UKH

Some of you probably remember this film of Pamela Shanti Pack making the first ascent of  'Kill Artist' where there was some rather fantastic faffing on the crux pitch including a modified quickdraw in order clip a bolt round the edge of a large block whilst hanging in an inverted leg jam. Exciting stuff.  

youtube.com/watch?v=Z4zv894cBRA& 

Fast forward a couple of years and Tom and Pete have bobbed up the '5.13' crux pitch onsight after the bolts were chopped and downgraded it to 5.11, claiming the bolt and invert was unnecessary due to the bomber hand jam a few feet to the left which could be reached after a bit of bridging. 

Read more here: 

Pete's account: https://www.facebook.com/petewhittaker01/posts/874956719519347?__tn__=K-R 

Tom's account: https://www.facebook.com/thomas.randall.58910/posts/10162130001685019 

This after not climbing much in the way of offwidth for the last 7 years or so. Good effort! 

But what did Tom say! His post seems to be deleted.

Pretty much the same as Pete but it's on his private page so might not be public. 

Pete writes "seeked". I'm downgrading his English language GCSE.

Ah okay - thank you

Anybody know the history about who chopped the bolts out of interest and why? Seems odd they were chopped when nobody had repeated the route until now.

I don't, but my guess is it's the difference between "these bolts aren't needed here" and "these bolts aren't wanted here", and that the chopper believes the latter...

(by way of example of what I mean: if someone stuck a bolt into the middle of some big blank grit wall, I don't think people would feel obliged to do the line without before chopping it, because the ethic is that bolts shouldn't be used, so you don't have to be improving the style for it to be ok to remove them...)

It's actually quite an interesting and complex tale about the chopping of the bolts (using aid, from the adjacent route). Apparently done by someone who was a part of the team that made the FA and even featured in the movie about it. I've seen people mention guns and pitch stealing, there's a lot of intrigue there!

Also, is it just me who thinks this is a height thing? Pam is definitely a different sort to Pete and Tom, and without knowing the intricacies of the moves in question, I have to suspect that they could simply reach to where she couldn't? It's a hard life.

Maybe 5.13 for the short... 5.11 for the big fisted and lanky..? 

Lanky!!! I think you will find them borderline Pygmy 

Tom’s fairly tall, surely?

jcm

Fair enough..! 

If anybody wants a glimpse into the dumpster fire that is the wide scene in america, here you go..

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=3195730&tn=40

Does this mean they’re on the hunt for some even nastier new routes?

I'm 5'10, the span on the block (the contentious lay backing move) is around 4ft 2inches (you could go for 2 inches either side if you want to have a margin for error)... I guess around the same ape index as my 7yr old. The crack on the LHS is bomber hands as it's 2 separate pods which close up, so you can basically slot your wrist bone into it whether you're a child or a massive ape. RHS is Friend 5 ish side and has a nice big square-cut edge to it so its nice and easy to layback. 

If anyone on UKC wants a reference to the move, it's similar to doing the crux on Forked Lightening Crack at Hepstonstall. 

That's an hilarious read! The video if the FA is equally funny. Hyperbole much?

Can't say fairer than that then! Knowing how quite a few americans would take it as a personal sleight, props to you both for sticking your heads above the parapet, and well done for talking to Pam about it before talking about it in the public sphere. I'm sure she appreciated that.

It's sad but a little amusing (in an odd way) to see people either reacting with rage at the ill-perceived insult against their finest OW craftswoman, or glee at what they see and use as more ammunition for their vendetta against Pam. What is it about wide cracks...

Sounds as though Tom and Pete have done it the sensible way and the original way is now an 'entertaining' eliminate.

It ain’t even an eliminate, FA video shows Pam using the hand crack for feet when she inverts. If you use it for feet, it’s also fair game for hands. 

Even more of an eliminate then!

When stood next to a pint glass yes :-D

A podcast discussion on this very issue - whether it is a callout, how it is handled, and the state of offwidth climbing in general - usual Kalous humour too

https://runoutpodcast.com/index.php/2019/05/24/runout-23-offwidths-getting-...