UKC

The program last night stated that Leo was one of only three fully sponsored climbers in the UK, if this is true (which I doubt) then who are the other two ?

Secondly am I alone in thinking that 'The Shinning Path' looked ... well ... er ... a bit of a path !

In reply to limbimftangftangolebiscuitbarrel: I think I read somewhere that the others are John Dunne and Alan Hinkes. Might be wrong though.

In reply to limbimftangftangolebiscuitbarrel:
depends what you mean by fully sponsored. Leo and the other two are salaried by companies to the tune of at least 15K. Others still get salaried by big companies just to climb, but less. One of the top women gets ~8K - its whether you consider that 'fully' sponsored. I reckon I could live on it. Remember thats just from one sponsor, you'd get lots more from getting pics in mags, plus you wouldn't have to buy any gear.

In reply to Peter Walker:I think they said 'one of only three climbers paid to climb full time' Plenty of climbers are sponsored to a lesser extent.

Not the most sympathetic of treatments. I thought it was really funny that they finished by calling him 'Britains best climber'! It that a dagger I see before me?

In reply to limbimftangftangolebiscuitbarrel:

It depends what you mean by a path ...

The route was El Sendero Luminosa (The Shining Path) 2000ft 7b+ V 15 pitches. (7a+,7b+,7b,7a+7b,7b,7b,7b,6c,6b,7b,7b+,6c+,6b,5).

Source :
http://www.planetfear.com/climbing/features/travel/mexico/shiningpath.html

In reply to Anonymous: I think that this means that it 'is' a bit of a path, this is the sort of grade that is regularly flashed by fat middle aged punters.

It's a bit curious that this was the 'first' free ascent of a fully bolted climb at a very reasonable grade, are there 'no' competant climbers in Mexico ?

In reply to limbimftangftangolebiscuitbarrel:

He is very talented. Wish I could climb like him easily after long lay off.

In reply to The Fat One: I resent that. I'm fat, and middle-aged, and I can't even get up anything beyond 6a!!!!

In reply to The Fat One:

I'm pretty sure that it wasn't the first free ascent of the climb. Mr Berry states in his article that the route has been onsighted in a day....nonetheless it looked like a grand, grand line. And here's me off to mexico in November - wonder if I can get my girlfriend up to leading 7b+ by then?

In reply to The Fat One:

Was it the FFA, didn't hear that bit. I think Kurt Smith is reasonably competent and he owns (or owned) a campsite thing there.

At the begining of the program they showed footage of him climbing before hs accident and one of the clips shoed him dynoing for a flake on, what looked like, Yosemite. Anyone know what this footage was from?

In reply to midgets of the world unite:


Who knows, if you try hard enough you might be capable yourself

In reply to limbimftangftangolebiscuitbarrel:
didn't see the programme, but having seen videos of leo dynoing for flakes ad nauseam, it was one of the cruxes on leos free version of (i think) New Dawn on el cap. Only goes half way, and requires aid in the form of a alfa romeo badge. Passage to freedom?

In reply to limbimftangftangolebiscuitbarrel:

Did you notice how Leo described himself as climbing like a total punter? Wonder if he's been reading this forum!

In reply to The Fat One:

I don't think ten pitches of 7+ are regularly flashed by many people, a couple of pitches maybe.

In reply to sutty: This 7b lark. Is that sport grades or UK grades, and if sport, what does that mean in UK grades?

In reply to sutty: I wouldn't like to be seen as 'having a go' at Leo, that's not my intention but 10 pitches of 7+ done over two days is not exactly arduous in a modern context, I have done this and I'm AM a total punter to borrow a phrase from Leo.

Steve McClure has probably onsighted 10 pitches of 8+ in two days - now that really 'is' an achievement.

Fair play to Leo, he is coming back from an injury and this type of film is for the benefit of the sofa surfers in TV land but to climbers, the hype was a little ott.

In reply to BrianT:
The pitch was freed by Kurt smith, ie. all pitches climbed without gear being wieghted. And on-sighted recently by some american pair in a day! and no its not that impressive when you consider Yuji Hiryami recently did on of the salathe free variants in 16 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!
As an advert for extreme sports dude and selling red bull great! i thoought leo was a crazy partyt anaimal who lived life on the edge maaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn

7b roughly translates to E5 punters

In reply to Anonymous:
>7b roughly translates to E5 punters

E6 even! ref http://www.rockfax.com/miniguides/grades.html

What came across to me whilst watching the program was the fact that it really pays to get proper medical advice about injuries and to take the time out to recover fully and build up the strength again rather than try to climb thru an injury in the hope it will get better eventually anyway.

Shining Path did look good! Recorded it so shall watch that bit again!

Liz

In reply to Anonymous: "and no its not that impressive when you consider Yuji Hiryami recently did on of the salathe free variants in 16 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!"


Did you have the sound turned off?

The point was that Leo is recovering from a smashed up foot... climbing multi-pitch 7b after a year or so off is VERY impressive! There is no doubt that Leo is a brilliant climber, but to expect him to jump back on an bigwall death route in Yosemite would be a little unrealistic!

In reply to Anonymous:

Actually, he flew out ot Yosemite yesterday morning. I was quite impressed with that sort of recovery

In reply to Johnny:

Yep, multi-pitch E8ish jobbie. He manteled on the alfo romeo badge (glued onto a bolt head), by the way! The thing is, for the cameras on the ascent he re-did the dyno about 4 times. Crazy.

In reply to James Jackson: I missed it Bollocks, you didnt tape it did you

In reply to Tyler:

I think it was 'that' dyno on El Nino that they showed, but I can't be sure.

In reply to midgets of the world unite: Stu, its a bloody slab man, you will have to use your feet.

In reply to limbimftangftangolebiscuitbarrel: what was the deal with jumping off his ledge? How far down was that and how come he didn't snap his back, I know ropes are dynamic, but that looked along way!

In reply to Gareth:

Fraid not.

In reply to simon:

The forces generated are much the same as if you were to fall 20ft. The longer the fall, the more rope you have, the more elongation or stretch you have; ie elongation is directly proportional to length. Acceleration is constant, Force = mass x acceleration. (Don't get confused between force & momentum, which is a function of velocity)

In reply to graeme alderson:

Not if I use the lady's feet! Plus, her big arse keeps her centre of gravity down - we should be quids in. All i have to do is learn how to jumar.

In reply to The Fat One:


Yes, I did notice that when he was filmed in his car, he was described as being with 2 friends....yet one of them appeared to be Johnny Dawes!. Chris Bonnington, on the other hand, got a namecheck....

i did like the

'if you see a police man, shove that down yer knickers'

as he hands female passenger a large bag of herbal smoking mixture.

then later in Ibiza when he was blatantly rolling a joint in front of the camera

I wouldnt be surprised if berghaus were a bit pissed off with that!

In reply to hang 'em high:

I would think berghaus were 'lovin' it' (man). The idea of sponsoring Leo must be to connect their brand with someone who is (a) a brilliant young climber [but there are dozens of them] (b) a 'charectar' [not that common]. Sounds like this documentary established both those facts with the general public. The faces of berghaus up to now (Bonners and Hinkes) are both a little, well, establishment. Leo is the ideal antidote and so he smokes a little draw...so much the better.