A reminisce from the past after an amazing surprise visit by an amazing girl

And after that title, there's little else to say!

Sunday saw a far too brief rendezvous with the amazing Mina above along with, Lisa and Amanda; friends who I had the pleasure of spending many fun-filled hours with, many moons ago. Sadly given time they've gone off their separate ways and I've been awful at staying in touch. After five minutes it was clear that nothing had changed, we still get on amazingly despite the time gone by.

Exactly how friendships should be.

No more Banshee!

So I've finally beaten the Trad route that has caused me to fall out the sky three significant times before!

Banshee is a straightforward climb at E2 5c. Which sits in the mid-range of difficulty (see the end of this post).

E2 5c in reality isn't very hard (I've climbed up to E4 as highball soloing), the difficulty of the climbing was something I could probably manage two years ago but placing gear and climbing that difficulty made me make some goofy mistakes and as a result I fell out the sky three times. I'm going to make excuses ...

The first day it was so cold I put one hand on top of the other, couldn't feel my fingers then desperately tried to release my 'trapped' lower hand. I fell. Whoosh! Deciding that the old adage of getting back on the horse was probably appropriate, I got back on climbed to the same point, exhausted. I slipped and fell again, then my mate Simon raced straight up and another route to the left, then rain started and we abseiled off the ramp and went home. The third failed attempt was a bad day, turning up very hung up I laid down and watched a friend and his mate climb whilst soaking up the sun, getting increasingly dehydrated. Having been persuaded to 'have a go' on my project I was belayed by this unknown guy, got half way up, started dry heaving  and promptly took the same fall if not a little bit more dramatically this time, whooshing over the startled belayers head.

So several months on, after watching Ged and Charlie's day of fun, I was inspired to get on myself and try and tick my project - the easiest climb, they climbed that day!

The short of it is, I did it! Superficially it felt easy, except for one critical omission ... There's a nut placement that most people describe as 'critical', along with 'unmissable' and 'bomber' (climberspeak for very secure and safe). I missed it, my gear was far below and consisted of rusty, unbomber pegs. The situation felt a little bit critical as I arrived at a rather exciting mantel - a move similar to climbing up a brick wall and climbing over the top, you start with both hands above you on a ledge, scrabble your feet up, get over your hands and push up until you can get your foot on and stand up. I got about halfway up and slipped, dropping back down left with elbows sprawled over the ledge.

Fearfully aware that a) I could well slip off and b) if I did slip it was a very long way down and I couldn't convince myself there wasn't more rope out than distance to floor, i.e. I thought I may well hit the ground, I held on slowly slipping towards the edge. Somehow I scrabbled, squawked and managed to get myself back up and onto the horrible slanting ledge. Looking about I realised that was it - I was up.

Never has the end of a climb felt so much of a relief - I never had to climb it again, I hadn't slipped and hit the ground!

At 15 metres of climbing it's not amazingly high, but when my mate, Luke gave me back the gear out I'd placed it was a little bit of a shock to see so little, in fact I asked him where the rest was. One cam was placed low which did very little but redirect the belay to prevent the gear above popping out, then a slightly dodgy nut, then one more cam placed next to two quick draws clipped to rusty pegs. Interestingly sparse protection from there to the end (which should have been filled by the 'critical' nut placement!) ...

-

Trad climbing grades are funny, in reality most people could get up the climbing of a VD on their first outing, perhaps even a little higher. My favourite climb for new climbers is Idleburger Buttress at Avon Gorge which goes at VD (and has bolts at the top to create a safe top rope set up, where the rope goes up, loops at the top and down to the climber, as such if they slip they don't fall any real distance.) So having said that the climbing isn't difficult, what is difficult is getting your head together and climb up a wall with nothing attached to it already, sticking lumps of metal into cracks, clipping your safety rope to them and hoping they'll hold if you slip. This is the differential between Trad climbing headset and Sport Climbing - Trad climbing you have to think about the climb (noun), whilst Sport climbing you have to think more about the climbing (verb).

Easy (which involves little to no actual 'climbing') ...

Moderate (M)

Difficult (D)

Hard Diff (HD)

Very Difficult (VD)

Hard Very Difficult (HVD)

Severe (S)

Hard Severe (HS)

Very Severe (VS)

Hard Very Severe (HVS)

Extreme Severe (E1)

=> E2 <=

E3
E4
E5
E6
E7
E8
E9
E10

E11

Quote of the Day

"When I began climbing hard I figured I wouldn't live past 26. Strangely, I survived 20 years after my predicted expiration date. I've quit counting on "no future" and learned to live with not knowing the future."

- Mark Twight -

The Ramp Challenge

So the Ramp Challenge, an idea conceived by Ged and Woody after climbing Tour de France and realising the last move was probably the single toughest move on the Ramp at Seawalls, Avon. Wouldn't it be great if that was the final move of a huge bigwall, multi pitch route? Shame there's no big walls in Bristol …

 So what's the solution? It's obvious right? Enchain all of the starred routes on the ramp starting from the right and working left in sequence until the final climb, Tour de France and the final move, 'that move'. 

Today Ged and Charles took that plan, formed by ill minds, and put it into action. On possibly the most perfect of winter days a reasonably prompt, but equally civil, start at 9.30am led into an all day effort leading to the final climb, in the pitch black lit by a shoddy head torch with failing batteries and shining from the sidelines the brightest cyclelamp known to man.







The result? E2, E2, E5, E4, E3, E6, E5, E3, E5, E6, E3, E6. Up until the final route all routes were ticked clean on lead, with gear placement alternated between the two of them, a few slips here and there, but ropes were pulled through and re-sent. The final route was always going to be the crux and had the day started an hour or so earlier, the chance to do it in daylight and with a bit more time to relax may have made all the difference. That said Ged took the baton, tied on and despite an unenthused start soon found himself a lot further up than he expected cheered on by Gaz Parry, Joe Day, Archie, Ben and others. Just at the final moves, squelching his finger into the soggy mono at the top he popped off and took the late night lob, undeterred but unable to re-climb the lower section he pulled back on to the wall and sent it up from there to the top, it might not have been perfect style but it was sure as hell impressive. All that remained now was for Charlie to pull on and do the business too. In a similar exhausted state to Ged, he too took a couple of little falls but at the end of the day, most importantly pulled up and over to the railings as well.

If today wasn't inspirational, I don't know what is.

 Good work boys.

Follow up: 


Ged Desforges: good stuff pete, cheers for sticking with us! and cheers to Gaz for the torch. And the other random people who, for a reason I still dont understand, happened to be up on the ramp late on a saturday evenin ing january. 


Charlie Woodburn: Great shots Pete, massive thanks & and as ged says the moral support was awesome. Perhaps the casual 9.30 start coupled with neither Ged nor I bothering to bring a head torch was a little blasé in retrospect. But let's face it, it wouldn't have been nearly so much fun and blindly fumbling around in the dark on the crux of a E6 after 11 pitches was exactly how woody would've wanted it. The challenge is there for anyone who wants to do it. Big up mr Woods, we'll always remember you via evenings like last night.