Last Wednesday I went out with Dobbin and Dylan as you might already know. Right from the start with warm conditions, bad planning and hurty skin I should have known that getting on HFC was a waste of time. I mean, last time I was there, I said to myself "Don't go back on it unless its cold, its all you need". I ignored this and my 1st go despite being good was stopped short by getting a gigantic cobweb/leaf/mess stuck to my shoe at the crucial point. I'm glad I didn't get further mind as some choad had obviously found the climbing far too easy and attempted to fill in all of the holds with chalk, I can see no other reason for the amount used. He/She had also tick marked the break, the break FFS, how can you miss something that big?
My second go was worse, I was in a bad mood by then and was regretting not doing something else with my day, a session on Zeke or an onsight shot at too old to be bold. I don't know if it was hampered by bad light but everything I caught, I caught wrong, this carried on to the break with me fighting through every move. Frustrated at this point I just pulled hard and therefore wasn't too surprised when my foot popped. Damn Damn Damn. Lesson learned.
Nat disappeared that night for a 5 day conference in Boulder, Colorado. How crazy is that? Next time (if she's selected again I vow to take full advantage).
As she was gone, all work, tidying up etc. went out of the window and I spent far too much time hanging around with a good friend of mine, who most of you know but probably can't name. Here forth he shall be known as Wildcountry (WC) James. He was very excited after spending a session earlier that week on Renegade Master. He'd abbed down the line, brushing, chalking and feeling all of the holds as well as inspecting the gear before having a stab above some pads.
We arranged to climb Sunday but as Sat morning progressed neither day looked favourable for the grit. Usually at this point i'd sack it and head to the wall for some guaranteed conditions, but this is the new me and that's just not cricket. A few phone calls later James agreed to head out with me. He wasn't psyched. It was raining as we arrived and so no warmup was possible. James set away at the start and was instantly on his back after violently slipping off the easy traverse in. Shit. My first go, my onsight attempt, was cut short but non stretchy hamstrings. I cursed my lack of stretchiness and spent the next 5 minutes contorting myself as much as possible. Round 2 showed just how quickly stretching works as my heel was up easily, locked into position I reached out for the good hold but I didn't seem to have it in me. Hmmmm, on paper this route should be my thing but its plainly obvious that I just lack feel for grit, its coming but I do perform sub par. During the two days I did notice subtleties in my climbing improve ,foot placements, sagging a lot of small factors that combined to allow me to make the moves easier and smoother thab before. As the day progressed the weather worsened but our attempts improved. James always one step ahead. I made it out to the lip and onto the next couple of holds but couldn't keep my feet on and had to campus the next move, this sets you up all wrong for the next move and bang, i'm off. We call it a day as the light worsens both relatively happy at our high points.
Sunday was much the same weather wise but the rain throughout the night had turned the path into a stream. The pads were floating which made for some interesting falls. James abbed off cleaning everything (unnecessarily IMO) and placed the gear. Ironically he was forced to use one of my bits of kit, a small DMM peenut instead of his shiny new wildcountry getup. He tested it with bodyweight and seemed pleased. I muttered that it would lift out as he topped out, sure enough as he dogged past it, it fell out.
From now on the two different styles of ascent were set.
WC James - abbed, cleaned, pre-placed gear
Me - plenty of beta, ground up, purposefully ignoring James' gear (as it wasn't placed ground up).
The goes went well with my first being better than the previous day. I blasted past my high point and made the next move before falling wildly. The goes carried on again until darkness with little upwards progression, consolidation was however there. I believe that we both have one more hard move to make before the top out business begins. Ned has rocked over onto the slab and left it at that. Variable, being a hero has topped it out although more directly up the slab. I believe (WARNING CONTENTIOUS STATEMENT) that Rich is the only person to have repeated it in the same way as JM taking the crack direct?
I'm not sure what I'll do when I get there, I'm NOT clipping pre-placed gear and I would love to finish it off in a truly great style however fear of another frame might hold me back. We'll just have to see.
I'm fairly happy with the way i'm approaching my climbing at the moment, I'm rarely down the wall and I'm doing things that I enjoy, ok, i'm not as strong as I once was but then again expectations aren't as high.
I had intended to try some routes in this style just as I hurt myself, Shine on and EOTA being the main targets so its good to feel that I'm back on target.
Tonight I met the travelling Americans who are "Crushing", they're very enthusiastic and talented but I have to say that this pre-placing malarkey is very confusing to me, how can you ground up something if the gear wasn't placed ground up, maybe I've just got the wrong end of the stick, its highly likely...I guess the main important thing is being honest about the way in which you've climbed a route.
The other thing I've noticed is that where they seem to be good climbers I've seen a number of British talents that I'm sure outshine them completely. My mind wanders as to what they might achieve given the same kind of support? (That I'm supposing rightly or wrongly that these guys have).
This week won't be too good for climbing, I'm behind with my work, Friday night I'm hoping to get out and possibly Sunday but it all depends on how things go.
Oh I forgot to say we took a video camera for RM, the footage isn't great and being idiots/lazy we missed quite a bit of stuff. We have however got a couple of nice links on cam. I'll pick a good one and post it up at some point. Its not high def.
8 comments:
I've always been mystified by Jerry's mythical 'direct' crack sequence. I would love to know what he actually did, as it seems so contrived. Presumably from the l hand crimp just below the crack, he reached over with the r hand to gaston the crack in some way? Rather than reach (not very far I might add) around to the r for the obvious hold, which then allows you to reach the top of the boulder with your left. I know there are those that thought Jerry's 'direct sequence' was 'made up' to save face (for E9 7b), but as Rich repeated it, it would be interesting to hear what he did? Not that it matters really, but it kind of suggests that the route is a bit of an eliminate, when I think it's one of the very best of its genre.
If I was bouldering it out I'd probably go for the line of least resistance a la Ned. I haven't looked closely, but from a boulderer's perspective the other options sound like contrived danger
Yeah Bonjoy, the line Dan took seems to be the line of least ressistance but very scary IMO. Ned finished it off as a boulder problem and stopped on the slab. TBH my leg was hurting a lot all day monday.
t_b, I can try and get some info off rich but I doubt i'll get very far. I'm yet to find the obvious hold around the corner so I can't really comment. The ascent on hard grit seems strange to me after trying it, why rock over a little but not all the way? a little bit more then the slab looks trivial compared to the mantel of death.
hmmm blogger doing some very funny things? *confused*
hope this post works ok.
Perhaps it is a contrived route. I seem to remember that move doesn't feel like a rockover as such if you're aiming for the top, as it's still steep and you're very much on your arms. It's a big lock. IMHO the redpoint crux is matching the top of the boulder, so it is sort of ducking out by heading off r-wards (though I'm not saying the mantel isn't potentially dangerous, cos it is).
well i haven't been up that high yet so its all just speculation on my part, i'll let you know when i'm up there. From what I can see from the ground the good foot hold you use seems to offer somewhere where you can rock over fully and stand up, gaining the top by the rounded looking holds to a point slightly further right of the arete. I think if you AIM for the top just at the arete then your statement is true. I'll just have to see what feels right when i'm up there.
Good efforts, interesting thoughts about the pre-placed gear.
Nice to see that classic photo again, I hope you'll repeat it in comparable clothing style...
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