UKC

I head pointed Salmon left hand today and found the move out of the top break surprisingly desperate. It involved undercutting the pocket and doing a full reach stretch to the good white pebble, pressing this out and then various pieces of foot faffage so that I could get my left foot into the good pocket to pop for the top. There is a big pebble scar in an obvious place that would make the first move loads easier and on watching a video of some one else on it (ram man on vimeo) it does look like he uses a pebble that I think is now gone. Has any one else done it recently and thinks the same thing? We filmed it so I will put the video up when Bob has speeded up the gear placing bits for me.

In reply to miastacey: I've climbed it several times last year. It goes something like this:- Jet runner to the good break and bomber gear, sharp square piece of quartz for the left hand small pebble for the right. Right foot in to the high pocket and pull up (crux 6b), left foot in big pocket just above the break, half decent right foot smear and either lunge for a sloper just before the break or left foot thin smear and easy reach.

It's a real shame you headpointed it as it's a give away at the grade and they don't get any safer.

HTH

In reply to mic_b:
Had to top rope it first, if the pebbles you are talking about are still there there is no way I could pull on them and I am generally OK at pebbles. It took a few goes to work out a way of getting up to the obvious white pebble - I think that this is now the first useable pebble and there is no way of reaching it straight from the break.

In reply to miastacey:
Is the pebble for the right hand a little black flat one that is down and right of the obvious white one? If so at 5ft 5inches I couldn't reach it from the break.

In reply to miastacey: Nice one on doing the route. That vid footage was from the 8th feb so if anything's come off, it's happened in the last few weeks. I haven't done it so can't really make sense of the sequences but sam's about 5'9" if that helps with figuring anyhthing out!?

In reply to Steve Ramsden:

Nice set of vids on Vimeo. How tall is the guy doing Grand Potato?

J

In reply to miastacey:

I hate to sound like a tit but its toproping on routes like this that trash them and snap pebbles etc. I havent done it, but its safe for e6 and should be ground up. Why toprope it? If you think you can do it, risk the fall. If you don't think you can climb 6b, go and do a load of tough slab boulder problems then get on it.

In reply to mic_b:

Do you happen to know if the Salmon is meant to be soft or hard for the grade?

In reply to bomb:

and if you onsight it and take falls you damage the rock at the gear placements?

In reply to bomb:

Oh dear - look it wasn't my intention to put my self up here as someone to shoot down for top roping something that they find hard. We all draw our own line in the sand and I have fallen off E6 in the past on lead - it is not nice.

You could of course argue that by top roping it a couple of times first I kept my head at the top (which is a long way from your gear) and didn't step on the crucial white pebble - as I understand it stepping on pebbles breaks them more than anything else.

I just wanted to know if I had maybe missed something on the route and if indeed a pebble has broken to let people know.

However thank you for your comments (and mic b) as they have only served to heighten my sense of achievement on my second ascent of grit E6 ; )

In reply to bomb: Case by case though in't it. As they explained, miastacy's approach was actually less likely to cause any damage to the route than potentially frantic onsight/GU attempts. And let's not forget that they did actually do the route, presuamably in the same session as getting on it - sounds like pretty minimal impact and solid personal style to me.

It's when you look at the harder slab climbs on the roaches lower tier and the like that I get depressed. People with no idea, no chance and presumably no intention scrabbling and trashing for the sake of it.

In reply to Ropeboy: cheers. 5'10'' in rock shoes.

In reply to Steve Ramsden:

Yeah my understanding is:

1: working moves on top-rope with intention to lead is fine, just not as good as ground up.

2: top roping a fragile route with no intention of leading it is bang out of order.

Not that it matters to me, everything I do is ground up as I'm a punter.

Oh, and nice one Mia, you must be stoked, looks like you're going well again this year

In reply to bomb:

That's the great thing about climbing. There are no rules
Effort Mia, keep up the good work.

In reply to Adam Lincoln:
Thanks Dan, Steve and Adam - I was pretty happy, did a little whoop at the top. Bob put a video on face book.