10 Greatest Climbing Achievements of All Time

Here are the 10 Greatest Climbing Achievements of All Time,

10. John Gill climbs The Groove, 1978

    A V10 in the 70's... what. John Gill's legacy of climbing as a gymnastic sport made the 80's a thing.

9. Fred Nicole climbs Dreamtime, 2000

    The world's first Font 8C, and greatest boulder problem on the planet.

8. Dawes on Indian Face, 1986

    The rock's the star – always has been, always will be. Dawes' philosophy is imbued in his greatest climb. A great Welsh Dragon is said to inhabit the route, ready to swoop down and scoop up any suitors, and British Trad climbing swoons.

7. Wolfgang Güllich – Action Directe, 1991

    Ben Moon: if you want to claim the world's first 9a, you gotta give the route 9a... It doesn't matter the Güllich gave it some UIAA grade, Action Directe is the first 9a, and the culmination of 1980's advances in training.

6. Chris Sharma - Biographie, 2001

    The route that did two things - made America great again, and determined that the equipper names the route.

5. Ashima Shiraishi V15, 2016

    People say that Shiraishi is note-worthy for being the youngest-ever or first-female-ever to climb certain climbs. But they are missing that she is 5'1'' – short climbers have no excuses anymore.

4. Adam Ondra - Silence, 2017

    We live in the age of Ondra. All hail the king of the clips.

3. Tommy Caldwell - Dawn Wall, 2015

    When your canvas is 3000ft by 1000ft, it's not just the greatest multi-pitch route ever, it's the greatest artistic expression of all time.

2. Alex Honnold - Free Solo, 2017 

    It will never be repeated. It will never be repeated.

1. Lynn Hill on the Nose, 1993

    What I said for number 3, but double.

Camden Sport Climb

 Singular.

My lust for hard project has ebbed of late. That's because I just climbed Puissance.

Camden is an interesting place. For climbing. Many people have climbed here, and much is unrecorded. There's no SMC Journal for Maine and I really don't know the history. I would like to.

That said, there's a route there that was bolted in the 90s and rumoured to be unclimbed. Like a bee to a jug of honey, I took a Levy flight from the boulders and gave it an attempt. Couldn't do the first move. Abseiled down and dangled on a shunt. There was a way: a tenuous leap to a sloper. The name of the route, Puissance, I glossed, meant how good a horse is at jumping.

Next try, on top rope I could make an attempt at this jump. Flailing upward the grip was not there, though I had the distance. I made a model on the Barn 45, though the actual angle is more 20 degrees. The dyno is a dyno, so just jump? No. The move is a super-crimp-throub-double-dyno. Super-crimp is where the hold is so small the DIP joints of the fingers are locked and pointing straight down. Throub is where you continue to pull up on the second hand while the leading hand moves to the next hold. Double is where both hands are needed to hold the next hold. This move is hard, perhaps V10. You tell me, please.

At this point, the conditions were too warm. In October, on a cloud day (the wall is in full sun all day), I stuck the move twice and fell off twice on the moves above. After the dyno there is a series of big burly moves (cover the distance quickly). These moves are ok. Then, there is the undercling section. Right hand to a terrible undercling with good feet: snatch a rubbish crimp. Then; bad feet. Steel yourself and stab into a finger tip undercling flake. Feet up and a jug happens. Or not. I fell off here twice.

Next time was a sunny day, but cool. With sun, the dark rock heated up and made the sloper less grippy. Although the dyno is the first move, it actually comes after a 5.9 slab called Reincarnation. If you fall off the dyno (which I did six times that day), one must lower down and climb the slab again. In some ways, this is the crux – being good enough to do the dyno reliably. You can't just stand there and have loads of attempts.

A tree cast a shadow over the sloper at about 4pm. Tom had been bouldering and stopped; it was a good time try the route. I dropped the move, lowered down, pulled the rope, and immediately climbed the slab again. Opting for a more relaxed over a maximum effort maxim, the dyno went. Engage full power now. 

A fantastic route, I'm delighted to climb it! As for the grade... well, I don't mind putting my neck out and calling it 5.14a. It might get 8b in Scotland. Perhaps similar to Fire Power at the Anvil, but with a harder finish. Hopefully someone will come and repeat it.

Camden Hills Bouldering Guide

I'm releasing this Bouldering guide to Camden digital for now... Enjoy. 

https://tinyurl.com/camdenboulders

This is the kind of design I've gone for. Russian style and distressed fonts are cool. Pink and blue are cool. Times for the text for a semblance of respectability. Some areas have photo topos, where I've gone for beefy black dashes with white shadow. Other areas have maps where the crag outcrops are a fetching pink chevron. I think it looks quite cool, all in all.

Guidebooking is different from climbing. There are lines I've climbed for this guide that I wouldn't normally climb. We (myself and Tom) didn't want to have any "projects" listed, particularly for things that looked V0 and no one had tried. So... imagine my shaking self – alone in the woods – perched on crumbling crimps over a precipice, a bank of lichen above and the salvation of a tree trunk guarded by a spiked twig palisade.

I survived. And I'm a glad to. I've got some really good problems in the guide and the remaining projects are real.

I shall return to climb them.

Summer Melts

The weather here in Maine is unrealistically hot and humid. Peely-wally by nature, I worship our window A/C unit and hang fabric against the glass to block opportunistic photons from entering.

Epic thunder storms spin from inside the continent unleash a wicked amount of rain that evaporates within an hour.

... Water, no water;

The cars will drive regardless.

Was it always so?

Meanwhile, the rocks slumber. I visited them once and looked like this.

... it was not raining

There is one area outwith the trees. Here, the humid air can breathe, likewise the boulderer. I took photos on a 10 second timer with my smart phone, thus:

... looks pretty good, eh?

The heat relented for one day and the bouldering was bliss. It's hot again.

... the 45 board went up

Inside my buddy's barn, we spent our Trump Bucks to build a climbing wall. Richard Thompson said, Red holds and pine plywood, my favourite colour scheme. It's madly humid too, though there is a beautiful, necessary lake to swim for immediate relief.

Perhaps the night will suit me?

The Traverse

I wrote on October 18th 2019:

"Currently working the traverse... can't do the moves yet, and the last move seems to be the crux!"

June 2nd, the work was done. Let me describe it to you.

Wake up and step on the scales: 152.6lbs, a new low. I've been trying to gain some weight, for more strength endurance. For months I've only been able to have one or two attempts at the traverse per session, then needing a days rest per attempt afterward. Such is my state of fitness. I'd been aiming for a good recovery but... lockdown zen seemed to strike and I don't think I ate very much the previous day. I was light and recovered - I owed myself an attempt. Motivation fragile.

I hopped on my bike and wheeled down to Dodge Point, and walked the mile to the crag. Warm ups. I've learned how to warm up bouldering. One: start slow, Two: top out, Three: enjoy it.

After, I propped my camera phone on my favorite sapling and heading over to the sit start. The first half is power endurance and can be climbed in 40 seconds... V6; very crimpy. Then there's a rest consisting of a big flat hold. In the winter this hold draws warmth out of your fingers. This time it was not too cool, being 70 degrees. It's more of a shake out than a rest.  I caught my breath. The next sequence is great - spin upside down and flick between good left hand holds while pretending to hold a right hand mollusc. Stretched out, cut the heel near front lever, then dead point to a small crimp. I hit the cross over to the good crimp from which it's limit reach to a wobbly flake (hopefully no one pulls it off). Top out was easy thank goodness. Eerie though. Should I be here?

I was there, uncertain, but physically the traverse was complete. And sad. I've climbed everything on the wall; I'll not go back with purpose.

I gave it V10 which I think is a risk... 8b route? I guess so, never climbed one. Maybe someone will repeat it? I've not climbed an establish problem for months. That's on my to do list. I guess "who cares" but, I just don't want to look like an idiot if someone gives it V8.... there are no Brittish 7a moves on it. Maybe a couple 6c ones. Grading is so hard! Someone should make a calculator... wait a sec...

I just googled climbing grade calculator and got this: https://www.bergfreunde.eu/climbing-grade-calculator/, which suggests V10 is french 8c or 14b, which is nonsense!

Look at these examples:

9a+  V15 Wheel of Life long boulder
9a    V14  The Fly short route
8c+  V13 Hubble short route
8c    V12    ?
8b+  V11   Wife of Fyfe traverse
8b     V10  Happiness in Slavery short route, noted as V9
8a+   V9    So Be It short route
8a     V8    Consolidated - long boulder problem, comments say 7c+

Well, disagree if you like. Just watch the vid.



Oh, the name. Rage, Rage. A Dylan Thomas line? The opening to the Iliad? The mental state needed to climb it? The psyche of America today?

My Corona

Death, Death, Death! More Death!

I hope your immunity is up.

Governments are happily publishing loads of data on the pandemic, but not really telling you what to do with it, other than use common sense. For a recovering PhD, that can only mean one thing: spreadsheets.

This chart should update daily as more data rolls in.

While the numbers published by governments are not confusing, they are not useful. Number of deaths? Who cares! Ask Stalin.*

The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.

What I need to know is: how risky is it to go bouldering? Here's my attempt at common sense, to try and answer that.

There is some Death rate, which I guess is 1%. And there is some average time between catching the disease and dying. I guess 20 days. Why do I guess these numbers? They seem reasonable and fit with some notions like, "lockdown started in late March".

We can now work out the detection rate 20 days ago: for example: if 13 people die today, they've taken 20 days to die. 20 days ago, we measured, for example, 530 cases, however there must have been 1300 cases (1% of 1300 is 13 deaths). Out of the 1300 cases we only measured 530 cases, meaning our detection rate is 530 divided by 1300, or 40%. With more data, we can fit the detection rate and predict what it is today. That means I can guess how many people are currently out there, contagious with the disease, but do not have a positive test for it. For example, say, 71 people are found to test positive today, but detection rate is only 40%. Therefore 177 people have it. I subtract 71 from this, because if someone tests positive, it should be safe to assume they are extremely isolated (known as the Cathy Correction). So that would be 106 new cases. I add up the previous week of undetected new cases to get the total number of contagious people currently in the population. Divide by the total population and multiply by 1000, and ta-da, you have (what I'm calling) the Danger Level.

You can see the Danger Level for different populations in the graph, above. I interpret it as:

Above 5:      Do not leave the house!
Above 1:      Exercise extreme caution, go bouldering alone or not at all, avoid everyone.
Above 0.5:   Bouldering in small groups (one or two others) is ok, once or twice a week.
Any Lower? Larger groups, more regularly!

Obviously, I am no authority on the matter, in case anyone reads this (in that case, Hello! I hope you're well (if I am reading this again, Hello)). I'm aware I conveniently set these levels to fit my climbing patterns, so, blah.

Well, Maine is currently at 0.74, meaning safe for occasional bouldering. I keep a close watch on it as it's trending upward. While the assumptions are very sweeping (and wrong), the method lets me make predictions that are about 20% accurate, one week ahead - compare that to your weather app. They are the best I've come up with so far.

Scotland and UK should be commended for the heroic lockdown they have endured, and are now less dangerous than the generic USA. Maine, off the map, as always, avoided the worse of it, however Tourist season has just begun so we'll see....😬

* Quote not actually attributed to Stalin.

Force of Fate

One year.

Let me tell you something. It has been a year since our immigration status in the USA changed and I have become unemployable. It sucks; unemployment is the worst job. You cannot do only one thing, so between feeling sorry for myself, I started climbing again...

There are few boulderers here, but there is one called Tom who finds boulders walking Homer between the trails in Camden's Hills. He eagerly points me at steep ones and we try to climb them.

The first one I couldn't do was a 50 degree roof with three crimps spaced like campus rungs, too slopey to campus though. We had two sessions on it, and I thought I was close. I went to Europe and climbed some Font 7bs, tried to speak French, and went to a wedding is Croatia. When I came back, I bruised my knee, then I seem to have no memory, then I injured most of my fingers hanging on the finger board, I tried the traverse, and a pandemic happened.

Eventually, yesterday, we got back. Was it going to be easy? No. I was stronger, I knew that I was not close previously. The last move needed to be done almost static in order to have any hope of controlling a great swing when feet cut off. The landing disappears, once I flew past the mats and slid down the hillside. Once, I stuck the second degree move to the lip and scraggled my feet over. This is hardest problem in Camden (as far as I know), so I give it V9 and name it "Force of Fate" after a line in Homer's Iliad, vaguely to do with accepting your circumstances:

But even for me, I tell you,
death and the strong force of fate are waiting.
There will come a dawn or sunset or high noon
when a man will take my life in battle too—
flinging a spear perhaps
or whipping a deadly arrow off his bow.

Mid Coast Classics

The Traverse... 30 moves of power endurance. I've fallen at the last move, and tried it 50 times at least. Seven months of failure.

Time for something other.

Classics. Mid Coast Classics.

Mid Coast Maine, according to wikipedia, is the optionally hyphenated stretch of sea-meets-land from Brunswick to Belfast, 70 miles on the West side of Penobscot Bay.


Episode one... After another failed traverse attempt, I sit breathless. On a whim, I prop my phone on rock and hit record. This problem is V7; it has the smallest crimp on wall. I first did it in October last year after a load of attempts, so it was satisfying to get a retro-flash. Then another with the camera wedged in a sapling. The later is what you watch.



Episode two... Here, Cath climbs. We're at Tracy Shore, where granite domes from pine needle carpet. I think this is V1, and possibly the best problem here. It could be called Earn Your Ice Cream. It is! I have a brother who plays guitar so well, people have written Haikus about him. So that's where the music comes from, I hope I don't get copyright claimed.

The Lav Trav

Decline of the Blog, views against time.

We're gonna turn this around! Get ready. It seems like content creators are doing vlogs more so than blogs - why? - recording equipment is readily available, and youtube has fantastic reach compared to other platforms. Well, rather than going with the times, I'll stick with the blog and see.

That said I do have a Youtube channel, like the icing on a fruit cake. Remember though, the cake itself is where it's at even if you don't like sultanas.

The Lav Trav is an obvious challenge at a nearby stretch of coast called Laverna. It's a line of flakey jugs at head height with small footholds. At low tide, the landing is really bad - probably an ankle - high tide would be an adventure! The jugs run out for the last two moves, so there's a small crux at the end... no more than 5.11 in USD, or about 7a french. It has been on my radar for around 4 years, so it's great to actually do it. Doing things is very important. The rock is lovely in the late afternoon.

More, Laverna has a load of low-balls to climb on.

Low ball, obligatory squint horizon

Low ball, top out training

If you count all the low balls, there's probably 25 problems here. Nothing hard, but.

Alone

No one asked for bouldering poem, a bit like the pandemic. But here we are.

Years, days.

What better time to restart the old blog than the end of the world.

I've reread some of my old posts only occasionally. It's a lot of spelling mistakes, enthusiasm, pessimism, sometimes something to make you smile.

Smiling is underrated.

Where am I, where are you, what us changed between us, reader (which I realize probably me)? That's right, I'm living in America. Maine. Off the map. Dave Graham country, but he left a long time ago. We went to a lecture of his in Glasgow, I remember him saying, Maine it's just flat, it's just flat. Which is true.



Even the mountainous areas are pretty flat. It's quite similar to Coigach in that way. Except the forests are not cartographic, viz., they are real.

Endless trees. Why? Look at those trees. They're all pretty young. In the recent past these trees were clear cut. Recent is maybe 300 years... The trees were cut down for the masts of English ships, similar to Scotland. Then, people came and farmed the land - sheep - and you can still see the ruined dry stone walls of this livelihood, again, similar. Then the people left. This was after the American Civil War, so the story goes. The farmers who fought in the war realised the battlefields in Virginia were more fertile than Maine's shallow soil. So, Maine had a "Highland Clearances" of its own, but there's no Hallaig, or Empty Glen eulogising the lost people. This is because these farmers had only been here for a couple generations, and because they left by choice...

People rue the "Maine brain drain" which continues today, but they don't seem to write poetry about it.

Seemingly, the Maine farmers took the sheep with them and the trees came back. The forests are harvested, but there are no spruce plantations. I guess they just chop down whatever has grown. Land is cheap, particularly in Northern Maine: a few hundred dollars an acre if you can buy a million acres... and build a road to get there.

Along the coast of Maine the land is more expensive. This means people can only buy about one acre each, and on that acre they build a big house out of the cheap lumber.



The houses are in the wood. The entire coast of Maine is essentially a giant suburb, in which small town centres dot every 15 miles or so. This is great for the wealthy who own one of these parcels, but is terrible for the boulder hunter - my range is limited to public lands sandwiched between these low residential dough-fests.

Here's a few pic's of what I've found:



Tracy Shore, where to get started.



This is called "Tipping Rock," as yet unclimbed.



Looks better than it is! Pemaquid Point.



The Spot in Camden is really good. Other people boulder here, it's that good!



The local is Dodge Point. I've been trying the right to left traverse for 7 months! Epic.

All pics from Cath.

Stay tuned for more posts, you never know.