[MattH]

Leo Houlding's postponed the 1st date of his UK Berghaus/Heason Events Adventure tour as he's "painfully close to making the first ascent of The Prophet, on El Capitan in Yosemite"

Leo Houlding's 1st lectures will now be Sunday 31st October at the Buxton Opera House and Monday 1st November at the Dancehouse Theatre, Manchester.

More details of dates & tickets at www.heason.net

Berghaus has announced that Leo Houlding’s first show on the Berghaus Adventure Tour 2010 has been postponed. Houlding was due to speak at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol on Sunday 24 October. The show will now take place in the same venue on Sunday 14 November. All tickets bought for the original show are valid for the new date, but full refunds are available on request.

Leo Houlding comments:
“I am really, really sorry about this situation. To get straight to the point, I'm painfully close to making the first ascent of The Prophet, on El Capitan in Yosemite. This is my new route on the world’s great cliff and unquestionably the hardest I've ever tackled. Unfortunately, the conditions have not been too kind over here – it was very hot for the first week, followed by heavy rain for a week – but right now it's perfect. However, I need more time.

“I have never postponed a show like this before and I’m loathe to do it this time. I certainly wouldn’t do this if the route wasn't of the utmost importance to me. First and foremost, I am a climber and this route is a massive objective for me. Once again, sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused, but I have to stay and do this thing.”

Houlding’s sponsor Berghaus is in the process of contacting people who have already bought a ticket for the show. Tickets for the new date are now available and can be purchased at www.berghausadventuretour.com, by calling 01768 774493 or by visiting the new Berghaus store on Broadmead in Bristol.

[grimer]

Good choice

[Tim Broughtonshaw]

Good choice

Agreed. Is this the project he was trying years back?

Cheers
Tim

[Johnny Brown]

Yeah.

[Ru]

It's shit when work stops you finishing a project, but when your job is being a professional climber it would be shit and ironic. Good choice to stay and get it ticked.

[Falling Down]

Good call. I would hope that the people hoping to attend also agree.

[T_B]

Definitely got his priorities the right way round. I hope he gets it done (and filmed).

[mrconners]

It's shit when work stops you finishing a project.

Work stops everything at the moment, including sleep. So I have to agree on the shit part.

Good effort from Mister Houlding

[Paul B]

Incredible.

[Ackbar]

What exactly does he have to do to claim the first ascent? Must he climb every pitch in sequence without falling? Or does he just have to start each pitch again everytime he falls?

[T_B]

Climb every pitch without falling to claim the FA. But ideally, he would then do the whole route in one push, redpointing the crux pitch/es if necessary. This is the 'style' established by Hubers/Caldwell on El Cap. A 'fall free' ascent in a single push would be even better of course, but it sounds as though the crux crack/seam pitch on the Prophet is too hard to expect this?

[Falling Down]

But ideally, he would then do the whole route in one push

Which, as I understand, he got to within 2ft of doing last year. The 2ft being the crux section of the crux pitch (possibly the one pictured below)

[wiain]

Climb every pitch without falling to claim the FA.

I think he needs to climb all the pitches in sequence. Climbing them all out of sequence is akin to getting all the moves on a standard redpoint - it ain't an ascent. I'm pretty sure that's how the Huers did it. As you say, he needn't do a no-falls ascent, as long as he gets the redpoint of each pitch fom bottom to top.

[csurfleet]

Thats a different view to Tommy Caldwell though isn't it, in Progression he was talking about how falling on the last pitch of the Magic Mushroom free ascent meant he was going to have to come back another time to get the ascent done. Is there no proper consensus? 

[Ru]

In progression he falls 3 times on one pitch on magic mushroom before giving up. Which implies that if he'd done it on one of the attempts he'd have taken the tick.

[Jaspersharpe]

When Ondra's been nailing all these big hard multipitch things he's just gone bottom to top flashing or redpointing each pitch (if he falls off). He's not had to go back and do the whole thing again in one push with no falls to get the tick. Logically, a bottom to top redpoint of each pitch constitutes an ascent surely (as TB says, a no falls ascent would just be in better style).

[shark]

Are dabs and chain grabs in ?

[Jaspersharpe]

If anything's preclipped then he'd better do the downclimb each time. 

[Idol eyes]

There is a "crux" pitch, sounds insane!
Is it Bad to the Bone Free?
Hope JP is in on it... good team!

[namnok]

i bumped into JP and LH the other day whilst staying at yosemite lodge.

weather seem against them as rain was lashing it down around them

hope he gets it done....9yrs in the making Leo mentioned. pickles leaves tomorrow US time iirc him mentioning, unless he's changed his flight again. as we left the park the weather was beautifully crisp and sunny. gutted to leave

had a look at midnight lightning...i'll save the flash for another visit

[duncan]

Leo Houlding and Jason Pickles still up there in a portaledge, weather still mediocre.

[duncan]

Painfully close



No cigar?

[Neil F]

Duncan

I think you should credit Tom Evans for those, and provide a link to his site.  The daily El Cap report is really inspiring and Tom deserves recognition, thanks (and a donation) for letting us see (for example) how Leo is getting on within a few hours of the actual event....

Thanks

Neil

[slackline]

Duncan

I think you should credit Tom Evans for those, and provide a link to his site.  The daily El Cap report is really inspiring and Tom deserves recognition, thanks (and a donation) for letting us see (for example) how Leo is getting on within a few hours of the actual event....

Thanks

Neil

He links to Tom Evans' site and news report in the previous post. 

[Neil F]

Okay – thanks for pointing out the link in Duncan’s previous post Slack-line – I hadn’t spotted that.

Nonetheless, looking at Duncan’s most recent post in isolation, I’m not sure I totally agree with your rebuttal, Toby.  Perhaps it will help if I explain the rationale for my earlier post?

I’m well aware that people copy web-content all the time, without crediting the source – and indeed if every such instance was accompanied by a credit, it would all get a bit tedious.  Life really is too short for that!

So the stance I adopt is more “credit where credit is due”.  And for me, the El Cap Report is one of those examples - a valuable and unique service “unique in the world” as Tom Evans describes it every day!

I know Duncan will agree with me on that, and is probably an avid follower of the report himself.  That is why I was surprise to see the photos just lifted and dropped into Duncan’s post, without a further credit.  And I knew where they had come from (could have guessed anyway) because I had already looked at Tom’s latest report this morning, mainly to see how Leo was getting on.

Here’s another way to look at it:-

Do you think that Tom Evans, had he been surfing and happened upon UKB, and happened to look up that thread at the time I did this morning, would have felt a bit aggrieved to see his photos dropped into someone’s post?

Perhaps he would have been really chuffed, but my suspicion is that he might actually have felt a bit miffed.  Yet if Duncan had just put a note saying “Photos from (linked) El Cap Report” then I’m sure he would have been chuffed!

Just my opinion though.  There’s no right and wrong in this stuff.

Cheers

Neil