"Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King!"
As mentioned a while back, Murky Rib at Brimham was due to be revisited and read the riot act, so Tim's stag do weekend seemed the perfect time to do it. Now given that Tim got married in August we were slightly behind schedule but since the organisation of said stag do trip had been entrusted to Duncan Disorderly (famous for his eternal struggle to get past the 5th bolt on Body Machine) the fact it was only three months late was notable in itself.
Anyway the plan, as far as I was concerned, was to punter about a bit and then get on my nemesis problem but somehow I missed out the punter about part and just found myself stood in front of Murky Rib. Mmmm...
Deciding to ignore this minor flaw in my plan I repeated the right arete as a quick warm up before spending a very amusing 5 minutes watching Sloper top out the problem "in proper style" and then discovering that getting off was not such a formality. At one point it looked like the fire brigade would be required to rescue Sloper from his lofty perch but, faced with the ignominy of said scenario, he finally made it to the ground and so I decided it was time to "read the riot act".
After the initial couple of goes to reaquaint myself with the problem it felt like it would actually go - the part which had given me so many problems before (getting the toe on) felt good and from there it was a slap for the big dish before topping it out. The slapping the dish bit proved to be relatively easy once I had done it a couple of times but the topping out was a whole different matter - six times I got the dish only to stand up and then slap blindly for the finishing hold in a fit of uselessness. Six bloody times I slapped on that upturned bath of a finish and six bloody bastard times I fell off and after the sixth time that I decided the reading of the Riot Act would have to wait a few more days - I was going to try something else and then have a pint.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Hurrah for the Albanian Rat Hound!
This is an Albanian Rat Hound - supposedly bred to hunt and kill rats in truth he has not been especially successful when it comes to curtailing the numbers of the genus rattus. Up till last week his number of rat kills stood at the lofty heights of zero but after 6 years he finally got the idea and killed his first rat!
Hurrah for the Albanian Rat Hound!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Guidebooks
Having been a late comer to the world of climbing a guide book that can get you to the crag and located at the bottom of the climb you intend to do that day has largely been a given. Not for me the experience of having to negotiate Stanage using that now infamous BMC guide which worked from right to left instead of following the more usual convention - I am used to climbing with a guide book containing photo topos and clearly marked lines on where the route goes. In other words I have been spoilt.
Now with any guide book that doesn't follow the conventions set out above there is always a spot of familiarising oneself with the language peculiar to that guide and how buttresses and features are described - it is simply a matter of interpretation and once you get a hang of this then finding the climb in question becomes that bit easier. However when you are dealing with a sport climbing crag it becomes a whole different ball game - these are often just seemingly blank limestone walls with a series of bolts rising upwards with obvious features being at a premium. Having previously only been sport climbing in the Costa Blanca with the Rockfax guide book clutched in my grubby little paws and three years later to Kalymnos (which not only has a fantastic guide book but also the names of each route and the grade written at the bottom of each route) finding which route was which had not been an issue. Sardinia was to change all of that though.
Sardinia was, at times, a route finding nightmare - hand drawn topos are not that great at dealing with a featureless wall of rock so you have to fall back on the tried and tested method of finding a route that you know is the correct one and counting from there across to the route you wish to climb. From there throw in a bit of common sense to ascertain if it is indeed the route that you are looking for (just in case an extra route or two has been added in) and off you go but what do you do when you can not even find a route to work from? Throw a wobbler out of pure frustration was the chosen method of yours truly.
So the object lesson here is before even thinking of going to a crag make sure that the guide book is one that you can actually use to a meaningful degree. While all climbing involves some form of suffering to a degree, be that mental, physical or both, it should be on the route itself not trying to find the thing in the first place.
NB - I should note here that I don't wish to be seen to be criticising the efforts of guide book writers. Having spoken to people who have been involved with this black art it is a thankless task at best and without their efforts serving to inspire me in the first place the thought of going to climb in some fantastic places would not have entered my head.
Now with any guide book that doesn't follow the conventions set out above there is always a spot of familiarising oneself with the language peculiar to that guide and how buttresses and features are described - it is simply a matter of interpretation and once you get a hang of this then finding the climb in question becomes that bit easier. However when you are dealing with a sport climbing crag it becomes a whole different ball game - these are often just seemingly blank limestone walls with a series of bolts rising upwards with obvious features being at a premium. Having previously only been sport climbing in the Costa Blanca with the Rockfax guide book clutched in my grubby little paws and three years later to Kalymnos (which not only has a fantastic guide book but also the names of each route and the grade written at the bottom of each route) finding which route was which had not been an issue. Sardinia was to change all of that though.
Sardinia was, at times, a route finding nightmare - hand drawn topos are not that great at dealing with a featureless wall of rock so you have to fall back on the tried and tested method of finding a route that you know is the correct one and counting from there across to the route you wish to climb. From there throw in a bit of common sense to ascertain if it is indeed the route that you are looking for (just in case an extra route or two has been added in) and off you go but what do you do when you can not even find a route to work from? Throw a wobbler out of pure frustration was the chosen method of yours truly.
So the object lesson here is before even thinking of going to a crag make sure that the guide book is one that you can actually use to a meaningful degree. While all climbing involves some form of suffering to a degree, be that mental, physical or both, it should be on the route itself not trying to find the thing in the first place.
NB - I should note here that I don't wish to be seen to be criticising the efforts of guide book writers. Having spoken to people who have been involved with this black art it is a thankless task at best and without their efforts serving to inspire me in the first place the thought of going to climb in some fantastic places would not have entered my head.
That was the week that was...
For a few days last week it was time to get really rad and syked - the leaves were falling from the trees, the sun was shining and the temperature dropped into single figures. Finally that magic time of the year has come around again - dig out the duvet jacket, the beanie, a whole host of brushes and the bouldering mat, round up a mate or two to offer beta, encouragement and piss taking in equal amounts and get ready to climb Gods own rock! It's gritstone bouldering season again!
Tuesday was spent at Stanage Plantation on the Pebble and a few new problems got sent including Pebble Arete Left Hand which went down with a fight to say the least. In all honesty I was just glad to get it sent regardless of the style having blown the top move earlier in the day and taking a big plunge onto the mat complete with a girlie scream that had people running from all directions to see what had happened. A big up to POD and his excellent mat design for letting me walk away from that one.
A couple of other new problems (to me) got done - one in good style and one where I got up it and hoped that no one had noticed me on it such was the lack of grace I applied to it - ah well another one to do another day and try to improve on the style.
Lastly an old nemesis in the form of Pebble Arete came that little bit closer to being sent - without doubt it was the best session I have ever had on it but those last tenuous moves are absolutely gripping and were just too much of an ask to commit to on the day. One day soon it will go down and it will be a big day when it does though getting it in the bag means that I will have to start paying serious attention to Crescent Arete instead - eek!
Wednesday was a new crag to me - Brimham Rocks and what an amazing place! Conditions were even more awesome than those experienced at Stanage the day before not that they could prevent much skin being lost on the holds of Murky Rib (not Mercury Rib as previously stated). Even the application of much tape couldn't get me up it but I will be back and next time it will be read the riot act in full! The best thing was that we hardly scratched the surface of what is there so even without the requirement of sending Mercury Rib the motivation to go back is high.
Thursday was a washout but Friday was a welcome return to form on the weather front and so it was off to one of my favourite places to boulder - Curbar. It was one of those sessions where you expected little but got a lot - everything felt tweaky or just plain ached but as soon as I was on the rock then the feelings of being trashed just ebbed away. Problems that usually put up a fight felt easy and I finally got the much needed (and in retrospect obvious) beta on Strawberries. I probably should have tried it there and then but the skin was thin and it will be there for the next time when I am feeling fresher and hopefully a quick dispatch will ensue.
Tuesday was spent at Stanage Plantation on the Pebble and a few new problems got sent including Pebble Arete Left Hand which went down with a fight to say the least. In all honesty I was just glad to get it sent regardless of the style having blown the top move earlier in the day and taking a big plunge onto the mat complete with a girlie scream that had people running from all directions to see what had happened. A big up to POD and his excellent mat design for letting me walk away from that one.
A couple of other new problems (to me) got done - one in good style and one where I got up it and hoped that no one had noticed me on it such was the lack of grace I applied to it - ah well another one to do another day and try to improve on the style.
Lastly an old nemesis in the form of Pebble Arete came that little bit closer to being sent - without doubt it was the best session I have ever had on it but those last tenuous moves are absolutely gripping and were just too much of an ask to commit to on the day. One day soon it will go down and it will be a big day when it does though getting it in the bag means that I will have to start paying serious attention to Crescent Arete instead - eek!
Wednesday was a new crag to me - Brimham Rocks and what an amazing place! Conditions were even more awesome than those experienced at Stanage the day before not that they could prevent much skin being lost on the holds of Murky Rib (not Mercury Rib as previously stated). Even the application of much tape couldn't get me up it but I will be back and next time it will be read the riot act in full! The best thing was that we hardly scratched the surface of what is there so even without the requirement of sending Mercury Rib the motivation to go back is high.Thursday was a washout but Friday was a welcome return to form on the weather front and so it was off to one of my favourite places to boulder - Curbar. It was one of those sessions where you expected little but got a lot - everything felt tweaky or just plain ached but as soon as I was on the rock then the feelings of being trashed just ebbed away. Problems that usually put up a fight felt easy and I finally got the much needed (and in retrospect obvious) beta on Strawberries. I probably should have tried it there and then but the skin was thin and it will be there for the next time when I am feeling fresher and hopefully a quick dispatch will ensue.
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