UKC

Hi guys,

I wanted to share a short video that me and a mate made, of our first big walling experience.
During the hot Californian Summer, we climbed the Triple Direct route on El Cap. A little video below that hopefully shares a little bit about what its like to climb in Yosemite for the first time.

vimeo.com/109041136

We have a bunch of other videos on our blog, www.stefanandcherry.com

At the moment we're trying to plan a trip out to Namibia to climb around the Spitzkoppe/ Pontoks areas, and try some new routing around the Brandberg/ Erongo Mountains area.

We're still looking for Sponsorship/ Trip grants for that particular idea (we're both Students) so if anyone has a bit of advice in that department it'd be greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys.

In reply to AndrewJamesCherry:
Nice video, enjoyed that.

In reply to AndrewJamesCherry:

Really good. Primal Scream weren't bad either ; )

In reply to AndrewJamesCherry:
Nice one Andy.
Glad all went well and you're back in one piece.
Get through all the chocolates?
Have a good Christmas!
Glenn and Sam

Hey guys found the blogs really interesting, me and a friend are heading out in April to tackle our first big wall aswell. Doing much of the same prep as you guys.
Can I make a suggestion, on your blog there is not a "contact us" tab (sorry if there is and I couldn't find it) but would be really useful I was going to ask you a few questions.
- did you bother taking wall nuts or just offsets?
- what trad routes in the UK did you find were good to clean aid?

Thanks guys keep up the good work!!!

In reply to chris smith:

Hi Chris - thanks for checking out the blog!

Great point - I hadn't realised that! I've dropped one in now

We took a big bunch of wallnuts (double and sometimes triples of the smaller sizes), one set of offsets, and one set of offset brassies (All DMM).
I think we'd both agree that the offsets make up 90% of your nut placements, as many of the cracks in Yosemite granite are punctuated with flared pockets. The aluminium offsets felt amazingly secur, and I would have happily dropped a couple of wallnuts off and taken an extra set of offsets.
And for their weight, you may aswell take two sets of brassies too! Every weird greasy flared pod will take a brass offset somewhere - they're absolute lifesavers (especially if you're too scared to use your cam hooks).

As for clean aid practise - this is a great idea before you head out. We mentioned here a couple of the routes we aided before going out: http://dmmclimbing.com/knowledge/big-wall-dreaming/

We were based in North Wales whilst we trained, and found the best place to practise was on the slate - lots of clean cracks, occasional bolts and plenty of choss to deal with. If you're around that way then let me know and I can recommend a few good routes to have a go at. If you're more towards the peak district then consider a trip to Millstone! Plenty of short cracks littered with flared pods - just be careful you don't end up hogging something classic on the embankment (go on a horrible day!).
There's routes to practise on wherever you go, but ideally you want a nice clean crack with plenty of gear, and easy to setup a toprope on.

Shoot me an email (contacts now on the blog!) if you have anymore questions, would be happy to help.

Hi
Thanks for the great advice, will ditch the wall nuts and invest in some more offsets then.

What about offset cams did you have any of those are they worth buying? I have a couple but may need to get more.

I really enjoyed your blog and hope you keep it up. Also wish you guys all the best with the fundraising. Have you thought of doing talks at local climbing walls to try and raise some money? I think you would get a good turn out.

Thanks again

In reply to AndrewJamesCherry:

Good vid and I really enjoyed your training vids in the quarries too. Thanks for posting

In reply to AndrewJamesCherry:

Really nice video guys. Lot of warmth, very likeable. Have fun.

In reply to AndrewJamesCherry:

Well done, with your thorough preparation you deserved to succeed!

I really enjoyed the video and happy that my slate routes played a small part in your training

Hope to bump into you again in the slate quarries / Twll Mawr in 2015...

In reply to chris smith:

No worries Chris - psyched to pass on a little knowledge. don't ditch the wallnuts entirely (I remember size 1, 2 and 3 being pretty useful, we had doubles) but up, offsets all the way.

We managed without a single offset cam - But then we're British and just love placing a good wire...
I'm sure offset cams could give you a little more speed/options in some of the C1 flared pod pitches, but if you're limited on funds then I'd say there's plenty of other stuff to spend the money on. Like Pizza in the valley!

Man if only! Maybe one day...

In reply to Ian Ll-J:

Thanks Ian!

More than just a small part - I think we trained on your routes almost exclusively! I'll never forget my first night (of many) sleeping on a single bolt on Supermassive black hole.

I'm sure you will - I just can't stay away from that place for too long!