UKC

whats your favourite thing about rock climbing?

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Toby960 15 May 2013
my answer is right here;

http://theloveaffairwithgravity.blogspot.co.uk/

lets hear from you guys too!!
ice.solo 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:

those absolute rare, legendary days when it all comes together, all the factors converge, you get everything right and are in the right place at the right time to be climbing next to two beautiful girls in hot pants and bikini tops.
 Andy Hardy 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:
I like the smell of hot grit and new bracken, on a summer afternoon, when my toes are sore and the skin on my fingertips has worn thin.
 johncook 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960: Surviving another route, and then looking for the next one to try to survive!
 AlanLittle 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:

Sorry Toby, but the white-on-white text on your blog just isn't doing it for me
 SteveoS 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:
The moment your mates go quiet when you're on that 'move' who then cheer when you do it.. or fall off.
Wiley Coyote2 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:
Sitting on top of a, preferably gritstone, crag at the end of a summer's evening watching the sun go down before heading to the pub with your mates
In reply to Toby960

The moment you've done the crux of a route on a mountain crag in a fantastic, exposed position, when you're climbing well.
 martinph78 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960: Fish and chips afterwards.

I've usually earned them, and it means I didn't die.
 GridNorth 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960: I love it when you have completed a challenging route or routes and you can sit in the valley with a glass of beer in the sun looking back at it and talking about it. It's one of the nicest feelings in the world.
 nniff 16 May 2013
In reply to 999thAndy:
> (In reply to Toby960)
> I like the smell of hot grit and new bracken,

I'm glad it's not just me! I just love the smell of it all, the rock, plants, chalk, climbing gear. THe smell of 5.10s I can live happily without though.

Winter smells different, but that's brilliant too.


Maybe it's just the two of us two are odd, though
Tim Chappell 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:

When something that looks to be F Imp turns out merely to be VS.

The moment when you get it--the moment when you see how you're going to do it, crazy though it looks, and then you do.
 GridNorth 16 May 2013
In reply to Tim Chappell: Interesting. I feel the opposite. I went on a route in Jebel El Kest called Irene on the Dwawj slabs. The book said it was E2 so I carried lots of gear and "girded up my loins" for a hard lead but it turned out to be a run of the mill VS. I was disappointed.
Tim Chappell 16 May 2013
In reply to GridNorth:

I like being in dramatic, exposed positions. I don't like feeling out of my depth!
 BnB 16 May 2013
In reply to Tim Chappell:

I can only really speak for winter as I'm pretty green on rock:

For me it's gearing up with my mate before the climb. The sense of anticipation and adventure shared.

Normally it's pretty intense then until beer o'clock.
In reply to Toby960: Hanging belay, far from the deck, with a huge griffon vulture (or equivilent) hovering level with me, giving me the eye. Preferably with my partner taking the crux lead above me!
 mayhematic 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:
> my answer is right here;
>
> http://theloveaffairwithgravity.blogspot.co.uk/
>
> lets hear from you guys too!!

That wonderful feeling I get when I climb
Tim Chappell 16 May 2013
In reply to BnB:
> (In reply to Tim Chappell)
>
> I can only really speak for winter as I'm pretty green on rock:
>
> For me it's gearing up with my mate before the climb. The sense of anticipation and adventure shared.
>
> Normally it's pretty intense then until beer o'clock.


So, your day would be complete if you geared up then backed off??
 ciaran1999 16 May 2013
In reply to ice.solo:
> (In reply to Toby960)
>
> those absolute rare, legendary days when it all comes together, all the factors converge, you get everything right and are in the right place at the right time to be climbing next to two beautiful girls in hot pants and bikini tops.

Legend...
andic 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:

In this god forsaken country just getting onto some dry rock feels like a victory. (Someone who spent 20 minutes cowering under the wharnecliffe pinnacle in biblical rain and hail yesterday afternoon)

I love everything about climbing though, planning, anticipation, the partnership, the movement, the exposure, the beauty of nature, the post mortem, the beer and the tea and cakes.

 BnB 16 May 2013
In reply to Tim Chappell:
> (In reply to BnB)
> [...]
>
>
> So, your day would be complete if you geared up then backed off??

Sounds like a normal day in rainy Yorkshire. We have to find our pleasure somehow
Tim Chappell 16 May 2013
In reply to andic:
>
the post mortem


Not this bit. Let's keep it ante mortem as long as possible, shall we?

Tim Chappell 16 May 2013
In reply to BnB:
> (In reply to Tim Chappell)
> [...]
>
> Sounds like a normal day in rainy Yorkshire. We have to find our pleasure somehow


Been a few days where I wish we had just geared up and then gone straight to the pub
 rurp 16 May 2013
In reply to Toby960: Sitting at the top. nice secure belay. looking out over the moors. heart rate slowly dropping. clear head.
Tim Chappell 16 May 2013
In reply to rurp:

Ah yes. Sunbathing on belay at Polney on a beautiful spring evening... one time I got really sunburnt doing that. May 1 it was <sigh>
 Michael Gordon 16 May 2013
In reply to BnB:
> (In reply to Tim Chappell)
>
> I can only really speak for winter as I'm pretty green on rock:
>
> For me it's gearing up with my mate before the climb. The sense of anticipation and adventure shared.
>
>

You could be on to something here for big mountain rock routes.

But for winter climbing it's surely the worst bit of the day! Faffing around, having to do everything with gloves on, and still getting hot aches afterwards! (usually 5m up the first pitch)

 Michael Gordon 16 May 2013
In reply to Tim Chappell:

sure it wasn't April 1st?
 BnB 16 May 2013
In reply to Michael Gordon:
> (In reply to BnB)
> [...]
>
> You could be on to something here for big mountain rock routes.
>
> But for winter climbing it's surely the worst bit of the day! Faffing around, having to do everything with gloves on, and still getting hot aches afterwards! (usually 5m up the first pitch)

Each to their own but I just love the moment when you recognise that for the next, say, 5 or 6 hours you are going to be absolutely engrossed in a physical and mental challenge in a fundamentally dangerous envvironment that if skilfully and safely performed will deliver, as you reach the summit, a massive uplift of spirit. This combined with the realisation that for every single second of those hours, nothing... absolutely nothing else will exist for you.

The summit bit is good too
 teflonpete 17 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:

I like the cake and banter with my mates.
 Nathan Adam 19 May 2013
In reply to Toby960: I'm not particularly experienced or brilliant at climbing but for me its about being engrossed in the moves, absolutely shitting yourself, but then realising that your up and over the worst of it and before you know it you're stood on top. Forgetting about everything else below you, nout much else matters. Anything in a big mountain environment, summer or winter, scrambling or climbing pretty much sums up my love of climbing.
 Ed Navigante 19 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:

No gear in yet, It's a high bouldery start.
You look up.
It's a long reach, but the break is up there.
Left leg up high, then you straighten it, pulling that small sharp crimp.
Taking it off the crimp you slap your right hand up to where you're certain there's a hold beyond your view.
*SLAP*
Your hand feels the perfectly rounded curve of the grit. No hold there, only just enough friction that you aren't falling backwards...
bump up, throw both hands high,pray for...
You're holding that ledge!
Fingertips into the crack.
Left hand further over, you jam a cam in.
Safe.
God that was good.

- About 36 hours ago
 GrahamGiles 19 May 2013
In reply to Toby960: That moment when your mate finally links the crux and you dont know weather to encourage or hope he falls off
 BusyLizzie 19 May 2013
In reply to Toby960: As a middle-aged waddle-mum, and a late starter, there is a huge thrill in being able to climb at all, even at the basic level that I can manage.

Generically it's the exercise, the being in a beautiful place, and the partnership.

More specifically there's that move I couldn't possibly make but did, the fear that I didn't think I could squash to take that step, but I did... I love the triumph of reaching the top, the glow of the beer and the curry afterwards, and the reflection and the writing up of the climbing diary.

Someone mentioned concentration: in a life full of far too many professional and family responsibilities it is liberating to be 100% focused on the rock.

And I love packing up, gearing up, the colours of metal and fleeces, the jingling of gear, and the voices of the river and the birds at Symonds Yat.

And (wheeee!) looking at weather forecast *this morning* and finding that there is sunshine in Snowdonia on Thursday when I'm going there for a long weekend - YESSS!!! (that's this Thursday. Been counting days for weeks)

L
 Yanis Nayu 19 May 2013
In reply to Toby960: Your second falling off something you've just led...
needvert 19 May 2013
In reply to Submit to Gravity:
> (In reply to Toby960) Your second falling off something you've just led...

There is some smug sense of being proud when that happens.
 French Erick 19 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:
Rock features, friends, mental barriers and breaking them, vistas, tired muscles, neat break from day to day life. Order may vary depending on days and moods.
 French Erick 19 May 2013
In reply to French Erick:
And I forgot good old technical mastery (either of the climbing or the gear).
 David Riley 19 May 2013
In reply to Toby960:

It's optional.
 deepstar 19 May 2013
In reply to Toby960: Pulling the Ivy/Brambles of a forgotten or undiscovered piece of rock and revealing some nice looking lines(that I probably wont be able to get up,there are exceptions)and knowing that the young hot-shots are going have a great time doing them.
 HarmM 19 May 2013
In reply to Toby960: the moment when you step off the ground on a hard lead and eveything comes together,and before you know it you're at the top
 jcw 25 May 2013
In reply to Toby960: Tea at Mrs Western's.

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