UKH

Ha its not from the guidebook but from Rock Climbers in action in Snowdonia. A lovely page turner and I came across this legendary description of Hothouse Crack, A Menlove Edwards route in the Devils Kitchen.. If people have some equally as quirky could you please share it will do my sanity the world of good! 

Out of perverse curiosity  I once climbed one of Edward's route on the Kitchen Cliffs and on a wet day in nailed boots. It was called Hothouse crack, standard very difficult and was about 280 feet long. To make things completely realistic I ought to have been climbing in stockings which was the approved way in those days of dealing with greasy rock. This technique seems to be less popular today, but whether it is because an alternative has been found or because fewer people climb on wet days, I cannot say.

Judging from the amount of unscathed greenery very few people had trodden the climb before me. if you selected a typical piece of the Amazon jungle and tilted it at an angle of about 70 degrees you would have a fair replica of Hothouse Crack. A lot of people find Vegetation on a climb worrying. I can only say that on the Devils Kitchen cliffs, it is the occasional piece of rock which are worrying. Once you get used to the idea that it is not really a sin to use the tougher plants to the best advantage, the whole process becomes a very enjoyable Caterpillar like wallow. There are belays available but it is sometimes difficult to decide whether to use a rock spike, apparently composed of a mixture of glue and chalk, or a more reassuring but less conventional rhododenron!

A place not welcome of nonchalant fist bumps!

(From an as yet unpublished article.)

Once again, it was Jim’s lead. To my astonishment, he chose a Brown-Whillans testpiece called The Thing. To say that The Thing had a reputation would be a gross understatement. Back then, it had the most chilling description of any rock climb in Britain.

‘Extremely strenuous.  A short, vicious climb of great technical difficulty. Possibly the hardest problem in the valley.  Difficulty is sustained, protection poor, retreat beyond the crux uninviting and the ground below nasty to land on.’

It was one of only two routes given ES, i.e. Exceptionally Severe (a special grade, above XS). If all that wasn’t enough to put you off, there was a chilling footnote accompanying a photo in the iconic book ‘Rock Climbers in Action in Snowdonia’.

‘The attempt photographed by John Cleare was unsuccessful. Those who think they might climb it should note that the climbing is irreversible after a few feet, continuously difficult, on dangerous rock, and there are no runners from which aid could be sought in an emergency.’ 

I belayed Jim. The rope was shaking. Why was this? I looked down at my hands and found the reason.

Mick

The Thing (E2 5c)? Piece of cake. Reminded me of Fairy Steps (VS 4a) at Stanage but a lot easier. Did it drunk in slippers in a rainstorm. Just kidding Mick

Edit, just realized (realised??) I made a brilliant unintentional pair / joke with "Fairy" plus "cake"

Was 'Jim' a visiting American ?

Simplicity is good sometimes.  SOS at Avon used to have a dotted line painted up it - I think the last traces of it have now gone.  The description read, 'Tear along the dotted line'.

Well, I guess we can excuse you if it was unintentional...

Yes, Jim Erickson, a leading American climber - FFA Naked Edge and the North-West Face of Half-Dome. The latter was pretty much the Dawn Wall of its era. Jim spent several years trying it. Probably the hardest route of its type in the world, at the time: 5.12 in the sky, when 5.12 was cutting edge.

Summer of '74. Don't tell me that you too were in Humphrey's Barn? Seems like most of that generation was: Gabe Regan, Jim Moran, etc.

My rise and, well... fall.

Mick

It's OK, we pissed up it too; no-hands rest on the crux. I think I was being pulled upwards by the sheer force of Jim's self-belief. (Oh, to have self-belief!)

Glad to see that Fairy Steps is VS now. Was Severe, back in the mists of time. I remember thinking that it wasn't one to start shaking on!

Mick

Humphreys had a daughter you know, very pretty and good fun. I bopped with her at the Cabin Club in Liverpool in 1974, and my mates threatened to tell Humphreys that we had been rather more intimate than that when Humphreys caught us bouldering inside the barn. I used to get on alright with Humphreys, he once let me stay in the barn for a couple of days on credit waiting for my folks to send a postal order to spring me!

This masterpiece of Edwardian understatement always tickles me:

There are, it is true, no laurels to be won upon the edges and monoliths of Peakland, and there is little scope for sensational exploits and hairbreadth escapes; the man who happens to tumble off a big boulder may hurt himself, but he will not have the gratification of falling through a thousand feet or so of magnificent scenery.

EA Baker, Moors, Crags and Caves of the High Peak and Neighbourhood, 1903

No doubt was in Llanberis at some time in 1974 but don't think I ever stayed at Humphreys Barn - but all a long time ago. Is this part of another article or something longer ?

That ones amazing, more of this needed.

I also remember it being Severe and also remember thinking at that time, this is not the best route for a nervous leader who has just started leading Severes!

"Look here, you chaps - I'm expecting a postal order!" (Billy Bunter - many and often. Naturally the said postal order never arrived. Probably still lost in the post.)

I do know that Humphrey had a daughter. He kept her well removed from us lot. Sounds as though he'd sussed you out as a respectable member of society, fit company for daughter and credit into the bargain. You didn't bump into Whillans in the Padarn and get a, "Posh git!" back?

Mick (The late Peter Hodgkiss: "My mother always said that Mick was a name suitable only for dogs.")

Another article. Haven't got the legs for owt more, these days. A few years ago, coming back from the crag, somebody made an off the cuff remark and suddenly the floodgates of memory opened. All about trad. The sport climbers with us looked suitably disgusted - as well they might.

Mick

Yup. A nervous leader could have died on it. Probably still can. A route to treat with respect. Somehow these 'routes with character' are the ones that seem to stay longest in the memory, irrespective of grade.

Mick

I bumped into Mrs Humphries in the Padarn about 15 years ago at an OAP Xmas party. She told me  about how the Bunkhouse all started in the winter of '47 when some climbers from Bromsgrove rolled up on dark foul evening looking for shelter and they were give the barn, which was incredibly basic. No bunks or sink or light. They returned again the following winter and eventually word got out about the barn and that was how it really all started. Mrs Humphreys also ran the small shop/post office in Nant Peris that a few on here might remember and old man Humphries ran the barn, with strictly seperate accomodation for the ladies, a small shed!

I remember taking a girlfriend away on a Uni weekend trip and being told she had to sleep in the female accomodation which I think was a large chicken coop.. Girlfriend was not impressed.

Absolutely right for me - routes I've done where a lack of protection and possibility or probability of hitting the deck from hard moves high up really increases the buzz or enjoyment of a route for me, and the good feeling of still being in control. So my favourite grade is E3 5b. (E4 5b, or E4 5a, would be even better but they seem to be rare)

I just like getting safely up routes like that, in control

And loose or very loose rock just increases the fun for me

The Frumious Bandersnatch (E7 6c)

I quite like this one 

I just read it - thanks - really good. "Place gear in the slightly worrying booming rail..." - that is so Gogarth

I also like "before you reach a point of total meltdown" and "If you are still there, and haven’t plunged into outer-space...."

Public logbooks: "There are no ascents logged for this climb."

Why the hell not? Sounds like an instant classic to me... 

@dinodinosaur: thanks for this - an inspiring read! 

youtube.com/watch?v=_dcJ3nR3dDU& there is a short film here 

I agree about simplicity. 

But I can never remember which way round goes the simplest, most evocative description I ever read :

" A route of utter cheek and great exposure"

or " A route of great cheek and utter exposure".

How I envy anyone who has made that particular trip!

I found it fairly amenable for the grade. Modern protection has tamed it i guess.

Fairy Steps is definitely one of those routes that is somehow less frightening to solo than to lead!  If you start off knowing runner placements are irrelevant you don't scare yourself by failing to get anything in. 

That makes sense. I remember soloing it decades ago, along with a load of other stuff, when I was still discovering Stanage. It may seem perverse noting protection (or lack of it) when soloing but I can't help doing so. Too much of a cowardy custard, I suppose. I remember thinking that it was pretty mean for Severe. VS 4a sounds about right. Combined with looking at it, folk will know exactly what they're getting into. 

Mick

Wow - that's a great piece of social history. Thanks so much, Sean. Good on Mr and Mrs Humphreys for being so enterprising.

Mick

Totally. Crucially Jim got two wires in at the start - the first time I'd ever seen wires used. He might have had the odd hex in the crack (no cams, back then) but the crack's OK if you're good at cracks - and Jim was, famously so.

The Thing is probably one of the greatest examples of a route tamed by modern protection. The same doesn't apply with stuff like The Boldest and Great Wall, where modern protection certainly helps but doesn't tame.

However for Brown going out, without runners low-down, above that dire landing in the mid-1950s, it must have been horribly bold. And for Frank Cannings and Ian Campbell (both of this parish) and the trickle of others doing repeats in the early 1960s, it must have been scarcely less bold.

What's the great line from 'Rock Climbers in Action in Snowdonia'? Something like, 'You go, you commit... and it's the big effort that counts.'

Indeed!

Mick

Big push, I think.  I always think I can quote these books word by word, but usually I'm wrong. I'll check later.

It's not on a par with many others in this thread, but I always enjoy the quiet understatement of Paul Williams' description of  the top of Great Wall pitch two:-

'Make a long reach for a ledge. If successful, the main difficulties are over. If unsuccessful, the difficulties are just beginning.'

I probably enjoy it more because I once saw someone fall from this point almost back down to the belay. You had to be there, I expect.

jcm

ooft! The thought of fairy steps makes me shudder. I remember doing it late 90s just after my mate passed his driving test when at that time I thought it was Severe 4a and looked like fun. Type II fun in the end. As a ill-equipped, poor, youth we had a copy of Paul Nunn's grey Stanage guide from the 70s that my dad used to use...plus woefully inadequate gear for the time. We only had a cobbled together rack of hand me downs from my dad and a few newer items. We only had one friend that didn't fit any of the cracks...we did have a MOAC though (still have it) for hanging a house off in one needed. We were totally sand-bagged on many routes that trip. Tbh is was a bit deflating and a serious eye-opener to climbing grit, especially without friends. It was our first trip to grit and to get used to the style and the 70s grades we were working to took time. I moved to Sheffield a few years later and found my eye. Lots of fun. 

Remember doing it in 1969. Absolutely bricking it because of the description and an only juster. As he pulled through the crux up and right and reached easier climbing my second briefly passed out from the effort. Went to the pub that night and the usual question was what did you do today? Thing! F*ck off!

I'm always struck by the North Wales pandering to Sheffield, Leeds and their rocky environs, as in the description in an 80's vintage guide of one Llanberis mini-classic as 'A popular problem for gritstone addicts' 

At the other end of the scale Scottish guidebooks of that era had legendary terse and brief descriptions. For example, the 30m 4th pitch of Shibboleth (Very Severe!) simply said "go up and right for 50ft to a jug-handle, traverse hard left for 10ft and climb to a stance". No mention of the sustained 5b climbing and what would have been zero protection in the late 50's!

my favourite was something like 'climb the rib for 300 feet, belay' (something on Stag Rocks from memory) - our first thought was that our rope was only 150 feet long.

It's hard to know which is more intimidating - so much put in, so much clearly left out?

Mick