UKC

Inherently amusing rant, but a good blog post none the less and well worth reading for all!

http://willgadd.com/category/blog/

My fear is that we may have a little bit of a reputation! I think his last comments sum it up perfectly!

what post?

In reply to GrendeI:

Where?

E

In reply to GrendeI: "If it’s in a sheltered cave then I know they have a clue. If it’s a nice sunny alcove directly under the next pitch then I know they are from England, Australia or Colorado… “Ouch Mate, why’d you drop that on me arm!” ‘Cause it’s ice climbing silly Brit… I’m picking on the Brits here because they can take it and I love ‘em, but I see a lot of this in Rjukan"

In reply to tspoon1981:

A partner of mine tried to get me to belay him from a stance like a few weeks back - but he's Scottish....

Interestingly - in the light of Will's Feb 26th blog post on the same page - the "stance" was precarious enough to qualify as a hanging belay as far as I was concerned. And it was anchored on two ice screws which were visibly melting out as we faffed about with the ropes.

I opted to decline further participation in the exercise.

In reply to GrendeI: It wasn't the Brits, he said England specifically, thats the English, not the Scots Irish or Welsh.

In reply to Gael Force:

He does mention Brits later. Control F is handy!

In reply to GrendeI:

He's spot on. I've not many rules in climbing but one of the Golden Ones is I will not follow other climbers up an ice climb unless I can take a separate line free from falling ice and I'll always belay from a protected stance.

The behaviours he outlines are sadly all to common and at best = uncomfortable experience for teams following. At worse could someone hospitalised or worse. It's not just the Brits.

In reply to GrendeI:
If that is a 'poke at the brits' I must admit I've had worse. From a feather.......

In reply to Gael Force:

He's American - so England, Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire are all the same.

In reply to GrendeI:

Ha- I recall farting around in the little ice cave at the bottom of the second pitch of Louise Falls years ago. We were trying to put a belay in when a Cannuck climber sailed past, looked in and said "You guys must be Brits - how are those Scottish gullies", and soloed past.

I think Will may have a point.

In reply to Toreador: Not sure if you unaware or just being the straight man - I will provide the punch line anyway ....

- Thus giving proof that to the English Canadian's are all Americans!?

Although now I am waiting for someone to say Canada is part of the American continent

In reply to GrendeI: I agree with him. Funny

In reply to Toreador:

you can see it coming, right...?

In reply to ice.solo:

mr shaking got there first

but for the record, yes it was intentional

In reply to John Rushby:
>


He probably does. I've done this many times. The trick is to yell 'see you, icey' and nut the blocks out of touch as they sail past

In reply to nufkin:
Will is so right about treating falling ice like falling rock.
Mind you your average student on an Easter meet at Pembroke doesn't seem to realise that rocks fall and they hurt judging from the way they lie around at the base of St Govans.

In reply to GrendeI: He does have a point though, I've never been as worried as when we had a group of four bearded brits in front of us in Cogne. There were lots of flies, scarpa vegas, warthogs (!) being wielded which could only mean one thing, massive chunks of ice falling off the route. Not to mention it took about five times as long as when any other group climbed said pitch and the level of bumbly was staggering.

In reply to steveshaking:

Although now I am waiting for someone to say Canada is part of the American continent

To Americans most Canadians are just Mexicans with sweaters.

BTW love running into Brits ice climbing in Canada, eyes wide, staring at long routes just off the road mumbling 'there's just so much of it!'

In reply to Hannes:

Probably much like the swarthy gentlemen I encountered on a few routes on Ben Nevis once - with eyes like saucers as they tried to come to terms with the absence of bolts, and indeed the absence of anything much that was solid - their trad gear-handling being firmly at the bumbly end of the spectrum.

In reply to fultonville:

Mmmm. I'm sure it's all true, but on "Another day at the Office" a few years back my wife and I chipped our way neatly up in good order to hear, as we started faffing with the ab, a repetitive mighty thumping and crashing.

It continued. Then there was a lot of shouted instruction and more ice came thundering down. "It's going to be a swan ?" we teased (no originality, I know.)

We abseiled neatly down, past the CANADIAN GUIDE leading his client up the beatup-remains of what had been a very fine little two-pitch waterfall.

Clearly the Canuck competence at mighty acres of steep ice isn't ubiquitous. Maybe the best guides don't do Whistler piste-side cascades.

Y

In reply to Yanchik: Yep, seen a bit of that as well. Love the ice carving ref, never gets old.

Also had a Canadian Guides client nick a handful of my screws left near some packs at the base of Louise Falls. Couldn't prove it but they were the only ones there. My fault for leaving them out, in a sack, near my stuff...

I'm a yank living and climbing in the UK btw so I'm always on the lookout for them bolted routes ;-]

In reply to george mc:
Spot on. Somewhere like Rjukan is full of muppets dropping ice on each other and - people taking lobs on ice!! Madness, and yes nearly all are Brits. I've only ever chatted to Brits who confess to falling off ice routes. Never met a continental climber who said they'd fallen off. (Don't confuse mixed and ice!)

In reply to Jim Crow:

The first person I held in a fall on ice was Finnish, does that count as continental? I suspect if you were in a community of active ice climbers anywhere in Europe there would be a few good stories of people who have taken a ride - I've heard a few! Wasn't it a German team for instance who discovered why it was good idea to flip back in the winder-handle on BD screws last winter?

p.s. Is your name really Jim Crow?!

and as if by magic the internet provides a scary as ****** example .....

http://www.thebmc.co.uk/helmetcam-slide-snowdonia-accident-llanberis-mounta...

In reply to lithos:

Well if your going to solo behind another group with walking axes, you are placing yourself in a position for something to happen........

In reply to GrendeI:

Climbers will always climb behind other parties. If they climb behind us I generally warn them that there will be falling ice and that we may be slow - then it's their lookout. If we climb behind other parties then we know the risks and accept them.

In reply to lithos:

Bloody hell! That's terrifying!