Just making a wee movie of The Training Cave.. This is like my woody on Raasay but a completely natural heuco strewn sea arch on the loch. You can do many steep lines out or campus on monos or heuco sinker jugs. In effect there are so many problems & variations of problems, it's to extensive to write up independant lines becuase you'd be in eliminate territory It's a magical spot I've never really photographed or filmed but, I've trained here for years only aware of the sound of my own inhale & exhale - the sound of gulls distant navigation carried on high fog - a black volcanic beach stretching Northward into whale territory & this has become my clay jug. A simple haven. I'll try to find a way to post an mpeg up here if I can figure how to make one, & some stills, or maybe give it to John to host. Coming in the near future anyway learnign curve aside or if theres somebody to help.
It is said in Aikido that: In disciplining the mind to be increasingly present in the body, we are acting where we have the most leverage - within ourselves. The training cave is a leveller like that for me. It doesn't babble endlessly or burn with expectation, it's a simple quiet arch, distilled in peace that asks for no conversation, save that of your own movement. It likes me best for sharing it's solitude. Here it's possible to chop wood & carry water as they say, without causing a great ripple of noise & opinion. There is no other place to shelter, no support, no warmth of home, no shield against hate...I simply need this time in the temple...be it even only to hear the rain drip in silence, like nights with the window open...Sure I can do 15 one armers, climb my life through steep ground on poor holds & make movies, but what is there after that: in the emptiness...I need some motivation back, a sense of worth. Will there be life after climbing? Aye, possibly, but it will be short & boring...I hope it never comes - yet I hope it's out there...a faraway voice... What a vast & beautiful prison, freedom can be...
▓ - ▓
posted by ※Sgian Dubh ※ at 8:43 PM |
At 1/09/2006 3:27 PM, ※Sgian Dubh ※â
got any photies of it Andie? went to Brown Sauce years back - Widdop, climbed a new Frodsham highball. Aye going sideways on steep rock next to perfectly good flat ground is great fun anyway..
At 1/10/2006 1:25 AM, â
100M? thats no boulder problem, thats a couple of routes. ha.
At 1/10/2006 2:19 AM, ※Sgian Dubh ※â
God! Is Les Ainsworth still chugging along?!? I'd have thought he'd be on a drip feed by now...oops...
Sounds like a huge line. I'll check it out - Would put Dai Koyamada in his place aye =)
At 1/17/2006 2:31 PM, ※Sgian Dubh ※â
Havn't had any email through whatsoever Dave - sorry. The imap system apparently crashed around the start of January. I certainly couldnt get in for 2 weeks & the spam was horrendous after. They've updated & everything seems secure & fine now. That said, some things are still not arriving - in or out...
At 1/17/2006 2:49 PM, â
Was just getting impatient, I though you where ignoring me!?!?!?
At 1/18/2006 2:20 PM, ※Sgian Dubh ※â
Nah man...
Was gonna try & hit Glendalough sometime this year in between filming in Scotland - not in the 'meet' season. Up for it Davy? Bit o' Darkness Before Dawn...
At 1/19/2006 7:23 PM, â
http://www.urbanclimbermag.tv/videos/videoInfo.php?video=562
pressure video
At 1/20/2006 12:38 PM, ※Sgian Dubh ※â
V13 is V13, although you can get 'soft' or 'hard' apparently...I wasnt aware Dave had been on every V13 in the country, repeated them & reached a consensus =) I think it should read 'hardest in Dumbarton' & he did lay seige to the line for a few years! so in that context it makes sense. Still a good effort when you apply the sequence needed to crawl across the roof.
At 3/17/2006 2:39 PM, â
Perhaps he just doesn't believe any of you harder claims... aye.
At 3/19/2006 2:02 PM, ※Sgian Dubh ※â
which would be an odd irony since hes been on them & says they are about the grade - despite failing on them...He rates several of my lines as a grade harder than they are becuase he can't do a single move on them, but then Dave doesnt climb v14 or v15 either.{or V12 for that matter, when it comes to Coire Lagan}. He also lays siege to V13s whereas i can dispatch them relativly quickly & that 'difference' is an important factor. Wether he likes it or not - he is not Scotlands top boulderer & I'm not purely talking grades here either. Perhaps he's trying to be clever & failing at that as well. He has more to loose than me - I still climb what I climb - with or without the aye or nay sayers whinging, with or without Daves wee opinion. He can have the hardest V13 in Scotland - I have the hardest V14s & 15 & that way - we can both appear childish.
But how silly he wants to look in Autumn after the dvd release with John, will be purely down to his own actions this year, which isnt my problem.
The climbs still get climbed. If they ommit them in the final picture, the recorded history & development of Scottish bouldering will simply be bias, incomplete & untrue. An opinion not simply confined to myself, but spread across an impressive quiet stronghold of boulderers who are well aware of whats afoot. Also this is not really my fight either, just a simple fact.
At 3/28/2006 1:12 PM, ※Sgian Dubh ※â
As for the training cave mpeg - i cant get it hosted on blogger nor do i have my own domain to host it...oh well...better things will come in autumn 2006 anyway.
At 3/28/2006 4:15 PM, â
I'm sure UKB would be happy to host it for you Si. Let me know if you want to do this and I can give you an e-mail address to send it to.
Bonjoy
At 4/05/2006 11:49 AM, â
Si, I will happily host it on my website for you. I'll even send you a DVD to put a copy onto. I could host that other video of your's, injury clinic or whatever it was called?
※Sgian Dubh ※â
â
Longridge Andie? Trucked all the way along that a few years back - makes yer fingers ache aye!