UKC

Mat Wright has made the seventh ascent of Dave MacLeod's iconic route at Dumbarton Rock, Rhapsody.

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Well done Mat, persistence paid off in the end. 
That photo of your damaged piece of gear gives me the horrors though!
Good to meet you on the day.

Fantastic. Listened to Mat’s back story on The Nugget, which I found really interesting and motivating. I’m from the Black Country myself so great to see him climbing so well, despite not having many things we take forgranted growing up. Can’t wait to see what he does next. 

There was a phrase in there I hadn't heard before. What's a 'knee scum'?

A bad knee bar, where you're just scumming your knee against the rock to take a little weight off.

Thank you, I thought it was something like that. Being old I wasn't sure 😀

But once again, dislikes for asking a question? Bawbags.

Another thing I found interesting was Mat's comment about the size of the cliff. I've climbed and bouldered at Dumbarton many times over the last 35 years, I love it. And I've been walloped a few times by the scale of the place. But on the other hand I think sometimes people just see the graffiti etc and don't really get it.

Given there's a bunch of dislikes for the article itself (with no comments to elaborate on criticism), apparently just climbing a hard route is enough to annoy some people. 

So there are, I hadn't noticed that. 

youtube.com/watch?v=j0Mz_IqpZX8&

There’s me thinking it’s someone who tops out using their knees! 
 

Joking, obviously..

Or maybe something they don't like about the article. Hard to imagine what though. I too did wonder what a knee scum was.

For the rest of us mortals, that sounds like Stonefall Crack Direct (HVS 5a)!?

I'll take this opportunity to make the off topic observation (again) that you can make likes/dislikes invisible, and live in happy oblivion.

If everyone does this, they will cease to have utility and UKC will admit defeat and get rid of them.

Since there seems to be a complaint about them in every topic I read on here, this would clearly be a good thing.

Power to the people.

I can't spot the photo of the damaged gear, where did you see it? Keen to see what it looks like after taking all those whips!

Usually Plunge (D) which leads to the castle wall which you're not supposed to enter.

Well done Mat! He's been a great guy to have at the crag, nice seeing him get the tick.

I was curious about this, because 'every topic' is quite a strong statement, but having just had a quick scan through the various threads you've posted in recently I couldn't see a single mention. I'm fairly active on the forums and whilst I do see the occasional comment, it's far from frequent, and usually from the same, select group of people.

As for 'the people', within our readership surveys people have voted as either not being bothered (53%) or leaving them as they are (34%). A small minority are bothered and want them removed (5.7%). If the votes suggested otherwise - or it was indeed raised in every topic (which it's not) - then we'd look towards changing it, but given that it's infrequently raised and only a small number of people want it changing, we'll maintain what we're doing until further notice.

I'm going to tidy this thread up to get back to Mat's ascent. If you want to talk about likes and dislikes, please start another thread.

Sorry.

Well done Mat.

Funnily enough SCD was the site of my first biggish lead fall (still haven't had that many), and when I went back the next week after my back had recovered, one my earliest HVSs (still haven't done that many either!). But there is a Diff round the corner to the right that takes you up to the castle walls IIRC - so perhaps you don't have to solo Stonefall Crack to get up there?

In reply to Michael Gordon:

When was the last one? The last ascent was 2018 I believe

Cowards

Amazing ascent from Mat

....it was in one of his Instagram reels.....

Voting has now been turned off within this thread and any further posts discussing the matter will be removed.