UKC

Soloing Caveman is obviously impressive, but let's not forget that Dave Thomas soloed it in 1989, before onsight soloing the first ascent of his still unrepeated (to my knowledge) Terracotta; surely even more impressive?

In reply to barrylong: Has someone else soloed it recently then?? Whats prompted this?

Dave Thomas also soloed Lord of the Flies?!! He must be mad?

In reply to barrylong: I've not heard of these climbs, what kind of grades are we talking about?

In reply to Adrian Paisey:

He certainly was....the tide was out.

In reply to barrylong:

I don't know why I didn't add that to the news item - now updated. If I remember rightly, Thomas wrote a gripping account of his Terracotta solo - I remember it from the Lit Fest years ago, though I'm not sure if it made it into Orogenic Zones, the book of the first 10 (?) years of the festival.

In reply to Bux: Lord of the Flies is E6 6a and Caveman is also E6 (previously E5 before a hold broke off?) 6a I think. Both very impressive!

In reply to Adrian Paisey:

And we're talking about soloing! Nuts!

In reply to Bux:
Caveman is an extremely impressive solo because it's five or six pitches long, intimidatingly overhanging on pitches 2 and 3 and contains a fair bit of dodgy or dirty rock.
When I did it some years ago the crux on pitch 2 was a 6bish rockover onto a bird's nest, while pitch 3 (which I'm ashamed to admit I used a couple of rest points on) consisted partly of a stomach traverse on guano.
I certainly wouldn't dream of falling into the water from that height, especially as any lob from pitches 2 or 3 might well be a backslapper.
The day we did it, the Lip Trip traverse (pitch 4)was wet and I imagine it often is. All in all I finished the climb in awe of the Dave's solo ascent, which I assume was the hardest solo of a multi-pitch trad climb at the time.

In reply to john alcock at home: Sounds impressive. Where is this neanderthal of a climb?

In reply to Bux:
Old Redoubt, Berry Head
Confession time:
I was swopping leads with 15 year old Ben Bransby. When we got to the belay after pitch 3 I was so psyched out looking across the apparently gear-less Lip Trip traverse, that I said to Ben that I'd only continue if he followed Dave Thomas's Terracotta direct finish. Otherwise I wanted to abseil into the sea, rather than risk huge pendulums following the traverse.
Ben got to Terracotta, declared it too wet, and completed the traverse which was also nastily damp but fortunately proved to have some gear. I seconded in blind fear lurching from hold to hold to get closer to the next runner.
When we'd finished the remaining (easier) pitches, we went back down and swam under the route, barracking Mike Weeks who kept falling off the traverse. Oh happy days.

In reply to john alcock at home:

Didn't Dave Thomas get a little freaked/pumped at one point and try and take a rest at one of the hanging belays, but realised it was do or die, he had nothing to clip into the belay with!.

In reply to john alcock at home: Nothing like thinking you're going to die, to make you feel alive! Afterwards anyway!

In reply to Dru:
If true, it's probably as well. Mike and Trevor Messiah, who were behind us, snapped off the last of Fowler's belay pegs on pitch 2 by hand.
When Dave soloed it, Deep Water Soloing hadn't taken off and virtually no one (bar maybe Crispin Waddy) was contemplating 50 feet plus falls into water. Now lots of people have practised falling relatively safely from great heights. That said I remember the end of pitch 3 of Caveman as being a hell of a long way above the water. I doubt Dave considered it a safe jump. I imagine it was an all or nothing effort.

In reply to john alcock at home:

Saw the first post on this thread earlier and thought thank God someone's rembered Dave Thomas' solo. The omission from the News section was glaring.

Here's the relevant History section from Nick White's South Devon and Dartmoor guide:

"Terracota (Dave Thomas, solo). The infamous soloing of Caveman to boot (on pitch 3 of Caveman a hold almost pulled off. Neil Foster took a 40' fall when it disintegrated on the following ascent). Although pitch four had been worked on an ab-rope, Dave forgot about the rope stretch & had to re-work the crux whilst soloing."

Grades?

Caveman (a tax-man's delight) - E6 5c,6b,6a,6a,5b,5b

Terracota (what was he on...?!) - first ascent solo - E6 5c,6b,6b,5c,5b

I c**p myself on Moonraker and Goddess of Gloom. Respect!

The cover of Nick White's guide has Dave (roped) on Flaming Drambuie (E5 6b) at Sanctuary Wall. But there was a classic shot in a mag some years back of Dave soloing the same route. That's Sanctuary Wall of brittle holds, very overhanging and a bad wet landing. Scary!

And of course, then there was Lord of the Flies...

Didn't Dave Henderson do a good solo down here too - The Mightier at Ansteys (again, a bad landing) - it's only E6 6c (7c+)!

In reply to Cusco:

Yup, Dave Henderson soled The Mightier (7C+), along with some stuff on Sanctuary wall if I remember correctly.

Didn't get a great deal of press at the time (not his style), but....have you seen the landing?

All very impressive stuff.

Went to try Caveman in a more traditional style on Saturday. Lots of chalk all over it still but, irritatingly for us, the peachy warm weather had turned moist so all the holds were mingingly wet.

Anyway, the view from the route is that the sea is a long way away! We tested the landing from the crux by snapping off bits of the crag (easily done!) and dropping them into the sea. The results: if you fell off the crux you would splash down into a shallower area and even at a high high tide I would imagine you would defintely hit the submerged rocks, leaving you with broken legs, drowning in the shallows. Nice.

After the crux pitch you're above deep water.

In reply to john alcock at home:


Julian Lines did a couple of on-sight (I think) DWS lines in Northeast Scotland a couple of years back which received no publicity, even up here, but which involve E4 6a cruxes near the top of 45 metre long routes on poor rock.

He also did a new route called Super Cracks in Reality which added a new E6 6b start to the original E5 Cracks in Reality before finishing up it, with a guano-affected finish at 35 metres above a narrow slot-inlet, and the first DWS ascent of an E7 6c (F8a climbing) line up an off-vercial 20 metre wall north of Aberdeen.

All good pracice for Caveman, I suppose. I guess the water would have been a bit warmer down south too!

In reply to Cusco: I was taking the photos when Dave Thomas soloed Caveman. On pitch 3 there is a loose hold at the end of the handrail traverse which Dave calmly lifted off and put back again (while hanging from his heel) and then used for the next move. He was pretty calm during the ascent. No dramas. However the next day we did Breakaway at Henna cliff. Dave got a migraine. He still insisted to lead his pitches while in agony and vomiting.

In reply to barrylong:

Are there any photos of this route kicking about?

In reply to curlymynci:

Some i took a couple of weeks ago.

http://us.f3.yahoofs.com/users/42de87b1z7578426b/8aa4/__sr_/edcc.jpg?ph_yaB...

http://us.f3.yahoofs.com/users/42de87b1z7578426b/8aa4/__sr_/f279.jpg?ph_yaB...

In reply to Adam Lincoln:

It goes through those red flakes.

In reply to Adam Lincoln:

Can't see them. Boo. Page unavailable.

In reply to curlymynci:

Try these, uploaded elsewhere

http://premium1.uploadit.org/alincoln//IMG_0007.jpg
http://premium1.uploadit.org/alincoln//IMG_0002.jpg

In reply to Adam Lincoln:

Wow. Ta for that. )))) (fat grin)

In reply to Cusco:

You reminded me about Dave being alone at Raven Tor and soloing Sardine (why ??!!) but getting to the belay realising he had to climb on from the hanging belay through vertical choss. Can't remember the full details but a similar short-sightedness led him to be rescued off No Mans Land at Buoux.

Hello Dave if you are reading this.

In reply to Simon Lee:

No mans land you can stand around at the belay. Sardine however...

In reply to Adam Lincoln:

Yes - I think it was getting dark befire he persuasded some frenchman to rescue him.

BTW nice composition in the caveman pics

In reply to Simon Lee:

It was the ONLY composition available Camers doesnt zoom very well and i was shooting from the ledge opposite. Doesnt leave many options. I got some more zoomed in ones, though nature of rock means they dont look great.