Any Rock Climbers out there??

my main route I wanna do is where Angels fear to tread at Mt Buffalo, its only a 5c but its 350mtr of ultra sustained off-hand crack in the roughest granite you will ever encounter.The crack is super flared so the gear is horrible too.

Its way easy on paper, but the thing is out of the people I have spoken to about it, like one in 50 back off. It catches the sun for half a year and catches the shade for the other half so you either boil or freeze. Combine this with epic walk in and out and Im in for one huge adventure!

Second trad line is called Scorpion at Arapiles, 40 metre crack going from chimney to hand to offwidth. THe thing is you start 200metres up by stepping into a poorly protected bottomless chimney for the crux, retardedly exposed. Should be fun!

THe rest of my list is very similar to the above two.

Only Bouldering at the moment.
looking to nail a 6b problem in the indoors tonight actually, it's got a tricky crux that I've been having trouble with but that shouldn't take long to master. I've only been at it since october / november so really enjoying and looking to get outside for some play once the UK thaws a little and I have a little more experence.

Durbs - I'm looking to head up to craggy island in Sutton for some bouldring soon and maybe guildford once I've done some rope training, probably with Step, we'll let you know when we're planning on heading up if you like.

Sounds awesome.... Wish I had the money for a trad rack.



Yeah. Dunno why that is. There is a (short) doable 27 near Grahamstown, but I am just not attracted to it as a climb. Will probably do it at some point, because it is close, but it does not really mean very much.

there are a few tricks that I feel that I can share with you,

THe honest way:
If you have a regular partner who wants to trad too, share the cost and get a rack inbetween 2.
Or just start buying bits and pieces, a set of nuts here, a biner or two there. Soon you will have enough.
Cheap climbing gear is still rated - it doesnt all have to be BD gear. Kong Cams work just as well, OP nuts are like BD nuts but half the price.
Buying from America is really cheap at the moment!

You have to learn how to place gear anyway; which generally means finding a trad climber to learn from; and they will have a rack - repay them with beer and petrol money.

There are some good Ebay deals every now and again for racks; but unless you know a lot about gear I wouldnt buy second hand gear. Also Ebay is where you find a lot of stolen climbing gear being sold; which leads me to the dishonest section.

Dishonest
BOOTY

Not really dishonest as much as sneaky, its when you find gear that has been left in the rock and take that. All you need is a rap rope and a nutkey; a large hex for a hammer (or a rock) Go to a trad area and see if anyone has left any gear.

Tips for Booty finding,
Go after a uni or a club trip, there is always something left. Scan the easy beginner climbs and the ones you know where the gear is tricky.
Go when it rains. You can rap in the rain, most climbers retreat leaving valuable gear behind as booty. Particularly successful with the aforementioned uni and club groups as they are silly enough to leave at least 3 bits of gear in their retreat anchor.

I kid you not; half the nuts on my rack are booty nuts. God bless the bumbly climber!

Cool cool - let me know. We usually go bouldering on Wednesdays, and try and go routing on the weekend, but let me know when you're coming. There's bouldering at Craggy G but it's not great, certainly not compared to Craggy2.

Oh, and prepare to be spanked on grades, Craggy tend to set them on the stiff side. I onsighted 6c at Shoreham and a 6b+ at Westway, flashing 6a at Craggy is en epic acheivment

I have some experience placing gear, but it is true that I will need to find someone to climb with.

Is cheaper to get through the States here as well. Ah well, maybe once I have a salary.

the weather turned cooler so I went out for a bit of tradding yesterday. I got spanked on a climb I used to run laps on a couple of years ago.

Uni is bad for my climbing life. I need to defer and become a climberbum

Uni is one of the only chances I have to climb.

I went from being a climbing guide to a student, so my rock time is like 10% of what it used to be

funniest thing ever, I just put up my logbook on 8a.nu for shits and giggles.

It ranked my (for Australia) in the top 100 this year, top 200 of all time for routes

and in the top 50 for boulder this year and top 200 of all time.


I call bullshit bigtime. but it did make me feel a little bit good about myself despite me knowing its a wank

We use 8a.nu for our colours system.

I hate 8a.nu. Jens is a &^*$(£"%*.

hehe

Yeah. But since we use a minimum number of points, what that value is does not really make much difference, as long as everyone involved uses the same number of points for a grade.

haha it no worries, just that we have a wierd grading system for trad and it doesn't fit into the 8a way of doing things, which Jens takes as an excuse to say British climbers are crap. Its a good system for sport climbers though.

It's also possibly the slowest and worse designed website out there, but I don't use it so I don't really mind

Time till Font: 8 weeks

Time till Verdon: 2.5 weeks

Yeah. Would not bother if I was doing much trad.

But for what we need it for it is fine.

ITS ALL ABOUT THE BOULDER !! haha jk.
but im a little more into bouldering.
Utahs got some of the best climbing in the world its really quite amazing to see some of the stuff the "pros" climb on as well as some of there new projects

im a climbing instructor love it

hell yeah, Indian creek is the best place EVER.

I'm rather jealous of you people living in warm dry places with good climbing

its not to warm or dry hear right now ! haha..everything is covered in snow !!

Somehow I'm not surprised that Honnold got the 2nd ascent...

http://bishopbouldering.blogspot.com/2010/02/ambrosia-2nd-ascent-by-alex-honnold.html

Makes my palms a bit clammy

daaaaamn thats a high ball for sure !! my friend just got back from bishop he got some hella cool clips !

Same here, have not been on the rocks since October. The ground is either too wet for good grip, it's snowing or I'm working.

Sea-cliff on trad this weekend.
Probably only top-rope, but hell, it is rock.

I'm off to the Verdon TOMORROW!!!!!!!!

*dances*

Did not get onto the cliffs. *Really* missing rock....

horshoe canyon in arkansas = amazing. 24 hours of hell this september!

Verdon trip was awesome, a week of climbing in a tshirt.

We made an attempt on La Demande but failed unfortunately - my partner took a nasty fall on the second pitch, ripping a cam and falling around 15ft to hit the ledge I was belaying from. He went a bit green after that and had to go back down, I'll be back though, awesome route.

Feels COLD back in England now haha!