Any Rock Climbers out there??

Nothing outdoors for me at the moment, too cold, wet and icy. Guess I'll be sticking to indoors till our trip to the Verdon in March.

How did you find font last time Durbs? Was it a pricey week? Hoping to get over there next year with any luck.

I used a map

It wasn't mega-expensive, but La Musardiere (sp?) campsite wasn't the cheapest, though in fairness it was a nice campsite.
We're looking at getting a gite this time as there's 5-6 of us going, and it'll only be a bit more £££ for a lot more comfort.
4 of us went over, tank and a half of diesel, Eurotunnel, then 3 nights camping... all self catering (apart from one lazy pizza delivery which was possibly the worst pizza ever had, EVER), probably cost us er... £150 per couple? Not cheap-cheap, but pretty good.

Font as a place is AMAZING. Despite getting utterly spanked on most of the routes (we dropped down to 4s & 5s, got one 6a I think), the forets is so beautiful and the problems so good we didn't really care. Was starting to get into the Font headspace on the last day though, and suddenly the routes and style started to click. It's sooooooo different to plastic-pulling or lime-crimping it really threw us.

Good croissants in the morning too.

I do a little climbing, used to go to the rock gym and Wichita Mountains a lot, spent some summers in Colorado around Salida. Then I moved to Texas. Mountains are few and far between here lol

i actually did free climbing in colorado and in west texas. I took a week off of work durring the summer to climb with some friends. Its jsut hard to find ANY mountains in Houston. There are none.

Very true, a lot of people may not understand how damn flat and featureless most of this area of the country is. It can take hours at least to get to true climbing spots!

oh yea. the trip i took i had to drive (literally) 16 hours to get to the spot in west texas where there is good mountains.

I try and go to the Ozarks whenever possible, at least for a couple of days. There's plenty of climbing and camping and it's a very pretty area when the weather's nice. There is an ungodly amount of ticks though!

Hmmmm.... Managed my goal of climbing 24 and got comfy on 21 onsights last year. Want to push bouldering a bit and see if I can get a 25 with 22/23 onsights comfortably for this year.

Those are SA grades. 24 is about 6c+. So I am comfortable osighting 6b.

and we all know SA grades are a rip off of Aus grades; just like up to 2 grades difference which is retarded, your grade 24 is like our grade 22.

Ive sport red pointed up to SA grade 27 (sounds way harder than Aus 25!), whih is like 7b
So my plan is to do some epic training this year and be able to push my onsight closer to this mark.

Trad, Im nowhere near as grade orientated, so Im more inspired by actual lines than grades. But my goal for trad is about 7 routes, all 5 star epic; stupidly exposed; mostly crack climbs around Australia I want to do this year.

BOulder, I have 2 V5 problems and an ultra pumpy roof V8 Ive had my eye on, but not sure if I will have the time to play with the pebbles this year.

This year I have 4 main aims:
- La Demande - Epic 13 pitch, 430m trad/spot combo route in the Verdon (France). Goes at 6a+ but its sustained for the length. Will be done first week in march.
- Necronomicon - E4 6b at my local crag. Thats like bold-ish F7a trad. Been looking at it ages and this year I'm getting the headpoint.
- Impropra Opera - Font7c. Amazing line on the bowderstone. I doubt this will get done really, its a massive grade jump...
- Zeppelin - BIG sport route in El Chorro, F6c+ with a roof a couple of hundred meters up. Not there till November so shouldn't be a problem assuming I manage Necronomicon!

Of course this means getting outdoors, which based on current weather I'm pretty sure will NEVER happen again

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