Friday glee is mentally playing Frank Zappa

[rydra_wong]

The Friday post of glee is where you get to tell us about your climbing-related happiness this week.

N.B. Please feel free to post your glee on any day of the week; the Friday glee is just to get the ball rolling. Members are encouraged to cheer each other on and share the squee.

To enhance this week's glee: James MacHaffie vs. The Quarryman groove, providing some excellent demonstrations of the key climbing verb "to thrutch".

For context, the slate is entirely frictionless except on those little knife edges. You can see the Quarryman sent by first ascentionist Johnny Dawes in Stone Monkey (whence the Zappa), and by Pete Whittaker in Welsh Connections.

Comments

[emperor]

Cor, that looks hard!

My glee this week was Saturday's trip to Castle Naze, for my first time on grit. 10 ticks in a day is not a bad effort, I think :) Also, I have a weekend booked to go climbing in Snowdonia next month. Big mountain routes!

[rydra_wong]

Nice work! So, what's your verdict on the gritstone? Yay or nay? *g*

[emperor]

Heretically, I think "shrug". I mean, it's not bad or anything, but I still prefer rhyolite :-)

[rydra_wong]

OH NOEZ HERESY. HOW CAN THIS BE. *g*

Rock preference is such an individual thing; there's no arguing about tastes. But you might appreciate this passage from Dorothy Pilley's Climbing Days, which I'm rereading at the moment -- she was another gritstone non-fan:

Those odd, bulging little climbs on low bluffs of rock scattered about the Midlands are known, every inch of them, to their devotees, who chart and name and classify every possible and impossible course with an ardour and perseverance that may seem inversely proportional to the size of the crag. It was easy I found to lose both the skin of one's fingertips and one's temper on these problems. [...] I never mastered enough of the peculiar gritstone technique to develop the appropriate passion for them, and would catch myself sighing desperately for Lliwedd or the Pillar in the midst of abortive struggles to stay on some rounded holdless flange with a grass slope just beneath me and a bush marking the summit of the cliff just above.

[emperor]

Surely the internet is for endless arguing about tastes? :-)

I think I can see some of the appeal of grit outcrops - technically challenging routes that are readily accessible from the road, and you can get a lot of ticks in a day. Also, you can push your grade a bit without worrying that you're going to be 3 pitches off the floor, out of your depth, and wondering how the heck you're going to get down again! Symonds Yat has a similar sort of appeal, though the routes are typically a bit longer, and obviously it's limestone!

At the same time, I much prefer the big mountain routes, and rhylite has much of the frictiony-texture of grit, but with rather more positive holds and little finger pockets.

[rydra_wong]

Surely the internet is for endless arguing about tastes?

No, no, the internet is for endless wanking about grades, and explanations of how MY form of climbing is inherently far more pure/authentic/real/existentially valid than YOUR form of climbing. *g*

And porn.

I think even the most ardent defenders of the grit would have to concede that it doesn't exactly offer a lot of big mountain multi-pitch routes.

For me, I'm fascinated by the friction combined with the lack of positive holds on the gritstone; it feels like a whole new world of technique to learn. I find the shapes of the rock really beautiful. And as I'm a boulderer, it suits me fine that it's all short and bouldery.

But yeah, if it's the big epic crags that make your climbing heart sing, gritstone is not going to hit the spot. *g*

[emperor]

And porn.

YM like this? [NWS image if you look closely] :-)

[rydra_wong]

Thankfully, as a non-member of UKC, I can only see the thumbnail version ...

I wasn't thinking of climbing porn per se, just the usual line about the internet being for porn (and pictures of cats).

(Okay, the new Peak District Bouldering guide probably qualifies as climbing porn for me. I acknowledge my issues.)

[emperor]

I am a devotee of Avenue Q, but your comment reminded me of that image (which, ah, rather imprints itself on the retinas), so I thought I'd share the pain ;-)

[juliet]

I done went climbing twice despite general exhaustion & lots of other stuff going on!

And today I climbed a couple of problems that I couldn't climb on Wednesday, so that was pleasing. (No idea where my V2 mojo has gone, though. Probably in some way related to the exhaustion problem.)

[rydra_wong]

Yay climbing! Re: the mojo, I find exhaustion tends not to help my climbing either.

[wpadmirer]

I got no glee at all this week. One climbing partner is out for four weeks with a shoulder injury and the other is out of town for at least two weeks.

I only top rope, so I'm pretty much fucked for climbing for a while.'

Therefore I'm feeling very, very sorry for myself.

[rydra_wong]

Woe! That sucks very much.

No local bouldering or traversing possibilities, even? I know it's not the same.

[wpadmirer]

I don't boulder because I've got hand and shoulder issues that preclude it. So top roping is really the only climbing I can do and both enjoy and not have a lot of pain.

It sucks.

[rydra_wong]

Aaargh. That must be so frustrating.

[emperor]

Much sympathy - my climbing partners are away for 2 weeks, and I'm going to be climbing the office walls at this rate!

[wpadmirer]

Ooo, that's horrible. And climbing office walls isn't nearly enough fun! (grin)

[rydra_wong]

I went to Eridge Green on Monday (one of the sandstone outcrops I've never been to before), and had an excellent time, including doing various things that scared me and taking my worst/best ever fall.

[astridv]

This week's glee: the cedar shavings for my shoes that I ordered arrived in the mail and they really work! That was a great tip.

[rydra_wong]

W00t!