UKC

Now, everyone knows that the UK breeds the best trad climbers, I think largely due to the fact that its not just our top end tradders that seem to be utterly fearless but the local "yeah I live 2 miles down the road and was conceived and born on these grit crags" types aswell. But I get the feeling from what I have read/heard from climbers of other nationalities that the UK just generally breeds strong climbers. This is nicely illustrated by the fact that foreigners tend to get shut down by our top end boulders/sport routes/trad routes (Ondra getting very convincingly shut down by Hubble and reputedly walking away from VNB without touching the holds, Team America getting shut down by The Groove, and don't get me started on our hardest boulders) yet our best climbers seem to travel to other countries and send their hardest stuff fairly quickly (Gaskins in Jura, Ty Landman in everywhere). Now don't get me wrong, people like Nalle, Woods, Graham, Ondra etc etc etc are ridiculously strong and talented which confuses me as to why british climbing seems to shut outsiders down (though I would like to see those 3 to make the hop over here and Ondra to come back and get on Hubble again). Is it that they are not used to our style of climbing, or that we are just a strong type.
Alternative I could just be wrong and biased.

In reply to AMorris: who was it that came and did Brad Pit properly?

In reply to JIMBO: properly? you are gonna have to explain there fella, I don't follow

In reply to AMorris:

I suspect you may have been influenced by selective reporting. Plenty of foreign wads have been very impressive in the UK and plenty of UK wads have been shut down elsewhere.

In reply to AMorris: Generally I think visitors are more likely to be shut down by poor weather conditions and time limitations. There are some to represent the other end of the spectrum, Sonny Trotter on Rhapsody, Ondra on Rainshadow (I know it took him a couple of visits), Team America did manage the crux of The Groove (Kevin Jorgeson) but had a different finish as I recall. The female side of things is a bit trickier, Lisa Rands on Gaia? Sorry, can't help you much with bouldering.

In reply to john arran: As I suspected, but you dont hear of many coming over to the UK, in which case is our climbing just not as good as (say) france, spain, gramps, rocklands etc
Might be the weather aswell I suppose

In reply to Mark Collins: Yeah I seem to remember a female ascent of Gaia and Rands rings a bell, as for bouldering I think there havent been many visiting boulderers for one reason or another (I suppose because the UK is known for its trad instead). And KJ got the first crux of the groove but reported failing on the second crux for 5 days after which he commented on it being 'impossible', I don't think that constitutes as climbing the route imo.

In reply to AMorris: originally done by Myers by a press/dyno method thought to be 8a and tried/failed by notable strong heros. Then French wizard Marc Le Menestrel did it with the now used method before doing Deliverance static. Also Brad Pit was then done with a sit start by German Thomas Willenberg which I think still hasn't been repeated... so in some ways foreigners come here and show us how to do it...

In reply to AMorris: Wow, didn't know all that detail about KJ. Our guys are sick after all. I know it can be classed as a bit niche, but I'm surprised you haven't used Wide Boyz in your argument. They really have crushed the rest of the World as far as I can tell.

In reply to JIMBO: I nice I didn't know that cheers for sharing! I'd like to see more visitors coming over to the UK and trying our hard stuff.

In reply to Mark Collins: It's not really an argument, its more of a musing that iv been mulling over for the last few days and didn't know if it was reasonable or, as I suspected, my bias. And I dont really know enough about the mysterious world of crack climbing to comment! All I know is that their training cellar looked nails

In reply to AMorris: I think Hard Grit put most of them off.

In reply to AMorris:

agreed that the UK produces SOME of the finest climbers about.

but it takes a working knowledge of spanish, russian, polish, japanese, german and slovenian to hear about many of the others.

In reply to AMorris: NO, the UK doesn't breed the best trad climbers. Have you been to Stanage on a busy day? Proprtionately it breeds the same number of excellent trad climbers as any other country where there is trad climbing.

In reply to Frank the Husky: Does it?

In reply to AMorris:

I think Ondra was on a rest day when he went to Giggleswick? And he may not have been exactly inspired by what he saw!

In reply to AMorris:

<cough> Alex Honnold.

In reply to AMorris:

Strawberries?

In reply to Bulls Crack: Yeah I think it was just after a leading comp, I forget which, maybe the euro champs? It was about the same time as he tried hubble and got shut down on it utterly so he wasnt fresh by any means (though he came back fresh and hubble still eluded him, tbh its very far from his style). Not the most inspiring piece of rock, I had a hard time believing it was a route! But I find it hard to believe that he would have waked away from it if it hadn't looked so utterly improbable, he is a climber after all!

In reply to AMorris:
honnold soloing gaia? also soloing meshuga about 3 times to 'warm up'!

In reply to BedRock: Pretty sure he roped Gaia first. As for meshuga, I don't think there is any point in leading it before a solo

In reply to JIMBO: Brad Pit sit has been repeated by Mike Adams, there may be others.

Andy F