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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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So glad you like it!!!
But Tarbuster's contribution is more important than mine.
I will go back and edit my little tale to reflect Tar sorting me out on which pitches I led if you'd like....ha!!!
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imaserious
Big Wall climber
melbourne
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2015 - 10:29pm PT
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CHEERS AND BEERS
:)
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Still need Kim's article!
I mean really, after all that we want it straight from the horses mouth!
Correction to my text upthread has been made. Valley syndrome was not a route authored by Jeff Smoot, but by Dimitri Barton, Ken Ariza, Tracy Dorton. The route name was intended as a jibe, as they also named the whole cliff Apathy Buttress to commemorate the "apathetic" Valley Boys, a notion brought to the fore by Smoot and Carrigan.
(I know that's pretty granular FA detail, but it's accurate).
-----------------------------------
Okay Survival: here's your topo for Black Primo. Just for fun.
The red dot on the second pitch shows the mental crux (I'm told Yabo almost whipped off here)
The red dot on the fourth pitch indicates the technical crux.
A) Jigsaw 5.11a R
B) Black Primo 5.11b R
C) Road to Ruin 5.12a
D) Ticket to Nowhere 5.11c R
E) Quicksilver 5.9 R
F) Walk of Life 5.10+ R
G) Freewheelin' 5.10b R
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Wow, that's really cool Tar!!
That totally helps fill in the blanks!! It's really shaking a couple things loose.
Probably won't change the flavor of my write up much, but I will go back and modify it after a while.
Thank you VERY MUCH!
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Michael Hjorth
Trad climber
Copenhagen, Denmark
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A book about Carrigan? I’ll buy a copy!
I had the good fortune of climbing a few routes with Kim Carrigan in Sweden in 1987. And he paved the way for a Mammut sponsorship for our Ama Dablam climb in 1988.
He had come to Copenhagen to do his brilliant and humorous slideshow from around the world. In the following weekend we went to “Danish home crag”, Kullaberg in Sweden, where he flashed two first ascent 11d’s. He didn’t bring any gear for the trip, and as I had shipped most of my gear to Greenland for a coming expedition, I only had some old crappy wires, solid stem friends and bulky carabiners left for him. He was repeatedly mumbling through clenched teeth: “How am I supposed to do this with such crap gear…!?”
Sunday we went further to Gothenburg / Utby where he quickly ticked off the harder tradlines. I especially remember him on Pripps, 5.12b, fiddling with my silly wires, but still having power in reserve to flirt with the very nice Norwegian girl climbing on Tuborg, 5.10c, just to his left, asking her to pose for a photo, he would include in his slideshow…!
Later I visited him in his home in Switzerland and got a tour around the Mammut Factory. In the production hall, he showed me a huge squarecut machine, apparently put on automatic, spewing out ready packed boxes. “This is our best profit product: cow tail hooks!” A Swiss law demanded farmers to hook the cow tail away from udders during milking, and Mammut had the exclusive right to produce these. No silly demands for new flashy colors, or expensive fall testing as with most of their other products...!
I only have a few (and lousy) pictures from then:
Kim Carrigan finishing "Cracked", 5.11d on Kullaberg, Sweden:
Carrigan with his daughter Kira in Val di Mello / Sasso Remenno, 1989. Shoes I belive are Boreal prototypes of the later Laser:
Michael
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imaserious
Big Wall climber
melbourne
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 4, 2015 - 08:03pm PT
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TARBUSTER
>>>Still need Kim's article!
THAT WOULD BE VERY GOOD ...
Must be someone here who has it ...
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imaserious
Big Wall climber
melbourne
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 6, 2015 - 08:27pm PT
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KIM @ ARAPILES.. DURING THE LYCRA CRAZE...
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chill
climber
between the flat part and the blue wobbly thing
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And apparently before the quickdraw craze.
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imaserious
Big Wall climber
melbourne
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 9, 2015 - 12:47am PT
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http://www.supertopo.com/inc/photo_zoom.php?dpid=Oj8_ODolICsjJg,,
Greg Child
climber
Apr 8, 2014 - 12:47am PT
'...Something I recall about Daryl that resonates with me, and which happened the day after that photo was taken... when we got to the base of the PO wall, The 4 of us (Hatten, Weinstein,Kim Carrigan and myself) were rather humbled by the looming project we'd set ourselves. Daryl took his piton hammer out from his holster and held it up like mighty Thor and banged it into a block of granite, and yelled "The PO team is here!" It got us moving. He was a driving force on that climb...'
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http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=278087#x4118566
'...Aid climbing is not hard. It’s just rope-access done scarily badly.
Aid climbing requires very basic fitness and a few skills that can be picked up by reading books and leading half a dozen pitches. Old people can climb high-grade aid routes. It is quite possible to climb the hardest aid pitches after a week of practice (Kim Carrigan did the second ascent of The PO Wall when it was the hardest wall in Yosemite. He had virtually no aid experience. There are plenty of other stories like this).
You can’t climb 9a+ or cycle the Tour de France after a week of practice. These are hard.
Aid climbing is scary and seems dangerous. Sometimes it is dangerous, but it’s much less dangerous than it seems. There is a certain amount of bullshit surrounding aid climbing. It benefits some people, who are not very good climbers but have climbed quite high-grade aid routes, for aid climbing to be seen as complex and hard. It is neither.
It’s useful to practice aid climbing in order to get up some long routes. By far the best practice is just f*cking doing it. Climb an easy route where you have to aid a bit. Allow plenty of time, make mistakes, work things out yourself. If you must practice in the UK, go and clean aid some routes where you definitely wont damage the rock ( >95% of aid climbing does not involve pounding iron and you can learn the other 5% ‘on the job’). Rock is scarce in England and Wales and we need to cherish even the crappy stuff. Peak and Yorkshire Limestone is too easily damaged by aid climbing and should be left for free climbers. This includes The Dove Holes, which is now a superb free venue. There is no justification for repeating aid routes that have been freed if there is any likelihood of this damaging their free status.
I’ve done 10 routes on El Capitan and lead 150+ aid pitches. I’d recommend everyone should try it. It’s sometimes fun. It’s often quite scary, sometimes too scary for me. It’s usually a lot of work. It’s an excellent way to loose weight. You get to some amazing places. It’s not hard. I fell and hurt myself once on a wall…free-climbing.
Chris Kalous has done some extremely gnarly aid climbing, second ascent of Reticent Wall, etc etc. This is what he thinks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boQHYBhlOcs
>>>Kim Carrigan did the second ascent of The PO Wall when it was the hardest wall in Yosemite. He had virtually no aid experience
THat just not true ... Kim got plenty of ' experience ' in aid climbing when he made the second ascent of the Totem Pole in 1974 (this aid route was freed 35 years later at about 5.12b...and this route is not to be confused with The Free Route 5.11d )
Kim led the crux of Pacific Ocean Wall in 1977
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imaserious
Big Wall climber
melbourne
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 9, 2015 - 10:22pm PT
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http://www.climbing.com/news/patrick-edlinger-reported-dead/
11/16/12 - A French newspaper is reporting that Patrick Edlinger, one of the great free climbers of the 1980s, has died at home at age 52. No cause of death was given.
Edlinger was one of the leading figures in the sport climbing revolution, putting up numerous routes and free climbing as hard as 8c (5.14b) in the late 1980s. He also free-soloed routes as hard as 5.13b, and he won many major competitions, including an early international event at Snowbird Lodge in Utah. With his elegant climbing, his headband, short shorts, and long hair—he was known as "Le Blond"—Edglinger embodied French style at a time when the French were defining modern rock climbing.
Edlinger also launched climbing development at the great crag above Ceüse, France, creating numerous spicy routes with widely spaced bolts. Asked years later why he didn't put in more bolts, Edlinger said it was simply because he and his partners didn't have enough money. They wanted to put up lots of routes, and thus they had to ration their bolts.**
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http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=5117
'...He profoundly influenced a potent nucleus of his contemporaries who would become the world's most significant trend-setting rock climbing icons during a crucial era of emergence during which the modern sport of rock climbing was defining itself in France. These agents of the modern era included the likes of such highly regarded legends as Patrick Berhault, Jibe Tribout, Antoine LeMenestral, Didier Raboutou, Alain Ghersen, Jean-Marc Troussier, Alain Robert, Catherine Destivelle, Jacky Godoffe, Lynn Hill, Ron Kauk, Wolfgang Gullich, Kim Carrigan, Luisa Iovani, Stefan Glowacz, Beat Kammerlander, Jerry Moffat and everyone who tried to emulate them!...'
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imaserious
Big Wall climber
melbourne
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 9, 2015 - 10:30pm PT
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http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=302157
'...Personally I rather feel we should be phasing out pegs on Cloggy. I don't think it can have been there for a long time after the FFA. A bit of history for those who don't know it - in 1982 a few people were trying to make the third ascent. Kim Carrigan fell off the 'crux' (which incidentally is no harder than the rest of it, really) and Dougie Hall famously jumped off the belay (a scary proposition). Carrigan fell sixty feet or so and wound up brushing the ground (as did DH, I imagine). KC then retired from the fray and DH went up. 'I seemed to see a dotted white line on the rock above me. I knew that if I went above it and fell off I'd hit the ground.', and also retired. The route's reputation grew until 'everyone' did it in July 1983. I saw what I think was the third ascent, by Dave Lee. He stood below the crux for so long we got bored waiting and went down to Halfway House for a lemonade. We sat about, chatted a bit, and strolled back up. He was still there. We watched for a bit longer, got bored again, and went off and climbed. I think Rowland Foster, Jerry (who had just done Master's Wall and freed Pistolero), Uncle Tom Cobley and all did it shortly afterwards, possibly also Graham Hoey of this parish.
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imaserious
Big Wall climber
melbourne
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 9, 2015 - 11:19pm PT
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http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=178960#x2577234
Kim the gentleman...
'...In 1981 I fell of the final mantel at the top of the arete on Swastika Crack (Severe) at Simonside in Northumberland. I was blown off balance by a gust of wind at a critical moment, with all my weight on my hands, and just sensed my centre of gravity shift backwards. It all went into that strange slow motion and I seemed to take an age to topple backwards,. I remember my fingers clawing at the flat top of the arete, scraping across the rough rock like a cat's claws, trying desperately to find a purchase. Then a moment of utter stillness, with a brief sound of rushing air, then a BANG!
I woke up not knowing who I was, where I was, why I was there. Nothing. Blank mind. I stared up at scudding grey clouds coming from above the crag, then suddenly my mind refilled with consciousness and sense of self. I remembered falling. My mouth was filled with grit and I could taste blood. There were sharp, angular rocks pressing into my back, as I lay head downwards on the slope below the crag.
My head hurt.
I flexed my fingers, then my toes. I could feel them move, and no pain as I did so. Relief. Next, my arms, then my legs. I flexed my elbows and cycled my knees in the air gently. Nothing wrong. Amazing.
My back hurt, and I was terrified of back injury, a sudden movement crushing my spinal cord, so that the sensation from my legs suddenly vanished forever. I lay for a long time, contemplating it, fearing it. The crag was deserted. Nobody could help me. The road was what, 2 miles away?
I tried to roll over, and managed to do so, onto my hands and knees. Blood instantly poured down my face in rivulets and stung my eyes. My back seemed ok though.
I managed to stand up, and saw that I'd been lying on a jumble of broken sandstone blocks. I'd fallen on THAT, and not broken anything!?! Wow.
I felt my scalp. There was a big mushy area just behind and right of the crown of my skull. I couldn't tell if my skull was damaged. there was a huge lump, like half a cricket ball, protruding from my bloody hair (which was long at the time) like something from a cartoon. Lots of slow dark blood.
I looked up the route I'd fallen from. The very last move. That was 30 feet! I looked around the rocks to see where I'd bashed my head, expecting to see skin and hair adhering to the gritty sandstone somewhere. Nothing to see though.
I felt the grit in my mouth, and cupped my hand to spit into. What came out wasn't grit however. It was fragments of shattered teeth. My jaws slammed shut with such force when I landed on my back, that my teeth smashed like china cups.
Falling from 30 feet, onto a pile of boulders, landed me with a period of unconsciousness (seconds? minutes? hours? I have no idea) a mouthful of broken teeth, severe concussion, some thunderous bruises, but no broken bones, no brain damage, no paralysis, no choking on a swallowed tongue, no death, all of which were at least as likely as the actual outcome, and some of them more so.
I don't seek to put anyone off with this, but it serves as a cautionary tale. My average leading grade at the time was about VS/HVS and the route was well within my ability. A mere gust of wind was all it took to kill me. That I didn't die is just luck.
I had trouble soloing after that, even bouldering more than a yard or two off the ground freaked my head out. I remember a visiting Kim Carrigan at Caley watching me gibbering on an arete problem and, assuming it must be harder than it looked, getting on it straight after I jumped off. He was puzzled when it turned out to be a 4c path, but gracious enough to listen to my story about why I was having problems, and encouraged me to get on and have another go.
I never really got over it until 1985 when I went back to Northumberland and Simonside, where I felt compelled to solo Swastika Crack again, looking at the top of the arete, expecting to see deep groves where my fingers clawed at the rock as I began to fall. I then soloed down it, a controlled descent to exorcise the devils of my previous plummet. A final repeat of the solo, and a photo looking down the route from the top, to picture my nightmare landing and throw perspective on my survival, and the barrier was gone. I soon went on to solo bigger and harder routes, up to HVS/E1, which was equal to my lead grade at the time, and I gained nothing but pleasure and controlled thrill from doing so.
I rarely dwell on my avoidance of death that day. It never put me off climbing. I never even considered that. I didn't even tell any of my family until weeks after the event, and even then I played down its potential seriousness.
I love to climb, and always will, but I don't solo now. It's just something I gradually lost the desire to do. Climbing for me is nowadays just about fun and good craic and being in beautiful places, nothing more. But to solo, you have to be aware that survival isn't necessarily in your hands, that no matter how good you are, there are always other forces waiting to interrupt your flow, and perhaps your life.
As an addendum, the poster formerly known as JoHNy, who wasn't exactly Mr Popular amongst many of you, had a fall of 30 feet at Ratho Quarry back in March. 5 days intensive care. 5 weeks in hospital. Multiple injuries. Now in a wheelchair, though not permanently.
The difference is, he was roped, not solo. He fell the same as me, but was severely injured. And he has given up climbing for good. ...'
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imaserious
Big Wall climber
melbourne
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 10, 2015 - 01:51am PT
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**Australia (1979) Tobin Sorenson and John Allen
**
Mt Arapiles
The remarkable development of Australia's hardest area continues without respite. Again Kim Carrigan has been the dominant activist. He put up Australia's first two grade 27s when he freed the old aid problems Yesterday and Denim (pitch one) in quick succession. Both are sustained and extremely overhanging crack problems. Yesterday has not been repeated in its free state but visiting American climber Tobin Sorenson repeated Denim after a number of attempts and said it was 'hard' (American 5 .12). (He said that some, only, of Australia's 26s equal American 5.12 and all 27s would be 5.12 in the U.S.A.)
Carrigan freed the four-meter ceiling on Tiger Wall, Fox on a Hot Thin Roof, after five days and graded it 28. This grade did not last long, however, as Sorenson repeated it with relative ease and regarded it 27. John Allen (UK) led the third free ascent. A feature of the first free ascent of this climb was the pre-placing of some protection from aid.
Another of Carrigan's big efforts was his new climb on Bluff Major, Anxiety Neurosis (26) which basically follows an uncompleted bolt and rurp route. The first pitch is an extremely overhung traverse leading to a fearsome, undercut arete (26). It succumbed only after a number of days and many falls. The second pitch, up a blank arete, is little easier and also put Carrigan and his partner, Warwick Baird, to considerable trouble. Sorenson led the second ascent and Allen led the third ascent (first pitch only).
On Declaration Crag, Carrigan and Tony Dignam put up the face problem Look Sharp (23) with some pre-placed protection. Carrigan's first free ascent of Orestes (pitch one) (24) in The Atridae surprised most climbers because of the line's apparent looseness. However the line is one of the best at Arapiles and has already had a couple of repeats. This route received some attention from abseil prior to the first free ascent. In the same vicinity Kevin Lindorff and Dignam worked on the face left of Reunion to produce the rather bold Lois Lane (23) on which Peter Lindorff and Matt Dunstan followed. Dignam and Geoff Little did a similar route left of Frenzy - Iron Void (24). Below this, on the D Minor Pinnacle, Carrigan and Chris Peisker worked on the old aid problem The Philosopher (25) until it became a very thin free route. Lindorff and Geoff Little put up a minor new route, Fail Safe (25).
On the left side of Central Gully, Carrigan, Rod Young and John Smoothy climbed Cruel Canine (23) on the unpromising face right of Puppy Love.
The other side of Central Gully yielded a number of hard routes to Carrigan. Two of the best are Devoid (23), done with Tony Marion, and Vacancy (23), with Smoothy, on the wall right of Mari. Both were wire brushed prior to the ascent and require many small wires for protection.
Also in this general area Carrigan put up the 'nasty' Tres Hard (25) and an extremely overhanging crack problem. Dyslexia (25), with Peisker. Further right the same team found No Standing (24) on the steep face left of Stillborn and Carrigan led the brilliant face climb Morfyne (24) on which he was seconded bY Glenn Tempest, Louise Shepherd, Eddie Ozols and, rumour has it, Uncle Tom Cobbley!
On the Pharos there were two outstanding efforts: Kevin Lindorff led the very bold and sparsely protected Delirium Tremors (24) up the imposing southern face of the pinnacle, the first to get up this section of the wall, and Carrigan and Lindorff did the first free ascent of the dramatically exposed roof of Aftermath (25).
In the Pharos Gully there were more hard new climbs of mixed quality including Pattern Juggler (23) by Rod Young and K. Oaten, Snow Blind (23) by Coral Bowman and Peisker and Haphazard (23) by Carrigan, Dignam and Smoothy.
On Kitten Wall there were some major efforts. Carrigan finally freed Cat Cracker (26) after innumerable plummets from the hard boulder-problem crux and, with Mark Moorhead, put up the steep face climb Indoctrination (24) on which'Friends' are essential for some protection.
However the plum was undoubtedly Sorenson and Allen's beautiful and spectacular new route up the wall (23) and over the fifteen foot ceiling (25) right of Stranger's Eliminate. Tjuringa Wall, as they called it, was done in the best style and is one of the finest new routes at Mt. Arapiles in recent times.
In the Northern Group, Carrigan climbed a seam over the bulge right of Kachoong to give In Phase (24). Again 'Friends' were considered indispensible for protection. Sorenson's unroped on-sight solo of the ceiling route Kachoong Left Hand (22) really slackened local jaws. Another first was his similar solo of Christian Crack (2O). Finally, Allen and Sorenson, this time with the rope on, climbed a new ceiling which certain pundits considered unlikely' - Fiddler on the Roof (25).
Sorenson and Allen's most notable repeats not referred to above were the fourth and fifth ascents of the very strenuous testpiece Procol Harum (26) and the third and fourth ascents of Peisker's uncompleted (one pitch, only, so far) new route No Exit (26) in Central Gully.
The Grampians
Whilst Mt. Arapiles has had it all in quantity and difficulty, some of the best new routes have been done in the Grampians. The hardest is Life (24) on the face left of Decree Nisi at Black Ian's Rocks by Carrigan and Neil Parker (NZ). A bolt runner was placed by abseil. Also in the north, at Mt. Difficult, Rick White and Chris Baxter did Coup de Grace (21) one of the most overhanging crack climbs in the State, and an outstanding line. On Sundial Peak, Kevin Lindorff and Peter Jacobs climbed the 'elegant' Lion-Hearted (2O) 15ft right of Caucus Race.
In the South Jim Nelson and Dick Curtis climbed a prominent line on The Cheesecake at Mt. Abrupt - Shadow Road (2O). A point of aid used by the leader was eliminated by the second. Mick Law, Baxter and Mike Stone did the first climb on Ferret Hill - Tipsy (22), a beautiful corner and roof climb of two pitches. Nearby on The Promontory, another new outcrop, Hugh Foxcroft, Ed Neve and Nick Reeves did a sustained line which they called Restless (2O). Just to the north, on Mt. Fox, Baxter, Stone and Dave Gairns climbed the outstanding and unlikely wall between Foxfire and Leaner to give Twentieth Century Fox (2O) after first placing protection bolts.
Mt. Buffalo
Kevin Lindorff and Joe Friend reduced the aid on the She/Ozymandias Integral (22,M1) to one pendulum. This is one of the most spectacular routes on the north wall of the gorge. To the left of this Lindorff and Tempest did a remarkable almost free ascent of Lord of the Flies (23,M1) with only two aid points, to get off the ground, and four long pitches of 20 or harder.
Rest of Victoria
At Wilson's Promontory Tempest freed Cachalot (22), with Andrew Martin.
South Australia
Kim Carrigan recently visited Moonarie in the Flinders Ranges and, predictably, that area's number of hard routes underwent a quantum increase. One of the best was his first free ascent, with Louise Shepherd, of Robbing Hood (24) in the Great Wall area.
Other aid eliminations by Carrigan included Trojan (24), an overhanging crack and the removal of the single aid point from Medici (22). On the latter climb, a problem that has defeated a number of strong attempts, he was seconded by Shepherd and Tony Dignam. He put up one new climb, Self Destruct (24), which is said to involve a 3Oft ceiling, and did a new variant on Birdbrain (23). Dignam seconded the latter. Earlier, John Smart did the State's first grade 24 when he freed Grand Larceny on the same cliff; a proud roof 3OOft above the ground.
Elsewhere in South Australia Eddie Ozols put up Rubber Ducky (21) (for all you CB radio fans out there) on the sea cliff at Victor Harbour.
Oueensland
The chalk dust has fina!!y settled . after Tobin Sorenson's (U.S.A.) and John Allen's (U.K.) momentous visit. They raised grades in that State a couple of notches to bring them up to southern levels. Significantly Carrigan has already repeated all their hardest leads, confirming their difficulty with a dramatic series of plummets.
Allen and Sorenson's hardest route was Catcher in the Rye (27) on Frog Buttress which may be the most technical climbing in Australia but which required 'English tactics' to arrange the protection on both ascents to date. Sorenson took the lead from Allen to free a pair of aided climbs Barbwire Canoe (26) and Green Plastic Comb (26). These ascents have really impressed the locals. The former has scarcely no climbing below grade 22 in its 140ft. The latter is very strenuous and is protected by tiny wires. Sorenson took a series of dramatic, wire-snapping falls on both these demanding leads.
Elsewhere on Frog Buttress they put up The Guns of Navarone (24), a sought-after line right of Odin which incorporates one of this area's few ceilings. Tantrum (25) was an aid elimination with a boulder-problem start by the same pair whereas their Crack in the Pavement (23) was a new route.
Some Australians have also contributed to this cliff. Before he went to the U.S.A. Chris Peisker freed Worrying Heights (24), a sustained corner. Carrigan, seconded by Kevin Lindorff, got the only currently feasible aid elimination left by Sorenson and Allen (who had not had time to attempt it) - Voices in the Sky (26), and found a new climb Go- Between (23), seconded by 'barefoot boy' Fred From, which is something of a fiercely protected lead. Finally, a Oueenslander got in on the act when Robert Staszewski hit form and freed the strenuous finger crack of Carrion Comfort (25), which he wants to rename Forever Young, and found Delilah (23).
On Mt. Maroon, Sorenson and Allen freed the notorious Nympho Roof (24) which is a dangerously unprotected face leading to a hard undercling traverse. On a granite outcrop at Mt. Greville they did a rather obscure ceiling problem (24) which they doubt will be refound!
Correspondents: Baxter, Friend.
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imaserious
Big Wall climber
melbourne
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 10, 2015 - 02:19am PT
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Climbing Magazine, #94, February 1986
'...For years, the hardest route in America was Grand Illusion, a route done in 1979. Why is it that, despite a quick lead in the rock climbing game, American climbers have fallen behind? And why is Tony Yaniro the only American to have Grand Illusion? Carrigan made the fifth ascent in only two days of effort, after Gullich, (who made the second ascent in 1982), an unidentified German, and Hidetaka Suzuki had already climbed the route.
Grand Illusion is in California; everyone who has repeated it has traveled thousands of miles to do so, yet few Californians have even tried it. Moffatt flashed The Phoenix, yet few Valley climbers have tried it. Why are foreign climbers willing and able to do our hardest routes in excellent style when the “Best of America” won’t go near them?...'
..................................................................
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/grand-illusion/105875792
>>>By Craig Smith
>>>Sep 15, 2014
>>> For the record both Tod Skinner and I did it in '86 before Suzuki I >>>think, and we placed all the gear on lead. I'm not aware of anybody >>>who has flashed the route placing all the gear on lead. I think some >>>have pink pointed the route with gear in place.
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jaaan
Trad climber
Chamonix, France
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Sep 10, 2015 - 11:57am PT
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In the spring of 1981 I was climbing at Tremadoc in North Wales. I led a route called Atomic Finger Flake, a wildly overhanging layback at about mid 5.11ish. From the belay above the flake, the climb is invisible. I shouted to my partner to start climbing and he replied OK. I could hear him asking me to take in a bit quicker, which I did. He climbed fast but managed to keep up a move by move commentary about the pitch... right up to the last move... when a grinning Kim Carrigan pulled into view accompanied by manic laughter from the ground!
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imaserious
Big Wall climber
melbourne
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 10, 2015 - 09:08pm PT
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>>>In the spring of 1981 I was climbing at Tremadoc in North Wales. I led >>>a route called Atomic Finger Flake, a wildly overhanging layback
>>>Boris Hannon and Ian Parsons. 1981.
IS THAT YOU ???
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jaaan
Trad climber
Chamonix, France
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Sep 11, 2015 - 12:31am PT
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No, it's not me but I took the photo. It was taken in April 81. The incident with Kim was in May. Atomic Finger Flake is one of a handful of routes that stay dry in the rain (it's underneath the famous Ochre Slab of Vector) - something quite handy to know about in North Wales - and Tremadoc itself tends to get better weather than Snowdonia in general - and so at that time if you climbed regularly in N Wales you'd end up climbing routes like this again and again. I say 'at that time' as now there are far more wet weather alternatives up on the limestone of the north coast - Pen Trwyn etc.
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