UKC

Please commiserate with me.

I had after much cajoling, whining and negotiating, got my wife to agree to come climbing with me today whilst my Mum and Dad to look after our kids. We were going to go sport climbing at Llanymynech and then if I was feeling good - over to Nesscliffe for me to try Red Square, which has been on my tick list for about 15 years. Anyway - about halfway there the car suddenly starts making an alarming noise, and I look in the engine and there is power steering fluid all over the place. We drove gingerly back to the garage near my folks house where they will try and fix it before we head back to Finland early next week. Bummer. No E2 attempt for me today...

So who else has tried to go climbing before and failed to even make it to the crag?

In reply to TobyA:

usually happens to me when I plan an early start on Friday. Can't work out why! I'm sat there thinking "mint! Plan!" get a text or call from someone saying "dude! beer?" and then I don't really know where it goes wrong from there!

In reply to TobyA: Countless times i've arranged to go climbing, get in the car and head off to the crag only to be stopped from even touching rock.
Rain.

In reply to Adders:


I would put that more in the objective hazards category. I'm thinking more of the "act of god" type (despite being an atheist and rain seeming more like an act of god than a broken high pressure hose)!

Love your Hebrides camping photo BTW.

In reply to TobyA: Up at 5am.. 2 hours to the Alpkit sale, then on to a friends, Outside in Hathersage for breakfast. Park at Stanage - rain starts

4 hour drive home.

In reply to TobyA:

I came close recently - I was driving from near London to meet a friend for a climb in Bristol. It was my first trip out for 9 months after my daughter was born, so to say I was looking forward to it was an understatement! However, when overtaking a lorry on the M4, the engine started jumping and juddering. I was forced to stop and call the RAC. First we were towed to the nearest services, then a relay truck took us on to family in Bristol. The car was written off, with small pieces of the engine liberally spread through the cylinders.

However, apart from the cost of a new car, the day wasn't totally ruined as I managed to get down the Avon to meet my mate for a couple of quick routes.

In reply to TobyA:

Aviemore at New Year 2009-2010 for another brief foray into spiky metal fun in the corries.

Too much snow! Going into the real mountains would have been foolhardy (could barely get up the road)
I know you're not accepting "objective standards" but there was a certain irony at play...

In reply to TobyA: Was driving to Champex a few nights ago (to do a route the following day) and my partner bailed before we'd left the outskirts of Chamonix.

Reckon I win

In reply to TobyA:

It's OK- Red Square is E1 anyway, always has been

In reply to TobyA: how about an act of stupidity? got to a crag once and got my shoes out to find x2 left shoes

In reply to Blue Straggler:


That reminds me - I once flew up to Scotland for 6 days and didn't climb a single route due to too much snow everywhere! An expensive trip to climb nothing. We went to Norway the following year...

In reply to Adders:
I reckon you could get away with that - rock shoes being more symetrical than normal shoes. In fact as a student I often climbed with my boots on the wrong feet in order to save the rubber from wearing out too quickly. Admittedly I now have lots of problems with my feet....

Once drove from Sheffield to Matlock and paid a fiver for the car park only to realise I'd forgotten my boots. And being determined not to waste money drove back to Sheffield and back down to Matlock again...

OK, may have spent more on petrol but there's a principle involved !

In reply to bentley's biceps:


Good - I'm actually hoping that secretly this was the case as I can't climb E2!

In reply to TobyA: you must be harder than me Toby, i'd have wussed out of the pain from wearing the wrong shoes and not bothered or gone shopping for new ones!
Great piccy btw!

In reply to TobyA: Once arrived at Sargent Crag Slabs, to find neither of us had the rope.

In reply to TobyA:

Ah, but Toby, sometimes failing to make it to the crag saves you from more demoralising failure AT the crag! I succeeded in getting to the crag for an after-work outing on Monday but failed at both routes I tried, and then my partner had a minor epic on his second route and we ended up getting benighted. We'd probably have had more pride remaining if we'd never made it to the crag in the first place!

In reply to TobyA:

I managed to drive all the way from Edinburgh to Skye to do the main ridge traverse with a mate who had driven up from Oxford.

Got to the Slig to find out I had neither boots or rock shoes...

Doh!

In reply to all: Car in the garage being worked on, but my dear old dad got me insured on his so I went to Ivy Scar Rock at Malvern. OK, so it is an utterly crap crag, but two not too great routes is better than no routes!

In reply to TobyA:

Doing two routes at Ivy scar is worse than not climbing for two years!

In reply to Dark Mavis: I had actually seen your comment on the UKC page before going: "Unprotectable, sloping, awkward, loose, lichenous." You are wrong, actually it's only sloping, awkward, loose, lichenous. But the view is pretty from the top.

In reply to TobyA: Commisery! My worst was last July: came back from a month in Yosemite which itself was frustratingly weather affected but I was very fit by the end. Once back, it was hot all week, too hot to climb even but I was patiently waiting to hook up with a mate on the Friday to go up to Cloggy and bag something big. Got up early on the friday, needed to fill the car up but car made terrible bonking noises then cut out 100yards down the road. Sickening feeling, check the receipt, yep, filled my diesel car with petrol. 2hours and £230 later I was back on the motorway. Clouds building all the way along the A55. just pulled onto the Llanberis road and the first spots of rain begin. Pouring by the time I get to Pete's Eats. Still pouring by the time we've driven to Llanberis and then Gogarth. Drive home in disgust.

In reply to TobyA:

My worst non-day was last November. First route of the season was planned, conditions looked good, bag was packed and I even managed to get an early night. Got woken at 12am by people in my student accommodation returning from town, the party went on (with rave music which rattled the windows) until 5am when I decided to just get up. Drove down the A9 to Cairngorm and tried unsuccessfully to get some sleep in the car before the arranged meet time. Began to worry when there was no sign of my partner who was driving over from Aberdeen. Gave him another half hour before calling to discover he had gone out for "a pint" and slept in... Walked into the corrie to discover brilliant conditions but my head wasn't set on a solo so I walked out and was home for lunch, gutted!

Iain

In reply to IainMunro: Drove over to World's End from Stoke area, brilliant blue skies, fired for some limestone action. Said to my mate Paul: "Have you got a rope?" "Yes" he says. He was mistaken.

In reply to Richard Baynes: I once drove from Manc to the Lakes, getting there really early in Langdale when all the hills were coated with a thick beautiful layer of snow. I then managed to lock the keys to my Chevette (Shove-it), in the boot along with one rucksack full of one set of climbing gear. Fortunately I had break down recovery so they drove me, my mate and the car back to Manchester and the spare set of keys... Bummer.

We repeated the whole exercise the next day, did the walk-in to Bowfell and found none of the turf was frozen. Double Bummer.

In reply to TobyA:

stopped by mother

see for more:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=418873&v=1

In reply to TobyA:

In a similar vein - my first outing onto "real rock" for months and months was marred by a burst head gasket.

Cue much waiting for RAC man, much expense repairing car, and no climbing for another significant period...

In reply all:

Took my wife to Rjukan for some sneaky over-new-year easy-access ice. Awesome conditions. Our kit remained at Heathrow for the whole three days; and, in fact, got delivered to Melbourne Australia before it made its way back to us in Melbourne Derbyshire.

Rjukan Youth Hostel had no staff around when we arrived, so we broke in a slept a night in a half-built room wrapped in a couple of curtains.

Y

In reply to TobyA:

Yes, a three star view from the top with minus three star climbing below!

In reply to TobyA:

A few years ago now but... Drive from Southampton to Swanage for some trad. Climb a very easy warm up at Subluminal and notice that it is rather windy and the sea rather rough, in fact looking further down the coast the spray is going over the top of Boulder Ruckle. Almost get washed off the ledge by a wave so decided it was too dangerous. Not knowing much about climbing at the time (i.e. the sport quarries at Swanage), we pack up and drive to Portland which takes twice as long as it should due to traffic amd I am in a temper by the time we arrive. Go to Cuttings, get ready, before we even start a route the heavens open and it pisses with rain. Go to pub for beer having driven most of the way round dorset and virtually no climbing...

In reply to TobyA:

Last winter. Kinder Downfall in best nick for a few years, fat with ice.

Drive over after work (1hr), park up and get start to get kitted up for the walk in.

My tw@t of a climbing partner has forgotten his boots. Contemplate making him walk in in his trainers to belay me, but take pity on him.

Next day, temps rise and it all starts melting...

In reply to Chris the Tall:


Crikey, are students really that poor?! That seems to be stretching frugality to its limit

In reply to TobyA: August 8th 2008, heading to alps on my motorbike for a few weeks climbing and ended up in intensive care and 4 months off work!! That will go down as a bad climbing trip.(OK now though - climbed the matterhorn a year later!)

In reply to TobyA:
Well 10 weeks ago I headed to the peak camping on the Friday night, didn't drink much as actually wanted to climb well the next day.
Saturday morning got up nice and early and had a big fry up, went into the van to get my stuff and tripped getting back out! Landed hard and grabbed my leg as it hurt to then notice a bone stretching the skin and my foot hanging at a funny angle, one helicopter ride later was in Sheffield hospital!
16 days and 2 operations later I escaped hospital, cast came off last week and am now slowly getting back to walking...
Never did climb that weekend!

Dom

In reply to DomClarke: bloody hell that sounds unlucky!

In reply to TobyA:

I was staying in Capel Curig one summer when I was a student. It was tipping down with rain and so we decided to go to Craig y Forwen, where, as is well known, it only rains at night. Sadly, when we got there an hour later it was still tipping down, as it was in Capel when we got back there. So far, so normal. Except, the car did not have a windscreen; a tipper lorry charging through a flooded section of road emptied several hundred gallons into the car, to join the car's own contribution that came in over the bonnet. Add to that two hours of driving in a downpour. 'Wet' doesn't really cover it.

In reply to TobyA:

This happened to me this weekend. I've been itching to visit a certain crag in the North of Sweden for about a year. It's steep, sustained on good holds. But whenever I've suggested it I've always had the same response. It's too far. There's nothing to warm up on. It's too hard. So I was delighted when the one of the few people I hadn't asked, asked me if I wanted to go. I cleared it with my wife that I could take a long weekend. I arranged it with work that I could have the Friday off. Then on Thursday evening before we left the trip was canceled as my partner broke his rib wrestling with an inflatable alligator. Damn. Does anyone else want to go sports climbing in the North of Sweden?

In reply to TobyA:

On the plus side there wouldn't have been an E2 attempt anyway as Red Square is steady E1, albeit brilliant.

In reply to TobyA: Met with friends at Symonds Yat. Abseiled down, played about with some gear placements, belayed a few people. Tied into the rope to climb, then felt the stomach cramps! Ran to the toilets, spent the rest of the day at or near the toilet block,

In reply to Fiend:

Nick Dixon gives it E2 and that's good enough for me.

In reply to Pekkie:

Like he'd know what E1/2 felt like!!

In reply to Fiend:





I think this point was already made, albeit brilliantly, in the 9th post of the thread.

In reply to Fiend: I'd agree. Good honest E1. Why did it get E2? See my blog for a picture. BTW I'm writing this on my phone in my tent in a Finnish forest. Cool eh? Actually it's not cool as it is still like 28 degrees in the middle of the night.

In reply to TobyA:

it's a sort of mild recurring nightmare fr me - i get all ready but things take up too much time or go awry and I don't get to climb!