Me and Mrs Num Num always enjoyed top roping Britain's great classics with the Num Num children many years ago. We could spend nearly a whole day in the summer happily falling off The Right Unconquerable with hoots of laughter and a picnic lunch. Nowadays folk get all sniffy about this for some reason and Num Num is wondering if the traditional art of top roping is giving way gradually to the attitudes of serious folk who are obsessed with sending onsight and being outraged by one of Num Num's plops at the foot of the crag. What do UCK folks think?
I think top-roping...or bottom roping more appropriately arf arf...is an excellent way of avoiding plops at the base of climbs...just watch out for rope stretch!
In reply to birdie num num:
Shame on you. To think that you had small children available for use as well-jammed running protection and still you fell back on a top-rope.
I honk top roping, with chipping is also dying out. Nothing better than eating chips, on a top rope. Dip your hand in the greasy newspaper, eat a chip, then grab that crucial hold...
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> I honk top roping, with chipping is also dying out. Nothing better than eating chips, on a top rope. Dip your hand in the greasy newspaper, eat a chip, then grab that crucial hold...
It's just not the same since they stopped frying in animal fat - as in 'I can't do it because that hold is absolutely dripping...'
In reply to birdie num num: It's making life difficult for SPA candidates. It's really hard to concentrate on equalising anchors while an angry mob sticks pitchforks in your bum
Apart from the plops bit, I'm with you all the way. Nowt wrong with top-roping as an activity in its own right. I'd quite happily set up a rope on a route way beyond my grade to have a play.
Doing a poo is bad, top-roping is fine and dandy, provided there is no dry-tooling involved.
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> -- particularly when top roping. Your belayer may not appreciate it, particularly when not wearing a helmet.
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