Saturday, April 28, 2007
Disintegration Roof & the right hand line goes down at long last. A year of work on & off. It's a major link for the area, & a long desired sequence, almost as important as the unrepeated Trace Element or Grip Crisis but twice as long from the back. No good holds, totally horizontal climbing with hefty slaps & locks, full extension jacks & plenty of compressed moves. The 3 most pluasable holds, almost resting crimps, from last year, snapped without warning this year making it impossible to get a pit-stop midway. In the process I also re-climbed my own Disintegration from the other year, downgrading it to V11, from V12 with a cleaner sequence. That means I've also bagged the 2nd ascent of my own 1st ascent since it's another line that has never seen a repeat from any capable player. So a new monster V13 roof crawl & a downgrade of an old problem. A day well spent. If anyone wants to try the left link into the right-hand line, be my guest.
I've called this one FFE, or Fire For Effect in it's long form. As with any line like this, you have to take time to explore every possible sequence & arrive at the most logical, or direct path, narrowing the margin of error. Then you have to have the intelligence & strength to complete it. This one took some doing & every time a sharp toe edge gave way I was sent groundward without ceremony. Every time a crimp edge failed, the story repeated itself, & probability lessened. It's a thesis of dedication, of going to the rock all fired up & finding you ridiculously can't get off the ground. You go back a day or two later & you can do 3 moves, then 5, until you can climb it all in one push. It's about sticking at it, letting holds settle, overriding, understanding your own shortfalls & getting back on. There's no doubt in my mind about the grade, but it'll come down to consensus as it always does, if anyone repeats it. There will be no doubt in the minds of others who have spotted me on it, or puzzled at the tenuous holds & the prospect of such gymnastics & indeed, witnessed them. Finn tried to static a few of the holds on Fire For Effect & couldn't duplicate any partial sequence, which is suprising for a fella who holds the hardest repeat award of one of my Coire Lagan lines at V12. I wonder if the full moons effect helped me? My weight would have been 0.000035% less on the crux...resonant length = v(gd/2f) afterall aye.
At the sprightly age of 41, doing rakes of one-finger one-armers, 500 push-ups, running 12 miles on an evening & sleeping at the foot of my climbing wall to be ready at 5am, has less of a calling. Lines of that magnitude -the unclimbed left to centre right link-, are gradually slipping beyond my sight, & motivation. Keeping on form within the cutting edge of what I can achieve practically, feels a little harder also. On a logarithmic scale, the space between achievable V13 & upward into V14, or V15, is more than a short hop across a stream. It's a void, & an often misunderstood concept by the mainstream climber. Going back in time to when I did things like the first ascent of Little Women -V14 my way- in the Lakes raiding era, the pain faded in minutes. Lines beyond that magnitude these days...they have started to make my bones creak.
The last crux moves out of the cave & the project gives in after a solid day of disappointment, fighting & eventual hard earned success.
More soon anyway. Photos with commentary, will be on the Hebridean Stone Works soon. 4th hardest boulder problem on Lewis & Harris? It has to be up there. Dave MacLeod needs to get on all my hard stuff & repeat it before the Norwegians arrive...He's probably strong enough for Trace Element now aye, or a Coire V12, to coin his own words missing out the not. Gabbro is a rock type at which you have to kneel, & become a student of, before good things happen, as is frictionless Gneiss.
Another view toward a desperate last crux, with the monster sloper finish above
Time to go & jump through some big Atlantic rollers in the wet suit & relax...swim wi the collie a bit.
I've called this one FFE, or Fire For Effect in it's long form. As with any line like this, you have to take time to explore every possible sequence & arrive at the most logical, or direct path, narrowing the margin of error. Then you have to have the intelligence & strength to complete it. This one took some doing & every time a sharp toe edge gave way I was sent groundward without ceremony. Every time a crimp edge failed, the story repeated itself, & probability lessened. It's a thesis of dedication, of going to the rock all fired up & finding you ridiculously can't get off the ground. You go back a day or two later & you can do 3 moves, then 5, until you can climb it all in one push. It's about sticking at it, letting holds settle, overriding, understanding your own shortfalls & getting back on. There's no doubt in my mind about the grade, but it'll come down to consensus as it always does, if anyone repeats it. There will be no doubt in the minds of others who have spotted me on it, or puzzled at the tenuous holds & the prospect of such gymnastics & indeed, witnessed them. Finn tried to static a few of the holds on Fire For Effect & couldn't duplicate any partial sequence, which is suprising for a fella who holds the hardest repeat award of one of my Coire Lagan lines at V12. I wonder if the full moons effect helped me? My weight would have been 0.000035% less on the crux...resonant length = v(gd/2f) afterall aye.
At the sprightly age of 41, doing rakes of one-finger one-armers, 500 push-ups, running 12 miles on an evening & sleeping at the foot of my climbing wall to be ready at 5am, has less of a calling. Lines of that magnitude -the unclimbed left to centre right link-, are gradually slipping beyond my sight, & motivation. Keeping on form within the cutting edge of what I can achieve practically, feels a little harder also. On a logarithmic scale, the space between achievable V13 & upward into V14, or V15, is more than a short hop across a stream. It's a void, & an often misunderstood concept by the mainstream climber. Going back in time to when I did things like the first ascent of Little Women -V14 my way- in the Lakes raiding era, the pain faded in minutes. Lines beyond that magnitude these days...they have started to make my bones creak.
The last crux moves out of the cave & the project gives in after a solid day of disappointment, fighting & eventual hard earned success.
More soon anyway. Photos with commentary, will be on the Hebridean Stone Works soon. 4th hardest boulder problem on Lewis & Harris? It has to be up there. Dave MacLeod needs to get on all my hard stuff & repeat it before the Norwegians arrive...He's probably strong enough for Trace Element now aye, or a Coire V12, to coin his own words missing out the not. Gabbro is a rock type at which you have to kneel, & become a student of, before good things happen, as is frictionless Gneiss.
Another view toward a desperate last crux, with the monster sloper finish above
Time to go & jump through some big Atlantic rollers in the wet suit & relax...swim wi the collie a bit.
