UKC

Someone speculating on the Gripped forum that Nicolas Favresse made the second ascent of Squamish's Cobra Crack yesterday. True? Sonnie Trotter's other "world's hardest trad route" (not something he's claimed for his routes AFAIK), The Path, was repeated a week or so ago by Ethan Pringle.

http://www.gripped.com/forum/toast.asp?sub=show&action=posts&fid=13&tid=213...

In reply to tobyfk:

It seems this story was true.
http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/the_path_and_cobra_crack_repeated/

In reply to tobyfk:

And other hard people queuing up under it, including Mr Macleod
http://www.sonnietrotter.com/roadlife.php

In reply to tobyfk:

His lass looks well smart

well worth that dude dropping the tuna pack to get that extra photo imho

In reply to tobyfk:

Cheers for the links, Toby

Looks like Dumby's going to be more psyched than ever to get his Echo Wall project finished and set the bar that little bit higher for all these hard men! Wonder how many will brave the trudge up into the corrie?

In reply to tobyfk:


Yeah, but what's he ever done at Gogarth?

Are you officially our Canada correspondent now? Can we expect you to be camera and laptop in hand live blogging from below Cobra Crack - particularly to see how "our Dave" is doing? We're not interested in super-strong Americans obviously...

In reply to TobyA:



I am there from Friday. But my vague recollection from something I read somewhere is that "our Dave" is on a very short visit so perhaps gone by then?

Actually it's a non-trivial hike to Cobra Crack ... 45-60 minutes straight up hill.

In reply to tobyfk:
No mention of Cobra on Favresse's site yet, but I did notice this:

http://www.nicolasfavresse.com/IMG/jpg/20080530angleterre1052.jpg

From his Wales gallery. That's Nesscliff isn't it? I don't remember reading that he had been there as well! What a machine.

In reply to TobyA:


Look like it to me. In the "most obscure British crag visited by a famous world climber" rankings I think that trumps Dumbarton.

In reply to tobyfk: Has he ever said that before? CC is the hardest trad route he has ever done, harder than Rhapsody?

In reply to Richard Hall: He said they were both 5.14b/c

In reply to tobyfk: Now on the News page:

http://new.ukclimbing.com/news/older.html?month=07&year=2008#n45212

Thanks Toby.

Jack

In reply to Richard Hall:


Not in his blog as far as I recall. But it seems likely: Cobra Crack had been an open project tried by many good climbers for years before the FA.

In reply to tobyfk:


In other news, Franco Cookson didn't repeat Cobra Crack but said he could have if he'd wanted to.

In reply to tobyfk:


Yeah, Dave was saying that he'd probably only have time for a day's play on Cobra Crack as he was keen to get back home in case he missed good weather on Echo Wall!

In reply to niggle:

LOL!

In reply to tobyfk:


By a long way! What Stanage is to Sheffield, Dumby is to Glasgow. Whilst what Stanage is to Sheff, Nesscliffe is to, errr.... Oswestry.

UKC Jack - do you know what Nico did at Nesscliffe? Presumably he might have tried something and failed, but this somehow seems unlikely going by his record. More likely he just onsighted another E8 and forgot to mention it to anyone?

In reply to tobyfk:


With respect, I don't think Dumbarton could ever be described as "obscure", even in the pre-Rhapsody days!

In reply to Serpico:

<hijack>: I e-mailed you the other day, just wondering if your address has changed? (I was looking for a Peillon route recommendation).

In reply to TobyA: I know what Sean did at Nesscliffe:

From Sean:

My piano E8 6b (after inspecting gear and holds on rappel) (not E8)

­ Yukon II E7 6b (flash)

­ 10 o'clock Saturday morning E7 6b (flash)

I'd guess Nico did the same. I have their full UK tick list. It's better than mine!

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:


Bloomin' eck. They had a good trip eh!?

In reply to TobyA:

info and photos here from one that hosted them for a few days prior to and after their PyB stay. interesting that they got spanked by the quarryman.
http://daveaytonsblog.blogspot.com/

In reply to Fraser:


In a global sense, Dumby is obscure. If you chat with travelling foreign climbers in one of the more mainstream nodes of the climbing world - Krabi, Arapiles, Indian Creek, Siurana, Squamish even - you'll find people have typically heard of the gritstone, maybe Gogarth, maybe Malham, maybe some other welsh stuff but beyond that knowledge levels tail off pretty fast. And frankly, have many English climbers (*) been to Dumbarton?

* TobyA: uni in Glasgow means you don't count ... in fact I recall She Who Cannot Be Named branding you as the "Scottish ice climber in Helsinki" back in the Dark Ages of UKC.

In reply to tobyfk: > And frankly, have many English climbers (*) been to Dumbarton?

All the ones who end up in the GUM club anyway!


This is true, but perhaps she was giving my climbing a nationality rather than me. Although that would make me a Finnish rock climber now and I'm sure lots of Finns would take exception to that! Alternatively She Who Cannot Be Named might just have been talking arse, again.

Ally - thanks!

In reply to tobyfk:

Frankly, I don't see the relevance of that question.

In reply to tobyfk:

Less so now.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I think you're right, where Sonnie has dared to tread others will follow, no quite sure what other non celeb visitors will think of neds on bucky tho

In reply to Bill Davidson:

Just read in the latest Rock and Ice, that Rhapsody will become a trade route in several years time, a right of passage for aspiring top climbers.

It is most certainly on the World climbing map since Dave M's first ascent.....perhaps it was after Cubby's historic first ascent of Requium.

In reply to tobyfk:
> And frankly, have many English climbers (*) been to Dumbarton?

And long may it remain a backwater if that is the criteria!

In reply to tobyfk: Dumbarton is not 'obscure'! As Mick stated, Requiem was the probably the 1st 8a+ in the World when done by Cubby....Maybe its just slipped off the radar until Dave Mac did Rhapsody..... However Requiem is still 'the line' of the crag, not Rhapsody! And a stunning achievement by Cubby - but why only a handful of Ascents?

In reply to north country boy:

Buckie-drinking terrorists?

Dumbie is very understated - I got spanked there as the holds are all the wrong way round.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Of course. Obviously.

In reply to north country boy:

It's nails?

In reply to north country boy:

Agree completely. Requiem looks amazing and was a historic achievement. My comment was just that people don't typically travel from long distances to go there, especially foreigners visiting the UK. Essentially Dumby strikes me as being like a smaller version of the Avon Gorge ... of vast importance if you live in Bristol but somewhere you probably wouldn't stop to look at if you lived in, say, Manchester, and were driving to Cornwall. Certainly being host to historic ascents doesn't stop places being obscure. John Gill's ascent of the Thumb at the Needles in South Dakota (5.12X? E6?) in 1961 seems generally regarded as being years ahead of its time yet I doubt many american climbers could even find The Needles on a map let alone have been there.

In reply to tobyfk:


Are the Needles obscure? I've only seen them on the pages of the BD catalogue and the like, but always presumed that would qualify them for classic status!

In reply to TobyA:

I'm a bit doubtful of Toby's claim that the Needles are obscure - one of the first places I climbed in the USA. But that aside, Gill's The Thimble is very well known as is the adjacent Needles Eye - it is off the beaten track!

In reply to TobyA:

I suspect you are confusing the Needles in California with the Needles in South Dakota. Certainly only the former features in the current BD catalogue.

Can't decide whether to level the same accusation at Mick ...

In reply to tobyfk:

Needles, California.....as you know Toby, absolutely world class.

Two thumbs up, ten out of ten.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Indeed - I have been. But you're changing the subject ... have you been to the South Dakota one?

In reply to tobyfk:

Yes. Spent about a week there. Loved it. Also visited Rushmore Needles and climbed Devil's Tower.

In reply to tobyfk: Unlike remembering anything useful for work, I remember pictures from the 1994 BD catalogue. I've always thought "the needles" were in California. I climb with a Californian these days (Mrs. Big Toni) so I perhaps hear more stories about climbs down that way.

In reply to TobyA:

California has The Needles and The Pinnacles. South Dakota only has The Needles.

Are we off-topic?