Joyce's Ulysses: A Climbers' Guide

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 Andy Clarke 06 Nov 2020

Having just finished a leisurely repeat of this classic test-piece, I thought potential ascensionists might be interested in my pitch-by-pitch breakdown of its difficulties. Trad grades, since this is adventure reading in a remote setting needing good survival skills. For context, trade routes like Jane Eyre and Great Expectations are graded VS. In terms of preparation, it's useful to have completed a SPA qualification (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle). Also helpful would be familiarity with the route of Ireland's Struggle for Freedom (project).

P1: Telemachus: E2. Hard-to-read face climbing straight off the ground - but a bold approach will pay dividends.

P2: Nestor: E3. The climbing becomes more sustained. A photogenic pitch, with some of the route's best-known features.

P3: Proteus: E5. The stopper pitch: extremely precarious steep slab climbing on blind holds and smears. Marginal protection with groundfall potential. Normally headpointed after pre-practice with as much beta as possible.

P4: Calypso: HVS. The climbing eases dramatically. Big jugs.

P5: Lotus Eaters: HVS. Superb views on this pitch - but don't get distracted. Keep moving.

P6: Hades: HVS. The climbing takes on a more speleological aspect, but the good holds keep coming.

P7: Aeolus: E1. The climbing on this pitch is broken up by many quartz-like intrusions: positive, but steep.

P8: Laestrygonians: HVS. The angle relents: good ledges for a lunch stop.

P9: Scylla and Charybdis: E4. Witheringly steep chimneying.

P10: Wandering Rocks: HVS. A series of  boulder problems.

P11: Sirens: E1. A route-finding puzzle: easy to get misled into blind alleys and cul-de sacs.

P12: Cyclops: HVS. Quite a stamina-fest: big holds, but pumpy.

P13: Nausicaa: HVS. Mostly easy, then a couple of quick pulls for the climax.

P14: Oxen of the Sun: E3. Gets overgrown with the passage of time, so usually requires cleaning: mostly solid, but finishes on tottering choss.

P15: Circe: E2. Weaves a long but surprisingly steady path through fantastic rock architecture: E2 climbing in E5 situations.

P16: Eumaeus: HVS. Highly polished through over-use, but relatively straightforward climbing.

P17: Ithaca: E1. A lot of questionable rock. Finish via the Pat Littlejohn variant, "Darkinbad."

P18: Penelope: HVS. A flowing pitch: long dynamic moves that end on very positive holds.

1
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Wow. Makes me almost want to give it another try. With your guide I'll be able to skim read (use a winch) on the hardest pitches.

 steveriley 06 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Excellent. Was it all a massive skeuomorph? Looks like the sort of route I'd like to read about someone else doing. Or maybe try on a tight rope.

 Duncan Beard 06 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Nice work. I have yet to complete the route, but it is simultaneosly the best and the worst I have ever attempted. Scarily exposed in places but good gear. A true classic.

 Blue Straggler 06 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

I’ve never read a page of it but I know The Odyssey and you are making me want to try Ulysses now! 

Liking the “big jugs” 🤣

 Mick Ward 06 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful. Thank you.

Oddly enough, I have a new line/project for next year, tentatively named 'Ithaca'. Am hoping there isn't a lot of questionable rock. But if there is, I'll regard it as positively Joycean.

Mick

1
OP Andy Clarke 06 Nov 2020
In reply to Blue Straggler:

> Liking the “big jugs” 🤣

I was quite pleased with that!

 Duncan Bourne 06 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Excellent!

I am on Cyclops at the moment. I took a fall on Proteus early on but got back on, annoyed that I blew the onsight.

Romped through Aeolus - HVS I reckon 'bout the same as TPS

Sirens had me flumoxed for a while had to keep refering to Jeri Johnson's guide book notes for route finding but made it without too much rope drag

 Duncan Bourne 06 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Out of curiosity where does Finnegan's Wake come? Indian Face? Some big Norwegien nightmare?

OP Andy Clarke 06 Nov 2020
In reply to Duncan Bourne:

> Out of curiosity where does Finnegan's Wake come? Indian Face? Some big Norwegien nightmare?

The Wake is at such extreme altitude that it certainly isn't something I'd be brave enough to repeat. Spending so much time in the literary death zone you lose the ability to separate reality and hallucination, mountain and myth, rock and revelation. I guess ABO with technical difficulties around XII+. But don't make me go back to route check, please.

In reply to Andy Clarke:

This is the funniest thread I’ve read in all my years one here... thanks for brightening up lockdown!

Removed User 06 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

I think you've seriously hit upon something here. I need time to digest, but a good direction of thinking.

The Wake, that'd be something like a new route on Asgard in winter.

First time I seriously set about reading Ulysses was on a climbing trip across Asia, slicing off chapters as I went to lighten the load, leaving them in places they might be found like backs of bus seats.

OP Andy Clarke 06 Nov 2020
In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

Regarding the Wake, mine was a very traditional siege-style ascent spread over 11 months. Logistics became a major issue - specifically, maintaining a sufficient supply of quality wines and spirits. An alpine-style unsupported ascent would be frighteningly committing.

Removed User 07 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

> Regarding the Wake, mine was a very traditional siege-style ascent spread over 11 months. Logistics became a major issue - specifically, maintaining a sufficient supply of quality wines and spirits. An alpine-style unsupported ascent would be frighteningly committing.

Yes, logistics is key.

Perhaps the Wake could be attempted Russian Capsule-style, expecting to go in for long unsupported bouts but moving slow enough to sustain oneself. So long as one stays on the route, rests are expected.

I may limber up on Portrait and some Flan O'Brien and give it a crack.

In reply to Andy Clarke:

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the essential training that's needed first - I suppose it goes without saying – top roping some relatively easy (4b-5b) climbs at Harrison's Rocks (aka Dubliners)?

 Bob Kemp 07 Nov 2020
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

The other thing I’d want as I don’t know the crag is a topo... 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236798138_James_Joyce's_Dublin_A_T...

 Matt Podd 07 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Having Flashed Ulysses, I failed entirely on FW.

OP Andy Clarke 07 Nov 2020
In reply to Matt Podd:

> Having Flashed Ulysses, I failed entirely on FW.

My tactics for the Wake were straight out of the Golden Age playbook: I employed a number of local guides and an army of porters to keep the alcohol flowing.


 Postmanpat 07 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

> Regarding the Wake, mine was a very traditional siege-style ascent spread over 11 months. Logistics became a major issue - specifically, maintaining a sufficient supply of quality wines and spirits. An alpine-style unsupported ascent would be frighteningly committing.


Are you having a  McCallum/Maestri moment? We need documented evidence. Everybody knows that the rock is too loose and route finding far too complicated to allow an actual ascent. Nobody could carry enough bolts.

 Postmanpat 07 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

  I take it back now I've seen the pics.  A truly astonishing effort. Decades ahead of its time!

Post edited at 12:25
OP Andy Clarke 07 Nov 2020
In reply to Postmanpat:

>   I take it back now I've seen the pics.  A truly astonishing effort. Decades ahead of its time!

I was hoping I might be in with a chance of the lunettes de lecture d'or, but they went to some bloke called Beckett.

Post edited at 12:49
 ChrisBrooke 07 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Very good!

It’s been about 20 years, but I think I backed off early, repulsed by the E5 pitch, lacking boldness, experience and tenacity. Not a route I’m keen ever to return to. There are far too many trifling E1 McClimbs to keep me occupied. 

 Duncan Bourne 07 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

sounds like a very Rumdoodle affair

 kamala 07 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Thanks for that, you've inspired me to get a copy to add to my "books I'm going to read" mountain.

Though I really should try to make it as far as Proteus - likely to be the only E5 I'll ever get off the ground on...

 Matt Podd 07 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

I tried to solo it on sight. Lubrication did't help.

 Rob Davies 08 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

It's easier and more enjoyable if you use the Stuart Gilbert guidebook "James Joyce's Ulysses" which give a move-by-move description of the all the technical sections.  But some would consider that this invalidates the on-sight.

 steveriley 14 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

I think the onsight would be impressive without an inordinate amount of beta. When my daughter was thinking of studying English Lit we went to an open day sample lecture where we spent the entire 40 mins on a single page. Imagine the full annotated topo!

OP Andy Clarke 14 Nov 2020
In reply to steveriley:

Was your daughter inspired or put off for life?

 Duncan Bourne 15 Nov 2020
In reply to steveriley:

At least you weren't benighted.

I've been there. You move up the page, you move down the page, you wonder if that interpretation you used will hold but the passages above look a bit broken and that context runner is hard to place. You want to move on but you don't want to take a big fall back to the beginning

 steveriley 15 Nov 2020
In reply to Andy Clarke:

I was ready to sign myself up, but she’s headed in another direction now. As it goes she’s locked down in overpriced university accommodation, without a single ‘in person’ interaction with either staff or coursemates. More Kafka than Joyce.


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