El Delfin; "one of the hardest routes in the world"...

This post could also have been titled "how the press re-write the news to suit their own agenda"...

What fun I've had over the last week, and what publicity. It's a shame i'm not sponsored, as most outdoor gear manufacturers would love the level of exposure i've gotten in the last week.



One friend commented that I'd "gone viral" with press coverage on the Guardian, Daily Mail, Metro and Radio Times webpages, as well as a printed article in Tuesdays Metro (above). However, you can see from the links/scanned articles below, that the truth about the ascents behind these photos has been royally bent out of shape by the writing and double re-writing of press releases.

The biggest cock-ups are, beyond the normal mainstream media hyperbole of "spider-man", "dangling by a thread" & "required to move like spiders":

• Daily Mail's ridiculous headline of "He makes it look so easy! Rock-hard climber conquers one of world's most treacherous peaks in just seven hour"; What the f*ck? Anyone with eyes can see that an arch of rock isn't a "peak" and who ever made up the 7hr claim? Like most sport climbing red-point efforts it took about 3min to complete (admittedly after a good 30min tea break after the previous go)
• Daily Mail's claim that El Delfin (7c+) a "Huge, rocky arch is considered one of the hardest climbs in the world - only one per cent of climbers succeed"; what tosh. Adam Ondra's recent 9b+ climbs "The Change" and "La Dura Dura" are the cutting edge, at 7c+ El Delfin is a good on-sight challenge for my amateur level of climbing. I was happy enough to complete the route on my 3rd go after falling from the crux on the previous two occasions.
• Printing photos of Turkey (any of the silhouette "arch" pictures) when the text refers to Spain.

The truth is, the photos of El Delfin are from a few days I spent in Rodellar with the photographer & friend, Dan Arkle in Sept/Oct 2011. El Delfin wasn't even the hardest thing I climbed that trip; I managed to on-sight another 7c+ at Rodellar and red-point an 8a in a day at Terredets. The remaining photos were from another trip with Dan and others to Antalya, Turkey in November 2010.

Dan's explanation of the Chinese Whispers that go on between him taking the photos, via the agency and finally the newspaper goes something like this:

"I was approached by Caters, a press agency last year and have ran a few photo based stories with them. They provide news content and photos to all the major newspapers, which is released to all of them at the same time.

I answer all their questions to try and help them produce clear and accurate captions that a non-climber could understand. This press release then gets rewritten by journalists at any of the papers which take up the story.

As it can be rewritten twice, errors can creep in, although I'm not sure at which point it changes from this (from my email to them)

"The route is graded 7c+, meaning around only 1 percent of climbers could manage it. However, the grading system goes up to a dizzying 9b+"

to

"Rock hard climber conquers one of world's most treacherous peaks in just seven hours" "


Radio Times:
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-06-04/brit-successfully-climbs-the-perilous-el-delfin (not even Dan's photo, but it does at least show why the route in question is called El Delfin (The Dolphin).


Daily Wail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335109/He-makes-look-easy-Rock-hard-climber-conquers-worlds-treacherous-peaks-just-seven-hours.html

Metro; Probably the best headline

http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/03/briton-hangs-by-thread-as-he-joins-elite-band-to-conquer-rock-known-as-el-delfin-3826841/

Gruaniad:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/picture/2013/jun/03/sport-picture-of-the-day-spider-man-el-delfin


P.s. Dan's website can be found here: http://www.danarkle.com/ and has a plethora of excellent compositions; check out his 3D globe pictures and his night climbing/head-torch trails in particular.

Veni, vidi, vici! Santa Linya bank-holiday weekend smash-fest

Not quite "i came, i saw, i conquered" as I'd visited at Easter as well, but for shear volume of successful climbing, my bank holiday trip to Spain is a personal highlight. It's worth mentioning my prep for this weekend; spangling a finger trying Melancholie at LPT and only pulling on jugs for the last 3 weeks. Hence why the previous Tuesday gets a mention:

Tuesday:
Leave work at 5 and race down to Llangollen and meet up with Liverpool's strongest climber/physio, Matt Donnelly. A few fingery 6c warm-ups didn't feel great on the dodgy digit, so i set off up "Extreme Ways" 7c with a high level of trepidation. The on-sight attempt floundered at the first hard move and i ended up sitting on every bolt up to the chains. A semi-efficient sequence was worked out and Matt sent up to try for the flash; close but no cigar.

Matt worked an alternate foot sequence around a move up to an obvious undercut on the headwall, so i set off on my redpoint go with a fuzzy memory of what to do mixed with a bum view of Matt's supposedly slicker sequence. Needless to say what's efficient for a whippet 5'9" climber with a panache for rockovers didn't work well for my 6 foot+ dimensions and i had to fight hard to get to the chains before the pump spat me off.

Ticking a technical 7c second go a few days before going away should have been a confidence booster, but it did just the opposite. Over the next couple of days I mulled over just how pumped i was going to get on the long Spanish routes if 12m of gently overhanging Welsh climbing had induced a near red-line lactic bath...


Friday:
Our shitty, cramped Ryanair flight down to Reus was full of stag and hen do's, as well as some other climbers we recognised from Awesome walls Liverpool.

(Aside: It's no surprise that Ryanair they have a 93% on-time record when you list your flight times as 10% longer than other airlines. There statistics for successful delivery of luggage is also massively over-hyped when their pricing policy means that only those with oversize luggage, or disallowed content (such as climbing ropes/karabiners etc) put in a hold bag. I counted 6 hold bags for a full flight of 180passengers - Rant over)).

We arrived in sunny Reus; got a sweet Fiat 500 hirecar and bombed it up to Cornudella for some lunch and an evenings climbing at Siurana. After a slow warm-up, tentatively testing the dodgy digits, the best was saved 'til last with an on-sight of the old-school classic Mandragora, 7b+. On the crux, the full crimp was deployed without complaint - get in!

Saturday:
An early start was made to THE cave of justice; no readers, not Parisella's but Santa Linya as it pisses all over our cave in all aspects of the climbing cave top trumps list. However, we soon realised this was going to be a short lived visit as there was much more seepage than our previous trip over Easter.

El Koala (8b) was wet so I was off the hook on that score, but still had unfinished business with Trio Ternura (8a) whilst John's target 8b was similarly wet, so he set about finishing off Pegue Nocturno (8a/+).

Santa Linya: THE cave of justice. In a top trumps game, it'd win hands down over Parisellas 

After some fairly epic hold drying, i sketched my way through Trio Ternura on my third redpoint. John's long distance film showed 7mins of kneebar shake outs in 10mins total climbing time - need to get fitter! The difference on the final go was figuring out a sweet little trick of tucking an extended quickdraw behind a tiny flake, thus speeding up the clip instead of it flapping in the wind.

Thus, the pace of the weekend was set; from there on i seemed to manage everything i tried by the skin of my teeth, and John seemed to pull defeat from the jaws of victory on multiple occasions, starting with 3 efforts on Pegue Nocturno, each time dropping a deep lock off from a 2-finger pocket to a slopey crimp just before the difficulties eased back to f7a-ish.

The sun came out and we went for coffee/second breakfast, before deciding to visit the other Santa Linya crag; sector Futbolin for the afternoon, where further unfinished business was dealt with in the form of Bestia Parda, a short and bouldery 7c+. A change of boots from Scarpa to La Sportiva muira's was the difference this time as the superior heel made all the difference.

Next up was the "crag classic" Opium, 7c. John went for the on-sight and pinged off the crimpy crux up high. I was beta'd up and went for the flash, but by now the fingers weren't happy with crimping and i slumped on the rope. I worked out a different method and got it next go, skipping a clip and barely making it to the chains with eyes on stalks and elbows pointing skywards.

8a RP, 7c+ RP and 7c RP in a day; I was chuffed with the turn around in performance compared to Dinbren and hence set about a great dinner of 3 courses for 15Euro with a carafe of wine.

My ham and melon starter; not bad for a 15 Euro set meal including wine!

Sunday:
A somewhat later start than Saturday was called for due to being as stiff as a board. John was psyched to tick something, anything even, so we settled on the Disblia cave at Sant Llorenc. I really couldn't get going, and was almost shut down by the 6a+ and 6c warm-ups. John tried a brilliant 7c+ with an 8a extension in the right hand cave, but was denied victory, not once but twice trying to clip the chains in a very powerful position. I sacked it off after dogging this route once and sun bathed instead. In the early afternoon the sun arrived and beer o'clock was called.

Beer and crisps break before getting a second wind and continuing the crushing at Futbolin.

We then headed back to Futbolin, and from no where i got a massive second wind (fairly obvious now that it was the jumbo packet of crisps we had with the beer). In a marked contrast to earlier, the fortunes we swapped so whilst John's power had faded and he sun-bathed I did a bunch of back-to-back on-sights up to 7b.

More food, more beer, more banter ensued before an early morning departure for the Ryan air flight home and a pleasant ride round Llandegla to round off the bank holiday Monday.

In total, all grades from 6a+ to 8a ticked in a 3 day weekend; "SMASH, SMASH!":

8a, Trio Ternura, RP
7c+, Bestia Parda, RP
7c, Opium, RP
7b+, Mandragora, OS
7b, Colera & The Oxfury, both OS
7a+, Spanglish, OS
7a, Por la Boca Muere el Pez, Brigadistak, & Lo dejé to blanco, all OS
6c+ El Kalkilo, OS
6c, Presidiari, OS
6b+, Red Dusk, OS
6b, La Discordia, OS
6a+, Presidiaria, OS

Terredets & Santa Linya; Easter 2013

My 9 day trip to Catalunya can be summed up in a few words/short phrases
- Lurgy
- Mild hypothermia
- Unfit
- Pumped


Photographically, these look like:

John seconding pitch 2 of "Smoking" 6b+ at Terredets. The sun left us shortly afterwards and the combination of having a shitty cold and only a t-shirt for insulation made for a fairly miserable experience shivering at each stance. Things weren't helped by only having tight down-turned boots to climb techy slabs with; ow!!

The helpful belay hangers on Smoking; no need to look at the copy of the topo we'd saved on my phone, just look at the customised hangers to know what grade the next pitch is (then add at least two french grades to estimate what it'll actually feel like - these weren't your average Spanish soft touches, no siree)

Post climb view of the crag; Smoking climbs the lighter coloured rock just left of centre

Rest day shinnanigans; what strange manikins they have in Spain??

Super thick and yummy hot choccy. All in aid of ridding myself of the lurgy, you understand? Honest guv!

Another "rest day" - this time i actually left the house and went to Collegats with the others; here Martin is struggling with a thuggish start to a 6b. He wasn't impressed when i demonstrated that with cunning use of a kneebar, the crux could actually be reduced in difficulty all the way down to a no-hands rest!

The whacky rock sculptures of Collegats inspired the famous Barcelona architect Antoni Gaudi.

Climbing wise the trip wasn't a massive success; the combination of lurgy and getting spanked by the burliness of Santa Linya meant that i didn't get as much done as last year.

I had one good afternoon at Camarasa doing the classic 7c+ Shere Kahn on my 2nd go having dropped the on-sight catching a slopey bit of a hueco instead of the positive edge, right up by the chains.

Pegue Nocturno at Santa Linya took much longer than expected. I'd successfully dogged it on day 1 and took the ride from the last hard move on my first redpoint a couple of days later, but it wasn't until the second to last day that i clipped the chains, dosed to the eyeballs on paracetamol, 'brufen and all manner of other cold remedies. With that in mind i don't know if i have any right to comment on the grade, but it certainly felt a notch harder than my other f8a tick of the trip; Maneras de vivir on Bruixes wall, Terredets.


Maneras was a strange affair, ticked on the last morning of the trip, an hour before driving back to the airport. I ended up having an extra dog of the route due to the rope miraculously tying itself off to the belay when we pulled it down prior to our redpoint efforts. This probably wasn't such a bad thing as it made sure i had the crux fully committed to my memory banks. However, the visualisation of the successful redpoint didn't include getting my hair caught in an extended draw and having to pull a big tuft out before questing on up the route.

I'm already planning a return trip for the first May Bank Holiday; hopefully to finish off a bunch of routes in Santa Linya with John. Fingers crossed for cool conditions and a sending breeze?

Skiing Spring 2013 - La Plagne - Pow heaven

A quick photographic summary of a weeks skiing in France in March, 2013.

La Plagne - our home for a week. A few hundred km of piste can be access from La Plagne and the neighbouring Les Arcs, accessed by the mega 200 person gondola pictured below

Loadsa snow after a 3 day dump. Even on-piste there was 8inches of snow to contend with. Off-piste was perfect boot to knee deep powder.

Chainsaw massacre? No, a cold Wrigs on the first day

Mont Blanc in the distance on a clear day

Caroline's kiddies meal. The French start them young on raw meat. Tasty though.

Update on attempts at being an "All-rounder"

In reverse order:
Beer drinking - 8 pints:
Not had a big session since new years. Pretty sure i sank 8 beers (500ml measures, just shy of the pint mark) along with some whiskey on Sat before new year. This may have to be the starting date for the 8month time frame for "8 challenge" completion; thus i need to get the remainder ticked before 29th August.

Winter climbing - VIII:
Epic fail. I've had one single day out this winter; soloing the first 100' of II/III ground went just fine, but trying to lead off into unknown territory on a potential winter FA of a summer E2 was a bit too much for my winter skills repertoire. Basically i felt completely incompetent with tools & 'pons, and after 40ft or so i lowered off the first bit of gear i'd gotten in that i was certain would hold. Pete took over and lead another 40ft above my highpoint, but came down after finding unfrozen turf.
 
Running away with my tail between my legs was sufficient to put me off wintery stuff for the rest of the winter; that and training lots for the "real stuff" (This means Spanish tufa climbing to me, but something different to most other climbers!)

Thankfully Pete's efforts weren't in vain, as clearing the ledges of snow meant the turf froze and he got to climb the route a few days later with Nick Bullock. http://nickbullock-climber.co.uk/2013/01/28/the-meeting-of-hands-winter-climbing-above-bethesda/

Drytooling - M8
Not been. The weather in February has been too nice for that malarkey. Blue sky clear - perfect grit weather.

Trad climbing - E8:
Just one half day of trad in the Feb blue sky weather window; it's been too cold to ask people to stand around belaying most of the time. The half day was at Millstone, where i threw a rope down Masters Edge. I'd top roped this back in October, so armed with a black Metolius MasterCam I was hopeful for a successful lead. However, once I'd reworked the moves and the weak winter sun had raised the temperature sufficiently to dry the shady side of the arete, the tiredness levels had increased and the psyche was blown. Another time...

Sport climbing - F8a
At last, some success, though this is arguably the easiest of the bunch? I did two 8a's whilst out in Turkey over new years. Ikarus, 8a+ and Flat Rate 8a. http://allysmithblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/antalya-turkey-smash-smash.html

Bouldering aim - Font 8A
A couple of weekends ago i had a good day on grit; starting at Burbage West i was chuffed to tick West Side Story in an hour or so. This is the first "hard" grit boulder problem i've worked out the beta for in isolation instead of having locals/Gareth give me beta for.

I'm even more chuffed now i've done a bit of internet research and found that the Peak Bouldering on-line guide has got it down as 7C :-) See here: http://peakbouldering.info/problems/511

As it was freezing in the shade at Burbage West i headed over to the sunny side (Burbage North) and did some of the classics around Banana finger including a flash of "Definitive 5.12". Interestingly, i faced the opposite way to the chap in the video below, which might explain why my thumbs & backs of hands fingers got mashed up quite so effectively.

(Off topic: This was also the first time my girlfriend Caroline had seen what hand-jamming can do to your skin and insisted on smoothing oodles of antiseptic into my weeping cuts - OW!)

The rest of the session was cut short after I fell off the Sphinx (highball 7A+) and twisted ankle. This was painful for a week or so and hence the following weekend I directed my attentions to the mainly low-ball venue of Parisella's Cave.


First off, let me congratulate Alex Barrows' on the 2nd ascent of Pilgrimage.

However, his actions have left a nasty taste in my mouth. If i hadn't been shown and subsequently used a kneebar across the starting holds of Rock Attrocity I'd have gotten my 8A tick (see ~1min into this video http://vimeo.com/53279856) and I've had to settle for 7C+ for climbing Hatch Life in Parisella's cave. Not even doing it by lamplight after work could warrant the 8A tick I don't think.

I couldn't quite go no-handed using this kneebar and originally had a dilemma of whether to sprint this section, or shake out in the kneebar. Doing this gets a little back in the arms, but tires the core which is essential for the swing across into Left Wall, along which Hatch Life finishes. In the end, after doing sets of knee bar sit-ups at end of my sessions in cave, my core got fitter quicker than my forearms and I eventually I swung over onto Left Wall and finished off the problem off despite the mounting pump.

So, what of 8A? The Parisella's options open to me seem to be:
- Lou Ferrino sans pocket? I've done all but one move whilst working it, but again this is a fairly long link it up and it may take a while.
- Hatch Life High? Can i put myself through some of the same again?
- Broken Sam? I've done both halves of this problem previously, but again this is still another link-up dilemma.

So, there we have it. I probably won't complete "all the '8's" due to the massive fail on the winter climbing front, but might just make it with the f8a, E8, 8A subset. Only time will tell!