've done seem pretty light. In many ways I think I feel more scared about the trip now that I have done this link as I know there's no excuse physically. Everything else will be in the mind.
Please dear God, some beta on Lucille would be great... (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-9091648610523026451?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Hairy Welsh Cracks, Hannah and (H)Ireland (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/08/hairy-welsh-cracks-hannah-and-hireland.html)
28 August 2011, 8:01 pm
As it's only a couple of weeks before heading off to America, Pete and I have been up to a few random things - some fillers, some projects and some general trad climbing.
At the moment, Pete is over in Ireland in the Mourne Mountains. No doubt, he'll be smearing his way up some desperate slabs somewhere in the mist. I spoke to him on the phone yesterday and it sounded like he'd already had "an emotional experience" on an E4 sandbag. Must be all that offwidthing that's wrecked your footwork Pete!
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UROBy5PPaDc/TlqXy01JG-I/AAAAAAAAAGA/VxCZlEaqNRA/s320/IMG_2370.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UROBy5PPaDc/TlqXy01JG-I/AAAAAAAAAGA/VxCZlEaqNRA/s1600/IMG_2370.JPG)Photo: Pete most definitely not working on his footwork!
The previous week I headed over with my wife and daughter, to South Wales to have another look at a couple of cracks. Last year I spent a day trying a roof crack project at Dinas Rock, which splits a pretty sizeable roof on finger-locks. Simon Rawlinson had very kindly done some of the cleaning for me, but it was really to no avail as I was out of shape and the jams were just hideously painful. This year however, I vowed to return in slightly better form and to be a bit more careful how I treated my fingers.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y_CpXSXwnDg/TlqcFFBkRiI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/q067iVeiAbc/s400/Dinas+Project2.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y_CpXSXwnDg/TlqcFFBkRiI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/q067iVeiAbc/s1600/Dinas+Project2.jpg)Photo: I'm working the roof on the left-hand side of the pic. (Thanks to Robin Richmond for taking the photo)
I was really pleased this time to get all the moves on the crux crack sequence done, but still quite way from linking sections or large sequences together. I think it'll end up being around V11 for the roof crack and a tricky 20ft section to get there. Something to come back to in the future!
On the second day we braved a bushwacking walk-in with a pushchair (Hannah and wife were not amused!) to go and repeat a really unique looking roof crack on sandstone. The Clart Mountain Project was established by a mate of mine (Si Rawlinson) after it was donated to him by a local bolter and activist. Whilst it did seem unusual to have bolted the line, I can't really say I blamed them considering that every other route in the entire quarry was bolted. All in all, a great little crack and would be around 7b or E6 6b on trad gear.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RAwYd1x4T1c/TlqaxK8oz6I/AAAAAAAAAGI/kjp48jmiZN8/s320/Clart+Mountain+Project.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RAwYd1x4T1c/TlqaxK8oz6I/AAAAAAAAAGI/kjp48jmiZN8/s1600/Clart+Mountain+Project.jpg)Photo: Simon on the 1st ascent of the Clart Moutain Project.
The last "H" in this blog will be Hannah, my daughter. It's been a huge challenge over the last few months trying to fit in family life, keep on top of my work and still train hard. The one thing that has kept me going though, when I'm totally knackered and feeling like I can't face yet another session in the cellar has been the little cheeky grin on Hannah's face. It's absolutely brilliant; like liquid-happiness.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3ezHyDqn_g4/Tlqd_MH_4PI/AAAAAAAAAGY/mJmnigEJbTs/s320/IMG_4491.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3ezHyDqn_g4/Tlqd_MH_4PI/AAAAAAAAAGY/mJmnigEJbTs/s1600/IMG_4491.JPG)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-7239227728698569260?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Indoor Offwidths and The Spread of Wide Love (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/09/indoor-offwidths-and-spread-of-wide.html)
2 September 2011, 7:37 pm
Most people think of indoor climbing as being a pleasant experience. Bright blue crimps splattered all over a gently overhanging wall and funky wrestling with resin volumes at The Climbing Works. Think again....
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SbdM2lsNOvw/TmEkycZY7NI/AAAAAAAAAGc/HSO-8R2nUKE/s320/Gaz+offwidth.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SbdM2lsNOvw/TmEkycZY7NI/AAAAAAAAAGc/HSO-8R2nUKE/s1600/Gaz+offwidth.jpg)
Photo: Gaz Parry approaching a Wide Pony (c) Mike Langley
Over a year ago, myself and Pete were invited down to the Castle Climbing Centre in London to guest route set for their "King of the Mezz" boulder competition. Unfortunately I don't think Mike (the big man on campus) quite factored in how silly things can get when we double team at events. Normally, (I'm a route setter by trade) it's all quite reserved and I will set pretty standard stuff at most walls and comps, but for some reason as soon as Pete steps into the building with a drill in his hand anything can happen!!
Video of the Indoor Offwidth: See video HERE (http://vimeo.com/8650891)
To cut a long story short - at the King of the Mezz comp, we ended up setting some hideous V8 overhanging offwidth that required invert technique, hand-fist stacks and more than a little risk taking. All the wads from London turned up expecting 45 degree crimping and all they got were upside-down shuffling and Whittaker's V5 "Quarryman Problem" which was bloody impossible. Heads were shaken, lapis brushes were snapped and and steely-fingered beasts were shut down. We walked away from that comp expecting never to be invited back again and for the Castle to set an official policy of NO OFFWIDTHS ALLOWED.
That all changed when I received an email this week from route setting manager at The Castle - Mike Langley ..................
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pa9eLCIFy-8/TmEvZddc4lI/AAAAAAAAAGk/hg3jGnvPD0I/s320/Mike+Langley.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pa9eLCIFy-8/TmEvZddc4lI/AAAAAAAAAGk/hg3jGnvPD0I/s1600/Mike+Langley.jpg)Photo: Mike trying the conceptual "Air Armbar" and failing....
"...In the true spirit of country “Wide” pride I thought I would drop the chiefs of the Mega-Ming a quick message of how we roll down on the South Side. No longer is it "London flicks" whilst sipping the perfectly foamed Cappuccino – us crazy men are now true aficionados of The Wide and would like to put our names forward and join the world wide elite and become BOYZ!
A truly rank set of foot stacks was set in the Castle’s roof yesterday by Gaz Parry, Mike Langley and Alex Lemel. In true Wide style the bloc was completed using a climbing shoe on one foot and a 5.10 trainer on the other from Gaz and a pair of sweaty stiff hire shoes from Mike. As for Alex he tried to flick his way through off the volumes edges..."
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JFUCVLeycsQ/TmEt_jMOiZI/AAAAAAAAAGg/UW4gV9T-tVA/s320/Footstack.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JFUCVLeycsQ/TmEt_jMOiZI/AAAAAAAAAGg/UW4gV9T-tVA/s1600/Footstack.jpg)
Good work BOYZ!! (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-7421704901487524376?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Off to America! It could be emotional.... (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/09/off-to-america-it-could-be-emotional.html)
11 September 2011, 9:54 pm
Tom and I finally set off to America tomorrow. Having been waiting for so long now, it might not be possible to contain ourselves fully on the journey – I can see us having to whip the size 5s and 6s out in the airport and crack out some upside down sit-ups!
Hopefully we should arrive at Vedauwoo, Wyoming on Wednesday morning. I say “hopefully” though as it’s not fully guaranteed with our amazing sense of direction that we’ll actually get anywhere further than oversized baggage at Heathrow.
For our final blog post before we go away we thought it would be good to see how each person was feeling about the trip. We decided to do this by asking each other some questions – some sensible, others not so!
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wot-7KKn5aU/Tm0q5XJasFI/AAAAAAAAAGw/jJWUML__J04/s320/Tom+trying+hard.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wot-7KKn5aU/Tm0q5XJasFI/AAAAAAAAAGw/jJWUML__J04/s1600/Tom+trying+hard.jpg) Photo: Tom trying to bite his own face off in preparation for "American Pain."
QUESTIONS BY PETE
(Q)PETE: Tom, I've heard and witnessed that you travelled back from Ilkley to Sheffield via Birmingham and that when checking weather forecasts on the internet for Yorkshire you used the postcode for Llanberis. How do you actually expect to find any of the crags you want to climb on whilst out in America?
(A)TOM: It is true that I get lost even trying to find the bathroom in my house, but I have a secret weapon up my sleeve; a MAP! Yup, I've heard (from your Dad) that you're a reliable map reader and boy am I going to be using this resource a lot. I'd say that Alex Ekins might help out, but I know he's absolutely diabolical with directions as well, so we might end up waiting in a US airport until Kim arrives!
PETE: If you make it to the crag, you may realize that we’ve actually climbed very few offwidths on real rock, how do you think the training that we have done will transfer?
TOM: My suspicion is that the training will transfer pretty well on the really steep stuff, but we'll still be pretty rubbish at the vertical stuff. I'd like to say that it's because the American's have so many more vertical offwidths to practice on, but in reality it's the size of their biceps and cowboy boots that really counts....
PETE: What part of the trip are you most looking forward to and what part are you most nervous about?
TOM: I've been told by Kim (my wife) that I have to say it's our daughter coming out to visit, that I'm most looking forward to... I might also add that I'm psyched out of my tree for Belly Full of Bad Berries, The Crack House and more new routing shenanigans with your good self.
The part of the trip I'm most apprehensive about is trying Lucille in Vedauwoo (it's such a hugely significant route) or realising that I've actually booked our flights for the wrong country and we’re off to Yemen.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U4Rf9L6xXr8/Tm0psYCsjfI/AAAAAAAAAGo/zyZ8IwSb0Ek/s320/Pete+trying+hard.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U4Rf9L6xXr8/Tm0psYCsjfI/AAAAAAAAAGo/zyZ8IwSb0Ek/s1600/Pete+trying+hard.jpg)
Pete trying some more "facial training"
QUESTIONS BY TOM
(Q)TOM: So Pete, we've done loads of training and preparation for this trip now. What shall we do if we start falling off all the 5.9s?!
(A) PETE: I'm actually expecting to fall of all the 5.9s, especially in Vedauwoo where its meant to be sandbag city. However whenever you fall off something easy its best to just get on something much harder and steeper and fail on that instead because it will make you feel better and your mates won't think you're as much of a punter. Failing that i'll send you up everything and say i'm still jet lagged from a month ago.
TOM: What do you reckon of all these American offwidth wads?
PETE: America isn't just known for its offwidths, but like you say, the offwidth wads that it breeds. I have spoken to a few of the wads by email and my assessment is...that they are going to be well hardcore and I might get scared and run away!!! From the stories I've read and pictures I've seen these people feel no pain brother.
I also think they will have really slick technique and I may get to witness something really special, which is the illusion they can create when it looks like they slip up offwidths. I'll be psyched to see this as i've only ever seen you stuck in one...
TOM: What part of the trip are you most looking forward to?
PETE: I think 99.9% of people wouldn't look forward to anything we have planned on this trip, (offwidths, crying babies and no sense of direction...hmmmmmm!) However I couldn't be more excited. There are so many parts I am looking forward to...getting to climb a load of different offwidths; meeting new people; coming away from Vedauwoo with some skin and alive; climbing new routes; getting jet lag (never had it, want to see what all the fuss is about); getting to watch you and others feel pain; Kim, Laura and Hannah coming, man the list is endless.
But really there is one part and route that stands out...I think you know what that is. Should be a good adventure!!
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kGkmWmEPmj8/Tm0s5PhbgfI/AAAAAAAAAG0/gS6PS302SSc/s320/Cam+heaven.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kGkmWmEPmj8/Tm0s5PhbgfI/AAAAAAAAAG0/gS6PS302SSc/s1600/Cam+heaven.jpg)
Photo: Wild Country come up with the goods. Thanks guys - you're legends!
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K72PSOcM01o/Tm0tXiXz4_I/AAAAAAAAAG4/cXnTl7yXGS8/s320/IMG_4486.JPG) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K72PSOcM01o/Tm0tXiXz4_I/AAAAAAAAAG4/cXnTl7yXGS8/s1600/IMG_4486.JPG) Photo: Toilet rolls or Strappal Support?!
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-4219137670644134157?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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That rack just fills me with horror. Good luck boys
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First Stop - Vedauwoo. Fat Crack City. (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/09/first-stop-vedauwoo-fat-crack-city.html)
18 September 2011, 11:22 pm
We’ve finally made it over to America – the plane didn’t get turned around and customs didn’t find my huge stash of offwidth pr0n. Pete, Alex and I touched down in Salt Lake City to perfect blue skies and 20 degrees temperatures. The start to the trip was pretty much perfect and it went steadily downhill from there...
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XvfVQZly9uM/TnZ5FRP2YRI/AAAAAAAAAHE/qZcOsc-N98o/s320/Vedauwoo+040.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XvfVQZly9uM/TnZ5FRP2YRI/AAAAAAAAAHE/qZcOsc-N98o/s1600/Vedauwoo+040.jpg)
Getting to Vedauwoo, wasn’t too difficult; although we did have a few issues with the gaps between petrol stations and what a “pickle chip” was. After driving through the night we arrived at a brilliant little campground surrounded by complex domes of rock. Pete and I couldn’t really contain our excitement and ended up running off into the woods with head torches looking for any route we knew.
The next day dawned with drizzle. It then turned to steady rain and finally mist with some more rain mixed in. Arse. The ultimate British holiday take-down had struck – a whole pile of shit weather. Forlornly we searched in the rain for some of the test pieces we’d climb later in the trip. For a day and half we traipsed around in the rain, desperately trying to find something dry [Pete insists that he didn’t traipse, but “soared like an eagle”]. Fucking rain – it’s such a killer of climbing psyche.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qSUO1z9raR4/TnZ5irMe9mI/AAAAAAAAAHI/T60NLl1IkLE/s320/Vedauwoo+030.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qSUO1z9raR4/TnZ5irMe9mI/AAAAAAAAAHI/T60NLl1IkLE/s1600/Vedauwoo+030.jpg)Photo: Pete gets psyched as he finally spots some clear sky!
On Wednesday a trip was made back to Laramie to nurse our weather-depression with coffee and cakes. Local crack legend Justin Edl came to meet up with us and eventually reassured us that the trip wasn’t going to be a total disaster care of the rain. He gave us a tick list of glory to be going on with and we ventured back up into the Vedauwoo mist.
We'll put up a blog post in a few days once we've hopefully ticked some more stuff and can put it all together. Until then, there's some cool photos on Alex Ekins' blog of our first forays onto the lovely coarse rock of Vedauwoo http://alexekins.co.uk/wide-boyz-in-vedauwoo-part-one/
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5lOEki-JVbM/TnZ7uqTsDyI/AAAAAAAAAHM/3RgnDwxh_Zo/s320/Vedauwoo+026.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5lOEki-JVbM/TnZ7uqTsDyI/AAAAAAAAAHM/3RgnDwxh_Zo/s1600/Vedauwoo+026.jpg)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-8274409919205769462?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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First week in Fat Crack City - Vedauwoo! (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/09/first-week-in-fat-crack-city-vedauwoo.html)
21 September 2011, 6:56 pm
The last blog post that we stuck up a few days after arriving in the States was mostly filled with doom and gloom... Rain, rain and more rain. Despite being British, I think we're terrible at coping with bad weather when we travel away from the UK - we expect perfect blue skies in every other country!
Fortunately that all changed after a few days and we finally got stuck into some nasty, flared wide cracks. All the time sitting in a rain-swept tent we had pondered how sandbagged we'd get, how much skin we'd lose and whether every 5.9 would shut us down.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XxjvesUrefg/TnopXatX-tI/AAAAAAAAAHU/11mYwICAUNM/s320/Vedauwoo+153.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XxjvesUrefg/TnopXatX-tI/AAAAAAAAAHU/11mYwICAUNM/s1600/Vedauwoo+153.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Vedauwoo as the storms clear[/td][/tr]
[/table]We're a week into the trip now and we've finally got some routes and boulders done - we've experienced the Vedauwoo Sandbag, the invert shuffle and armbar-induced hyperventillation. We've met up with some really cool and helpful US offwidthers who've showed us the way to some of the best stuff. Many thanks Justin, Brad, Adam and Eric!
Rather than dissect every route and boulder problem for the moment (grades, cruxes etc etc!) we've opted to give a bit of summary of the stuff we've done and some links to photos that Alex Ekins has put up on his blog. Hope you enjoy them...
Alex Ekins photos (http://alexekins.co.uk/wide-boyz-in-vedauwoo-part-two/)
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8f1EIWVPCag/TnoqRceGcTI/AAAAAAAAAHY/i_BqZfhkurY/s320/Vedauwoo+130.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8f1EIWVPCag/TnoqRceGcTI/AAAAAAAAAHY/i_BqZfhkurY/s1600/Vedauwoo+130.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete shows off his terrible taste in hats[/td][/tr]
[/table]Thursday
Man, what a shit day. It rained and rained, but by the afternoon there was a break in the cloud and we dashed out to some boulder problems with towels and chalk socks. First up in "The Dungeon" were Life Without Parole (V4) and The Warden (V7-8, 5.12c) which Pete flashed in very fine style. It's worth pointing out that he did possibly the world's biggest sit-up on The Warden, so I'm tempted to award him extra points! It was great to finally get some climbing done and actually realise that we weren't complete punters.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JMz3Wzyib34/TnorLy15HHI/AAAAAAAAAHc/6_vCrtBn93Y/s320/Vedauwoo+148.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JMz3Wzyib34/TnorLy15HHI/AAAAAAAAAHc/6_vCrtBn93Y/s1600/Vedauwoo+148.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Tom on Life Without Parole, V4[/td][/tr]
[/table]Friday
On our second day of climbing we decided to follow up on the bouldering front (as suggested by local Justin Edl) and get on Desiderata (V5) and Monsters Inc (V8, 5.13a). Desiderata was a superb roof splitter much like the famous "Cedar Eater" in Yosemite. This served as a quick warm up for Monster Inc later that afternoon, (see photo below).
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mu0FZK6IUrc/TnotxpcpJQI/AAAAAAAAAHg/oc_ClJT75sU/s320/Vedauwoo+023.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mu0FZK6IUrc/TnotxpcpJQI/AAAAAAAAAHg/oc_ClJT75sU/s1600/Vedauwoo+023.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Desiderata, V5[/td][/tr]
[/table]Monsters Inc is a pretty strange boulder propblem because its probably just as long as quite a few of the hard offwidth routes in Vedauwoo. It's a 5 inch crack that splits a 45 degree roof for perhaps 40ft. Unfortunately Pete and I didn't quite realise where the problem started so we ended up ticking a shorter version of the problem weighing in at about 5.12d. We were totally gutted when we realised we missed the start and so we'll have to go back up there next week to finish off the full 5.13 version. Oh well!!
Saturday
We promised at the beginning of the trip that we would never do more then "2 days on", however we found ourselves taping up under Bob Scarpelli's testpiece Squat (5.12b) on Saturday. Pete duly dispatched the route on his warm up to make possibly the first ever onsight of the route. Good effort! After a few more tries I found myself groveling over the top after seating the crux knee lock properly.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zh1p3Jt-Dz8/TnoufhF2E6I/AAAAAAAAAHk/dyoY3WPQ1vE/s320/Vedauwoo+117.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zh1p3Jt-Dz8/TnoufhF2E6I/AAAAAAAAAHk/dyoY3WPQ1vE/s1600/Vedauwoo+117.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Looking up at the roof of Squat, 5.12b[/td][/tr]
[/table]Sunday
REST, flipping heck we needed that.
Monday
In the morning we succeeded in climbing what is touted as possibly Vedauwoo's hardest offwidth route - Spatial Relations (5.13a, put up by Pamela Pack). We were pretty pleased to get the route done in just a couple of hours. Overall we thought it was a really good route with some unique moves including an invert pivot-to-chicken-wing.
In the afternoon we went out to an old school classic, Worm Drive (5.11b). Plenty of people have this as a sandbag for the grade so we were again pleased to onsight and flash the route.
Tuesday
Our next day's objective was Trip Master Monkey (5.12b) another Scarpelli testpiece from back in the day. Modern day offwidthers ave called this anything from 5.12c - 5.13a, which prepared us for a possible massive sandbagging. Neither of us onsighted the route but I managed to fudge it on my second go and Pete got it 30 minutes later. We thought this route was definitely a sandbag and would rate considerably harder then Ray's Roof.
In the afternoon we persuaded Justin to show us an offwidth that had been put up recently by Pamela Pack and Patrick Kingsbury, The Wing (5.12c). Yet another invert test piece presented itself on the side of a dome shaped like a vulture. I stubbornly attacked the route in my usual upside manner but 3D Pete put his thinking cap on and came up with a brilliant sequence of tenuous chicken wings and palm smearing. As a result he quickly ticked the route that afternoon and I'll be coming back on a different day to use this beta.
Finally at the end of our tether Justin put us on one of his classic boulders, Crack Named Sue (V5). We were so tired our arms felt a little numb but we managed to both top out first try.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-trrASODkspQ/TnovT2rhfpI/AAAAAAAAAHo/vVthh8n896A/s320/Vedauwoo+139.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-trrASODkspQ/TnovT2rhfpI/AAAAAAAAAHo/vVthh8n896A/s1600/Vedauwoo+139.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Feeling papped on Crack Named Sue[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Wednesday - REST!!!!!! - So we're thankful for a rest day now, My shoulder looks like I've just had a motorbike crash and Pete's triceps feel like he ran a lawnmower over them. Bring on the Climb On cream, Savlon and Tremadol.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wfrYJ97Efyc/Tnov2beIWnI/AAAAAAAAAHs/kRKugbw0vZw/s320/Vedauwoo+131.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wfrYJ97Efyc/Tnov2beIWnI/AAAAAAAAAHs/kRKugbw0vZw/s1600/Vedauwoo+131.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Trip Master leaves its first mark[/td][/tr]
[/table]Alex Ekins has been with us on each of the routes and you can see some really great pictures over on his blog at http://alexekins.co.uk/category/blog/(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-3614608933263293413?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Very much liking Pete's hat there!
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Big Bro's, Big Pink and Big Psyche (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/09/big-bros-big-pink-and-big-psyche.html)
24 September 2011, 1:10 am
It's been a couple more days up in the freezing cold of the Vedauwoo campsite - we've been caught speeding at 25mph, eaten a whole Jamaican Schlong and ticked a few more Wide Cracks. Both of us have hit some serious low points in mental ability, with one epic day spent looking for one route for hours in the woods, only to realise we didn't know the difference between East and West. I thought the offwidths would just be cruel on the body, but the mind has definitely suffered in equal proportions....
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dKaoIrOy0t4/Tn0mlzQyqnI/AAAAAAAAAHw/ELekzIX7rlQ/s320/Vedauwoo.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dKaoIrOy0t4/Tn0mlzQyqnI/AAAAAAAAAHw/ELekzIX7rlQ/s1600/Vedauwoo.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]I'm starting to see strange signs[/td][/tr]
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The last 2 days have been filled mainly with two thought processes; Big Bros and Big Pink.
Big Bros
It's nothing to do with a family relationship - it's actually a form of protection. A key piece of protection that takes us from Wild Country 6 to....... BIG!! Really big. Unfortunately we need some for Pamela Pack's testpiece Gabriel 5.13c/d in the desert that we've been obsessessing about. Yup, we've not even finished at Vedauwoo and we're thinking about the next invert masterpiece. I think we need a shrink.
Yesterday saw me ticking On a Wing and Prayer (5.12c) which is a pretty spicy invert offiwdth flare, put up by Pamela Pack. It's mainly spicy because when you fall off, the dive is totally hideous and you whack your head back into the crack in an upside position - I definitely tested that one!
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hqlwTAYm7TA/Tn0sPPyeq-I/AAAAAAAAAH0/YBpF54hNoec/s400/Wing.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hqlwTAYm7TA/Tn0sPPyeq-I/AAAAAAAAAH0/YBpF54hNoec/s1600/Wing.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]On a Wing and a Prayer (c) Alex Ekins[/td][/tr]
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In the afternoon, we headed over to do Justin Edl's hardest offwidth "Simiantics" at V9. Pete pulled off some powerful kneelocks and foot-jibbery to get an ascent - Good work young Whittaker! Justin also put us to shame by cruising the problem right in front of our eyes; I think we're still complete beginners at knee-locking compared to him... Some photos of the problem on Alex Ekins' website!
Big Pink
Ever since we arrived in Vedauwoo, the locals and internet pundits have been going on about a route called "Big Pink." Our tick list of all the hard stuff was pushed aside - "Man you guys have to man up and do Big Pink. That thing is so classic!"
Basically, this means you're going to get a massive sandbagging. When everyone is telling you to forget the 5.13 invert and get stuck into a 5.11b vertical shuffle you know you're in trouble. Pete and I managed to put the route off for a week, but in the end we knew we'd have to get it done eventually. To make our life a bit easier (read, get some excuses in early) we tried it on a boiling hot day in full sun and totally fucked from the previous day's climbing. We were very nervous about this one! Fortunately, Pete did it as his warm-up, onsight and I flashed it 10 minutes later. Thank God for that; we weren't total punters.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RGN6phOYiIc/Tn0s45iRS2I/AAAAAAAAAH4/qiUhpM5MLeY/s320/Vedauwoo+179.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RGN6phOYiIc/Tn0s45iRS2I/AAAAAAAAAH4/qiUhpM5MLeY/s1600/Vedauwoo+179.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Two plonkers divided by a "Big Pink"[/td][/tr]
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Some more photos can be found on Alex Ekins' website, covering our last 2 days.
http://alexekins.co.uk/wide-boyz-in-vedauwoo-part-twothree/(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-2928300797005307775?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Glad to see you're joining in the cap action, and glad to see the trip is going well and you're getting properly stuck in!
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Loving Lucille (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/09/loving-lucille.html)
29 September 2011, 7:36 pm
I remember seeing a guidebook topo for Lucille about 2 and a half years ago and I didn’t know what the scale of the route was. I thought it was an upside down shuffle with your feet inverted above you and your bum on the wall below...how wrong I was. The next photo I saw of this big bad offwidth was a picture of Craig Luebben making the second ascent and first onsight of the route. I couldn’t believe how small he looked turning the lip compared to the rest of the route and couldn’t work out how he had got through that massive 40ft roof.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-taxyelKPt60/ToTBhS369QI/AAAAAAAAAH8/60N2QT74OLQ/s320/Vedauwoo+241.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-taxyelKPt60/ToTBhS369QI/AAAAAAAAAH8/60N2QT74OLQ/s1600/Vedauwoo+241.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]One Scary MoFo - Lucille[/td][/tr]
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It was then 2 and a half years later that I somehow found myself taping up on the slabs below trying to convince myself that the roof wasn’t that big and everything in Britain was way more intimidating. It’s not just the line that is intimidating it is the history behind the route; the tale from the first ascentionist, the onsights that have followed, the stories of failures, epics and puking on route. Everything about this route had built up in my mind and it felt like a big deal to me.
When Tom and I got to the belay I already knew I was up first as we had flipped a coin the night before to see who it would be. Unfortunately I lost out and had to go first.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gKB_zhCbMj0/ToTCNjjcjbI/AAAAAAAAAIA/k4zyOvtPJ2Q/s320/Vedauwoo+188.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gKB_zhCbMj0/ToTCNjjcjbI/AAAAAAAAAIA/k4zyOvtPJ2Q/s1600/Vedauwoo+188.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The rack for Lucille[/td][/tr]
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I was so nervous at the beginning of the route I could barely pull off finger lock moves of about 5.8 difficulty. However I got to a ledge filled with greasy bird poo and it made me feel like I was back in England and I soon realised I was even more at home as my head and upper body were stuck in a massive crack. With all nerves completely settled I found the sequence to conquer the 40ft roof and got myself into a “side winder position”. I got into such a rhythm of advancing chicken wings and armbars that when I started to turn the bulge I forgot to move my last Friend #6 with me and didn’t place my #5. Suddenly I found the chicken wings became a lot less secure and I had to really do some hip scumming to get to the secure knee lock. With a mild amount of swearing, thankfully the knee lock appeared (knee lock and hand stack combined = belay), I then knew I wasn’t falling out of there and punched it out to the top, fortunately without my rope getting stuck behind the lobe of my last Friend miles beneath.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-76_qbmklHEc/ToTHlMHmTHI/AAAAAAAAAII/eZdlmefjfW8/s320/lucille.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-76_qbmklHEc/ToTHlMHmTHI/AAAAAAAAAII/eZdlmefjfW8/s1600/lucille.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete finally reaching easier ground on his onsight[/td][/tr]
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I got back down the belay cave and found Tom shaking away, I told him not to worry and that this puppy would warm him up. He told me he wasn’t cold but nervous. I had actually never seen him this nervous before a route so reassured him that it was his style of climbing, (even though I knew we had done nothing like this before) and that because he looked after chickens he was really good at chicken winging. Tom put in a solid effort on his first go but got stopped by a massive flapper on his palm and the full body exhaustion. However an hour later he sent that wide crack in super style. Quickly, efficiently and without any swearing and made it look about E2. Well good!!!
So what about the grading? There is no trick to this route like many of the other offwidths in Vedauwoo, which is why I believe it has been onsighted a few times and some of the easier graded ones haven’t. To climb the route you’ve got to build a threshold to sickness, seat a chicken wing and get moving. The grade of the route comes through its continuity not the difficultly of a few single moves that are hard to read, like on some of the other wide ones out here. Awesome route Jay.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I39Kg6bxfgI/ToTEvKwW0ZI/AAAAAAAAAIE/TO9JLCCjUmU/s320/Vedauwoo+124.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I39Kg6bxfgI/ToTEvKwW0ZI/AAAAAAAAAIE/TO9JLCCjUmU/s1600/Vedauwoo+124.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete showing off his chicken wing on 8oz[/td][/tr]
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(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-7777753211729979203?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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That looks proper awesome. I'm never going near it though... :devangel:
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Trench, Century and Gabriel (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/10/trench-century-and-gabriel.html)
12 October 2011, 1:56 am
Ok, so much has happened in the last week or so!!
Trench Warfare 5.12d (flash Tom)
Trench Warfare exentension first ascent 5.13a (flash Pete)
Trench solo (Tom)
Century Crack first ascent.... grade??? (Tom and Pete)
Gabriel 5.13c (Tom and Pete)
Unfortunately this has all coincided with our worst internet connection yet. It literally took about 6 hours just to send through a report from Century Crack for Alan James at UKC. So, basically, we have lots and lots to say but no form of connectivity..... which will hopefully be sorted out in the next couple of days.
We'll have:
THE WORD on the grade on Century
How Tom didn't completely crap his pants on Trench
Pete's prognosis on formely the hardest offwidth in the States - Gabriel.
And a WHOLE LOAD of pictures.
Over and out for now....(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-5045415210597794847?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Look forward to it. Can't you use Alex's internet connection, that seems to be working fine.....................
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Look forward to it. Can't you use Alex's internet connection, that seems to be working fine.....................
I'm guessing they have a kind of "wildlife documentary" dynamic going on. No matter how much he might want to, Alex isn't allowed interfere with the lunatics in their natural environment.... much like a gazelle getting savaged by a pride of lions, sometimes you just have to let nature take its course!
Great effort lads, looking forward to what ye have to say!
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I think in this case, the pride of lions is getting savaged by the gazelles. Or roe deer, in this case.
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A week of Wide Madness (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/10/week-of-wide-madness.html)
13 October 2011, 9:41 pm
Man, the last week has gone by so quickly – so much has happened in such a short space of time, that I hardly feel like I’ve had time to think. We’ve travelled down to Moab (ticking Trench Warfare on the way) to try Century Crack and then moved straight on to Zion to try and repeat the USA’s hardest offwidth, Gabriel.
It was all kind of going to plan originally and then things just got messy.....
I think it partially started with Trench Warfare, 5.12d. After us both flashing the route (this route couldn’t have suited us better) I decided to go for a tickle without a rope. Generally I’m a complete pansy about stuff like this, but I just felt so good on the day the option of decking out on my head from 20ft without spotters didn’t even cross my mind. After doing this I think Pete and I definitely hit a new level of confidence and we finally started to believe in ourselves a bit more.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VRlJsSM2ruM/TpdUeSsUEfI/AAAAAAAAAIM/Skyse7fauD0/s320/Salt+Lake+064.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VRlJsSM2ruM/TpdUeSsUEfI/AAAAAAAAAIM/Skyse7fauD0/s1600/Salt+Lake+064.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Tom bouldering on Trench Warfare. [/td][/tr]
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Century Crack (by Pete)
Moving on from Trench Warfare we were now into double figures of the number of hours left before we were able to get onto Century. Two years ago when we started training for this route it seemed like a joke that we’d ever reach the base, but now we only had 48hours until we could actually get on the thing. The morning of the first day on the route I think we could both barely contain ourselves when looking up at the route. The roof is actually the biggest, baddest thing I’ve ever seen. In fact it’s so big it dwarfs its own proportions.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zAFAe_H8ZOQ/TpdaSdVbV_I/AAAAAAAAAJU/iIDTggjCEOE/s320/Pete+Century+Ekins+Pic.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zAFAe_H8ZOQ/TpdaSdVbV_I/AAAAAAAAAJU/iIDTggjCEOE/s1600/Pete+Century+Ekins+Pic.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete feeling like he's back in my cellar[/td][/tr]
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We didn’t mess around and tried not to get too psyched out. We did all of the roof section in 10-20ft sections (resting after each section) straight off, putting the cams in on lead as we went. I couldn’t believe that we’d both just rinsed across the roof so quickly on our first go. It felt like I was back down Tom’s cellar ticking sets of 100ft sections of Wide Pony again. I thought;
“Well this is a bonus. Tom’s built a cellar out of old kitchen worktops, which seems to have worked as it feels as if I’ve been working on Century back in Sheffield for two years. Niceeeeee!”
We worked the crux end barrel and the heart-breaker grovel top out which had a slightly different sequence of knee locks, leg hooks and dangling squeeze chimneys, then called it a day.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-97Y9IVj4Ju0/TpdXJqFdt7I/AAAAAAAAAI0/p5OYxRQBBtA/s320/pete+on+century.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-97Y9IVj4Ju0/TpdXJqFdt7I/AAAAAAAAAI0/p5OYxRQBBtA/s1600/pete+on+century.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete nearing the lip on Century[/td][/tr]
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The next day we wondered whether we were being to over optimistic and that actually linking the whole thing together would be monumental. Luckily, we’d spent too many hours hanging upside down like a fruit bat for that to be true. Hanging upside down with hand stacks on this thing felt like being asleep. Well, not quite true - it actually still felt like a ‘tricky little number’ especially with the rope drag at the end that nearly pulled me off.
Overall the massively specific (you could say lucky?!) training had paid off in huge bundles of Edale hay stacks.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-thwHoQuVWus/TpdYhpZWnmI/AAAAAAAAAJE/HY2sGytXtlM/s320/pete+monument+dish.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-thwHoQuVWus/TpdYhpZWnmI/AAAAAAAAAJE/HY2sGytXtlM/s1600/pete+monument+dish.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete topping up on his training just before getting Century[/td][/tr]
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So, that morning we both had a bit of Century Crack for breakfast, and that was a two year project done. BOOM!
It was also pretty cool that Crusher Bartlett (who solo aided the route back in 2001) was there with us to share the final chapter of our massive journey with us. He also conjured up some killer tortilla wraps as well!
Well what shall I do with my life now? Hmmmmm go and climb some more wide I think........
Gabriel (by Tom)
Fresh from our success on Century, we arrived in Zion a few days later nearly healed on the scab-front. Whilst I felt physically in the best shape of my life, my mental state was far from it. It was almost as if I’d achieved on Century too early – I’d built the route up to be bigger than it was and I just wasn’t ready to move on. I’d almost go as far as to say I felt deflated from getting Century so quickly and so when I arrived at Gabriel I just wasn’t as hungry as usual. Some of the fight and keenness had gone...
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1-DIu9Dq7Ak/TpdU2v_9_gI/AAAAAAAAAIU/jNkcY6IXRLE/s320/gabriel+name+plate.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1-DIu9Dq7Ak/TpdU2v_9_gI/AAAAAAAAAIU/jNkcY6IXRLE/s1600/gabriel+name+plate.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Gabriel vs a Valley Giant[/td][/tr]
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Fortunately Pete, was being his usual silly self and soon cheered me up with some crag-antics. Big Bros were fondled with, the “Private Pirate” was simulated and gritstone thrutches remembered. Anyway, enough of my moaning..... the route, the route! The climb and first free ascentionist, Pamela Pack were the recipients of the Golden Piton award a couple of years back for trad climbing and in some ways I was a little confused when I found half the route’s gear to be bolts – perhaps it’s a sport/trad hybrid??!
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cP5qykX7_U8/TpdVQLbGxzI/AAAAAAAAAIc/kdcw9u_cUQA/s320/looking+at+gabriel.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cP5qykX7_U8/TpdVQLbGxzI/AAAAAAAAAIc/kdcw9u_cUQA/s1600/looking+at+gabriel.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Looking up at the roof crack of Gabriel[/td][/tr]
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That aside, the climbing is absolutely fantastic. Invert squeeze with groundfall potential, into some hardcore “Private Pirate” into a final section of invert and blue collar grovelling. We did the route in the same style as the first ascentionist with the gear already in place from our working attempts. Overall, the climbing was harder than Gobbler’s Roof (5.13b) and very similar to Thai Boxing (5.13c in ours and Haston’s opinion) – so perhaps 5.13c? Compared to the Vedauwoo routes we’ve done earlier in the trip, it’s really quite a bit harder and all credit to the FA for getting this done.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h8i5qUqMAk4/TpdYFV-mUJI/AAAAAAAAAI8/BcU4hlbBurw/s320/bigbro+instructions.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h8i5qUqMAk4/TpdYFV-mUJI/AAAAAAAAAI8/BcU4hlbBurw/s1600/bigbro+instructions.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Do we actually know what we're doing?![/td][/tr]
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After working on the route for only a couple of hours, Pete duly dispatched the route in front of Chris Alstrin’s rolling cameras and I had to come back the next day for the mop-up duties. What was interesting about this route for me, was that I couldn’t fudge the sequence at the crux, which indicated that it really was quite hard. I had to get it exactly right to pass the 2nd and 3rd quickdraw and no amount of burl could box me out of the situation. Many other routes on this trip, we’ve tended to tick with somewhat poor beta, but this route didn’t allow that.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gyeCYPwY9ew/TpdWAWHIDaI/AAAAAAAAAIk/f6_vySmP3z0/s320/gabriel+filming.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gyeCYPwY9ew/TpdWAWHIDaI/AAAAAAAAAIk/f6_vySmP3z0/s1600/gabriel+filming.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Chris Alstrin filming some of the usual grunting[/td][/tr]
[/table]So how does it compare to Century I guess might be the question on some peoples’ lips? Well, for us it is significantly easier (although still very tough) and not a route that utterly destroys your body. 1 year ago I could have definitely done Gabriel (albeit in a longer time) but I’d say I would have completely failed on Century. We have one more route to do before making a decision on the Century grade and then I guess it’s up to the internet forum pundits to fight it out..... oh dear!
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-us6L4aa6qYY/TpdWtH2TMKI/AAAAAAAAAIs/M_tKgFIKTuc/s320/hannah+valley+giant.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-us6L4aa6qYY/TpdWtH2TMKI/AAAAAAAAAIs/M_tKgFIKTuc/s1600/hannah+valley+giant.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]My daughter Hannah testing gear
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[/table][tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LM4zssjo87w/TpdZMm6q5CI/AAAAAAAAAJM/RWF80DvzKq8/s320/family+in+Moab.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LM4zssjo87w/TpdZMm6q5CI/AAAAAAAAAJM/RWF80DvzKq8/s1600/family+in+Moab.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]I owe these 2 girls A LOT! My wife and daughter...[/td][/tr]
[/table](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-4957306833962558195?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Century Crack Grade (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/10/century-crack-grade.html)
19 October 2011, 3:34 pm
Ok, so I suppose it’s finally time to lay our nuts on the table and come up with a grade for Century Crack. There have been stories of superlative climbing events over the years that have been surrounded by grading controversies, climbing style arguments and conflicting personalities battling it out for the first ascent. I’m not sure that Century is any different from this; Stevie’s had his say, certain keyboard heroes have mass debated and the 9a grade has been thrown around.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zAFAe_H8ZOQ/TpdaSdVbV_I/AAAAAAAAAJU/iIDTggjCEOE/s320/Pete+Century+Ekins+Pic.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zAFAe_H8ZOQ/TpdaSdVbV_I/AAAAAAAAAJU/iIDTggjCEOE/s1600/Pete+Century+Ekins+Pic.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete on the business end (c) Alex Ekins[/td][/tr]
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All the while, Pete and I have generally been getting on with enjoying our climbing trip around the US. We’ve repeated 8 x 5.13a or harder offwidths (some flash/onsight) – including repeats of the hardest offwidths in Vedauwoo, Zion and Indian Creek. This has all been in with loads of other routes in the 5.12a-5.12d range and mostly on a 2:1 climbing to rest day ratio. Overall, we finally feel like we’re starting to know where everything lies relative to everything else and feel fairly confident that we are performing to our own expectations. It’s been knackering, but very much worth it!
Right.............. I’ll rant no more on that subject. Grades – let’s talk grades!
For Century Crack, we are proposing 5.14b or French grade 8c.
We’ve spent hours and hours debating this number amongst ourselves and it’s sort of been a tough decision, but also an easy one. Our gut feeling as soon as we’d both topped out was 5.14b, but we thought we’d sleep on it, repeat some more routes and see how we got on. In the end, we’re going with that same grade. It’s not an astronomical grade like 9a/+ and neither is it a trade route 8b. I guess time will only tell...
Below, I’ve put together some of our main trains of thought/rants on the grade matter. Most of it will be pretty boring to people out there, but it’s certainly of interest to some.
The Cellar Effect
As many people know, Pete and I spent 2 years slogging our guts out in a crack cellar underneath my house.
We trained so specifically for Century Crack – we had an almost exact replica of the whole route and we trained....and trained.... and trained.... We did over 17,000ft of Century Crack climbing in 2 years, which equates to having already climbed it 42 times each! It’s this point I really want to hammer home – I know it sounds like a short time to do a major project in 2 days, but in effect, we’d already had countless sessions on it back at home. All of this training was carefully periodised to bring about peak performance for our American trip and to avoid chronic overuse injuries.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mqX_enjDDVc/TjcJx0pSgOI/AAAAAAAAAFk/SPzGJrVu9lU/s320/crack+sit+ups+tom.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mqX_enjDDVc/TjcJx0pSgOI/AAAAAAAAAFk/SPzGJrVu9lU/s1600/crack+sit+ups+tom.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Climbing wooden offwidths til it felt like our eyes bled[/td][/tr]
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In Comparison to other US hard offwidths
The two hardest offwidths that we’ve come across in the States so far have been “Gabriel” in Zion and “Price of Evil” in Indian Creek. Gabriel we found to be like a soft 5.13c and Price of Evil a hard 5.13b. Both of these routes were a country mile in difficulty away from Century and if we had these routes back in the UK, we’d happily run laps on them. This is not just to boast, but more to illustrate that once we knew the sequence for a 5.13, then we weren’t taxed to our limit by them. In contrast, Century totally wiped us out in just 1 go and we wouldn’t dream of attempting the route twice in a day.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jjOECNVyfUU/Tp7s-q-JthI/AAAAAAAAAJk/D-uu05paVHk/s320/Pete+NWO.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jjOECNVyfUU/Tp7s-q-JthI/AAAAAAAAAJk/D-uu05paVHk/s1600/Pete+NWO.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Warming up and onsighting 5.12b/c[/td][/tr]
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Comparing to another well known crack – Greenspit
Although it’s not really a fair comparison, I thought it was useful when debating the grade with Pete on this route to compare it to another hard crack, Greenspit (8b or 5.13d), that we’d done a couple of years back. If you take Century vs. Greenspit then the former completely trounces the latter. They’re miles apart in difficulty and as Pete pointed out to me this evening he climbed Greenspit with almost no specific training – just a few pull-ups and some core conditioning! Also Stevie Haston flashed Greenspit, yet after a number of sessions could only work Century with 3 hanging rests.
So................. apologies for the rant – I had to get it down on paper. I still don’t exactly know what I think, but above is detailed at least some of mine and Pete’s most common thoughts.
A final word from Pete....
I think any grade for the route, whether its 6c or 8c gives little sense into what it is like to climb the thing. To get a feel of what it’s really all about you need to go down there and actually stand under it and give it ago. This is the only way to feel the real monstrosity of the beast. So get down there, it would be good to get a concensus on this thing!!
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-8890187819623177597?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Ahhh you can't resist the joys of grades :D
But no E-grade?? Tut! :rtfm: :tumble: :worms:
P.S. Maybe you could do a Dave Mac "It's impossible to grade things beyond your limits blah blah grade not important blah blah but must be at least 5 E-grades harder than Ray's Roof blah"
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Project Time In The Desert (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-time-in-desert.html)
26 October 2011, 5:08 pm
Things have really slowed down in the last week – the frantic pace of trying to tick off all the hard routes has abated to a somewhat normal speed of living. We can actually enjoy a breakfast without the thought of throwing it up 3 hours later in the midst of some kind of “Pirate Topedo” move. As nearly all of the main objectives of the trip have been achieved, we’ve been able to spend a little more time searching for first ascent projects and trying a few things that aren’t necessarily what we came here for (read “pleasant/enjoyable climbing”).
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sTdG6mBU-lM/Tqg2U38RSII/AAAAAAAAAKM/ArheC4BIqRU/s320/everyone+watches+pete.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sTdG6mBU-lM/Tqg2U38RSII/AAAAAAAAAKM/ArheC4BIqRU/s1600/everyone+watches+pete.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete doing some enjoyable climbing on 'Army of Darkness' 5.13d[/td][/tr]
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Indian Creek Projects...
Pete had been told of a couple of offwidth projects near to Price of Evil and so straight after ticking PoE we had a look around. Unfortunately, one was not quite a hard as we were expecting (too much bridging possible) and the other the kind of offwidth you’d find at Nesscliffe – a sandy nightmare?! This isn’t to say Pete and I aren’t into sub-standard lines (you only have to look at our Curbar new routes... urgh) it’s more that if you come to the paradise of Indian Creek then it’s only proper to put up something worthy I think.
The next day we went over to Pamela Pack’s “Event Horizon” – I think it’s either 5.13a/b? The route is a really good looking splitter offwidth through a roof on pitch 3, which apparently has some kind of 3D funkiness to negotiate. The first pitch, hasn’t been climbed yet (finger crack) and the second pitch is 5.9/5.10ish by the looks of it. Not sure of how to approach the roof, we thought we’d have a go at freeing the first pitch. Patrick Kingsbury (a regular partner of Pamela and 5.13 offwidther himself) had previously had a go at freeing this pitch, so we knew it’d be no push over. After an hour or so of mashing my fingers in tiny, tiny tips finger locks I’d done all of the moves through to easier ground but knew to lead it properly it’d take further days of work. Feeling a bit de-psyched (and knackered) that we didn’t have the tools to free climb to the roof, we decided to call it a day. On the way back to the campsite we went and climbed a cool looking wide roof called Brother from Another Planet 5.12a/b. Unique invert torpedo!
Project Time with Teacher Pizem...
After Indian Creek we arranged to meet up with long time climber and desert new-router Rob Pizem. If anyone has met “Piz” they’ll know he’s pretty much a one-man dynamo who jumps around at such a frantic pace it’s hard not to get very tired! When we found out that he’s a school teacher, I think we knew we’d met the teacher we’d all wanted when we were younger.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k1_6-BLH4Z4/TqgzLzXA3TI/AAAAAAAAAJs/3q_xIxOCFvE/s320/teacher+pizem.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k1_6-BLH4Z4/TqgzLzXA3TI/AAAAAAAAAJs/3q_xIxOCFvE/s1600/teacher+pizem.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Teacher Pizem teaching us the way of the desert[/td][/tr]
[/table][tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1IkzE0jSrqo/Tqg34_2iLtI/AAAAAAAAAK0/xVYImczBVPo/s320/teacher+hits+pete.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1IkzE0jSrqo/Tqg34_2iLtI/AAAAAAAAAK0/xVYImczBVPo/s1600/teacher+hits+pete.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete getting the psyche? from Piz[/td][/tr]
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Piz, myself, Pete, Peewee (French Canadian crack climbing beast), Alex, Jesse and Brian all headed off to the White Rim for 2 days of project hunting and delving. Peewee was down there to try Piz’s long term project “Necronomicon” (huge thin hands roof crack that features in the First Ascent films) and the rest of us hoped to either find something new or repeat one of Piz’s test pieces.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xhD2hGpq3Fo/Tqg0OQJGSwI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/dOVnEuHOmL0/s320/peewee+necro.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xhD2hGpq3Fo/Tqg0OQJGSwI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/dOVnEuHOmL0/s1600/peewee+necro.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Peewee on a burn of the thin hands project, 'Necronomincon'[/td][/tr]
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The first day (after receiving teacher’s orders....) me and Pete went to try an unclimbed line that Piz had shown us. Unfortunately, the line was a bit too long and too beta intensive for us to really get stuck into – more of a local’s line in reality, despite its obvious qualities. Instead we got stuck into some kind of squeeze chimney that Pete duly dispatched that afternoon. It wasn’t 100% clear if it had been done by Matt Lazenby before, but in any case it was probably around 5.13a – sort of a harder more sustained Lucille with serious deckout potential!
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yaZ99DrsKQQ/Tqg02LGs3iI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/N2Nd4226imA/s320/pete+finds+a+wide+one.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yaZ99DrsKQQ/Tqg02LGs3iI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/N2Nd4226imA/s1600/pete+finds+a+wide+one.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete finds a wide slot on the White Rim. A good dose of 'smoke in the eyes' is useful[/td][/tr]
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[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wvdq0gYsf7w/Tqg1v1Mv8tI/AAAAAAAAAKE/1nkyF4RySok/s320/bomber+friend+6.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wvdq0gYsf7w/Tqg1v1Mv8tI/AAAAAAAAAKE/1nkyF4RySok/s1600/bomber+friend+6.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Forget the Valley Giant, a tipped out #6 on .13a should do just fine [/td][/tr]
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The second day we spent some time on Piz’s classic roof crack down at the White Rim – Army of Darkness, 5.13d. Brian had already been projecting, so conveniently the gear and beta was well established for Pete and me. With a couple of goes each, we got some good links and hopefully that’ll be in the bag with another trip. What really stands out from that line though, is the quality of the climbing – absolutely brilliant gymnastic roof climbing on fingers, hands, pods, offwidth and a little bit of fists. Reminds me very much of Greenspit in difficulty and quality.
Finally, to finish the day we did a little filming for Wild Country’s “Crack School” and also for the “Wide Boyz” film. As usual, it all got a bit silly and Pete ended up on the floor between my legs..... I’ll let the photos explain all!
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fU3RgIb_WgE/Tqg2tpy8PUI/AAAAAAAAAKU/bFb_2PsJ0rs/s320/white+rim+glossary+filming.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fU3RgIb_WgE/Tqg2tpy8PUI/AAAAAAAAAKU/bFb_2PsJ0rs/s1600/white+rim+glossary+filming.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Filming the offwidth glossary[/td][/tr]
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[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zRDYUrfVomQ/Tqg3BjdacfI/AAAAAAAAAKc/yo0ML77_92A/s320/peewee+torpedo.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zRDYUrfVomQ/Tqg3BjdacfI/AAAAAAAAAKc/yo0ML77_92A/s1600/peewee+torpedo.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Peewee helping demonstrate the offwidth glossary[/td][/tr]
[/table][tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y_oba9wl8AY/Tqg3YTDpdxI/AAAAAAAAAKk/zzbqSWR49MU/s320/demo+wide+glossary1.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y_oba9wl8AY/Tqg3YTDpdxI/AAAAAAAAAKk/zzbqSWR49MU/s1600/demo+wide+glossary1.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]hmmmmmmm....[/td][/tr]
[/table][tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lkKOI8TfvXI/Tqg3k4dEFVI/AAAAAAAAAKs/eHhzSkUIFm8/s320/chris+on+top+of+truck+filming.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lkKOI8TfvXI/Tqg3k4dEFVI/AAAAAAAAAKs/eHhzSkUIFm8/s1600/chris+on+top+of+truck+filming.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Chris using his resources[/td][/tr]
[/table](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-6912706697027710266?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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I was thinking the other day that if these boyz found a project, and succeeded on said project, that the name "Rack, crack and (Ruck) sack"" would be fitting or some other similar play on words.
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Blocktop and Army (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/10/blocktop-and-army.html)
31 October 2011, 8:46 pm
A few days ago me and Tom had our first tower experience with desert tower expert Crusher. The route on the agenda was ‘Blocktop’. It was a tower that Crusher had never done before so I think he was psyched to get another summit and the only (sensible) way up there was via some offwidth and squeeze chimney, so he was happy to send us up first. The route turned out to be about 5.11a, (or two pitches of E3) with some classic Llyn Peninsula choss at the top! I apologise for knocking some loose rocks down on Crusher as he then dropped his climbing shoe 300ft down the offwidth. Anyway I was pretty pleased to be able to get to do a tower and the whole experience was really enjoyable - apart from maybe the 350ft jug back out from the tower.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JoDMbr82xtE/Tq7z6R6RVhI/AAAAAAAAAK8/za84pP6PevM/s320/moab3+004.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JoDMbr82xtE/Tq7z6R6RVhI/AAAAAAAAAK8/za84pP6PevM/s1600/moab3+004.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]"Don't fall off" Checking out Blocktop[/td][/tr]
[/table][tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wiECePV8Z6A/Tq708ojJXEI/AAAAAAAAALE/1MaF5uTwkB4/s320/moab3+003.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wiECePV8Z6A/Tq708ojJXEI/AAAAAAAAALE/1MaF5uTwkB4/s1600/moab3+003.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The White Rim view from Blocktop[/td][/tr]
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After some tower climbing with Crusher we were ready to head back down to the White Rim, with Peewee, to battle against some more roof cracks. However that wasn’t possible until we’d retrieved our lost tent, which had blown away half a mile down the road from our campsite. With a little gaffer tape, it was as good as new.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y8gP4U5-JlU/Tq73V0P5HII/AAAAAAAAALk/fFQSnUQ-urk/s320/moab3+020.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y8gP4U5-JlU/Tq73V0P5HII/AAAAAAAAALk/fFQSnUQ-urk/s1600/moab3+020.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Brit/Canadian (French?) team[/td][/tr]
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The main objective for me and Tom down on The Rim was to make the 2nd ascent of ‘Army of Darkness’ 5.13d. The last time we went down to the White Rim we spent half a day just working out all the moves, but this time we were ready for some linkage.
Because ‘Army’ required some thin tape jobs, Peewee sat us down for a lesson in his extraordinary Canadian tape technique. The resulting thin hands masterpiece, with super glue and finger straps, would be enough for people to pay good money to see. The precision and technique used just to tape up was quite something - but don’t worry Peewee, the secret’s safe with me. After the schooling we gave it ago, but Tom’s started peeling round the edges before he even made it to the first jam and my wrist loop went baggy and ripped on the first sinker hand jam. After some readjustments they stayed on a little better. Ahhhh...nothing better than a Brit tape job.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gUQlZhhGo5k/Tq72ZvdKljI/AAAAAAAAALc/LppYvY9XRJA/s320/moab3+018.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gUQlZhhGo5k/Tq72ZvdKljI/AAAAAAAAALc/LppYvY9XRJA/s1600/moab3+018.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Tom repairing his dodgy tape job[/td][/tr]
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Tom was first up on ‘Army’ and cruised in fine style to top out on his first redpoint attempt of the route, for the second ascent. He said he forgot a load of the sequences and “fudged it,” which in retrospect I would agree with on the start section which he absolutely puntered his foot sequence. Overall though, it looked smooth as a criminal from the belay pit. I was up next and made it on my first redpoint aswell for the 3rd ascent.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v3lWi6T9cC4/Tq8EHXe2ZZI/AAAAAAAAALs/3_YtYd4FFx0/s320/Army4.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v3lWi6T9cC4/Tq8EHXe2ZZI/AAAAAAAAALs/3_YtYd4FFx0/s1600/Army4.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete resting in the double kneebar on 'Army of Darkness'
(c) Alex Ekins [/td][/tr]
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I reckon ‘Army of Darkness’ was one of the best repeats we have done this trip. The quality of the moves were excellent and required a good variety of crack skills from fingers, hands, wide pony and smoke in the eyes. Despite the success in ticking, the route wasn’t without a few minor mishaps, (I blame Peewee there, because nothing ever goes wrong when me and Tom climb together...) with Tom decking out whilst working the route and both Tom and Peewee each got on Angry Pirate in the eye - classic!
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-5605118294761839665?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Smoke in the eyes?
Hopefully it will all be revealed on the DVD.
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I thought an angry pirate (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=angry+pirate) was something even more niche than climbing sick offwidths.
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Smoke in the eyes?
Hopefully it will all be revealed on the DVD.
Hmmmmmm yeah...... we did some filming for a wide crack glossary the other day and it all got a bit weird and homoerotic. Think I might regret some of that footage sometime in the future...
And as for Angry Pirates - yeah the reference was definitely noted! A "Dirty Pirate" and "Frenchman's Pirate" are always better options.
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Century Crack - Part Deux (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/11/century-crack-part-deux.html)
6 November 2011, 7:11 am
Around a month ago, both Pete and I made the first free ascent of Century Crack, at a vaguely guessed grade of 5.14b. At the time, we were both pretty psyched to do the FFA seeing as we'd spent 2 years training specifically for this project. Although nothing compared to the legendary Stone's efforts at Raven Tor!
When we'd climbed Century and it'd all happened in a timescale that was way beyond what we expected - it was pretty weird to step away from a major goal, without some kind of massive epic fight. It'd all gone waaaay too smoothly. Despite our reservations about doing the route on preplaced gear (because of time constraints) there was still a huge feeling of satisfaction.
All that started to change a few weeks later though......
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bVB8yDmqDPY/TrYUSkl5mVI/AAAAAAAAAM0/VeNNpHkk_q8/s320/tied+off+leg.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bVB8yDmqDPY/TrYUSkl5mVI/AAAAAAAAAM0/VeNNpHkk_q8/s1600/tied+off+leg.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The future for protecting wide cracks? The tied off leg...[/td][/tr]
[/table]Suddenly we found ourselves with 95% of our entire tick-list for the trip completed and 2 more weeks of free climbing time left on the trip! Holy smokes, the idea of having time to go back to Century started to dawn on us.... No longer, did we have any reason not to at least make an effort to tidy up the ascent and at any rate at least we'd know for 100% whether placing the gear on lead would make any difference.
We've just written an article for UKC which covers a lot of the reasons why we went back to Century and also some of thoughts on what the climbing was like. Aside from some of these rants and ravings, we've listed below some of our main thoughts on the whole deal - don't take it all too seriously!
1. Century Crack is no harder placing gear on lead, than it was having it pre-placed.
2. Eight Friend #5s (collectively weighing around 2kg) felt adequate to complete the route in this style.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lSqZ2arJV3A/TrYKPongPII/AAAAAAAAAMk/eqdi4iwqp84/s320/Century+rack.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lSqZ2arJV3A/TrYKPongPII/AAAAAAAAAMk/eqdi4iwqp84/s1600/Century+rack.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete racked and ready for Century Crack[/td][/tr]
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3. Using the amount of gear that we used certainly made the climbing much bolder but no harder. By carrying more cams the weight of the rack might start to become noticeable and affect the climbing.
4. You can place the gear behind you or in between your legs when putting the gear in on lead, this way you don't have to step both feet round a load of cams, so reducing the amount of mini cruxes on the route.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fBB18yg_2Hk/TrYLdXYD7zI/AAAAAAAAAMs/0cWlf6zWaKk/s320/anasazi+big+bro+2.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fBB18yg_2Hk/TrYLdXYD7zI/AAAAAAAAAMs/0cWlf6zWaKk/s1600/anasazi+big+bro+2.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The crucial Anasazi Blanco was placed in the crack
and stopped the rope getting caught behind the cam lobe at the lip[/td][/tr]
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5. The whole of the crack is the crux and also the whole of the crack is a rest, so you can fall off at any point, but you can also place gear at any point you want.
6. As crack master Peewee (the French Canadian one....) said - horizontal shuffling is all a piece of piss, so don't get hung up on grades, styles or anything. That was us told!
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-302463888830461122?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Goodbye and Thanks for all the Fish (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/11/goodbye-and-thanks-for-all-fish.html)
12 November 2011, 7:41 pm
It's a bit of a sad goodbye to the USA today - we have finally reached the end of our trip and there's no more climbing in store for us. We've had an absolutely incredible time, climbing way beyond our expectations and have met some really cool people along the way. Before we left though, we decided to check out one last offwidth project on the White Rim and also to do some easy (and nice!) climbing in Indian Creek.
The project down on the rim, looked incredible - it's a proper beast of a line. We'd found it on a drive a week before, but held off until we had a car and some skin grown back.We had enticed crack climbing specialist Mason Earle to come down to try the route with us an he seemed pretty pscyhed. Mason seems to have done 5.13+ cracks from tips to offwidth and seems like a really well rounded climber so we were excited he wanted to come with us. I think probably the offer of a possible first ascent on a pristine 50ft roof crack was something to do with it.....
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--PI3xynA8Cc/Tr7EWjUfhRI/AAAAAAAAANs/jWDhMjPBfqM/s320/mason+earle+witness+the+wideness.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--PI3xynA8Cc/Tr7EWjUfhRI/AAAAAAAAANs/jWDhMjPBfqM/s1600/mason+earle+witness+the+wideness.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Mason Earle on Witness the Wideness[/td][/tr]
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Intially we had to overcome the problem of the Shafer Trial road that led to the climb being closed. After finding out we would get fined by the National Park Service for going down when it was closed, we took the risk and went for it. After 15minutes of trying to solve the combination on the lock, a talk with the ranger and a 75 dollar fine later we were at the route.
The climbing on the route is amazing and is split down into 3 sections. The first section involves a few thin hand jams and an invert into a squeeze chimney. The chimney then climbs like a shorter version of the sidewinder section on Lucille. This leads to a chimney rest then some de-Leavittation into a short section which climbs like the end of Gabriel. the final section is a bombay chimney with hand, fist and hand stacks in the back. All in all a pretty involved and varied route, with a number of invert squeezing techniques involved. To our surprise we all managed to tick the route one after the other in a period of about an hour.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8w2Sn1NETOY/Tr7Em9kDKBI/AAAAAAAAAN0/fkqBpw42TzM/s320/pete+witness+the+wideness.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8w2Sn1NETOY/Tr7Em9kDKBI/AAAAAAAAAN0/fkqBpw42TzM/s1600/pete+witness+the+wideness.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete onsighting the FA of Witness the Wideness, 5.12d/5.13a[/td][/tr]
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Even though the roof is pretty big and looks daunting the climbing on it is not so bad and most of it is restful, so its definitely a worthwhile route for anyone seeking out this sort of madness, or for anyone wanting a bit of a training route for harder ones like Gabriel. The access to the route is one of the easiest for the White Rim, so there is no excuses for not getting down there. From the ranger station in Canyonlands its no more then a 15minute drive - convenient for getting fined by the Ranger then!
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T7U2klay6PM/Tr7E5NNfP9I/AAAAAAAAAN8/Spolz8-y4i8/s320/Tom+Witness+The+Wideness1.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T7U2klay6PM/Tr7E5NNfP9I/AAAAAAAAAN8/Spolz8-y4i8/s1600/Tom+Witness+The+Wideness1.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Invert armbars - lovely![/td][/tr]
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Overall we reckoned it to be around 5.12d/13a, which might seem tricky to some, but for a 50ft offwidth roof its definitely not too bad.
After leaving the White Rim for the final time, headed over to Moab for a night's kip...... and guess who we came across??? Dave Simmonite, Mike Hutton and Martin Kocsis - the UK massive! The usual banter ensued, but most importantly, Dave gave me and Pete a quick lesson on photographic composition. Half and hour later, we were psyched. Yes...... RULE OF THIRDS!
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aiP_9hATm28/Tr7F6-LghBI/AAAAAAAAAOE/tn1pEDtnTt8/s320/Scarface+pete+pic.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aiP_9hATm28/Tr7F6-LghBI/AAAAAAAAAOE/tn1pEDtnTt8/s1600/Scarface+pete+pic.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete show's he's got what it takes in a photographer's world. Holy moly.[/td][/tr]
[/table][tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ziJZdFegpuM/Tr7Gnui1xpI/AAAAAAAAAOM/WoqpfBPVl5k/s320/Dragon+vs+Helium.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ziJZdFegpuM/Tr7Gnui1xpI/AAAAAAAAAOM/WoqpfBPVl5k/s1600/Dragon+vs+Helium.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Saw an American using Dragon Cams.... short stem sir???[/td][/tr]
[/table][tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qCgwxCFkauc/Tr7HSkCGuFI/AAAAAAAAAOU/zd0d5hFTiII/s320/offwidth+gang.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qCgwxCFkauc/Tr7HSkCGuFI/AAAAAAAAAOU/zd0d5hFTiII/s1600/offwidth+gang.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Ouellet, Ekins, Randall, Whittaker, Pack, Anderson & Kingsbury (c) Mike Hutton[/td][/tr]
[/table]Here is a google map of where 'Witness the Wideness' can be found.
View Larger Map (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Canyonlands+National+Park+Visitor+Center,+Moab,+UT&hl=en&sll=38.682428,-109.779682&sspn=0.056415,0.110378&vpsrc=0&hq=Canyonlands+National+Park+Visitor+Center,&hnear=Moab,+Grand,+Utah&t=h&fll=38.461448,-109.791521&fspn=0.000834,0.001725&ie=UTF8&ll=38.461557,-109.791956&spn=0.001008,0.001717&z=19&source=embed)
...and a photo of what it looks like from below
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DAb20s9cWXc/Tr7LTjx-AuI/AAAAAAAAAOc/2wot9z_lu8o/s320/IndianCreek+and+Witness+Wideness+034.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DAb20s9cWXc/Tr7LTjx-AuI/AAAAAAAAAOc/2wot9z_lu8o/s1600/IndianCreek+and+Witness+Wideness+034.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]'Witness the Wideness' from below...get to it![/td][/tr]
[/table](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-5646466313348800496?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Well done boys. Perversely, I'm actually looking forward to seeing the film.
I'm curious though should "bombay chimney" be "bomb bay chimney" as in the bomb bay in the fuselage of a bomber? Or is it something else entirely?
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legendary trip.
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I'm curious though should "bombay chimney" be "bomb bay chimney" as in the bomb bay in the fuselage of a bomber? Or is it something else entirely?
Nah, Bombay chimneys make you shit yourself. Like Delhi belly innit.
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Wild Country and Rab should hire an open top double decker for the boyz triumphant return through the Sheffield city gates
:dance1: :dance1: :dance1: :dance1: :dance1: :dance1:
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:agree:
Legends! :bow:
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They better include this in your training program, fat boy disorderly.
Also +1 vote for the open top bus.
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Complete with
tickerfingertape parade.
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The Final Count and What's Next? (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2011/12/final-count-and-whats-next.html)
2 December 2011, 11:25 am
Now that we've finally settled back into the dampness of England and unpacked 42kg of size 6 Friends, it's time for some deep reflection, pondering and musing.........
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kGkmWmEPmj8/Tm0s5PhbgfI/AAAAAAAAAG0/gS6PS302SSc/s320/Cam+heaven.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kGkmWmEPmj8/Tm0s5PhbgfI/AAAAAAAAAG0/gS6PS302SSc/s1600/Cam+heaven.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Right, who needs a big friend? Going cheap.....[/td][/tr]
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IS IT 'ECK!
Let's get the tick list out (for the geeks amongst us) and then work out what's next?
63 Days in the Wide Wilderness
Below is a list of what Pete and I climbed during our trip to the States, which includes some boulder problems (some of which were actually longer than other routes at Vedauwoo!). I've written it down in grade order, as making it chronological would require some level of organisation. I've left the original grades of the routes on, rather than the new suggested grades, for the sake of diplomacy.
(B) Denotes boulder problem - long or short and whether I felt like I would pass out or not...
(Sb) Denotes major sandbag - Scarpelli Style.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EjGURH244Oc/Tti0_h5_hrI/AAAAAAAAAOs/FmMI7ZkmHik/s320/IMG_5178.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EjGURH244Oc/Tti0_h5_hrI/AAAAAAAAAOs/FmMI7ZkmHik/s1600/IMG_5178.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Oh God, not another list...[/td][/tr]
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Century Crack 5.14b
Army of Darkness 5.13d
Gabriel 5.13b
The Price of Evil 5.13b
Eight Ounces to Freedom (B) 5.13b
Simiantics (B) 5.13b
Angry Pirate Finish 5.13a
Monsters Inc (B) 5.13a
Belly Full of Bad Berries 5.13a
Lucille 5.13a
Spatial Relations 5.13a
The Vag 5.13a
The Warden (B) 5.13a
Trench Warfare Extension 5.13a
Witness The Wideness 5.12d/5.13a
The Brad 5.12d/5.13a
Trench Warfare 5.12d
What the Big Boys Eat 5.12c
On a Wing and a Prayer 5.12c
New World Order (B) 5.12c
World's Hardest (B) 5.12b
Trip Master Monkey (Sb) 5.12b
Squat 5.12b
Brother from Another Planet 5.12a/b
Big Baby 5.11b/c
Worm Drive (Sb) 5.11b
Big Pink (Sb) 5.11b
Torpedo Right (Sb) 5.11a
There's probably a few I've forgotten there - and I'll have got a few of the grades wrong. It's all good though, because if anyone out there gets really psyched, all you need to do is print off this list, buy your self 7 pairs of shoes and 37metres of athletic tape!
What's Next?
That's the question that we asked ourselves many times over during the last 2 weeks of the trip. Mostly so far, it's been a mixture of doing interviews, magazine articles and preparing some lectures - which is all very normal and "back to reality." So..........................
It's time for some challenges again I think. Climbing Challenges. Nothing normal, nothing particularly sensible. Details coming up in the next blog post.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4_uLfNtP8r8/Ttiw9ULLRjI/AAAAAAAAAOk/OBmYYaeaPpw/s320/Lecture+poster.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4_uLfNtP8r8/Ttiw9ULLRjI/AAAAAAAAAOk/OBmYYaeaPpw/s1600/Lecture+poster.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Wide Boyz Lecture? Roll up if you think you have problems. [/td][/tr]
[/table](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-2164822120336962387?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Holy crap. An impressive list!
Curious though, did you guys try anything which you were unsuccessful on? Anything to go back for?
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I failed on a V4 on the first day. But I ain't going back to it ;)
Mainly it was successful (somehow, as we really don't know what we're doing most of the time) and I'd only really go back to the States for other types of route now. Fuck the wide shit - it's a young man's game and I'm 32 after Christmas. ;D
If someone could find a 200ft offwidth roof................. well.................... then we'd be talking again. Until then I'll punter around on some slabs and Pete will continue to put up terrible new routes on grit.
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Fuck the wide shit - it's a young man's game and I'm 32 after Christmas. ;D
Well I've got 10 years on you, so if you are using it as an excuse, I'm definitely going to agree.
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Why not tick this while you are thinking about what to do... http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,18591.0/topicseen.html (http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,18591.0/topicseen.html)
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Right, who needs a big friend? Going cheap.....
Is this a serious offer? I'd quite like a 6...
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Why not tick this while you are thinking about what to do... http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,18591.0/topicseen.html (http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,18591.0/topicseen.html)
Turns out it's about E6/7. Last I heard someone from the area was very close to it (via my French-Canadian spy...). Great looking line though!!
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Right, who needs a big friend? Going cheap.....
Is this a serious offer? I'd quite like a 6...
In all seriousness, I think we're giving a few away as prizes, and a few in charity auction-type thingys?? I'll put details of giveaways on the blog if that helps.
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You boys done Pit Pony yet?
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In all seriousness, I think we're giving a few away as prizes, and a few in charity auction-type thingys?? I'll put details of giveaways on the blog if that helps.
:thumbsup:
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More Embarrassment? Wide Boyz Lectures (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-embarrassment-wide-boyz-lectures.html)
3 January 2012, 9:45 am
Yup, can it get any more embarrassing than standing up on a stage and talking about how I kept Pete warm at night with Alex's onions or how I got lost in Newcastle for an hour with two Satnavs?
How about this video of Pete screaming for starters?
Rumours about Pete's underwear, what Stevie really thinks, unseen video footage, tales of Onion Power and more.
Lecture 1: Cambridge - 21st Jan + Masterclass on cracks
Lecture 2: Lutterworth (south of Nottingham) 31st Jan
Lecture 3: Shaff expert night - 23rd Feb
Lecture 4: Outside Hathersage - 31st March
Crack School in The Peak - 1st April. Surely a joke??!
If anyone wants tickets for the 21st Jan date, email me and I can pass on details. All other tickets are to be sorted soon....
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-925051103701001032?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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What a Week! Newspapers and The Golden Piton Award (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-week-newspapers-and-golden-piton.html)
15 February 2012, 12:14 am
This last week has been a very strange one indeed. It’s been hectic, frantic and surreal – I’m not really sure if any of it has happened to be honest….
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9rI1YaYGZT4/Tzr3SreyXoI/AAAAAAAAAO0/kTAxrQBBfYw/s320/pete+photo+001.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9rI1YaYGZT4/Tzr3SreyXoI/AAAAAAAAAO0/kTAxrQBBfYw/s1600/pete+photo+001.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Dreaming of wide again?[/td][/tr]
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Since coming back from the USA last year, there’s been loads of great feedback from mine and Pete Whittaker’s trip and it’s amazing to see (and hear) of some people that are now inspired to climbing some offwidths. God help your souls! Mostly, it’s been reassuring to be back in the climbing community talking the same old banter and getting grief off everyone for how bad my grading on routes is.
This week though, things took a turn for the more weird as an interview that I did with a journalist a few weeks back seemed to slowly seep from the woodwork. The London Metro said “Jammed in a Crevice” the Daily Mail said “They’ve Cracked It” [ha, ha, ha] and the Star stated “It’s Tough at the Top”. What made the popular media interested in this obscure niche of climbing, I really don’t know. Within just a few hours I was asked to do an interview with BBC Radio Sheffield and one for BBC News 24 – crikey, I thought – do they actually know what an offwidth is??!!
Daily Mail antics http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2098610/Theyve-cracked-Two-British-climbers-conquer-160ft-fissure-Utah-national-park.html
All in all, it was pretty good fun and I had an interesting insight into some TV and radio studios. I also found out that the Daily Mail comments pages are much funnier than UKC and that climbing forums are proper friendly bunch really. The fun hasn’t quite ended though, as both Pete and I have been asked to do something with Channel Five TV and I have a slot on BBC Sheffield this coming week at 10.35-10.55am (22nd Feb) if you’d like to hear about decisions that changed my life. Makes me sound old and past it?
Here’s the programme’s interviewer http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d7gs
Finally……………
Pete and I are very honoured to have been awarded a Golden Piton Award for crack climbing. I’m not totally sure what it all means, but with any luck I might be able to melt down the piton to make some ultra-soft RPs???
http://www.climbing.com/exclusive/features/2012_golden_piton_awards/index2.html
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m5b6Qb1picA/Tzr4D6EisXI/AAAAAAAAAO8/nN5h7L69yTo/s320/Pete+trying+hard.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m5b6Qb1picA/Tzr4D6EisXI/AAAAAAAAAO8/nN5h7L69yTo/s1600/Pete+trying+hard.jpg)(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3470546384814930497-221665285401187719?l=wideboyz.blogspot.com)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Well done on the Gold Piton, although it was kind of a foregone conclusion!
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To quote the Daily Fail comments page
You've had your 15 minutes.....Next!
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To quote the Daily Fail comments page
You've had your 15 minutes.....Next!
Katy Perry is back on the market if you want to string it out longer
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Any one got a spare tic for their talk at the showroom tonight? Sold out.
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Wideboyz Film Available For Download (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2013/01/wideboyz-film-available-for-download.html)
4 January 2013, 9:21 pm
We now have (through the medium of ultra-hi-tech internet wizardry) available the Wideboyz Film on download! I'd like to claim that I've put it up here because I'm so much more technically advanced than Pete... but no, it's because Pete now lives in a house full of Chinchillas and no internet connection. Sad, but true.
If you'd like to download the film in all it's glory - get the know the nasty world that revolves round wide cracks, macho posturing, Stevie Haston and wondergirl US wad Pamela Pack - then please click here! (http://www.digitalgoodsstore.com/c/udeRKd/7ZeILf)
(http://alexekins.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Wide-Boyz-POSTER-small1.jpg)
If you're having problems with that link then try the raw link at:
http://www.digitalgoodsstore.com/c/udeRKd/7ZeILf
Enjoy!
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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From “Wideboyz” to “Slender Gentlemen” (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2013/05/from-wideboyz-to-slender-gentlemen.html)
26 May 2013, 8:02 pm
A few people that are unlucky enough to have to see myself and Pete regularly will know that we’ve spent the past winter improving on our crack climbing skills and taking things down a size or two. In fact it’s gone right down in size. We’ve by-passed hand jams and fists (aren’t they just belays anyway?) and decided to spend some time crushing our nerves in cracks of less than 1 inch. There is method in this madness, but for the meantime bare with us! The whole experience of the “wide world” has taught us a few handy tricks and at the moment, we need to broaden the skills (and strengths) a little to take on the next little (big?!) challenge.
(http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/finger-crack-cellar.jpg?w=234&h=312) (http://tomrandallclimbing.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/finger-crack-cellar.jpg)Front 2 locks – avoid the screws though!
After this winter’s training I traveled to Italy (http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/italian-crack-paradise-cadarese-northern-italy/) where I got rained on for 2 weeks but I did a couple of 8a+/5.13+ finger cracks in amongst working on wet projects – a bit of a mixed trip of frustration about the weather but satisfaction in seeing improvements. Pete is currently in Sweden showing them his smorgasbord of tricks and no doubt mashing his fingers in gnarly finger cracks as well. Once we’re both back in the UK though, it’s time to really knuckle down and start working for later in the year: the difficulties have got to go up towards 8c really, or we’re not pulling our weight.
As a result of the above, we are going to revive our Wideboyz blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.co.uk/). Yes I know, it’s an abomination to enjoyment in climbing…. but what can you do?! As a little taster for this stuff to come this year (we’re making some more films with the Hotaches guys (http://hotaches.com/climbing-films/)) I’ve filmed some training footage from my cellar.
For anyone who’s interested in the whole training link details (just the individual sections shown in this clip) it’s a 100ft offwidth (8a+ ish) to V8 finger crack crux into an 80ft 8a+ roof hand crack. Guaranteed to get a sweaty brow!
And if you haven’t seen the award winning Wideboyz Film yet…. why the hell not?! Download it here (http://www.digitalgoodsstore.com/c/udeRKd/7ZeILf) and make me happy (http://s0.wp.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif?m=1129645325g)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Slender Gents Vs. The Cobra (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2013/09/slender-gents-vs-cobra.html)
6 September 2013, 6:50 pm
So here we are in Canada. Squamish to be precise, and one of the best places on this planet to go granite trad climbing. What do two Brits who are ex-wide-convicts do in a location like this? Stuff our bags full of friend 6s, rubber pads and leather face masks? Nope.... we take a new direction and fill up on friend 0.5s, finger tape and superglue.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aI9vAO5q6h4/UiohASnekqI/AAAAAAAAAQE/pxv22Zeok3c/s400/1234000_10151388979502168_1674185255_n.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aI9vAO5q6h4/UiohASnekqI/AAAAAAAAAQE/pxv22Zeok3c/s1600/1234000_10151388979502168_1674185255_n.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td](c) Hotaches Productions[/td][/tr]
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Our main objective for this trip is to try and climb Cobra Crack. It seems kind of weird thinking about that, as it's a route that's one of the very hardest trad routes in the world and who on earth would consider it a reasonable prospect to climb this in just a quick 3 week trip? Well, maybe we've got a bit carried away with the optimism but we're definitely not falling short on inspiration. The line is every bit of the "King" that you expect from seeing the videos over the years and the quality of moves are like nothing else. Mono undercuts, feet-first inverts off pinkies jams and holdless bridging. Mega!!
Pete Whittaker Working Cobra Crack, Diff filming and in the way. (http://vimeo.com/73599174) from Hot Aches Productions (http://vimeo.com/hotaches) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
We've had just under a week out in Squamish now and it's been an interesting, harsh and grounding experience. I think we've learnt a lot.
The interest:
Cobra is a hugely varied piece of climbing. It's got so many different styles of movement within one pitch and it's been a realisation that our training hasn't been as effective on the variation as one might expect. With hindsight, that's easy to see now. Also the pain factor on the route is massive. Every hold on the crux overhang brings tears to your eyes and it's pretty hard to convince yourself at times that you want to give it everything.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2zbaR-Rt35I/UiohTPtfsyI/AAAAAAAAAQM/s1HQZgBhh0o/s400/1236646_10151388980622168_1020897604_n.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2zbaR-Rt35I/UiohTPtfsyI/AAAAAAAAAQM/s1HQZgBhh0o/s1600/1236646_10151388980622168_1020897604_n.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td](c) Hotaches Productions[/td][/tr]
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The harsh:
This route ain't no push over. Despite the number of repeats for such a high end route, there's not really a feeling of "soft for the grade" or "apply the cheater-beta and it'll be fine." Every jam is pretty good for a finger jam; pretty sinker in fact. But put in the factor of no feet on a 35 degree overhang and they suddenly become painful, powerful and slightly disappointing. When we first abbed down the line our first thoughts were "man, these jams are so sinker we can never fall off this."
It's not just the moves and poor feet that are harsh, it's the nature of the red point. You can get two goes a day on the route (and that's just working moves) before skin flappers occur and the shoulders give out. To do a route like this in a short space of time seems hardcore. Yuji-we-are-not!
The Grounding:
Leading up to this trip, we've poured over information, videos and anything we could find to help us. This gives some preparation, but only a limited amount. We could see the moves and try and replicate them with some specific training but at the end of the day nothing is the same as the route and I guess this has hit us fairly hard whilst being here.
It's ok though I'm sure we can handle it, I mean the hardest finger crack we've done in the the UK is 7a+ and Honnold soloed that on-sight. Nothing like going big.
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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The Cobra Bites Back Today (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-cobra-bites-back-today.html)
16 September 2013, 9:35 pm
week 2: The progress so far
After a a period of reflection brought on by excessive rainfall and British style weather, we've come to the conclusion that Cobra Crack is not a 'if' but 'when.' Unfortunately the 'when' part could be very interesting as we only have 9 days left and right now we're staring at weather reports that predict 5-7 days of rain. Is this the Curse of the Cobra striking into the heart of a European crack obsessive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0jfDlUXijI) yet again?
Everyone seems to be leaving Squamish at the moment and offering us chances to climb in warmer and drier climates at incredible destinations. We have to sit it out though, denying ourselves any chance of enjoyment or satisfaction. Our monastic dedication is reflected in our waiting for that Brit style window of perfect conditions to capitalise on. It's all or nothing. Cobra or no bra.
Wide Boyz Slacking Off in Squamish (http://vimeo.com/73684504) from Hot Aches Productions (http://vimeo.com/hotaches) on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/).
In the UK we are used to our miserable conditions; dank dark winters and scoping out that couple of hours of prime friction when the temperatures drop and the wind comes in. Just before that next lethal downpour, everything is perfect and topping out just as the first few 'spit spots' hit the rock is paradise.
It all seems very optimistic to take this approach on the other side of the Atlantic, as we could easily go and tick some classics in another area. Instead, we keep our fingers crossed having both now come tantalisingly close to success.
So how is it leading the route?
It's probably easier then trying to top rope it and way more fun. The rope above you doesn't get in the way whilst trying to get your feet above your head, the gear is quick to place and you get to take big whippers!
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qnPCqhgwNOQ/Ujd3rxteuSI/AAAAAAAAAQc/BF-zD4fdqp4/s400/1stRedPoint.Still010.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qnPCqhgwNOQ/Ujd3rxteuSI/AAAAAAAAAQc/BF-zD4fdqp4/s1600/1stRedPoint.Still010.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete using the Faveresse Heal[/td][/tr]
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Most of the gear is in comfortable positions to place, with just one piece placed on the headwall. Being British we ditched the usual tactic of placing friends on the headwall, got the wires out and have gone for one bomber nut, which takes about 5 seconds to place. This is useful, because we're weak and we can't be hanging around up there! We've gone 'fast and light' Ueli style (again) only using 3 pieces for the top 25m of climbing.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gp4e3fNlA1Q/Ujd3scuyewI/AAAAAAAAAQg/vHo6csM6BzI/s400/1stRedPoint.Still018.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gp4e3fNlA1Q/Ujd3scuyewI/AAAAAAAAAQg/vHo6csM6BzI/s1600/1stRedPoint.Still018.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Tom placing the solitary nut on the headwall[/td][/tr]
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Each are having there own dilemmas on the the lead. Tom has an issue with one move no one else has ever had an issue with, which is strange. In the last session though, it started to get better and he was able to start execute the move - once this is done, the route will surely be in the bag! Pete has been gradually getting higher higher on each redpoint with the last go getting right up there falling just past the famous Faveresse foot above the head beta. So things are getting very close, but currently 'no cigar'.
If you'd said two days ago that in the last 9 days we would get two days of good conditions, I think we would have both written the route off. Now with the rain set in, two days would be a luxury. Please bring us two good days of conditions Squamish Weather Gods, we are very close now.
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Taming The Cobra (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2013/09/taming-cobra.html)
22 September 2013, 7:34 am
For the last 3 weeks, we have been out in Squamish trying to fulfill yet another madcap mission: to climb Cobra Crack. Why would two guys from a country that barely has a crack above the standard of 5.12 / 7a+ want to take on such a ridiculous goal? Surely, we would be best off sticking to what Brits do best? Vertical crimping filth, bouldering eliminates and drinking. Well, we both completely suck at all of those as well, so back to plan A!
There's a method behind the madness you see. Some of the best opportunities in life are taken when the crowd are looking the other way. When people think there's not room for movement - "crack climbing is dead, every hold is a rest" - then if you look a little deeper, you'll see there's a whole other world out there waiting to be explored. I suppose we did some of that with the offwidth climbing and now after a year of thin cracks we've seen the other end of the possibilities too.
So where does this leave us, three weeks into a three-and-half week long trip? Was our training any good? Did The Cobra live up to expectations and did the Squamish Weather Gods smile down on us?
1. I think so.
2. Oh yes.
3. We are forever in your debt.
The training
Pete and I were discussing this the other day. When we'd first arrived to try the route, we had some serious doubts about our methods from home as the climbing on the route is actually quite varied - no move is quite like the previous and so not quite as trainable. However, as we learnt the nuances of each lock then quickly the training effects came through. Underneath it all though, we knew we were nothing like as fit or prepared as we had been for Century Crack and I suppose we both had our doubts that we'd come ready. Even though our training link ups had been around 8c, it was hard believe this was enough when the reality of Cobra, the route itself, hit. That route is spicy!
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Yg4lv_YbaSQ/Uj6a6jOvCWI/AAAAAAAAARE/m5e5AUE40NQ/s400/556860_10151373007587168_844400365_n.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Yg4lv_YbaSQ/Uj6a6jOvCWI/AAAAAAAAARE/m5e5AUE40NQ/s1600/556860_10151373007587168_844400365_n.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The Crackar Ladder[/td][/tr]
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The legend of The Cobra
As both our experiences of the route and final success on it was quite different, we'll both give you a flavour of what we felt. A personal perspective...
PETE: Before coming out to Squamish I had all the doubts of 'am I going to be good enough,' 'have I trained correctly' and 'am I climbing well enough'. Basically all those questions that an 8b+ sport climber would ask themselves when they go to try an 8c trad route half way round the world with a time limit of 3 weeks...hmmmm
The roll call of names topping out this route are pretty overwhelming. All names at the top of the sport climbing and trad climbing game; Trotter, Favresse, Pringle, Honnold, Yuji, to name a few. How could 'Whittaker' do this? Well, I'm not entirely sure, but somehow I did. Something must have been working in the biceps for once and it just goes to show a lot of effort can take you a little way.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uDV7Aog6NI4/Uj6bfFuJhuI/AAAAAAAAARM/cmXy2S9a-l8/s400/IMG_0120.JPG) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uDV7Aog6NI4/Uj6bfFuJhuI/AAAAAAAAARM/cmXy2S9a-l8/s1600/IMG_0120.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td](c) Tideline to Alpine Media[/td][/tr]
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The route in the end didn't turn out to be as epic as I first thought. Through every session I was always learning the subtleties of the jams, the positions and movement between them and how to manage the skin to make sure the next session I was fresh. Every session you have, the route gets increasingly easier and really the secret is getting the time on it. Every redpoint I got higher, until I eventually eliminated all mistakes and the route felt easy to climb and felt great. It's strange seeing a high profile route in films, on the internet and in magazines and then eventually getting to climb on it and then actually managing the flipping thing. This is a route for Wads, however i'm not a Wad...weird feeling.
TOM: In contrast to Pete, I had very different feelings before I came out. Mine were more like I feel like a champ and how can training this hard be worthless and I feel the strongest I've ever felt in my life. At the time I had a niggling thought that kept reminding me that being too confident is almost the perfect recipe for falling flat on your face!
That is almost exactly what I started to do. After our initial week of working on the route and learning the moves I felt ok, but a little uncertain about the feeling of the redpoint burn - I'd just been putting together sequences of just 20ft at a time and not trying the route from bottom to top. My first few redpoints started to really highlight this. Time and time again, I would hit this one move just before setting up for the crux and wobble like the jellyman. My arms would melt away and I'd slump uselessly onto the rope. For quite a few days I repeated this process. Time passed, I got dejected, Pete ticked the route and the cameras around me waited expectantly. Each evening I found myself working up into an ever greater stew about the whole affair and frustrated that just one move could stop me doing this route. A move that I'd never even heard of anyone else finding difficult!
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zaZ-ITbfy2M/Uj6b_wqO4aI/AAAAAAAAARU/bmgiEtT94-Y/s400/WB2+Cobra+Crack+Day3+11.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zaZ-ITbfy2M/Uj6b_wqO4aI/AAAAAAAAARU/bmgiEtT94-Y/s1600/WB2+Cobra+Crack+Day3+11.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Working out the top crux early days[/td][/tr]
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In the end, it was the combination of a few factors that lead to a breakthrough. I took the finger tape protecting my skin off of one finger, I listened to some sports hypnosis videos and I accepted that the route wasn't going to happen on this trip. Suddenly, on my last day I was feeling like I never imagined I would. Light, strong and well trained. In just a few magical moments, I was through the crucial move and into the crux which I completed in a bit of a daze. I'd ripped a massive hole in my finger and hopefully kept my belayer's faith that the "old man" has some life in him yet....
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W6uaxI604-M/Uj6dGlO0d9I/AAAAAAAAARo/a9H2hhVG4SU/s320/IMG_0146.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W6uaxI604-M/Uj6dGlO0d9I/AAAAAAAAARo/a9H2hhVG4SU/s1600/IMG_0146.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The mono undercut culprit[/td][/tr]
[/table]Thin vs Wide
One of the very popular topics of conversation that occurred between Pete and I in the year's build up to this trip was how Cobra would compare to Century. Would they match in difficulty? How would two fitness based offwidthers fare on the power hungry Cobra? Obviously, we put a lot of thought into our route into America, but it was always based on other offwidths as we had a limited pedigree of other hard crack sizes to compare to.
Walking away from Cobra after this trip, I think we've been left with the following (entirely subjective!) opinions:
1. Century Crack is certainly a step above Cobra in terms of difficulty.
2. You can be a good sport climber and could quickly transfer this to Cobra as it's a route that climbs very "sportily" but it would be very unlikely to do the same with Century. We think you'd probably have to dedicate set specific training time for this route.
3. There's a big margin for improvement of crack grades still - surely we are on the cusp of new levels over the coming years?
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PVWJ3TinZK4/Uj6cr0t19GI/AAAAAAAAARg/nHtIMvvhXHY/s400/IMG_0092.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PVWJ3TinZK4/Uj6cr0t19GI/AAAAAAAAARg/nHtIMvvhXHY/s1600/IMG_0092.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Forget the Beastmaker, get on the Earlmakers![/td][/tr]
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Thanks
We also wanted to say a massive thank you to all the people that have supported us on this trip and mission - Wild Country, Rab, Patagonia, Five Ten, Sterling Ropes, Climb On - you've been the business!
Also, whilst out here in Squamish the local climbing scene has been brilliant. Everyone has been so kind to us with lodging, beta, stories, people coming up to the Cobra to shout encouragement (you know who you are!), drinks out, parties in and lots of good vibes. Why does it have to be on the other side of the Atlantic?!
Finally, good effort to the Hotaches, Savage Films and RV Project crew for sitting in a tree for 3 weeks watching the childish antics of me and Pete. I know it can't have been easy listening to our terrible American accents and seeing Pete's lycra-clad legs and lunchbox.
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Wide Boyz 2 Film Download (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2014/04/wideboyz-2-download-posted-on-april-10.html)
10 April 2014, 1:23 am
Well, that was an exciting weekend! Just a few days ago was the premiere of Wideboyz II at the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival. Unlike the viewing of the first film of Century Crack, I got to have a sneak peak of the unfinished product and I have to say it made the night feel quite a bit calmer.(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MEaXK3qNL5M/U0XzJSS8B_I/AAAAAAAAAR4/8ITXZo0wtfY/s1600/IMG_0160.JPG) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MEaXK3qNL5M/U0XzJSS8B_I/AAAAAAAAAR4/8ITXZo0wtfY/s1600/IMG_0160.JPG)
Cobra Crack (c) Paul Diffley, Hotaches
I remember sitting in a Kendal cinema 2 years ago for Wideboyz I and absolutely crapping my pants. I’d never been in a climbing film before, let alone one that had my face plastered all over it. This time, knowing that Chris Prescott and Paul Diffley from Hotaches had made an amazing job was reassuring to say the least. I know it seems a foregone conclusion, but when your year’s climbing efforts are in the spotlight it’s not quite so easy to be casual about. Maybe I shouldn’t care so much, but then again, I’m only human!So far the production has won Best Climbing Film already at ShAFF which is ace and John Coefield has written a very complimentary review on UKC here. As ever Pete and I will be doing a Europe-wide lecture tour to support the film, so please do give us a shout if you’re keen to see and hear about Pete’s sausage fingers, my nude top rope of Cobra or how you train for 8c on a 8ft wooden crack….Download Wideboyz 2 (http://mydgs.co/Id4Atd/7ZeILf)
Much like Wideboyz I, the film is available to download directly here and all you need to do is click on this link. It’ll take you straight to the download page where you can access it direct to your computer. Simple eh?!(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HVbdMF3-MHY/U0XzV7sS7uI/AAAAAAAAASA/AMcIxfo9N-E/s1600/wideboyz2cover220px__copy.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HVbdMF3-MHY/U0XzV7sS7uI/AAAAAAAAASA/AMcIxfo9N-E/s1600/wideboyz2cover220px__copy.jpg)
Finally……………….As an extra something in case you’re not into all the crack climbing – I mean, who is…? – then here’s a short video made by Guy Van Greuning about the recent first ascent of Pure Now E9 6c. Hope you enjoy it.(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vmKVoumWQ9Q/U0Xzcd76pLI/AAAAAAAAASI/MUgOVoPZylI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-10+at+02.08.40.png) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vmKVoumWQ9Q/U0Xzcd76pLI/AAAAAAAAASI/MUgOVoPZylI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-10+at+02.08.40.png)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Pre Muir-El Corazon: The Heart of El Capitan (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2014/10/pre-muir-el-corazon-heart-of-el-capitan.html)
11 October 2014, 8:07 pm
When we first thought of coming out on a trip to Yosemite to climb big walls, it seemed pretty simple. You get good at climbing (well, we can do the crack parts quite well…), book some plane tickets, fill a haul bag with food and water and then plod your way to the top in style. That’s what we thought anyway…
By day 2, we realised that neither of us really knew what was going on. Our rope ascending system was stolen from indoor route setting (it didn’t work) our pendulums were cribbed from Hans Florine’s videos (we misunderstood the concept) and it’s a flaming nightmare to manage three ropes at a belay station. Despite these obvious issues we decided to pitch in with our first big wall free effort on not necessarily the easiest pathway - failure is a little more respected if you sucked at doing something hard right…??!
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jf8Z3eQPgrk/VDmGFwvpMmI/AAAAAAAAASc/uytEo7FhYoE/s1600/IMG_1543.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jf8Z3eQPgrk/VDmGFwvpMmI/AAAAAAAAASc/uytEo7FhYoE/s1600/IMG_1543.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Beards always make everything better. No gnomes were hurt in this process.[/td][/tr]
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With some slightly flawed logic we decided in the first week of our trip to Yosemite to try a link up of Pre-Muir into El Corazon (mainly as we wanted Freerider to remain unclimbed by either of us). The two routes actually go quite well together as they follow a vertical line, the difficulty is sustained throughout (5.13 pitches starting at pitch 6 and the last 5.13 being at pitch 29) and both routes we had some beta for. After preparing parts of the route from the bottom and also from the top, we climbed Pre Muir in a oner and came down fixed ropes for a rest and more preparation.
When we finally set off, we’d tried to give ourselves as much advantage as possible, with only the middle chunk of the route from pitch 18 to 27 unseen. We rationalised that these contained just 1 x 5.13 & 4 x 5.12. What could go wrong?!
DAY 1
Ok well day 1 wasn’t actually day one. We realised we’d left our lead rope, rack, hauling device and haul line at the top of our fixed ropes. Oh crap. What an idiotic start. How did we manage to do that? Pete had to jumar up and sort everything out.
“Real Day 1”
Our first pitches of climbing after the fixed ropes to the top of Pre Muir went relatively well. Pete climbed his 5.10 with style, I fell off my 5.11 pitch and we then preceded to get the haul bags stuck on nearly every pitch. But…. we made upward progress….. Which dumped us finally at the last bit of climbing on day 1 - The Beak Flake 5.13b. In 30 deg C temps Pete somehow clawed his way up the thin flake and still didn’t fall off the redpoint crux when a hold started to break. I shouted encouragement in a hoarse voice flinching at the thought of now having to second. Unfortunately I seemed to suffer some high gravity effects in the following hour and resigned myself to try to follow the pitch the next morning when it didn’t feel like crimping the inside edges of a warm Sunday roast tray.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PCwB1BQVaM0/VDmIPpwu02I/AAAAAAAAASw/R3LFXKWWUzQ/s1600/IMG_1663.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PCwB1BQVaM0/VDmIPpwu02I/AAAAAAAAASw/R3LFXKWWUzQ/s1600/IMG_1663.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete cruising the world's easiest 5.13a[/td][/tr]
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DAY 2The next morning when temperatures were slightly lower then the previous evening, Tom set off on his ascent of Beak Flake. He managed to overcome the powerful bouldery start and cruised through the mid crux which he’d previously slipped on the evening before, a great start to the day and we’d both managed to free the first crux of the route, we’d overcome the first hurdle (of what was to become many). After some steady lay backing the route turns into a three pitch traverse. I was confident with the climbing on these pitches as they seemed to be British sea cliff style, a bit bold, loose and scary. What I wasn’t so confident with was that fact we somehow had to get our haul bags horizontally three pitches to the left. A week previous we’d read a chapter in a big walling book about lower outs and asked some crazy locals the best techniques to go about it…Two pitches later, it was dark.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MnSIg6Nrp6A/VDmIuo6KBUI/AAAAAAAAATA/w_zDCv9X7V4/s1600/IMG_1667.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MnSIg6Nrp6A/VDmIuo6KBUI/AAAAAAAAATA/w_zDCv9X7V4/s1600/IMG_1667.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete in trouble. Again.[/td][/tr]
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DAY 3
This day started a little bit like it ended: with some struggling, sweating and a lot of jibbering. The first pitch of the morning was “Bobby’s Bunny Slope” and I was truly happy that Pete had taken the hit and said he’d lead the pitch (I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it) as it had the reputation of being hard and bold. Possibly a bit disappointingly for me, most of the action on this pitch came when Pete was round the corner out of sight and within a few moves of the belay: I knew he was on hard ground.
“Watch me Tom…. oh God. Watch me”
I braced both hands on the rope, with my armpits pouring sweat.
“Ok….. nearly off. It’s nearly over…. I’m not sure…..”
With plenty of stylish grunting and cut loose moves on the slab (how do you do that again, Pete??!) he kind of fell through the crux and put the biggest and hardest pitch of the day to bed. Thank goodness. And thank goodness that my seconding was afforded a nice side rope / top rope for most of the moves as I crept over the small smears and ripples.
We had now landed at the base of a massive corner system that lead up to the big 5.13 roof pitch above. We felt so relaxed knowing it was just some 5.10-5.12 corner climbing to round off the day. Rather amusingly, the first pitch after the bold hard one was a 5.10 offwidth and one that I quickly realised we had no wide gear for (left in the tent) and was a pitch full of massive loose flakes. Fridge to car sized flakes. I huffed and puffed my way round the pitch moaning about everything under the sun until eventually I found one semi-solid piece of protection. As I moved away from it though, I nudged a huge flake with my knee and it started to peel away from the wall.
Noooooo…. not now….. It stopped. It paused for a second as smaller rocks tumbled into place behind it. I glanced down at the parties 1000ft below us on ledges unaware of the danger above and at Pete on the belay below. At this point I pretty much lost all my remaining cool and climbed back to the belay to dejectedly hand the end of the rope to Pete. I’d broken mentally and I knew it. All rested now on Pete’s shoulders. Over the next hour, that boy basically rescued our attempt on the route - it was possibly doomed at that point - and equalised dodgy gear, did super-bold moves and shook his head a lot in annoyance at having to risk so much for a stupid 5.10. What a day! And somewhat of a relief to be unhurt or to have not hurt anyone else.
DAY 4we’d reached the real crux of the route now. With sore skin, inefficient hauling and tired muscles we knew this was where the route was going to really kick in. 4 consecutive 5.13 pitches are what lay ahead, all with different styles and techniques. As we were behind schedule we woke up early, totted up the water and food situation and came to the conclusion two of the four 5.13s needed to be freed today. Coffee Corner is the first. Some flared jamming followed by some bridging weirdness is what the pitch entails. Somehow I managed to squirm, bridge, jam and twist my way up the thing on my first go, making a great start to the day. an hour later Tom had followed and we were onto the crux pitch of the route…The Roof Traverse.We had spent an hour each working this pitch a few days prior to our attempt on El Corazon, so we had a vague sequence and idea what it was all about. In reality I think it suits mine and Tom’s climbing style quite well in that you get to use a foot in the roof like a hand. Kind of in a similar way to offwidthing. However, instead of using bomber stacks or jams, you have some horrendous slopers to grapple with.
Tom’s ascent of this pitch was very inspiring, I could see how sore his skin was looking and he seemed to be looking quite tired and murmured a number of times how he thought he wouldn’t be able to do this pitch today. I had confidence in him and after the incidents we’d overcome lower on the route, told him it wasn’t an option to be climbing out empty handed.After fighting through the crux you arrive at a resting point right at the end of the traverse. The next section is easier but also easy to mess up. It seemed like Tom had over gripped a little at the start of this section and when the foot holds got bad and the hand holds got sweaty (as he entered the 25 degree sun) I could see his body sagging backwards and his biceps uncurling. I really thought he might be off and if that was the case the next few days of supplies could have been interesting, it really seemed like this was his one chance. However with grit, determination (and power screaming) that I have seen so much of over the years from Tom, he sucked it back in and managed not to fall (from the massive juggy undercut he was holding… ;) ) I was so pleased we’d both managed it, it made a great end to a tiring day. Now, we knew the route must be on.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gVxUw9-mRZY/VDmHYiMi68I/AAAAAAAAASo/hHiq9CGtmV4/s1600/IMG_1658.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gVxUw9-mRZY/VDmHYiMi68I/AAAAAAAAASo/hHiq9CGtmV4/s1600/IMG_1658.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Comfy nights and warm snuggling. 69 of course. [/td][/tr]
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DAY 5
Last days on big walls I always think are the best. You know the vertical desert is reaching its borders, you only have a limited time left and you get some of the very best featured rock on El Capitan.
One of these features has to be the Razorblade Flake. It’s a 250ft pancake thin flake that slices through the headwall above the heart. Every hold is a jug, but almost every foothold is a smear. You layback to glory for what seems like miles and miles on a really thin piece of rock, but the risk is put to the back of your mind as the climbing and the position are sensational. For once, even I forgot about the exposure and the heights, it was just so much fun.
By 6pm, we’d both pulled over the lip of El Cap feeling like we’d been on the wall for 2 weeks. So much had happened and we had had a month’s worth of climbing experiences all shoved into 3000ft of rock. Best of all though, I’d got to climb the route with another person who’d never freed El Cap and we shared the joint satisfaction of having realised a long held dream.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qVkEx0MvQFg/VDmIqKFrZDI/AAAAAAAAAS4/hanSL3TQqlQ/s1600/P1030084.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qVkEx0MvQFg/VDmIqKFrZDI/AAAAAAAAAS4/hanSL3TQqlQ/s1600/P1030084.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Big Wall Beards. McBlackeye on the left, Neptune's Tool on the right. [/td][/tr]
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Big Wall Disaster Merchants: Does it work?
That is the question… and in a word, Yes.
Both Tom and I went up having never done any big wall free climbing. Me never having done more then 10 or so pitches in a day and having hauled once for 20ft on a gritstone edge back in Sheffield.You have to start somewhere though. It seemed to be on this multiday big wall that it wasn’t necessarily the climbing that was the hardest part, it was a cumulation of everything stacked on top of one another that made it difficult. whether that be, hauling, sorting out rope tangles, setting up portaledges, climbing hard pitches, being run out and scared, freeing haul bags, jumaring, etc etc, it all adds up and that’s the hard part. Can anybody do it? of course they can! mine and Tom’s local crags aren’t even the size of pitch one, but with a bit of motivation, determination and the will not to give up, even us as single pitch punters can climb (free) to the top.
And never, never again will I feel disgusted when my bum touches the rim of grim public porcelain after having a hanging poo in a bag, next to Randall, and have to carry it around with my super noodles for the next few days.
I feel privileged to have my feet back on the ground :)
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Beards, Bagels and Big Walls (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2014/10/beards-bagels-and-big-walls.html)
19 October 2014, 6:41 pm
One of the odd things about big wall climbing is that standards seem to lag behind other parts of climbing - whilst P Robz is out there cranking out V14s on the boulders and Ondra on the 9b’s, the big wall free climbers are still getting stuck into 8a - 8b at the cutting edge. Tommy Caldwell and K Jorg being the exception of course…. It would seem that standards should be broadly in line across all styles, but even in the access friendly mecca of Yosemite, this does’t seem to be the case.
Likewise the onsight / flash standards have lagged on the big walls. The biggest surprise to many might be that El Capitan has still never had a pure onsight of any of it’s free routes, despite the grades rarely going over 8b on the hardest pitches. So why is this? Is it the cumulative effect of tiredness? The diversity of climbing styles? The skin condition issues of 5 days of continuous climbing?
Well, this week Pete and I set off to find out the truth. Could it really be that hard to climb 32 pitches of granite first go, on the mega classic line of Freerider?
The Route
Freerider was first established by the Huber brothers in 1998 and essentially forms an “easy version” of Salathe on the left side of El Capitan. It’s characterised by a lower slab half which follows blank sections that join up major crack systems that are often quite wide - including the infamous hollow flake. Nothing in the bottom half of the route goes beyond tricky E4, although it’s well know for being hard to onsight every single pitch even for the easy part. Above the midway point the wall steepens up and heads towards the overhanging Salathe headwall via offwidths, corners and more hard face climbing up to E6 (or 7c). Pete and I planned to attempt the route from the ground over 3 days, having saved every pitch as unseen, but we’d begged every friend we knew to give us good beta for the route! Despite our previous mistakes on El Corazon, we adopted many of the same tactics in the vain hope that somehow second time round we might not have as many hiccups!
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5_UVCwwPnk8/VEQBbAO0yQI/AAAAAAAAATY/n7AuFqeBRZw/s1600/P1030089.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5_UVCwwPnk8/VEQBbAO0yQI/AAAAAAAAATY/n7AuFqeBRZw/s1600/P1030089.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Better preparation = better climbing?[/td][/tr]
[/table]Day 1At 4 in the morning we set up the first section of the route, a ten pitch climb known as Freeblast and popular just to do by itself.
The first hurdle of this section comes at around pitch 5 where the cracks thin out and you reach some delicate face climbing. I think we were both quite nervous not to blow the onsight attempt this early on, and we both hesitated a little at the crux until finally gibbering our way across the mini traverse and rocking out onto better holds.
The next crux came not from the climbing, but from a bowel problem from Randall. We decided to link some pitches up and go Irish mega pitch style, halfway through the 80m pitch Tom had serious issues trying to get into the half dollar corner whilst not pooping himself. After an emergency restroom stop things eased in the climbing (and down below) and we found ourselves having done the Freeblast, the long down climb and on heart ledges before lunch time. What a great start.
A couple of parties had snuck ahead of us up the fixed lines and it seemed one party was having trouble with the notorious hollow flake. Two hours later we still hadn’t moved from Heart Ledges and realised we weren’t going to make it to our bivvy spot in the Alcove before dark. If we wanted to give ourselves the best chance of on sighting the route, we rationalised that climbing in the dark wouldn’t be that good, because although Freerider follows big ledge systems, anyone who knows me and Tom will know we are notorious at getting lost. We decided to descend from Heart Ledges and come back extra early the following morning to get ahead of the crowds and stick to our schedule.
Day 1 Again
It seems to have become a habit not quite getting off on the right foot on these routes, but nevertheless we started “Day 1 Version 2” from where we left off at Heart Ledges. The first hurdle on this part of the route comes at the Hollow Flake where you always hear rumours of huge run outs, death potential and hideous offwidths. What they don’t tell you about though, is the horrendous 30m down climb of a 5.11d that you have to do….. down climbing….. we didn’t sign up for this! Both Pete and I suffered a bit on this pitch. We’re not the biggest fans of layback down climbing.
A few pitches above I had to tackle what was to become one of the hardest pitches on the route. The 5.7 chimney. Yes 5.7 is the UK equivalent to VS. To cut a long and painful story short, I made a total hash of this pitch and ended up stuck in the back of a squeeze chimney swearing my head off and thrashing a good part of my knee skin off for 45mins, whilst everyone on the ledge below laughed at me! It was a really good grounding experience and reminded me that despite all the crack climbing that I’ve done, I can still be brought to my knees by an innocuous pitch.
The last pitch of the day to land us at our night spot was in stark contrast to a 5.7 chimney: the Monster Offwidth! More body grinding, big cams and suffering. Fortunately, this huge wide crack has a big reputation which kind of prepares you for the misery above. It was actually very interesting for Pete and I to do this pitch as we’ve done a lot of offwidths over the years and we were keen to know how the apparent “5.11a grade” would fit in with the world offwidths. Suffice to say we topped out the pitch impressed with its difficulty and thought that compared to many others around the globe it was a good solid E6 pitch. A good friend of ours, Andy Reeve (see pic below) had wrestled the monster a week before and made a herculean effort to try and remove his own arm. Anyone who climbs this pitch without a long wide crack apprenticeship gets serious respect from me. It’s very beefy.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KWx_nNqQWUE/VEQECj8Hy6I/AAAAAAAAAT0/YAHLOHg15jM/s1600/photo-6.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KWx_nNqQWUE/VEQECj8Hy6I/AAAAAAAAAT0/YAHLOHg15jM/s1600/photo-6.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Reeve still smiling despite having been through major surgery on The Monster. [/td][/tr]
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Day 2 We had planned to only climb 6 pitches on this day as 4 pitches above us was where the crux of the route was.
At this point the route has two variations, which is either ‘The Teflon Corner’ at 7c, or ‘The Huber Variation’ at 7c+. As we’d been given beta for The Huber Variation we decided to go for this one. I narrowly missed flashing the problem falling from the last move after not spotting a crucial hold. I was really annoyed as I felt as though i could have done it. I made a quick redpoint to make sure I still had a ‘safe tick’ of the route on the cards. The holds are quite thin on this pitch and as it got warmer Tom couldn’t quite claw his way up in the increasing heat.
We decided to ab back down and have ago on the Teflon Corner. The corner is a much different proposition and instead of using finger tip skin it uses palm skin, instead of edges its smears. I really wanted to make up for my mistake on The Huber Variation and make sure I did this pitch first go. We didn’t have any beta for this pitch but I knew it was my style of climbing, so I just went for it with a really positive approach and before I knew it I’d smeared and palmed my way to the top of the pitch without falling! I couldn’t believe it, maybe a Flash ascent of El Capitan was still on! Tom put his best Flash effort, unfortunately narrowly missing out and slipping out the slippery bugger. it was starting to get late, so we decided to have a rest, bivvy it out and let Tom complete pitch early the next morning.
Day 3
Having fallen off the teflon corner more times that you’d think was feasibly possible, I went down the next morning with sore palms, but with a bit more confidence that the cooler morning temps would help on the insecure smearing. I think what marked this pitch out, wasn’t my multitude of falls, but the fact that Pete did this first go - I couldn’t believe his performance after I’d been on it for just 15 minutes. Such a good effort to not make a single mistake. Whilst the climbing isn’t strength dependent, the moves are so weird. It’s all body tension, insecurity and butt clenchingly desperate. Think The Quarryman groove, but shorter and made of granite! After an hour of effort that morning I somehow seemed to piece the climbing together and produced a couple of nice blisters on my palms.
Knowing that we had the hardest pitch of climbing behind us, I think the tension eased off for me, but for Pete I’m pretty sure it ramped up. He still had “the flash” in hand, but now there was 10+ pitches of up to E6 above that no silly mistakes could be made on. As I sat on the belay some time that morning, I really pondered Pete’s dilemma… it’s not that hard on paper, but how do you keep it together over so many different climbing styles and on back to back climbing days?
The question to that one, has to be answered in what was the highlight of the day for me - watching Pete lead the second “Enduro Corner”, a reasonably graded 5.12b. We’d heard rumours that it was a proper sandbag and looking up at the line you could see few big holds and even fewer footholds. Essentially, it was a 15m power layback on rounded holds…. did I mention that we both hate laybacks?! As Pete steadily made progress upwards he reached a point where I could see he’d got pretty pumped and his feet kept twitching nervously on the holds.
Fuck. This can’t be….. there’s no way he can mess this up after everything below. Come on…. just grin and bear it….
Almost as if Pete had heard my thoughts, he got “the face” out that I rarely see. It’s the one where he looks like he’s going to chew his own chin off and his face wrinkles up in shear determination. I always love this moment (I bet Pete doesn’t!) as I know some seriously grim effort is about to be shown. With everything he had, he crimped it up, got the beefcake out and gunned it to the top of the pitch looking at a huge fall if he fell before the belay.
YESSSS!!! Thank God for that. I can relax for 10 minutes now. Until the next pitch…..
As I lead off on the 5.12 traverse afterwards I kind of knew that he had the route in the bag now as no one had said anything too worrying about the pitches above. I mostly started to look forward to a night spent on a 2ft wide ledge trying to work out how to cook, sleep and not touch Pete’s toxic feet.
[tr][td](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vkRBx72jegY/VEQBn8rIzUI/AAAAAAAAATg/39A_AEJnXS0/s1600/P1030094.JPG) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vkRBx72jegY/VEQBn8rIzUI/AAAAAAAAATg/39A_AEJnXS0/s1600/P1030094.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Ledge Life[/td][/tr]
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Top Out Day
After the previous day all the 5.12 and 5.11 pitches were done, so I was able to relax a little. However after climbing in Yosemite for a month now I’ve come to realise not to take any grade that seriously. I seem to have done 5.8s which have been harder then some 5.11c’s. I knew just to be relaxed and that the last few 5.10 pitches would be in my capability.
A few hours later both Tom and i had topped out. Tom had managed to free his second big wall on El Cap and somehow I’d managed to climb the whole of Freerider without taking a fall. Firstly I actually couldn’t believe we’d both managed to free another wall in such a short period of time and secondly I couldn’t believe I’d got up this thing in a push first try.
We had had it as a goal to try and flash Freerider before coming out to the States as we knew it may not have been done before. We saved the whole route so we were able to do this, which is why we did the Pre Muir - Corazon link at the start of the trip. Another great big walling experience, maybe not quite so much a Randall/Whittker shambles this time…..hmmmmm i’m not so sure, there were definitely some moments. massive thanks to Randall for climbing it with me.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--I8ts2t79po/VEQD1czS1RI/AAAAAAAAATs/GgpBa-_Zhaw/s1600/P1030104.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--I8ts2t79po/VEQD1czS1RI/AAAAAAAAATs/GgpBa-_Zhaw/s1600/P1030104.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Big Wall Flasher![/td][/tr]
[/table]Big Wall Flashing
Pete’s effort on Freerider has to be one of my favourite climbing experiences because I got to see the culmination of 15 yrs of effort in learning a craft come to fruition. Everything he’s learnt on the gritstone edges, slate slabs, on offwidths with me and in cracks all over the world came to together in one 3000ft face. It’s not often you get to be there in the action observing a little bit of history and also not that often that when you’ve done it, you bump into Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgensen at the top to talk to them about it!
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cR7Z_cSHp3Q/VEQAqd_awXI/AAAAAAAAATQ/vtveJLusa8o/s1600/IMG_1730.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cR7Z_cSHp3Q/VEQAqd_awXI/AAAAAAAAATQ/vtveJLusa8o/s1600/IMG_1730.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Kevin wearing the beard "California Style"[/td][/tr]
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For me the best flash efforts on a number of different routes (as far as I know) have to be:
Cedric Lachat’s Freerider attempt (very similar style to Pete)Ueli Steck on Golden Gate (1 fall)Leo and Patch on El Nino (2 or 3 falls?)Yuji on Salathe (4 falls)
For anyone who’s wondering if big wall free climbing is possible for them, then I encourage you to give it a little try - you might just surprise yourself. We now have a generation of Brits from short 20m crags who are making amazing efforts and people like Dan McManus, James McHaffie, Hazel Findlay, Calum Muskett and Andy Reeve are a constant inspiration in rewards of hard work and determination.
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Massive legends... :bow:
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El Capitan Free - Number Three (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2014/11/el-capitan-free-number-3.html)
16 November 2014, 6:56 pm
So after two months of sleeping in the dust in Camp 4, Tom and I have got back to normality. Work in the trees starts again on Monday and I know Tom has lots of jobs in the diary. It got hard towards the end of the trip, I guess when you’re on the wall (El Capitan) for 45% of two months it’s going to be. There is only so much Top Ramen and tinned Tuna you can consume.
Anyway, after some resting days midway through the trip (which in the end, turned out to be not resting at all, just effectively not climbing on El Cap), we decided it was time for one last push, one last free attempt on The Captain. We had gone to The Valley with a goal of wanting to free 3-4 big walls and attempt to flash one of them. I guess quite a big undertaking for someone who hadn’t climbed a Wall and someone who hadn’t freed a Wall, but Tom and I always come up with seemingly ridiculous goals and just throw ourselves at them with full force.
The route that was going to be most realistic this late on in the trip was Golden Gate. We’d climbed the bottom section before on Freerider, a few of the top pitches as well on Corazon, so it only left the middle half of the route unseen.
The Big Wall packing and preparation actually went pretty smoothly and we seemed to have learnt a lot throughout the trip about how we were going to approach different situations. The main thing that was going to be the biggest factor was fatigue. As soon as we started on the easy approach of Freeblast I could tell I was tired. We were both tired. It wasn’t ‘oh my forearms are achey’ or ‘my shoulders are tightening up’ or even a deep tired body ache. It was just general fatigue from an accumulation of climbing and living on the wall continuously for the last (nearly) two months. Just generally feeling slugglish. I knew from the beginning, (even though we’d covered a lot of the pitches before), it was going to be very challenging.
After Freeblast, Tom decided that he wasn’t going to try and free Golden Gate. I think the trip and exposure of being on the wall for so long had built up gradually and was starting to affect his climbing a little, and so he decided to pass the free climbing baton to me and do all he could to help me get up there. It was absolutely mega that he still wanted to come up the wall with me as we could have easily called it a day there and then.
After day one to El Cap Spire, I generally just felt exhausted. The climbing seemed to actually go better up to this point then it had on Freerider, but overall everything seemed like it was taking its toll. I had deep tired aches running through my legs and all I felt like doing was lying down and falling asleep, and it was only 5 o clock! It was a little worrying that I felt that wasted as day two was where the crux lay.
Dawning on day 2, I jugged to my highpoint above the Spire and set off on a notoriously tricky 5.12c downmantle pitch.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vvETuaCe9a8/VGjul2i03rI/AAAAAAAAAUU/QWnVxvq0nAQ/s1600/IMG_1862.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vvETuaCe9a8/VGjul2i03rI/AAAAAAAAAUU/QWnVxvq0nAQ/s1600/IMG_1862.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]5.12c downmantle, not going well!![/td][/tr]
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Falling again, and again, and again I just couldn’t do the pitch. The sun had come round and spoilt the holds, yet I kept trying and not surprisingly, kept falling. Massive amounts of frustration kicked in as it had gone midday and I still had another 8 pitches after this (including the crux pitch) to get to our next bivvy (no portaledge). After ringing 2 Brits and texting 1 for beta, none of which were very useful on the beta front, but all very encouraging phone calls (thanks J), I finally realised I was doing the sequence wrong, what a massive waste of time! Having very sore skin and tired legs from down pressing over 50 times previously, I somehow managed to fall my way down the two mantles and over onto the belay ledge below. I was very relieved I didn’t have to resort to tactic two which would have been, just launch myself ‘Czech Tower Jumping’ style over onto the ledge below and right.
Day 3 started 8 pitches behind schedule, but I seemed to wake a little fresher after having a half day rest the previous day. Pitches seemed to fall effortlessly today and I even managed ‘The Move’ pitch, the crux of the route, first redpoint.
I mantled out onto our bivvy ledge with 45minutes of light left and was depressingly disappointed at how it looked. Having walked across ‘Tower of the People’ on El Corazon I remembered it being a lot flatter then it currently looked.
After a lot of jigging around we finally got a system sorted that stopped us rolling off the edge of the ledge and helped us get 20 minute bursts of sleep without waking up.
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4GK-HxH99jg/VGjuITe1AiI/AAAAAAAAAUM/tSgKdooRThU/s1600/IMG_1873.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4GK-HxH99jg/VGjuITe1AiI/AAAAAAAAAUM/tSgKdooRThU/s1600/IMG_1873.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Working 'The (big) Move' pitch.[/td][/tr]
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Day 4, The last day, only 7 pitches to flat land, I knew I could do these pitches, it was just whether my body would let me. Only 2 13a’s were what stopped me. On Corazon these pitches had left me with no trouble whatsoever, however today was completely different. After falling off the ‘Golden Desert’ pitch I felt like a goner. Mustering up some energy for my second attempt, I scraped through the crux section by the skin of my teeth and completely boxed out my mind got every inch of rubber and skin in contact with the wall to get me to the belay. I couldn’t believe how much of a difference it was from the first time. Almost a different pitch entirely. The A5 went without any problems and I proceeded to jibber my way to the top of El Cap getting very pumped on every remaining pitch.
I finally hauled my aching body over the top, and with great relief gave myself a little smile and told myself ‘I’ve got to be happy with that’.
All free routes were great and totally different experiences, The first being a technical learning curve, with big wall systems and logistics
The second being, self pressured at not wanted to fall on a pitch
And the third being massively hard work from doing the other two and having to grind it out and break it down.
[tr][td](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AE5atfCJIXw/VGjwEtwcc6I/AAAAAAAAAUo/nnWfTaEPZwM/s1600/P1030236.JPG) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AE5atfCJIXw/VGjwEtwcc6I/AAAAAAAAAUo/nnWfTaEPZwM/s1600/P1030236.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]East Ledge decent, gunning for the village store and an 'It's It'.[/td][/tr]
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Tom was an absolute hero on Golden Gate, helping me get up it, bringing out the bad jokes and supplying great big wall fancy dress. No way could I have done this one without him, so thanks very much J
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yCHX-DEKt3Y/VGjt_PPBqeI/AAAAAAAAAUE/JgjxyPsxUOM/s1600/IMG_1878.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yCHX-DEKt3Y/VGjt_PPBqeI/AAAAAAAAAUE/JgjxyPsxUOM/s1600/IMG_1878.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Big Wall Banana on Tower of the People[/td][/tr]
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Also nice one, Dan, Reeve, Petter, Stefan, James, Caff, Calum and Hazel for knowledge on the routes, all a fantastic help, cheers J
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Wide Boyz IIII The Quadrilogy (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2015/12/wide-boyz-blog-is-up-and-running-again.html)
17 December 2015, 5:52 pm
Wide Boyz blog is up and running again! This is mainly as we’ve both finally finished our respective solo missions for 2015. Tom has emerged from his dirty cave in Devon (standard behaviour) and Pete has completed his set of surprisingly easy moves in a bold position on El Capitan (standard behaviour)
[tr][td](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hJjEVWn-WIA/VnLyCWhBZ6I/AAAAAAAAAYI/ArYKmBIcYkI/s320/11412052_936642183061853_6581335378721828068_o.jpg) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hJjEVWn-WIA/VnLyCWhBZ6I/AAAAAAAAAYI/ArYKmBIcYkI/s1600/11412052_936642183061853_6581335378721828068_o.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Dark, dirty, Dank, Randall Emerges
(c) Chris Prescott adventure photography[/td][/tr]
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[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pDVHCWkYQL0/VnLy0q1WyGI/AAAAAAAAAYU/6wp-JYGJYFk/s320/P1050571.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pDVHCWkYQL0/VnLy0q1WyGI/AAAAAAAAAYU/6wp-JYGJYFk/s1600/P1050571.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Surprisingly easy, hideously bold[/td][/tr]
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The reason why our blog is up and running is because we’ve found unfathomable amounts of motivation to start preparing for another big project together. Something more than we think we really can chew and definitely an adventure that’s going to cause some pain and suffering. Wide Boyz IIII “The quadrilogy” (is that even a word?? it is now!) might just be kicking off in a dingy cellar in Sheffield very soon…
First there was “Wide”, where we went for a mega first ascent on Century Crack, second and third we went for “Gruelling” with difficult repeats and endurance challenges. Now, we’ve gone full circle and are heading back to our roots and one of the reasons we started climbing together. First ascent projects! Places where no other climber has dared jam their fist before. Or something like that?
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W-3BFtqCHd8/VnLzIJNIvoI/AAAAAAAAAYg/BpWU1BIbJlk/s320/century+tom+from+crusher.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W-3BFtqCHd8/VnLzIJNIvoI/AAAAAAAAAYg/BpWU1BIbJlk/s1600/century+tom+from+crusher.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Wide Boyz I
Randall riding a wide pony (c) Crusher Bartlett[/td][/tr]
[/table][tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ufdeWf5Tqd8/VnLzjde7I-I/AAAAAAAAAYs/9d8w8FXPG4c/s320/1stRedPoint.Still010.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ufdeWf5Tqd8/VnLzjde7I-I/AAAAAAAAAYs/9d8w8FXPG4c/s1600/1stRedPoint.Still010.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Wide Boyz II
Pete taming the Cobra (c) Hotaches[/td][/tr]
[/table][tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M6i8ujKEFok/VnL0dNfkCiI/AAAAAAAAAY4/iOty93PBklw/s320/P1030208.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M6i8ujKEFok/VnL0dNfkCiI/AAAAAAAAAY4/iOty93PBklw/s1600/P1030208.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Wide Boyz III
Endurance based challenges in ridiculous outfits[/td][/tr]
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First ascents are what inspire us both the most, as doing them at the cutting edge of any discipline makes the climbing all the more challenging, adventurous and difficult. Add into the equation trying to break levels of difficulty that we’re not sure are very doable and you get a whole new experience.
Stage one, the credit card has been out and the first USA trip is booked. Stage two, release the power tools in The Crack Cellar and garden. Stage three, don’t have a Randall/Whittaker navigational shambles. Stage four is unknown.
[tr][td](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BqvhwseHaok/VnL1Kr02M2I/AAAAAAAAAZE/e2RIAoIyLRg/s320/012.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BqvhwseHaok/VnL1Kr02M2I/AAAAAAAAAZE/e2RIAoIyLRg/s1600/012.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Randall with his tape job and building equipment[/td][/tr]
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Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BqvhwseHaok/VnL1Kr02M2I/AAAAAAAAAZE/e2RIAoIyLRg/s1600/012.JPG)
^^^ says it all. You guys are wrong uns :sick:
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Hunting for The Unknown - The Holy Grail of Crack Climbing (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2016/05/hunting-for-unknown-holy-grail-of-crack.html)
11 May 2016, 6:39 pm
When we arrived in the US, we’d committed to one of the more idealistic plans of our climbing careers so far - go hunting for a first ascent project that might not exist. Strangely enough though, the more people we told about this mission, the less we thought it was naive and wildly optimistic.
“Yeah that’s a great idea guys! You’re on the look out for another Century Crack, right?”
Well….. not exactly. Much that it’s been nice to have been pigeon-holed as the Wideboyz and it’s associated wide crack climbing, both of us have been aware that projects that make Century look like a warm-up are pretty unlikely to be in the form of a 5-8 inch splitter. This is V5-V8 territory and we needed V11+ for the crux and some kind of decent endurance element to it as well. Something to make us think that maybe it might not even be possible?!
“Oh, you want a crack project that has V11 or more climbing on it? Dude… I don’t think that exists. Good luck though, I’m sure you’ll find something!”
[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hQ04N4uD0c8/VzNptgzsaXI/AAAAAAAAAac/YTh4ikbYjZoQB3tmNyPxrLQhf_n0dqAjACLcB/s400/IMG_0388.JPG) (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hQ04N4uD0c8/VzNptgzsaXI/AAAAAAAAAac/YTh4ikbYjZoQB3tmNyPxrLQhf_n0dqAjACLcB/s1600/IMG_0388.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Wideboy, truck and a map. What can go wrong?[/td][/tr]
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So, there we were after just 2 days in Utah, driving back onto the White Rim on a wild goose chase. A Chevy truck packed full of supplies, gear and psyche was in our favour, although we’d already lost our friend Mike Hutton who was a victim of harsh border control standards. We had google maps with potential projects ear-marked (you can see the big roof cracks on satellite image) and a plan to try and mix up map based guessing, with visual on-foot exploration of over 100 miles of White Rim.
[tr][td](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M1tAXB7EaDY/VzNp14rlU8I/AAAAAAAAAag/tf3byQmd4hoMgSvMLtH7dLXRo3f34D-NwCLcB/s640/IMG_0754.JPG) (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M1tAXB7EaDY/VzNp14rlU8I/AAAAAAAAAag/tf3byQmd4hoMgSvMLtH7dLXRo3f34D-NwCLcB/s1600/IMG_0754.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete pacing out The Rim underneath some cool clouds[/td][/tr]
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TRIP 1 - Week 1 (East Side of White Rim)
I guess we were pretty nervous on our first trip down as we’d been training back in Sheffield for a project we hadn’t yet found. That said, we did feel confident of a good outcome because the area seemed to have so much geological potential.
After passing the first few canyons, we’d seen roof cracks from 40 - 60 foot long, but this was not what we were after. Most of these cracks would blow even the top roof cracks of Europe today out the water, but that was not enough. We had high expectations. we didn’t want a ‘King Line’ nor a ‘Emperor Line’, what we were after was ‘The God Line’.
We came up with 5 characteristics that would be the make up of ‘The God Line’
- Big - this roof crack had to be big, much bigger than what is currently out there
- Architecture - it had to look the business. Grand, impressive and bold shapes.
- Grade - really hard. Difficulties had to blow other cracks we’d done or tried out the water
- Size - we were more flexible in this department with an allowance of a mixture of sizes. All crack techniques would be needed to get you up this thing, no one trick ponies.
- Cool - this roof crack had to be cool. No dirty 40ft caves with low exposure…
[tr][td](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c6NDLNecwdU/VzNqDdfFdVI/AAAAAAAAAak/4ZxxWfOX6zw6n9ZxLXvTwW7wrKr3EhfzACLcB/s400/JE3A5299.jpg) (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c6NDLNecwdU/VzNqDdfFdVI/AAAAAAAAAak/4ZxxWfOX6zw6n9ZxLXvTwW7wrKr3EhfzACLcB/s1600/JE3A5299.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Checking out another "disappointing" 5.14, (c) Andrew Burr[/td][/tr]
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We got deeper and deeper into Canyonlands and on The White Rim trail. Canyon after canyon passed and each time we abbed into another cave, something wasn’t quite right. ‘too small’, ‘not cool’, ‘full of massive hand jams, too easy’. It sounds like we were being picky….we were.
If something didn’t fit one of ‘the 5’ we had to walk away. We walked away from some of the best splitter 5.13s and 14s you’ve ever seen. Each time we would jumar back up to the rim and walk away from yet another crack with “the greatest glory corner finish” or “100ft of perfect horizontal splitter hands”. We had to leave these because they didn’t fit ‘The God Line’ definition we’d set for ourselves. It was hard to do, but we’d set the standard ourselves and we had to live with that.
[tr][td](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-acEU3u0Mojo/VzNqTvsTfGI/AAAAAAAAAao/nQ5q40RDfVswh56XYqVP1R_QsaHE8YrsQCLcB/s640/IMG_0777.JPG) (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-acEU3u0Mojo/VzNqTvsTfGI/AAAAAAAAAao/nQ5q40RDfVswh56XYqVP1R_QsaHE8YrsQCLcB/s1600/IMG_0777.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Maps, techno and shoes filled with sand. Life is fairly simple down there![/td][/tr]
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After completing The East side of the Rim we had yet to find what we were looking for. However we did now know where all the coolest roof cracks on the planet are in-between these standards…a list to keep any crack obsessive happy for a lifetime!
TRIP 2 - Week 2 (West Side of White Rim)
After failing to find a mega project on the East Side of the White Rim, we pegged all our hopes on The West Side. Crusher Bartlett who’d joined us on our Century Crack visit had given us the tip off that this could be the motherlode. The Rim is much thicker here and thus the features that form are much bigger - maybe 100ft roof cracks would be 400ft roof cracks over there?! We certainly hoped so.
[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Klc1wZXJ-m8/VzNqaEkiqmI/AAAAAAAAAas/Ep5poU_3OL0aFaoIhLGrnpskGcoFh_1KACLcB/s640/IMG_0478.JPG) (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Klc1wZXJ-m8/VzNqaEkiqmI/AAAAAAAAAas/Ep5poU_3OL0aFaoIhLGrnpskGcoFh_1KACLcB/s1600/IMG_0478.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Big features on the West Side = Bigger Cracks?![/td][/tr]
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We explored the West Side with photographer Andrew Burr, who’s ace to have along on these kind of adventures as he’s a proper desert rat. He loves everything about the landscape, the exploration and the vibe of the whole area. In addition, we knew he’d have some insight into some of the features and formations that we’d be exploring and also could dish out plenty of motivation for two Brits who were booming increasingly sunburnt, lost and worried that Century Crack was the only really hard thing in the area.
[tr][td](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--hOOLs3hmSs/VzNqlB9wuqI/AAAAAAAAAa0/E-nKkbXOxeUNSNA6BUgJVXTdJw3m_6RmQCLcB/s640/JE3A1215.jpg) (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--hOOLs3hmSs/VzNqlB9wuqI/AAAAAAAAAa0/E-nKkbXOxeUNSNA6BUgJVXTdJw3m_6RmQCLcB/s1600/JE3A1215.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Yes please... 1000ft split in The Rim. But nothing below...[/td][/tr]
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To start with, we found absolutely nothing. The Rim was so thick that caves weren’t hollowing out underneath the harder geology of the rim and we passed miles and miles of cliff that on the google maps had looked good, but in fact were red herrings. Even the gigantic splits in the White Rim on satellite turned out to be either chimneys or nothing at all. Dejected, we paced out mile upon mile of the West Side on foot and by truck. It wasn’t until we started to get close to the mid point of the whole journey (where we’d actually meet up with our end point from trip 1) that we started to find some interesting features. Unfortunately, these turned out to be too big. Can you believe it?! A couple of caves we dropped into were much deeper than our 60m ab line and as a consequence had created 3 pitch epic roof cracks. Whilst this hit the “cool” part of the list, the macro-size of the features tended to mean they were wider and hence most stuff was still in the 5.13d to 5.14c territory. Yet again, we were close to finding something, but it wasn’t quite perfect.
As we drove out continually eastward to meet the Shafer trail and having explored 100 miles of the Canyonlands cliffs, we were utterly depressed. We kept asking ourselves how this could have happened. The mecca for mega roof cracks, yet in days and days of exploring we’d not found a single project to match our expectations. We talked of visiting Indian Creek, of trying the crack we’d seen “with no holds” and of maybe just going climbing “for fun” to put up some easier first ascents.
[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D9EFVvpaM70/VzNq_3PZ6II/AAAAAAAAAa8/RxE8wdzWmIcLyedOTYwi1a_5nsB4MrCqQCLcB/s640/IMG_0521.JPG) (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D9EFVvpaM70/VzNq_3PZ6II/AAAAAAAAAa8/RxE8wdzWmIcLyedOTYwi1a_5nsB4MrCqQCLcB/s1600/IMG_0521.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Another cool project, but... not quite cool enough! [/td][/tr]
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It wasn’t until we were halfway round our exit loop of the White Rim that one of us suggested that it might just be worth checking out a cave we’d previously seen the week before but ended up dropping a line 100m to one side and consequently missing it (standard Randall/Whittaker navigation). It almost didn’t seem worth it, as by our high standards, all the other caves had been disappointments. But as we always said… ‘its always worth checking round the next corner’. There really wasn’t much else to lose so we parked up the truck one last time…
[tr][td](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YzAk6bjpsv8/VzNrGnWdWjI/AAAAAAAAAbA/u8xVtP1gdUQMqIOmkxDDcD4d2E_j1lvugCLcB/s640/IMG_0775.JPG) (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YzAk6bjpsv8/VzNrGnWdWjI/AAAAAAAAAbA/u8xVtP1gdUQMqIOmkxDDcD4d2E_j1lvugCLcB/s1600/IMG_0775.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Praying for salvation. He's beyond help. [/td][/tr]
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Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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The Crucifix Project (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-crucifix-project.html)
16 May 2016, 8:31 am
“Holy mother smoking pancakes, that thing is freaking massive.”
Just pacing out the top of the crack made you shiver with the sheer size of what lay beneath. The roof was around 180 foot in length. This was the very last cave on The Rim that we were checking out and we’d hit the absolute jackpot. All the abseiling, jumaring and legging it round the desert in the blistering sun for the last two weeks was worth it for this one. Essentially we’d found a mother-ship of intertwining roof cracks running from left to right and weaving in and out of cave systems. Right in the centre was ‘The God Line’ that we’d been looking for. A full 180 foot, straight from the depths of the hollowed out cliffside piercing right through the centre of the cave and out to the lip. Strangely enough, it was also bisected by another crack which gave the appearance of a giant Crucifix in the ceiling and seemed to bring about a theological context to our subsequent days and thoughts on the line. The next question was, ‘is it climbable?’
[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AAtf31IcPVc/Vzl2I44BdVI/AAAAAAAAAbs/wqtkqGEBfYsmKZRaawBKg0heF6Ejiuv7QCK4B/s400/JE3A6048.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AAtf31IcPVc/Vzl2I44BdVI/AAAAAAAAAbs/wqtkqGEBfYsmKZRaawBKg0heF6Ejiuv7QCK4B/s1600/JE3A6048.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Quite psyched! (c) Andrew Burr[/td][/tr]
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With both of us pacing around underneath the crack, it was hard to contain the excitement but also the doubt as we’d already viewed so many potential projects that turned out to be “not quite right” in terms of difficulty, quality or style. The first thing we needed to do was get on the route and start aiding through the sections. Many parts of the route were immediately obvious as doable, but both the first half and the final 30ft section looked very thin. Maybe too thin?
The first section we committed to aiding (and possibly shutting out all doubt that this was yet another disappointing “could have been”) was 70ft of fingers, thin hands and a couple of wide pods. The first 30ft seemed ok - we guessed 5.13c/d, but the next 40ft looked totally next level. It was like London Wall or Cosmic Debris turned into a horizontal roof with not a single good foothold. Even thinking about doing a single move, might have been the hardest crack move we’d ever imagined. And there were at least 8 of them in a row! What had seemed like quite hard climbing on The Kraken, V13 in Devon, now seemed a bit of a joke compared to this.
KEEPING FAITH
Neither of us are religious, but somehow this project took on some of the key elements of faith. It’s not because we find religion particularly helpful in climbing, but more that some of the mechanisms of faith and religion are incredibly useful - there’s a reason why some of them have been around for thousands of years. The critical moment came early on trying the moves, when we knew some of it was doable, but other parts seems laughable in their plausibility. Seriously, is it really realistic to campus multiple mono-locks in the roof? Cobra Crack was hard enough doing a single one on a 45 degree bulge! How is it then realistic to do all these and finally enter a crux that’s harder than anything either of us have done on a boulder problem on the ground? Ever? Suddenly “possible” very quickly became “impossible.”
[tr][td](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dxbhpPPLkHI/Vzl2hWLCvII/AAAAAAAAAcE/krOxPJwOlmcZCxyBqMbhwjJCQQOOM5dyQCK4B/s640/IMG_0608.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dxbhpPPLkHI/Vzl2hWLCvII/AAAAAAAAAcE/krOxPJwOlmcZCxyBqMbhwjJCQQOOM5dyQCK4B/s1600/IMG_0608.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete working this last quarter of the roof[/td][/tr]
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Needless to say this heavy hitting realisation was like a punch in the face of motivation. What the hell were we doing? No one is ever going to do these moves, and even less us. We’re just too specialised in doing long endurance things… even pulling on is at 100%… and that’s when the idea struck. The hangs! The Holy Hangs! Then and there, we decided that “moves” were a million miles off, so we’d motivate ourselves with trying to complete the 5 Holy Hangs. It seems silly, but it was something achievable. It was progress tied in with motivational force. We hung on to it with every ounce of commitment.
Within a few moments of this concept being born, a project that basically seemed so hard we may as well write the whole thing off, became a route where we could actually try something. We were thinking too big before. Way too big. Doing a move was completely unrealistic. The concept of simply hanging the holds in the crux section was a saviour. We started to get giddy with excitement when one person would grab two of the holds and do a pull up, (not even place their feet in the crack), then let go. It would look so pathetic to an outside viewer on this process, but to us it was something to desperately grasp at. The belayer would get so excited they’d just start chanting, singing or pointing randomly in directions that had no relevance to anything! Whether you were on the rope trying the moves or on the belay, you had an equally important place in the team and the synergy was pretty cool. After a couple of sessions The 5 holy hangs had been completed. Minuscule progress, but progress none the less.
[tr][td](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5KdTAH8Z0KM/Vzl2TI4nuAI/AAAAAAAAAb8/hTA3yIse26Yl2byTyLkYI44bv1PVt_vKQCK4B/s640/IMG_0604.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5KdTAH8Z0KM/Vzl2TI4nuAI/AAAAAAAAAb8/hTA3yIse26Yl2byTyLkYI44bv1PVt_vKQCK4B/s1600/IMG_0604.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Motivational words in the warm up board. Breaking it down[/td][/tr]
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The next goal beyond ‘the hangs’ were the ‘7 Sacred Shoe Shuffles’. This meant we would pull up on the holds (i.e. complete a Holy Hang), then do all the foot shuffles that revolved round these holds. The final goal was the ’13 Disciples’. These are the 13 moves which make up the crux section of the route. Slowly but surely, we were able to start to piece together, Hangs, Shuffles and Disciples.
We have now ticked off over half of the Disciples and even linked a few together. The middle ones revolve around some hideous finger locks and atrocious foot jams have been ‘seen in concept’ but yet to be ticked.
From our first aiding session on the project, to now, we have come a reasonably way in a short space of time. To an onlooker it looks like we are hang dogging all over the thing (we are), but from our point of view, we are starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The end goal seems so unachievable right now, there is no point in thinking about that. ‘All ya gotta do’ is break the sections down and piece them back together again. We like to think of the route as a jigsaw. Lots of little pieces you have to put together to complete the bigger picture. If the jigsaw was completed when you got it out the box, it would be a pretty pointless puzzle.
WHAT WILL IT TAKE?
This project is exactly what we were looking for, it fits the 5 characteristics perfectly. It is a whole new level of difficulty that we’ve never tried (around 9a+ route and V14 crux). Neither of us have even looked at a route this hard before never mind try and climb it. The training that we did before coming away looks pathetic to how good we need to be to be able to climb this monster. We were looking for next level, and we found it…just.
[tr][td](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XAFlcZjHFWo/Vzl3GJTeM4I/AAAAAAAAAcQ/lNoakQcCedgsVQZwBHeAjC0cIIPbkmVmgCK4B/s640/JE3A1028.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XAFlcZjHFWo/Vzl3GJTeM4I/AAAAAAAAAcQ/lNoakQcCedgsVQZwBHeAjC0cIIPbkmVmgCK4B/s1600/JE3A1028.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]No more hunting for now. Project...project...project! (c) Andrew Burr[/td][/tr]
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Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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How to “Climb Clean” in The Canyonlands National Park (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2016/10/how-to-climb-clean-in-canyonlands.html)
14 October 2016, 5:12 pm
Developing areas for climbing - new routes, repeating test-pieces and cleaning boulder problems obviously has its upsides, but there are also a few potential downsides that possibly could affect many of our climbing days out in the future. We’ve been visiting the White Rim in The Canyonlands National Park since 2011 and when you ask many people about our activities, they straight away think of Century Crack. This route however, is just one of a number of incredible lines in the area (unfortunately for most they’re all in the somewhat elite 5.13-14 grade range) and detracts from the amazing efforts that others like Rob Pizem, Peewee, Mason Earle and Matt Lazenby have put into creating a legacy of great routes for desert rats. The downside to this “positive” of amazing routes for crack addicts, is that more people will visit the area and the effect on the environment and park will become greater - especially if certain guidelines aren’t stuck to.
[tr][td](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vgr9lMM6CHI/WAEC3siX8yI/AAAAAAAAAco/ncWN3qII3fgzWU3jGxNZlNZ1fQ7RezmgQCK4B/s400/IMG_2259.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vgr9lMM6CHI/WAEC3siX8yI/AAAAAAAAAco/ncWN3qII3fgzWU3jGxNZlNZ1fQ7RezmgQCK4B/s1600/IMG_2259.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Modern technology trying to fit into a fragile environment[/td][/tr]
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It’s on these specific rules of park activity that we want to write an informative blog post - mainly because some of them we weren’t entirely sure of ourselves. Hopefully if we have them laid out here, we can all continue to use the White Rim in the best possible manner and ensure that the rock and earth stay in fine shape - I know it’s very hard to argue that climbing is of no effect whatsoever - it’s just about doing things in the right way!
Below are described some of the main areas of concern for us climbers - stuff that we need to be hyper-aware of and rules that cause some significant problems when they’re broken again and again. We’re certainly not paragons of “perfect behaviour” but we would like to help clear up the ambiguity that some of us all feel when it comes to how to operate in this zone.
Bolting
In canyon lands national park, there is now a “no bolting” policy. Bolting has been allowed in the past, however there is now a ban. Bolting has been used in the past to, help protect a route, for rappels off the top of towers, or to help access to get to the base of a routes.
[tr][td](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E_77Gp_oLLQ/WAEDbdkIefI/AAAAAAAAAc8/7s4c6x-UfyApziqQNNTRbAQI5yQianaqQCK4B/s400/burr042816_456.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E_77Gp_oLLQ/WAEDbdkIefI/AAAAAAAAAc8/7s4c6x-UfyApziqQNNTRbAQI5yQianaqQCK4B/s1600/burr042816_456.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Cams, wires and threads can be found all over the place on the White Rim as there are so many cracks (c) Andrew Burr[/td][/tr]
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As this isn’t allowed, natural anchors should be used, so cams, wires, slings, etc. We've done a lot of exploring, rappelling and jumaring in Canyonlands now and have never felt the need for a bolt. Some times you just have to get a little creative and tie off multiple bushes, use smaller cracks and do duel rappels off the top of towers. We heard that local hero Crusher Barlett, rigged up some wooden lever system that could pulled down from the top of the tower when you were at the ground, preventing the need for a rappel bolt.
[tr][td](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PbBh_k4R8dM/WAEDeWOgD9I/AAAAAAAAAdE/PH_JPSpyWsYqreakF06afTNAGweLay4bwCK4B/s400/IMG_0595.JPG) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PbBh_k4R8dM/WAEDeWOgD9I/AAAAAAAAAdE/PH_JPSpyWsYqreakF06afTNAGweLay4bwCK4B/s1600/IMG_0595.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Trees and bushes when used properly are much safer than they appear...[/td][/tr]
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If you feel like a bolt would benefit everyone and not cause an impact, you can actually apply through the park service for a bolting permit, which they can then either accept or decline.
Camping and staying on the White Rim
For a good number of years now the few climbers that have visited Canyonlands (and have wanted to stay in the park for longer than a day) have used the backpacking permit system. Climbers have generally used this as the designated camping areas are often pre-booked a year in advance by biking tour companies. Therefore they’ve driven down in their 4x4, parked on the side of the trail then backpacked ‘into the wilderness’ to camp and climb.
Unbeknownst to most climbers (including us, until recently) in the park rules you aren’t actually allowed to have vehicles on The White Rim Road overnight and not in a designated camping areas. In the past this has been glossed over and even missed by the park service but from now the rule can’t slip and unless vehicles are parked on a campsite over night, they are not allowed on The White Rim Trail.
The options are;
1 You can get day permits and go in and out of the park in 1 day
2 Do real backpacking and walk into Canyonlands, with your supplies from the tarmac roads above, and make sure you camp 1 mile from any dirt road and adhere to normal backpacking/wilderness rules about waste, campfires etc etc.
Chalk - eco chalk / coloured chalk.
When we climbed on the White Rim this year we were under the impression that stuff like the Metolius Eco-Chalk was an accepted medium for drying our hands whilst en-route. However, this isn’t quite correct as the chalk might be “eco” but it’s still quite a bright colour against the rock. This means that coloured chalk is necessary for climbing and fortunately is very easy to buy in local climbing shops in Moab like Gearheads and Pagan. [tr][td](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G07-Bzx6Whg/WAEDFZVmi4I/AAAAAAAAAcw/fnEKCeJ7GPEAYxKlq6Wn7A_w4_Ti5UAYACK4B/s400/IMG_2826.JPG) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G07-Bzx6Whg/WAEDFZVmi4I/AAAAAAAAAcw/fnEKCeJ7GPEAYxKlq6Wn7A_w4_Ti5UAYACK4B/s1600/IMG_2826.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Coloured chalk and natural protection[/td][/tr]
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So there you have it. A few simple guidelines for climbing clean in the White Rim. Yes, we can all spend hours and days arguing the merits of how these are implemented and decided upon, but for now, it’s good to get a starting place.
If you’re planning a visit to the area to climb, then we recommend getting in touch with the park service - and in particular if there’s any concern then Jason Ramsdell is the ranger who’ll sort out most issues - he’s a climber and knows the deal. Likewise if you prefer to talk to us, then we’re always happy to answer blog post questions if that helps!
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Cruising for a Fix - Journey to The Crucifix (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2017/09/cruising-for-fix-journey-to-crucifix.html)
12 September 2017, 6:39 pm
Arriving back in the USA in 2017, it feels all very similar. We land in Utah in a state of jetlagged psyche, locate a 4x4 vehicle (thanks so much Danny!!) and then make the drive down to Moab to prepare for another season on desert roof cracks. So far, so good?
Well, this year needs to be a bit different as we’ve both put quite a bit of effort into our training around the mono strength needed on the Crucifix Project – the crux sequence of 10 moves or so requires multiple moves in the roof where you’re lucky to get second joint deep on a mono-jam. It’s painful, it’s powerful and it’s really isn’t very good for the joints!
[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--2i-BMWs4CQ/WbgZbUGNhMI/AAAAAAAAAd0/fTQTuQQheH8SjVImeBNkHa6a1bvdFwyPwCLcBGAs/s640/Crucifix.jpg) (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--2i-BMWs4CQ/WbgZbUGNhMI/AAAAAAAAAd0/fTQTuQQheH8SjVImeBNkHa6a1bvdFwyPwCLcBGAs/s1600/Crucifix.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]One day. One it will happen... (c) Kyle Berkompas[/td][/tr]
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We’re psyched though. Yes, we might moan a bit about the difficulty, but the chance to put together over 7 years worth of crack climbing obsession into one single route is unique. We’ve done quite a few of the classic test-pieces around the world and although it’s really tempting to continue repeating even more of them (they’re really freaking good!!) we’ve decided to make a real commitment to stick with what seems an unfathomably hard process.
[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rJgBUwkbzSI/WbgZLTMtyfI/AAAAAAAAAdw/Rq771Lw0kJws_YnCchXNXiHRrrT7csrtQCLcBGAs/s640/Photo+08-09-2017%252C+10+55+10.jpg) (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rJgBUwkbzSI/WbgZLTMtyfI/AAAAAAAAAdw/Rq771Lw0kJws_YnCchXNXiHRrrT7csrtQCLcBGAs/s1600/Photo+08-09-2017%252C+10+55+10.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Dogging around, trying spins, losing skin![/td][/tr]
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So what’s the difference so far?
We’ve improved our mono strength this year, our upper body strength and conditioning has moved up a notch and things that felt hard a couple of years ago are finally starting to not be the living end.
Has that played out on the route?
Good question! We’ve completed our first 4 day stint back in Canyonlands and split our time between the crux sequence and trying the key “training link” project on The Crucifix. The mono section has been a bit of a mixed bag – probably no surprise – as some moves are getting easier and others have annoying habit of ripping flappers quite quickly. We’ve now identified that “The Bolt Move” is the one we have to have dialed, as there’s two of them on the crux. It’s similar to a Rose Move, but you’re doing it on monos in a roof and you end up looking like Usain Bolt at the end of a 100m final! It’s a great move and it’s very trainable. In addition to that, we’ve refined the last couple of moves into a better method, which feels a grade easier than before…. Although….. we’re yet to do it. Yup, it’s really hard!
[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RTszUuVxpTU/WbgZtwXdheI/AAAAAAAAAd4/3H7iYyJv1T8AtFC4O1EqExH5PLouMyTuQCLcBGAs/s640/DSC03968.jpg) (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RTszUuVxpTU/WbgZtwXdheI/AAAAAAAAAd4/3H7iYyJv1T8AtFC4O1EqExH5PLouMyTuQCLcBGAs/s1600/DSC03968.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete working the original sequence at the end of the crux (c) Kyle Berkompas[/td][/tr]
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In between resting the skin and mono joints, we worked on what we called “The Cruzifix” which is an easier version of the real project. It’s a link of the first half of Crown of Thorns 5.14 into the end of The Crucifix. The difficulty isn’t mind blowing, but it does cover a huge amount of the ground we’ll do in the final redpoint and therefore it was a big confidence boost for us to link this together. It also, importantly, includes the final massive runout on The Crucifix which always plays on your mind as one of the key holds on it appears a bit fragile…. not the most ideal when you’re absolutely bricking it!
The route breaks down as:
Section 1: The Stigmata. A nice long and dismayingly pumpy hands and fists roof crack of around 70ft. The best and worst thing about the start being that the crack is offset so little that it offers very little for the feet but constantly scrapes down one side of your body - exfoliation treatment! It's hard to overestimate how good this section is as it'd be one of the best roof crack pitches in the world even on it's own. Mega, mega!
[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aLdI3exQxUI/WbgaAJYbgAI/AAAAAAAAAd8/uDqy46jO2TIi2Vc-9vhZ4JwznmR7HsqbACLcBGAs/s640/20170907_181355-01.jpeg) (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aLdI3exQxUI/WbgaAJYbgAI/AAAAAAAAAd8/uDqy46jO2TIi2Vc-9vhZ4JwznmR7HsqbACLcBGAs/s1600/20170907_181355-01.jpeg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Gogarth E6. Sort of. [/td][/tr]
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Section 2: Gogarth E6. One person came up with the nickname and the other said "that's not bloody E6 in a million years!" The only excuse is that this 70ft section looks like a chossy N Wales pitch... but once on it, it has a few surprises in store. Pumpy, weird, loose, sandy and sequency is the name of the game.
Section 3: Whipping of The Cross. Finally you get 40ft of fingers roof crack that cinches down to nothing but a perfect sandy pinch in the middle of the last section. There's a bit of small gear on this part, but a fall last year where the rope went to the sheath in about 1 second made us conclude it was better to run the entire thing out and think positive. Kind of fun, kind of alarming.
[tr][td](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M3IW4srfghE/WbgaJK3xxBI/AAAAAAAAAeA/e26hfvUvme8WgodXKf6XvkvHQ7O96_lpgCLcBGAs/s640/20170910_151933-01.jpeg) (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M3IW4srfghE/WbgaJK3xxBI/AAAAAAAAAeA/e26hfvUvme8WgodXKf6XvkvHQ7O96_lpgCLcBGAs/s1600/20170910_151933-01.jpeg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Spot the climber?! Runout starts from the bisecting crack on the right. [/td][/tr]
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We're off for another 5 days now. More monos, more time "resting" on FA projects on the side and of course, a whole lot of being silly and not taking things too seriously!
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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Bloody hell :sick: :)
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Bloody hell.
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Big Cracks and Monster Storms (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2017/09/big-cracks-and-monster-storms.html)
20 September 2017, 5:40 am
Heading back to the White Rim for the second trip this week we had two main objectives: make further progress on the crux section of The Crucifix and get what we called "The Rail Project" done. As we've explained before, it's really good to try two different things in the caves under the White Rim so that motivation stays high, skin keeps relatively fresh and the body doesn't get injured.
[tr][td](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7svBAJYtpyo/WcHsNRaV3VI/AAAAAAAAAeo/AsJp9DSf9bYwHpIroKRVF6J_fMVILqQYwCLcBGAs/s640/DSC07313.JPG) (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7svBAJYtpyo/WcHsNRaV3VI/AAAAAAAAAeo/AsJp9DSf9bYwHpIroKRVF6J_fMVILqQYwCLcBGAs/s1600/DSC07313.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Tom on the first ascent of Bigger Than Your Boyfriend (c) Mary Eden[/td][/tr]
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We arrived late on what was supposed to be Day 1 and got some Friends in the cracks and ropes and camping set up sorted (you have to camp and eat at least a mile away from any dirt tracks, so establishing a bit of a cooking/sleeping location in the area is very beneficial!). As Day 2 dawned, it became apparent that the weather was looking a bit risky, but rather than prepare we jumped on the smallest holds to take advantage of cooler conditions!
Some time into the afternoon, I was working a section of the route and a serious bit of weather rolled in - it's not exactly epic in British proportions, but the repercussions were a big learning point. As rain poured down outside, there appeared a few trickles of water from the crack above my head.
Pete: "Tom, I'd probably come down. It's not worth it and you'll get wet soon"
10 seconds pass and in this time the water turns from a trickle to the equivalent of someone pouring an entire hotel's worth of bathwater down the crack - it was a bloody waterfall!
Pete: "Holy crap! It's a river! You're coming down.
In just those few seconds, we were utterly drenched, the floor we were belaying from turned into a small river and every item in our possession (chalk, bags, passports, ropes) doubled it's weight in water. Although it was pretty annoying to loose the rest of the day to sitting in the cold and damp, staring out at the storm, it was fascinating to see the Canyonlands in the middle of a flash flood. Waterfalls appeared everywhere, dry gullies became ranging mud rivers and each crack showed us how water was the primary action in it's creation. An amazing day!
[tr][td](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ee-Jovke-Nk/WcHtljxSzTI/AAAAAAAAAe0/CaWduVeOxgkTB_ha3AOPU-w64YyATlMxQCLcBGAs/s640/20170914_133824.jpg) (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ee-Jovke-Nk/WcHtljxSzTI/AAAAAAAAAe0/CaWduVeOxgkTB_ha3AOPU-w64YyATlMxQCLcBGAs/s1600/20170914_133824.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]That is one moist crack...[/td][/tr]
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As you might imagine, the next few days were spent trying to find dry sections of rock and avoid any possible risk of breaking holds on our project. Even the loss of a single crimp in the middle of The Crucifix crux would be game over, so we had to play the waiting game. Boring, but safe.
On one of the "waiting days" we were joined by some Moab friends (Sadie, Mary and Jesse) who came and tried some FAs with us on the wider stuff as it dries way more quickly. Going out and trying these 3-star roof cracks of 5.12-5.13, onsight, with no cleaning is ace. It's like a proper session in the cellar, but on real rock and you get to establish a quality new lines. "Raining Scorpions" 5.12+, "Bigger Than Your Boyfriend" 5.12+, "Suck it Up Buttercup" 5.7 and "Jessie's Big Guns" 5.11 were all established in good style and by a very psyched team.
[tr][td](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p90JXYk3UYw/WcHvfyWp03I/AAAAAAAAAfI/YTSs3P1Tzww6wf-tWa4EmP-EvUFVl5rsgCLcBGAs/s640/DSC07576.JPG) (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p90JXYk3UYw/WcHvfyWp03I/AAAAAAAAAfI/YTSs3P1Tzww6wf-tWa4EmP-EvUFVl5rsgCLcBGAs/s1600/DSC07576.JPG)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Mary making the first ascent of Suck it up Buttercup.
Can anyone fit through here apart from Mary!? (c) Mary Eden[/td][/tr]
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All in all, you might think that the last 5 days were a bit of a disaster, but we're taking some positives from it:
[tr][td](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qPUOxhaHYZg/WcHurz-1AUI/AAAAAAAAAfA/Fn1PN3frVqEKttP75SWFjIHh-DzUPVu5ACLcBGAs/s640/Photo+16-09-2017.jpeg) (https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qPUOxhaHYZg/WcHurz-1AUI/AAAAAAAAAfA/Fn1PN3frVqEKttP75SWFjIHh-DzUPVu5ACLcBGAs/s1600/Photo+16-09-2017.jpeg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Piz the founder of roof crack climbing on The White Rim, beneath the Crucifix[/td][/tr]
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1. The next 5 days have primo weather. Clear, low humidity and low temps!
2. We didn't break anything on The Crucifix
3. Pete's underwear is all dirty or damp now, so he's commando. Light is right.
Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)
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https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ee-Jovke-Nk/WcHtljxSzTI/AAAAAAAAAe0/CaWduVeOxgkTB_ha3AOPU-w64YyATlMxQCLcBGAs/s1600/20170914_133824.jpg
MINT CONNIES :o
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Progress on The Crucifix? (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/2017/09/progress-on-crucifix.html)
26 September 2017, 12:40 am
In our last post we had a bit of a disaster down on the White Rim - the weather turned very definitely to the worst we've seen and pretty much anything that was smaller than a wide hand crack became very damp. Much that you'd think that this wouldn't be much of a problem, it's key that we don't climb on sandstone in wet or damp conditions (I guess we can ignore wide cracks?!) as the chances of breaking a crucial crimp or thin section of crack are high.
[tr][td](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xz9eHQL2mC4/WcmSRRrfbwI/AAAAAAAAAfk/lNiP1f9Nx6kMox3YMOd5QprxCwwyfGhOgCLcBGAs/s640/20170914_143959-01.jpeg) (https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xz9eHQL2mC4/WcmSRRrfbwI/AAAAAAAAAfk/lNiP1f9Nx6kMox3YMOd5QprxCwwyfGhOgCLcBGAs/s1600/20170914_143959-01.jpeg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]The Meat Factory - Crack hopes and dreams[/td][/tr]
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Returning to The Crucifix this last trip was a key one for us. We've put a lot of strength work into the last months and seeing some progress would be ideal.... if not necessary for our sanity! Fortunately, the dry conditions this week were accompanied by lower temperatures as well and this really made a BIG difference. To say that we were fairly psyched on our tiny "baby steps" of progress is an understatement. Perhaps never before, have two climbers been so motivated by such meagre forward (sideways?!) movement.
1. The "Bolt Move" can be done with the middle finger mono. Previously we were certain that the index mono was the way forwards (it's absolutely desperate like this) but Pete's porky fingers seem to fit into this hold. It's still a very difficult move, but the V-grade on this one's come down a notch or two. Even better, is that it directly links into a move afterwards that we'd done on an early trip.
2. The "Crimp Rollover" is avoidable. Yes, we can leave it out! Previously, this was like doing the hardest move of Fat Lip (a Raventor V13) with no feet and on a worse hold. A cunning 180 degree spin and a reverse of hand sequence means it's no longer as bad as it seemed. Almost appears that with time it could turn into a move where you can even "shake a hand" for a second.
3. The "Insane Bolt Move" is the way forward. Yes, it's like turning the Cobra Crack mono into a roof move and making it way longer but if the skin doesn't explode on it, then there's a chance it could unlock the last secret to the crux. This is a big one though.... we really can't do this move yet. Not even close. It'll take work and a lot of belief. I'm not sure either of us will ever do a move harder (or more disgusting) than this one in our lives.
[tr][td](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H8pG6yiXjMA/WcmSfhwVbHI/AAAAAAAAAfo/V-Rih-lIr48oUQjeU3WO9FkfUlWl1zJ0wCLcBGAs/s640/IMG_5981.jpg) (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H8pG6yiXjMA/WcmSfhwVbHI/AAAAAAAAAfo/V-Rih-lIr48oUQjeU3WO9FkfUlWl1zJ0wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5981.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Desperate moves need desperate approaches - no, it didn't work! [/td][/tr]
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So, there you have it. We're feeling pretty darn positive! The hardest start move is easier, the middle move of the crux is avoidable and the last hard move requires more training. Sounds easy, but it's going to be hard work from here. We've measured up the crux 10 moves now and it's time to return to Sheffield for replica building. 2018 could be a pivotal year for this project. Go big in the cellar or go home time and time again, empty handed.
[tr][td](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oASkQ7qYNfo/WcmSuN_9jSI/AAAAAAAAAfs/o0yFuHV4aWgBvnascbUTlqlf4EmmnOw4wCLcBGAs/s640/IMG_6012.jpg) (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oASkQ7qYNfo/WcmSuN_9jSI/AAAAAAAAAfs/o0yFuHV4aWgBvnascbUTlqlf4EmmnOw4wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6012.jpg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Yet another classic - Lamb of God 5.14[/td][/tr]
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In other news, we established two other proper cool lines - Pete on "Lamb of God" 5.14 and Tom on "All Pump no Funk" 5.13 which provided nice distractions on the days of resting skin flappers. Both were absolute fighters and required some serious shaking out... we're both a bit unaccustomed to pulling on face holds this trip!! Whatever the style though, they're totally mega and it honestly is a huge privilege to have the chance to establish lines like these. One day a third person might actually want to get down to the White Rim and repeat these weird routes :-)
[tr][td](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6uMFzwYsMH8/WcmS-NDMrtI/AAAAAAAAAfw/r9uen1dybVUz55KADNcOtj4Vnr-LqdFGQCLcBGAs/s640/20170923_121439-03-01.jpeg) (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6uMFzwYsMH8/WcmS-NDMrtI/AAAAAAAAAfw/r9uen1dybVUz55KADNcOtj4Vnr-LqdFGQCLcBGAs/s1600/20170923_121439-03-01.jpeg)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Whipper testing on "All Pump No Funk" - It's a joke... A joke!! [/td][/tr]
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Source: Wide Boyz Blog (http://wideboyz.blogspot.com/)