Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The new Coire Lagan V11/12 is the same name as the best backwater album Hendrix ever stacked up...lets just say, it fits. See Gabbrofest updates when James does some furious two finger typing sometime this year.
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As an aside to climbing Crash Landing, theres a funny wee story to go with the ascent & an English bouldering group I came across...I'm also wondering if Ben [Moon] will get on It's Over or Darken Down or any of the other high grade lines while he's around. At 40 years +, we are the old guard nowadays & the Coire continues to rise in popularity, awash with boulderers examining every stone. Some stand under the V14/15 lines scratching their heads, babbling about a lack of holds or possible contortions, & some get demos from me, if the array of conditions allow it. Peace is here, but when I see them all flitting around like tiny bright coloured birds picking clean the teeth of giant carcass... it's still just another Telegraph Road & I'm called to find a new, silent place to climb. I smile & U-turn, to find a place to retire my shoulders, where nobody is, & develop & clean & chalk & work sequences & leave trails & let them...follow on behind. It becomes to that end, a tea ceremony of sorts, performed with intention & stillness, away from the impossible babbling & commercial wailing that has seeped into the simple action of placing a body on cold stone. The locum predicts I have 5 years of full bhoona shoulder & finger use left if I refuse to ease my pulling work rate...I have to decide, & the sea kayak is once again filling my vision while the anger that fuelled my climbing, fades. The soul is by no means a reactionary device.
Anyways, Dave MacLeod has consistantly failed on all my hard stuff, at V12 & beyond, another one is up in the Coire & things need repeating to get a consensus - it's the only way. Maybe inside future hoards, a foward bouldering talent is practising as we speak. Lars at least, enjoyed his epic on Darken Down The Day. Anyways, I will relate the unfolding moments by expanding this post when I get off Harris & the Uists after a couple of weeks painting a house made of harl, some rough-casting & teaching some Greenland kayak roll techniques. Indeed, adding to my own repertoire as well. Somebody I know will be attempting their first ever hand roll soon, although they don't know it yet! There is something about assisting those processes that never becomes mundane. Standing in the harbour up to your chest & taking the panic out of novices. There is a joy in passing on knowledge & seeing people light up when they do a first roll unaided, or a first climb by themselves, confidently alive.
Anyways, Dave MacLeod has consistantly failed on all my hard stuff, at V12 & beyond, another one is up in the Coire & things need repeating to get a consensus - it's the only way. Maybe inside future hoards, a foward bouldering talent is practising as we speak. Lars at least, enjoyed his epic on Darken Down The Day. Anyways, I will relate the unfolding moments by expanding this post when I get off Harris & the Uists after a couple of weeks painting a house made of harl, some rough-casting & teaching some Greenland kayak roll techniques. Indeed, adding to my own repertoire as well. Somebody I know will be attempting their first ever hand roll soon, although they don't know it yet! There is something about assisting those processes that never becomes mundane. Standing in the harbour up to your chest & taking the panic out of novices. There is a joy in passing on knowledge & seeing people light up when they do a first roll unaided, or a first climb by themselves, confidently alive.
posted by ※Sgian Dubh ※ at 12:49 AM | 
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