Friday glee is trying to rest my way through it

[rydra_wong]

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

It can be a new achievement or adventure, or just that you climbed and had fun; it can be that your favourite climbing wall is expanding or that you bought new rock shoes or that you found a cool ice-climbing vid on YouTube. No glee is too small -- or too big. Members are encouraged to cheer each other on and share the squee.

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.

To enhance this week's glee: Mayan Smith-Gobat free-climbs the Salathe Wall on El Cap. Including one of the most spectacular no-hands rests I've ever seen.

Comments

[emperor]

I watched The Long Hope this week. Really lovely film (not watched the extras yet), and a truly epic route. The discussion of the finer points of fulmar-barf was hilarious, too :-)

I woke up yesterday having pulled a muscle in my back whilst asleep. Thankfully it turns out not to have interfered with my climbing, and I had a really good session. Still can't do the crazy-overhanging-wall...

[rydra_wong]

I particularly liked Dave MacLeod's imitation of a fulmar preparing to vomit -- obviously something that will be engraved on his memory forever ...

The Indian Face segment of the extras is amazing and terrifying. If you want an appetizer for it, here's a wonderful little video of MacLeod and Johnny Dawes chatting about the route in Pete's Eats the day after. I fangirl them both immensely, but it'd be hard to imagine two more contrasting personalities.

[emperor]

I seem to have a quiet evening lined up, so may well watch it tonight. Have you seen UKclimbing's page on the Indian Face (E9 6c)? It starts "It has been said that up the face to the right of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a pitch of such appalling difficulty as to be almost beyond the realms of human comprehension has been ascended without mechanical machinations or other insidious practices normally associated with a route of this calibre..." and carries on in that vein :)

[rydra_wong]

I also like the comment from Pete Robins, who's top-roped it, and was heard to say in a pub, "There are no routes in the UK harder than E7, except the Indian Face at E9."

[emperor]

I sat down with the extras this evening. The other bits aren't that exciting, but the Indian Face film is; you really get the impression it's pretty much at Dave's psychological limit! There's a particular point where he's putting some gear in, and you can tell from his breathing how stressed he is...

[rydra_wong]

Yes, and when he describes it as "twenty minutes on the verge of panicking" (IIRC).

It's terrifying because MacLeod's always seemed exceptionally mentally disciplined (soloing 8c as training for Echo Wall, etc.), and has written so sensibly about risk management and the mental aspects of doing very bold trad climbs -- so if it's getting to him like that ... fuuuuuuck.

Here's a bit from an article Johnny Dawes wrote a few weeks after the first ascent:

Imagine the wall. It is a random-woven wire mesh, tilted so that it steepens towards its top. At the base two thick cables disappear in the turf. The lights in the town flicker as you touch the rock. Each move forms an electric circuit between your hands. As you move, you worry about the outcome of that move, the tension a dull hum. Then I make a false move and the rock barks out a spark. I try another hold - but which one to use? Use the wrong one and retreat may be impossible. The gear is poor and a bad mistake could mean a death-jolt full across the heart. So you move, taking note of your position and the holds, but as you move higher the voltage grows and amongst the myriad connections there lie false trails that can kill.

I went up with sticky rubber soles which do not conduct electricity and two friends who knew the score.