rydra_wong: Lisa Rands' chalky hands on the sloper on the route Gaia (climbing -- hands)
rydra_wong ([personal profile] rydra_wong) wrote in [community profile] disobey_gravity 2012-04-08 09:24 am (UTC)

It looked like at least seven or eight meters.

Definitely, for quite a few of them, and sometimes more -- my guidebook says that Samson is twelve metres. *shudders*

ETA: A different guidebook says it's ten metres. THIS DOES NOT MAKE ME SHUDDER LESS.

A lot of these routes have only been done as trad routes until now, protected by gear (if there are placements) and/or rehearsed on top-rope before the lead (a.k.a. "headpointing"). Doing them ground-up protected by mats is a new thing.

And in some instances, this is crossing over from anything that would normally be considered "highball bouldering" into the realm of "solo-ing above a big pile of mats by people who are very young and have resilient joints".

I should state for the record that we have lots of short, low-to-the-ground boulder problems in the UK too! It's just that this film focuses on some people (notably Ned Feehally and Dan Varian) who've been pushing the highball limits in this particular way.

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting