UKC

Stevie Haston gives UKC the full candid details of his Greenspit ascent:

"I'd say it's like a 5.12 crack to a V8 move, a bit on the powerful side, but nothing really that tricky."

Did he climb it onsight? Did he think it was F8b+? Are his routes on the Lleyn Peninsula harder?! FIND OUT HERE!

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=50641

In reply to UKC News: you gnarly old b*stard stevie, awesomely good effort!

In reply to UKC News: Very inspirational.

In reply to UKC News:

Just curious any idea where in Cham Thai Boxing is.... i could only dig up this which has a photo:

http://www.frontrangebouldering.com/archives/oldinterview/luebben/interview...

great route name btw.

In reply to UKC News:

'Chouette' means good/nice/great (literally 'owl' - don't ask!). Cute is 'mignon'.

Pedantically

Neil

In reply to UKC News:

I love this 'a bit on the powerful side'!

In reply to UKC News:

Awesome! No bullsh*t.

Stevie forever

In reply to UKC News: So he's climbing a horizontal crack on pre-placed gear, which was done by Didier Berthod in true trad style and graded 8b+, and then has the nerve to down grade it? It sure is a big achievement and inspiring for us all, but come on.

In reply to eivindf:

Pre-placed gear which he, er, put there. I don't see what's not true trad style about that.

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

John,

He does in that interview at one point say "I had to move one of laurence's cams" - I read the sequence of events as being he put some cams in at the start of the roof, she put some in in the middle and then he flashed it on a mixture of the gear that they had both placed, shifting one of the later pieces along the way.

AJM

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

He does say:

'I put the first cams in for Laurence (Editor's note: Stevie then reversed to the ground, the first part of the route is relatively easy) then she had a go, placing two more cams.'

I'd still claim it.

In reply to eivindf:

WTF? I think you need to get out a bit more and smile a little!

This is inspirational climbing!

In reply to AJM:

Whether or not you pre-place cams on this route makes very little difference to the difficulty.
Flash or onsight does.

How many goes did his other half have? Shame she didn't get it done as well - book a hotel next time eh Stevie?!

In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

sounds like she was pretty close ie one-hanging it....and with only 4 pieces in? looked like the guys in the vid had more.

In reply to Morgan Woods:

Morgan, I placed 3 pieces after the initial easier climbing. There's a final bit of gear near the end but I skipped it for the sake of my burning pump

In reply to AJM: Don't forget that the other cam that Laurence placed appears to have fallen out "There's no danger, although Laurence took a bit of a fall when she pulled a cam trying to lead it."

So of the 2 cams placed by Laurence one fell out and Stevie moved the other one.

In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

cool....btw were you asking before about cracks in europe?....the one in Cham might be worth getting on....if only to deposit the retro bolts at the bureau de geeedes after a quick flash on gear....cost of number 6 cam £50, the look on their faces priceless ;p

In reply to Graeme Alderson:

potentially, although it's not specified that the cam pulled before stevies attempt or after,does it? Still, tom says it makes precious little difference, and that it's the flash vs onsight that's most relevant for this route.

In reply to Morgan Woods:

Wow, I need to shop where you shop

In reply to Morgan Woods:

Don't worry Morgan, the Thai boxing trip is already planned for this summer ...

As for cams, wild country kindly provIde me their friends to fill those hideous wide cracks up!

Also, for the record I suggested a downgrade when I climbed this route. Lets also not forget that nico and didier took multiple days. For Stevie to do this first go, is so far the game, it's. Rediculous. Someone send him to Baffin!

If you're reading this Stevie, did u try the route 'gloves of war' we put up? Perfect offwidth roof crack.

In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

and he seems quite nonchalant chalking up for the pic too.

In reply to UKC News:

Flashing an E9 with pre-placed gear is massively impressive! Good effort Stevie.

In reply to Franco:

Tom said it'd be E8 (makes sense, safe, strenuous F8b) but still a hugely impressive flash ascent.

I've not seen any other mention of the E9, Nightstalker in the news report. Is this another new route of Stevie's on the Lleyn peninsula? Or a first repeat of someone else's route?

In reply to Franco Cookson:


Don't get this need to reduce an ascent to E-numbers and British style dogmatics to quantify the achievement. E9, pre-placed gear, flash...it's all just ticking boxes.

In any case, he as good as says in the interview that it's easier than E9 (bottom end E6 to a [safe] 6c sequence, easier overall than 'Nightstalker'), and that he either placed, or in one case re-placed, the gear himself on lead.

In reply to Franco Cookson:

Fair enough. I need to go find something genuinely objectionable to be objectionable towards

In reply to Franco Cookson:

Stevie actually told me that it's more like a sport route. Well protected but hard. Gear straightforward to place.

He gave numerous Esperanto grades: V, YDS, Sport, E-grade....just to satisfy those who like their climbs measured, categorised and to fit neatly in a box....like that idiot in Sweden. And so some can shout hardest this and hardest that.

But read some of the lines, and inbetween them: cracks are morpho he says, finger and hand size dependent.

If you are a soul climber Franco, go and give it a go.... then keep quiet about it.

But please, stop the stupid bickering about freakin grades.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
>> But please, stop the stupid bickering about freakin grades.

not sure if it is bickering but more the UK-centric mentality of needing everything put into a theoretical e-grade. 8b should be pretty well understood.

In reply to Morgan Woods:

Yep, it means 'impossible' to me!

In reply to Morgan Woods:

I can see Thai Boxing crag from my house... it's in Vallorcine, not Cham. I did actually post a photo of it some months ago to see what UKC thought about the French bolting it - and still being unable to get up it. The result could be described as general apathy. (Incidentally Mick, they think it's more like 8a / +, still a long way from Craig's grade, and because it had no gear in it, didn't realise it had been done - and still didn't believe it when I told them!) I bolted all the other routes on the crag long before Craig's ascent but never considered bolting the crack for obvious (British) reasons. I'll see if I can put the photo back up for you before this thread dies, so you can see how badly it was bolted

In reply to jon:

Cheers Jon.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

quite right, the sooner people realise grades don't work in straight lines the better.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I've uploaded it Mick.

In reply to jon: The guys who bolted it new full well Craig and my opinion Jon, I told them. There is a very good photo of the Graig RIP on WWW. widefetish.com climbing the first ascent of Thai boxing, I put it as a tribute to him. Tom thanks for all the kind stuff, Laurence might get it if she goes back and tries really hard, and we dont want to go to Baffin, it would be nice to do a ledge to ledge on Salatha, but you know money. Could some one log into 8a anf tell slopergrover that I am not being sexist, for a proff he seems to be unable to read. But then again lots of people dont read or seem to understand what they read. Oh yes while Iam at it big thanks to all the folk who have helped me, especially Liegh Maginley the forgotten man,, Stevie

In reply to Stevie Haston: Sorry about the spelling, I been training and am really tired, then you read wierd stuff by some daft as a brush Proff from the USA, who changes what I wrote to suit what he thinks? Proff of what, Stupidity, the other guys got a degree in Stats, man Mae Wests stats are way more interesting than anything on 8a dotty pot. Makes climbing wide cracks look sensible to me. Jens says I used Laurence as a strategie to place gear in Greenspit, theres a few things wrong with this statement, one I have never suceeded once in making my dear wife do anything, two, she is appaling at placing gear, I should claim E12. No wonder I flashed it. Man the world is bonkers. Stevie

In reply to Stevie Haston:

Hi Stevie, I can only relate what I've been told by the one person who is the nearest that I know of to doing it - Nico Potard - he may well of course have done it by now as it's quite old info now. He was gobsmacked when I told him it had been done using gear - and not just a little disbelieving! His tick list in Yosemite is very impressive - some of the big new free routes on El Cap - so no stranger to crack climbing. Also, who knows, someone else might just have done it by now - there's is absolutely no way of knowing as it's not the most frequented crag in the world. I personally haven't been back to the crag since I sent you there, except of course to take the photo (which still hasn't come up) of the crack when I wandered past on snowshoes last winter. One thing for sure is, that at least your prophecy of the French concreting it up hasn't happened. I emailed Craig for some other reason ages ago and mentioned the bolting to him and in his reply he seemed very sad...

In reply to Stevie Haston: It's alright, Ivana Humpalot has come to your rescue on 8a.poo

In reply to Stevie Haston:

8-spray involved now....this could be a long one! but thanks for some of the history on the cham route and Jon too....will check out the pic.

In reply to UKC News: Cracks are very morpho, all this talk is reminding me why I dont grade particularly finely, and sometimes sandbag (dangerous for others) or let some one else grade.Greenspit I think only fits me at the crux for instance and not on the intro, it could have been harder than the grade I gave because I had a good day and was velcroed to this route. Laurence has a reasonable time on the intro and hell on the crux. Anyway there you go. Thai boxing took Graig three days (I rememember) and took him longer than Trench warare which is given 5.12d so really the 5.12b Graig gave it was a sandbag (I told him off, but boys will be boys) I did Thai Boxing twice and I find it hard, my fists are smaller than Craigs and he made the transition to chicken wing later. It doesnt matter that it was harder! Anyway the guy that bolted it did wrong, I told him at the time, and I told him they would be taken out( they should be taken out as the bolts are in the way in a climbing sense), it would have been ok but I think this route should be returned to its natural state as a memorial to Craig. I know of a few people who want to make the pilgramage to do this crack, one from the states and it would be much nicer for them to have the crack clean and knarly. I am not interested in bolt wars just the memory.

In reply to Morgan Woods and Stevie:

Here's the original thread so you can see the opinions then - it's quite short so shouldn't bore the pants off you!

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=337989&v=1#x4982534

There's a wee bit more intrigue though. Just after we'd put up the routes, I took Neil Foster there and we did all the routes together - except the two I couldn't do. This was before your visits Stevie. For me the best route of the crag is the 7b+ in the middle. I was appalled to find that the crux had been made easier with an enlarged hold... This AFTER the first ascent.

In reply to UKC News:

Nice one Stevie. I like the new grade...E6 - a proper grade that covers all manner of good and evil.

Keep on my dear friend,

Craig

In reply to jon:

found a video of a crack next to TB....looks like it has a bolt on it too:

vimeo.com/7792679