UKC

In this week's Friday night vid double bill we have a totally TRAD experience from Lakeland trad climber Rob Matheson on the bold wall climb of R'n'S Special (E5) at Raven Crag Langdale.

Plus an interview with Martin 'Basher' Atkinson about his classic hard route Mecca - The Midlife Crisis (8b+) at Raven Tor.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=68167

In reply to UKC News:

Cheers for these vids I enjoyed both of them, great to see Rob Matheson still climbing E5 as a pensioner and an interesting interview with Basher.

In reply to UKC News:

Excellent! I was particularly interested in Basher's interview. Some great lines there: 'those long 8a's... they're not very hard are they?' Classic! I was climbing on Raven Tor when Basher finally did Mecca, but does anyone know the exact date in 1988 - my old Peak Limestone Rockfax simply says 9/88? I think I've narrowed it down to 28 September...?

In reply to UKC News: On R'n'S Special he talks about an old "golo" that he clips, is this a type of piton?

In reply to ablackett:

Gollot. An old type of bolt.

In reply to jon:

great vid....i'm curious how they equipped the early sport routes in the UK....was it ground up or by abseil?

In reply to Morgan Woods:


I guess it depends WHICH early sport routes. A lot of them were old aid routes which were free climbed mainly on the old gear that was still in place. On Ravens Tor and most Peak limestone, for example, this was typically pegs, 'picture-hook' bolts, threads etc so I suppose you could say these were originally ground up. This old gear eventually got replaced with bolts but obviously this would have been done on abseil. Interestingly, the line of Mecca doesn't take the line of the original aid route Mecca. This, I believe was where Revelations is (Ian P might confirm that). The sport routs climbed at that time which had never been old aid routes (and all sport routes since) were bolted on abseil. I don't think the UK has ever had a ground up bolting ethic.

The gollot that Rob Matheson clips on R'n'S Special was apparently a relic from an old aid route - Rob mentions this in his commentary. I must say I wasn't aware of this and in fact I don't remember it when I climbed it in the 80s, but that's more my memory that's letting me down as I'm sure I'd have clipped everything going! I do remember climbing Trilogy (the big corner at the left side of the face) the same day which I think was also an old aid route as it was stuffed full of old rusty pegs.

In reply to jon:


That's exactly what I thought! The next question was, well which ones are really, really "not very hard"?

Re Revelations, I've got a vague memory of stick (well branch) clipping it to get going on The Prow (on aid). And I flamin' well told my second it would go free and she thought I was bonkers! (That would have been just a few years before Jerry arrived and did the futuristic deed.)

Must see the R & S Special vid, FA by Curly Bill, aka John Eastham (a hugely underrated climber) after failures by notables. Bill was such a nice guy, totally under the radar, massive ability. You'ld have liked him, Jon.

Mick

In reply to jon:

Thanks for that Jon. Also fascinating hearing Martin talk about how the style changed from yo-yoing into proper red pointing.