Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Back on Skye & how did it get to be 2007? It's been a few months aye. Alive enough after crossing Force 10/11s & combined violent open seas, cuttin' heids off walls of water with 1500 tons of lurching steel & it's raining sideways. In fact it hasn't stopped & boggy roll sales have rocketed...Côte d'Ivoire weather injection needed aye. Post update coming, tales of furious border struggles along the African Cancerian Tropic, Finn will write something about my own movement teaching of blindfold bouldering on here - since he wants to, the craziest thinnest slab climbing in Harris on one of the best boulders in the Outer Hebrides, & two new hard boulder lines have surfaced on Beann Ghuaire up from Leitir Fraic, after a tiptoe through Glendalough & around. Lets say John Gaskins has an eye for a good line. Something I'm not unaware of from times repeating & setting boulders in the Lakes. Darkness Before Dawn has a great set of strings for any bow of reeling movement if you can twang the crux. No idea if that's a 1st repeat of the line or a 3rd, or an 8th for that matter, but in terms of personal relevancy, which boulder problems translate well to any individual - It's a 1st for me & a repeat either way. To that end, if you make the 10th ascent of a line & you're climbing for yourself, your skill in reading the rock, applying technique & staying on for the ride is just as valid as Galileo discovering Jupiters moons in 1610 & a solitary invidual discovering them again, for themselves in 2007. Same rocks afterall. I guess I just never really bought into this, coveted 2nd ascent mindset. The false stigma.
Away West I added one V12/13'ish born of time spent with the ghosts back in my childhood Conamara...More importantly than thrown numbers, are thrown shapes, thin steep beautiful & power-graceful moves flung skyward into a full split crux only spanable with total momentum commitment from the lower sequence. Very hard to catch through the void but the feeling of accomplishment is natural & fluid. Being able to stand on your left fingers while dynamically latching a tip crimper is a big help. Some lines you wish you could put in the wagon & take back with you, this is one of those rarities. I've named it Asphodel...It would make sense to Hugh, climbed in peace, with minimal social compliance & away from the art of often living a bit dangerously - his Roundstone days & my far flung places alike...Also new Coire boulder constellations, so perfectly aligned that they mimic the Zeta Orionis belt, silent home of Alnitak, Alnilam & Mintaka, as we have named these huge & remote black gabbro satellites, constant as the skies, arguably as old...
Away West I added one V12/13'ish born of time spent with the ghosts back in my childhood Conamara...More importantly than thrown numbers, are thrown shapes, thin steep beautiful & power-graceful moves flung skyward into a full split crux only spanable with total momentum commitment from the lower sequence. Very hard to catch through the void but the feeling of accomplishment is natural & fluid. Being able to stand on your left fingers while dynamically latching a tip crimper is a big help. Some lines you wish you could put in the wagon & take back with you, this is one of those rarities. I've named it Asphodel...It would make sense to Hugh, climbed in peace, with minimal social compliance & away from the art of often living a bit dangerously - his Roundstone days & my far flung places alike...Also new Coire boulder constellations, so perfectly aligned that they mimic the Zeta Orionis belt, silent home of Alnitak, Alnilam & Mintaka, as we have named these huge & remote black gabbro satellites, constant as the skies, arguably as old...
.
Time first though to nip over Raasay way, spend a dram with the warm old man of war, his lost horse walk, & his woolly hat beside the fire, to see if my 12m bouldering barn came down in the storms & catch up with lives, first footing. Wasn't I making movies? Doesn't the mind do it anyway..
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Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka, M42 & the Horses Head from the high African Egyptian band. There's sheds of bouldering out there as well, flung swimming into creation. It's just a wee bit harder to catch from this arc.
posted by ※Sgian Dubh ※ at 1:28 AM | 
2 Comments:
At 1/15/2007 12:33 PM, 
Unknownâ
At 1/15/2007 10:15 PM, John Hunterâ
Hi Si.
Are you claiming a V12/13 in Letterfrack or Glendalough, do you have more details of this?
thanks
Dave Flanagan
www.theshortspan.com