UKC

Does anyone know what the gear is for Gaia? I'm flying out there from the states and would love to know what to bring. 

You're flying halfway across the world for a single 20m long route?

Pretty nice line, though, isn't it? 

There are a few people on here that know the route and will probably be along here to give some gear advice soon enough.

Why don't you message the ascensionists directly? It doesn't get done by your average punter. You can do that via the route's page on UKC. Or message the famous repeaters on insta?Gaia (E8 6c)

Lots of clean undercrackers

A world famous route?

Yellow/purple aliens/totems. I think with any combination you'd get a good setup, but specifically I had 2x yellow alien and 1x purple totem. The purple totem in particular was a very good placement. Handjam sized cam in the horizontal to keep rope out of the way. Belay gear is slings I think.

Ball nuts, great big ones.

A wheelbarrow for your cajones!

From what I know of it, it's a very bold route.

Isn't there a film of Jonny Dawes (FA) climbing it? Hard Grit or Stone Monkey I think. Did he cry because he had to kill a beetle or spider?

One of the most iconic routes on grit. A world famous rock type which people come from all over the world to climb on. It's hardly unusual for people to visit the UK to climb on routes from Hard Grit.

Shin pads

And this week there's been a big thread about sustainability. alongside record temps in the UK. Its good the things are being raised.

How do you know they're only coming here for Gaia?

But then the person originally raising it has logged a handful of routes in the US and you've logged a handful in New Zealand, so we should probably be careful about throwing stones around in our greenhouses. (To be clear, I have also done plenty of travelling to climb and I'm not claiming the moral high ground.)

Unless you are suggesting that all forms of tourism should cease (possibly a valid argument), I wouldn't have thought a trip to climb in the UK is worse than many others.

Ian have you ever climbed abroad?  The poor bloke asking for some gear beta has to read this debate now lol.

FFS! The first page on your logbook has 4 different countries on it! Wind your neck in 😅

Bring a selection of small to medium cams and you'll find something that fits.  I'm sure Marks beta will be spot on but with a selection you've got options if you don't see or can't reach the exact spot he used.  

Ah yes, imagine tagging a bit of a holiday onto a three month long work trip. And imagine if it was possible to re-evaluate things over a 7 year timespan... I'm not claiming any moral high ground at all, rather simply pointing out that there was a large thread about sustainability on here, and it's not a taboo topic that can't be raised (this reply goes to all the others too)

I use this one hack called living in mainland Europe and having a functional train network. And not really keeping the old log book up to date 😂

It certainly shouldn't be a taboo topic that can't be raised, but throwing it at a specific new user of the forum who's just asking for gear beta still seems rude to me. For all we know, they've never even left the States before and have got one single trip-of-a-lifetime to Europe planned. As discussed on the other thread, very few climbers have a particularly clean conscience on the topic, so if we're going to discuss it I don't think we should be singling out individuals for criticism on the basis of very little info and that can't help but be the implication of discussing it on this particular thread.

Is this a Bot posting? 

It was a new registered user, he hasn't come back to answer any of the questions.

If it is a Bot, then what is the bot trying to achieve?  Our running club got an email to our membership secretary last week which was similar in some ways, it felt like someone had prompted GPT to 'generate a typical email to a running club membership secretary'.  This feels like someone has asked GPT to 'generate a typical thread on a UK based climbing forum'.

Is it perhaps generating lots of such threads and seeing which ones get responses, so they can gauge how plausible the bot's chat is?

As most of the posts don’t attempt to answer his original question that seems fair enough really. 

If I'd posted on an American forum for gear beta, and received similar treatment I doubt I'd have replied either lol

I just put exactly that into chatgpt and the results is very similar!!!!  The future iss now!

Hey fellow climbers,

I hope this message finds you all well. I'm excited to share that I'm planning a climbing trip to the Peak District in a few weeks, and I'm in need of some local beta and recommendations. It's been a while since I've climbed in this area, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some details about my trip:

Location: Peak District, UK

Objective: Trad climbing, mainly single-pitch routes

Experience: I've been climbing for [Insert Number] years and comfortable leading up to [Insert Grade].

Specifically, I'm looking for:

Classic routes: What are your favorite must-climb routes in the area?

Gear recommendations: Any specific gear I should bring or leave behind for this area?

Weather tips: How's the weather been recently, and what's the best time to climb?

Camping spots: Are there any good campsites or wild camping spots near climbing areas?

Local insights: Any insider tips, hidden gems, or warnings about specific crags?

I'd also love to connect with any climbers who might be in the area around the same time for a potential climbing partner. Let's make the most of this trip and enjoy some quality climbing in the beautiful Peak District.

Looking forward to your suggestions and, hopefully, meeting some of you on the crags. Safe climbing, everyone!

Cheers,

[Your Username]

Not sure how conclusive that is since chatGPT will have based its output on examples of actual questions people have asked on climbing forums. 

Given if you look up their name it seems genuine. I’d be put off as well.

Beckett Aizeki is a bona fide 7C boulderer, route setter and climbing coach. Not surprised he’s not answered, given the content and tenor of a lot of the replies here. Hope he has a great trip.

This thread is an embarrassment to the community.

That does paint it in a very much more plausible light.  It seems my bot detector was wrong.

Unfortunately I’m not able to help but I hope you get some useful information about the gear for Gaia and that you have a good time climbing in the UK.

 evidently not this one!!

Dear lord. I am not a bot. I am sorry to those who feel my vacation is so environmentally unsound as to be wrong to post about. Ive messages several ascentionests directly in the past, however no one could recall exact gear placements. I had hoped someone knew them and would be able to tell me here. This thread is absolutely mental for such a mundane question...

Rest assured, UKC is not representative of the UK climbing community at all. You'll be very welcome and have a great time here! 

There is bit of a bot problem on the forums so to a degree it's understandable that the possibility was raised. However there is also an occasional arse problem as well...

Good luck on getting beta and doing it. If it needs any gear you don't have I'd wager that someone will lend you it, the climbing community is better than it occasionally appears on here. 

Sorry, can't help you with the gear size, but a number of us on here live not too far from Black Rocks/Wirksworth so can give you a heads up on what the weather/conditions have been like in the run up to your trip over.

The site has had loads of problems with bots and trolls, often starting with one relatively believable climbing post, then quickly flipping to your standard QAnon/anti-vax/etc. shite. Sorry that some folks thought you might be another of those posters, but it's not anything personal.

My main concern is that you are flying all the way over the Atlantic and then maybe spending your whole vacation in Wirksworth!?!? Are you sure you're quite mentally ready for that?!

To the poster - hope you do make it over, and climb Gaia. I grew up in this area with this was my local crag. Many year looking at the imposing line of Gaia. It is such an incredible looking piece of rock. But make sure you visit the gritstone edges in the Dark Peak too. 

If you want to borrow any rack please just drop me a message.

Euan = absolute legend, gent and kind soul.

Kudos that man!

For further assurance, the negative replies are not really representative of the vast majority of UKC users. 

Really?

Well, yes.
The vast majority of UKC users would have read the original post and decided that they had no meaningful input and therefore decided not to give advice.
A handful of UKC users decided that the original post was from a bot and basically replied without trying to ascertain the credentials of the OP.
Not the first time that this happened on UKC and won't be the last unfortunately.

Thank you Euan, I appreciate it!

I know that the Outdoor shop in Hathersage will lend you the very specific gear required for The Master's Edge (E7 6c); maybe give them a ring and they can help with info and/or gear. Hathersage is about a 40 min drive from Black Rocks, but it’s also in the heart of Gritstone country (Stanage, Froggatt, Millstone etc.)

I agree. I'm surprised this received down-votes and negative responses. I'd be confident that the majority of UKC users only respond to posts they are interested in or where they have useful information for the OP. Unsurprisingly, I have no information on the gear required for Gaia. 

Let's not confuse the majority of users with the majority of posts. Some users post far more than others, and a few of these regular posters are prone to post in dismissive or derogatory ways in which they would not respond in a face to face conversation. Such is the internet, I fear. In my experience, the majority of users do not fall into this category at all.

Martin

Same here mate, I don't live far if you need to borrow extra totems or pads, drop me via UKC user profile if so

I was going to say, what an absolute shitshow

F'ing hell..  Have a day off lads...

Well yes, I can't imagine anybody accusing someone of being a bot in a face to face conversation.

If you need to borrow a helmet you'll find plenty in this thread...

I hope you let us know how you get on.

Sent it

Hopefully didn't need to test the gear?

In case anyone googles this looking for an answer in the future, I placed a #2 in the big crack, then purple and yellow totems in the slot.

Awesome dude, nice work!

Was it as terrifying as it looks?

Well done! Are you going on to some of the others classics from Hard Rock like End of the Affair at Curbar?

For those who still need convincing if Beckett's human - there's film on his instagram of him climbing it.... in the drizzle!! Bot power.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxoVwJpICiv/?hl=en-gb

Wow, amazing!  That looks more like actual rain than mere drizzle. 
Thanks for the link (if not the snark).

That looks a lot more than drizzle!!! :-0 Amazing effort.

It's not like Gaia's got any critical sloping holds protected from the rain by overhangs above is it!

Sounds like the OP enjoyed getting it done too - hope he manages to get other worthwhile routes done whilst he's over here.

I've definitly got a few more routes I would like to get on in the future. I feel like i've just gotten a taste of grit, and I'm psyched to try more stuff.

Whoa. Smooth as fuçk. Nice work Beckett!

Absolute class.👌

And in the rain. Massive kudos! Enjoy the rest of your stay and hopefully you can tick some more routes whilst you're over. 

Fantastic stuff!