UKC

NEWS: Scottish Storm: The Tempest X,9

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 UKC News 08 Mar 2010
[Dave MacLeod onsighting The Tempest, X,9 - Glen Coe, 3 kb]

Andy Turner and Dave MacLeod Repeat Neil Gresham's test-piece The Tempest:

Back in 2001 Neil Gresham caused an ethical hurricane by creating The Tempest, a savagely technical route in Glen Coe.

The route has now been repeated by Andy Turner and Dave MacLeod.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=52318

 petestack 08 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Not just 'the fitness to onsight and then reverse virtually the entire pitch of The Tempest', but the skill and composure...

Wow!
 Scarab 08 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News:

You seriously mean that he downclimbed it? Have I misunderstood something?
 stewieatb 08 Mar 2010
In reply to Scarab: Yep. Read the blog. Climbed to the last 6m, ran out of rack, downclimbed and stripped the entire route and completed the ascent the next day. Mental.
 Michael Ryan 08 Mar 2010
In reply to Scarab:
> (In reply to UKC News)
>
> You seriously mean that he downclimbed it? Have I misunderstood something?

The news report is quite clear:

"MacLeod climbed the route to within 6m of the top, but found he had run out of gear. Desperate to keep the onsight, he reversed the whole pitch, removing the gear, without falling and returned to the ground."

 3leggeddog 08 Mar 2010
In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
> (In reply to Scarab)
> [...]
>
> The news report is quite clear:
>
> "MacLeod climbed the route to within 6m of the top, but found he had run out of gear. Desperate to keep the onsight, he reversed the whole pitch, removing the gear, without falling and returned to the ground."

Sh!t, his poor, poor elbows!
 tombeasley 08 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News: Wow this really is a whole new level! Nice one Dave.
 Scarab 08 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News:

I had to doublecheck that I got right, english isnt my first language after all, thats insane, really insane.
 Scarab 08 Mar 2010
By the way, I dont think Neil G made anything wrong at all, he just wanted to climb in a different style in scotland and also used a different grading system. I thought that was cool.
 mhaze 08 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Nice one Dave!
 Andy Mountains 08 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Wow wow wow! To climb that thing is mental enough, but to downclimb it!
Ackbar 08 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News: Why was all that gear left insitu? Must be about £30 worth of gear!
 jas wood 08 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News:
lots of respect dave and andy. walking the walk
 TonyM 08 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News:
Really impressed, not just by the repeats ... but also by managing to remove the gear in winter. I thought Andy would have had to have waited until summer.
Descended down the line between Neil and Garth working the line. All the in situ gear was deeply, deeply encased in thick clear ice. e.g. No way you'd have excavated that buried wired hex. (Didn't they originally get placed in summer?). So must have been very much drier in those cracks this year, as opposed to climbing up shallow dinks in the ice?
In reply to UKC News: surely if he had enough gas and composure to down-climb and strip the route, he could have just done the last 6m fair enough I suppose just sounds strange to me!
 Wee Davie 09 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Excellent. What a season for pushing boundaries!
 Rimz 09 Mar 2010
In reply to dunkymonkey17:

True. I read his blog which states he didn't fancy it, but to prefer the whole down climb instead of going fot it...!

In saying that, there's gear already placed as he downclimbs, so maybe felt more secure than topping out with no gear?

Different class though!

 Alex Buisse 09 Mar 2010
In reply to Rimz: This is an onsight attempt, so he probably wasn't sure of what to expect in the last 6 meters. Maybe the gear just below wasn't that bomber and he didn't want to risk a fall?
 T M Elson 09 Mar 2010
Didn't Innes Dean do the second ascent of this route shortly after it was done without pre-practice?
 alkira 09 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News:

well done on another class bit of climbing......

I think Dave has just got so good at climbing up now that he wants to take down climbing to a new level.....
I always found climbing down harder so surely the grade should be technical 10 for the downclimb but probably overall grade only 8 because gravity is on his side

 Ramon Marin 09 Mar 2010
In reply to UKC News:

A very impressive ascent.

I thought it was a bit unfair to leave all that gear behind to rot away for the 2nd ascencionist to remove. I'm all for new style of mixed and so on, but it feels a bit out of place to leave the gear in-situ. Anyways, I don't know much about scottish mixed...
 burdy 09 Mar 2010
In reply to dunkymonkey17: write the theme tune, sing the theme tune, take a whipper
 Monk 09 Mar 2010
In reply to Ackbar:
> (In reply to UKC News) Why was all that gear left insitu? Must be about £30 worth of gear!

I think Neil Gresham used to be a DMM sales rep.
 Scarab 09 Mar 2010
In reply to dunkymonkey17:

Maybe the runout was too long to be on the safer side.
In reply to Scarab:

I would imagine the gear placed on lead pretty poor, so perhaps the Chief did not want to test it!

Again this is really ground breaking, i don't think the general climbing public really appreciate how difficult this route would be to onsight, never mind downclimb from up on high.

In the mid 90's i absieled down this wall with Gresham, it looked futuristic, beyond the capabilities of the day, the seed sown, he returned a few years later to climb it in such a controversial style, i think the belief was that it would never be onsighted.
Also remember Garth worked this and still came away emptyhanded, hes no slouch.

So in short quite an outstanding effort, cutting edge on a world scale,
Dave i think it is time to buy that family size trifle! you have earned it.

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...