So, if we dare to dream of happier times, what route are you going to climb to celebrate...and why?
Personally I'd love to climb A Dream of White Horses (HVS 4c) again, a great climb in a fantastic location at the the best climbing location in the world.
I saw your thread title and instantly thought of DoWH, then I clicked on the thread. I guess I'm not very original
I looked at it once and decided it wasn't the day. I really need to go back and do it.
I don’t climb trad at all, so I’m normally not fussed when I look at classic trad routes as I know I’ll probably never do them. But ADoWH looks incredible.
Maybe one day, when all this blows over I can join a team as a second or something? I think it’s within my ability climbing wise but I’d never be able to get the gear placement right.
I'm sure you won't be disappointed by the route, particularly the last pitch.
Resurrection E4 6a
Ask us again in a couple days/weeks/months and we'll see how our answers change, probably to "absolutely anything."
> Ask us again in a couple days/weeks/months and we'll see how our answers change, probably to "absolutely anything."
Agreed. I'd be happy with Wyndcliff Quarry!😁
Aardvark (HVS 5a) or Gwydrin (E1 5b) because this year I want to spend more time on localish crags.
La Demande!
In all seriousness I was actually concentrating on sport this year for the first time in 18 years of climbing so I’d probably be keen on trying to tick my latest project at Wyndcliff quarry. Although when all said and done it will be what ever I can get on soonest!
Bob Graham Round.
Possibly Mupe Bay Traverse (Diff), partly because I'm likely to go first to Dorset without a climbing partner once released from lockdown. Mile of fun scrambling probably followed by swim and long coastal walk.
It's a solo! Usually
"Darius" on High Tor. Local crag for me, and last time I went on it I ended up in hospital with another great climbing tale! Got to go back and do it. Probably at least a couple of months away, but I'll have to start training tomorrow!
Darkinbad the Brightdayler
Lockdown home wall training might need to go on for some time though
The Italian Ridge on the Matterhorn. Should have done it years ago.
Darius (E3 5c) is a tough route, E3 in my opinion. Robert Brown (E3 5c) is easier but maybe no quite as good.
Seconding the last pitch of DoWH if you've never done any trad would be well exciting, no matter how far within your physical limit it might be.
Perhaps we should team up and get it ticked off and debate the grade!
Funnily enough I cruised Robert Brown the weekend before I took a sixty-foot screamer off Darius. The fall happened just as my wife-to-be and her mother were walking around Matlock making wedding plans for our hitching later. Mother-in-law to be wouldn't speak to me until I got off the crutches two days before the wedding. "Are you going to stop this stupid climbing, now?"she asked.
Not a chance.
On the subject of Dream of White Horses: Back in the eighties I went three times to Gogarth with seconds who really wanted to do it. All three bottled it. I ended up soloing it. HVS was nothing to me in those days. I want those days back.
DoWH for me too. Best climb I have ever done and I can completely see why people bottle it when you walk down to that spot of land and look back at it. Imposing is not the word.
Just so. Not quite my favourite climb, but certainly in the top 50.
I can see the future next year . . . Ukc news . . . ‘Numpties swarm on Dream of White Horses ‘. . .
The lion pub on tithebarn st Liverpool
a great pint of mild and fab food; pork pies with or without mustard
Mine a will probably be a VD given how rubbish I will be if the walls remain shut.
I will probably also be injured from trying to finger board.
Oh aye, I think oil could manage it, but that’s not to say I wouldn’t be absolutely gripped. I think that’s what attracts me to it!
Cioch Grooves, Arrow Route, Trophy Crack on Sron na Ciche. Beautiful varied climbing - sheer quality.
Steve
Great topic, the Cuillin ridge traverse is an itch I've yet to scratch, I've been on most of the ridge over the years but want a full traverse with a luxury bivy. Doing it in a day is just vulgar 😉
This one , Espolón Central (4c)
La Belle Helene, Grand Jorasses.
Hopefully my prospective partner / rope gun is still up for it in March 2022....
CB
Darkinbad the Brightdayler would be nice but Lighthouse Arete would be rather more sensible!
The Weaver (E2 5c) but I feel like it would be more like Boo-Boo (D) by the time this is all over...
> Great topic, the Cuillin ridge traverse is an itch I've yet to scratch, I've been on most of the ridge over the years but want a full traverse with a luxury bivy. Doing it in a day is just vulgar 😉
This sounds an absolute winner.
Pessimistic outlook but point five.
> Great topic, the Cuillin ridge traverse is an itch I've yet to scratch, I've been on most of the ridge over the years but want a full traverse with a luxury bivy. Doing it in a day is just vulgar 😉
This is absolutely the way to do it. We enjoyed a good three course dinner. Sipping from my hip flask of Talisker, having just done the Inn Pinn in a golden evening light and gazing out to sea as the sun refused to set is one of my most memorable outdoor moments.
> Personally I'd love to climb A Dream of White Horses (HVS 4c) again, a great climb in a fantastic location at the the best climbing location in the world.
Defo it'll be on the top of the list of routes to do hopefully later this year.!
> The Italian Ridge on the Matterhorn. Should have done it years ago.
I have a yen to do that too.
I had other targets for this year, but if this goes on there's no way I'm going to be fit enough to do them. I promised TobyA I'd take him up Masochism for a start!
Another one for the Cuillin ridge as the last 2 years have been killed off due to bad weather.
Would be nice to get a big European classic done. This would be on my list.
The yellow 7b+ on the Justice Panel at Ratho, assuming it's been reprieved from being stripped in the meantime. It's what's motivating my fingerboarding.
Was my goal route at the start of the year. I am still - quite unreasonably in the face of the facts - hopeful that i might still get it done in 2020.
Mr Chambers, good to hear you're still climbing, last time I saw you was almost 20 years ago upon your return to high tor after the Darius event, when you followed me up highlight, you were working and living in matlock bath at the time. Then I recall we did the thorn at beeston tor together soon afterwards, great times, hope we can tie on together soon some day. Terry.
With any luck, on a pleasant early summer morning after a day warming up on a few crags along the Fort William to Mallaig road.
But if not, I'd settle for an early November ascent of;
Good to have a target to keep you motivated.
Torro is fantastic, best E2 I've ever done.
Trick with DOWH is NOT to let your second look at the route from the viewpoint until AFTER you’ve done it 😉.
> Resurrection E4 6a
This is mine too! Done left wall (and left wall direct), right wall, cemetery gates, cenotaph corner, the grond, ivy sepulchre but never got round to Resurrection. Can't wait to give it a try. May be next year now though
After all this, I think I will try to say yes more to whatever climbing is going. Only a half day? Still worth it. Weather might not be ok? Well, it might! Only so many days...
> After all this, I think I will try to say yes more to whatever climbing is going. Only a half day? Still worth it. Weather might not be ok? Well, it might! Only so many days...
This is how I've always looked at it. It's always dry somewhere and there's always something to climb. I've climbed every weekend but one this year and that wasn't because of the weather, and I've climbed well over 100 routes this year too.
I don't know how I'm going to struggle through this lockdown lol
Diocese at Chair Ladder. It's been on my tick list for ages. If I close my eyes, I can just imagine the sun on my face and the taste the post climb beer in the Tinners Arms or Gurnards Head beer gardens.
Evasor, at Stoney. No good reason, other than the fact I might be able to get up it.
jcm
> Was my goal route at the start of the year. I am still - quite unreasonably in the face of the facts - hopeful that i might still get it done in 2020.
Here’s the big question though Paul, which way are you going at the top?
(Deacon, if you're reading this the same question goes to you too )
Right hand finish in the 90s. Stopped placing gear towards the top after attempting to fiddle in a wire. Dropped wires and went for it with hands opening and feeling more off than on. Pumpy and mega! Only team at the crag. Didn’t have tea, straight to The Heights and then a party in a small, dirty, smoked filled house that you weren’t totally able to identify subsequently for another weird chat filled-night like Beris used to be pre-yuppification. Treasured times with no cares, no money, no car, no training, no phones; just living for the next day out climbing and the next night of pints, bullshit chat, do you wanna go back to ours? and then adjusting to the dark, to the sound of feet beating pavement, street lights blurring and wandering too late home through terraces, along the Main Street and up past the Methodist chapel towards Llwyn Celyn and home. Simply magic.
Did the girdle traverse at Chair Ladder last weekend. Wanted to spend the day somewhere fantastic for the final day before lockdown. Didn’t see a soul. It has given me something to get through a strange week of caring for the few bewildered children still attending my primary school.
James
Fantastic wish list.
Titan's Wall (E3 5c) - it's now moved to the top of the list for various reasons.
Also, various of the new routes in the 4th Edition of Hard Rock but I know that's rather puerile....
> Here’s the big question though Paul, which way are you going at the top?
> (Deacon, if you're reading this the same question goes to you too )
Not sure, I'll decide when I'm up there
Great story, and not to mention a good effort too. What a route eh??
That route's enough to put you off climbing for another 6 months
Having survived Coronavirus, I wonder if the chossy vegetated unprotected death slab of P1 will be so appealing?
Whichever way looks easier when I get there!!!!
Close to home. Boo. Further afield. Imaculata.🤞🏻