UKC

NEWS: Requiem (E8 6b) Ground-Up for Will Atkinson

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 UKC News 16 May 2011
Will Atkinson seconds before a 40 foot whipper off the top of Requiem at Dumbarton Rock., 3 kbWill Atkinson has climbed Requiem (E8 6b) - the classic hard crackline of Dumbarton Rock - ground-up.

"Get in! First ground-up ascent since it was put up in 1983!"

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=62135

In reply to UKC News: Awesome effort... Inspired!
 CragX Shop 16 May 2011
In reply to UKC News: Nice one Ackers.
 Michael Gordon 16 May 2011
In reply to UKC News: Brilliant! This has been a long time coming indeed. Well done that man.
Nice one Precious. The icing on your considerable Dumby ticklist cake! It won't be the same without your expletives emanating down from the headwall. Was nice watching you get closer and closer to this while resisting throwing a top rope down it. Tells you alot about Dumby that it's never been onsighted when you consider what a quality route it is! Plenty of beasts out there capable of it. I'm told Craig Parnaby fell off the last move on the onsight, damn that must have been gutting...
And lets not forget that Dave Mac's sphincter loosening Achemine E9 6C is still unrepeated after 10 years. Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!
 Wee Davie 16 May 2011
In reply to JohnnyBee:

Great stuff Will Atkinson. Requiem is amazing.
Is that your photo on the article JohnnyBee? If so- it's brilliant.
Hi Davie it's not mine no, the work of a similarly named friend! It is indeed a great photo, more here - http://blog.dumby.info/?cat=6
And not to mention Sonnie Trotter's unrepeated climbs Direquiem 5.14a R and Cop Out 5.13 b/c R...
 jobertalot 16 May 2011
In reply to JohnnyBee:
Was that recently? I thought Craig Parnaby had given up climbing a few years ago.
No, it 'was back in the day' from what I know, maybe mid to late 90's? Anyone got a first hand account of the Parnaby epic?
 buzby78 16 May 2011
In reply to JohnnyBee:

I belayed Craig when he tried to ground up Requiem back in 1998. It was an impressive display of climbing even by Parnaby standards. His 1st attempt ended half way up the crack with him shouting "End of a dream! End of a dream!"

On his 2nd attempt he got to the top of the crack but came off getting established on the head wall above this. On his 3rd attempt on day 2 he cruised all the way to the top only to find that the top was wet as it had started to rain.

After spending a few minutes hanging onto wet basalt Craig shouted down in his best Victor Meldrew impression that "he couldn't believe it" and casually down climbed to his last runner and lowered off. He said that he couldn't be bothered trying again as he had had too many goes and that was that!

I've never seen as impressive on-sight climber as Parnaby, he was a legend back in the 90's......
 Burnsie 16 May 2011
In reply to JohnnyBee:

I mind watching parnaby on Requiem.
He climbed up abit towards the top, then fell off - sorry Bee i'll never make much of a commentator ....

If anyone wants to contribute to a dumby related thread that has been moved :


http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=459144
 Dave MacLeod 17 May 2011

> I've never seen as impressive on-sight climber as Parnaby, he was a legend back in the 90's......

Seconded. Parnaby was a machine while he was training hard. He was a testament to the power of diligent dedicated training. After he stopped training I saw him getting pumped and falling off 6b+s at the wall. But after all those circuits he could onsight 8a+ without so much as a snatch for a hold. Loved your story about belaying him on Barbarossa.
 buzby78 17 May 2011
In reply to Dave MacLeod:

Now that was a long belay.....
Thanks for the info Buzby, I had heard the 'end of a dream' story before but not the Victor Meldrew one. Hehe. The version of the story that reached me initially was that he fell on his first attempt on the very last move due to the wet. Good stories like that tend to get imbellished over time though! Saying that, pretty much doing it after 3 goes is damn impressive but so is the fact that he just walked away from it!
In reply to buzby78: Do tell!
 willackers 17 May 2011
In reply to JohnnyBee:

Great to finally hear the proper story from someone who was there! The man sounds like an absolute machine! Very impressive!

I think it took me about 2 or 3 goes ha ha!

Cheers Buzz!
 flaneur 17 May 2011
In reply to Dave MacLeod:

Thanks for the background on Craig. I climbed with him at El Chorro briefly back in the mid-90s and he seemed to never fall off. Typical Brit., he kept quiet about the work that went into achieving this. I naively thought this was 'natural talent' or some such nonsense.
jenran 17 May 2011
In reply to UKC News: photos of the ascent here! http://alloureggs.wordpress.com/
 jobertalot 17 May 2011
In reply to Dave MacLeod:

I didn't realise he did much in the way of training either, I thought it was all down to natural talent as well.

I belayed him on The Bells, The Bells on North Stack Wall. ('95 or '96) He flew up it in around 40 minutes, cruising the crux moves way above a single sideways RP3. Similar story on Zero, suicide wall, although on that occasion I think he had two RP's after the peg at one-third height. On second, I flicked them out above my head and then couldn't really see where they had been placed when I pulled up level with them, the rock was so compact. Lots of sustained 6a/6b climbing on that, but he remained completely smooth and in control. I've never seen another climbing display come close. A couple of weeks later he did the second ascent of Totally Wired 9 and barely told anyone about it.
In reply to UKC News: I also have my impressive Parnaby memories from the Lakes in 1996 and he was superb... but aren't we supposed to be giving some dues to Will here for an awesome ascent of Requiem? Fantastic effort & very inspiring.
 willackers 18 May 2011
In reply to Dave Musgrove Jnr:
Ha Ha!
To be honest I think someone should write an article on Parnaby! Sounds like the guy was an absolute machine and I think it would make for some very interesting reading. Sounds like he was way ahead of is time when it came to on-sight trad climbing!
 Dave MacLeod 18 May 2011
In reply to willackers:

> To be honest I think someone should write an article on Parnaby! Sounds like the guy was an absolute machine and I think it would make for some very interesting reading. Sounds like he was way ahead of is time when it came to on-sight trad climbing!

http://stonecountry.blogspot.com/2009/08/unsponsored-heroes-craig-parnaby_1...

Hope you enjoyed Requiem, it's a mega route eh? Great memories from doing it myself. I was 21 and felt like it was a milestone in my apprenticeship and time to start doing new routes.

In reply to Dave MacLeod:

That blog about Craig made me smile, I used to meet him at the wall, climbed with him a few times. He always struck me as 'someone you'd take their dinner money off, at school'.

I even went to Dumbarton with Mike Reed once, he did some E4 nr Windjammer, Mike and I seconded, f**k he was good. I heard he'd repeated Requiem, some time later.

Happy memories

Stuart

 willackers 18 May 2011
In reply to Dave MacLeod:

Great article!, nice one!

Really enjoyed climbing Requiem, had a bit of an epic at the top of the crack figuring out a sequence but the head wall was more my style, the last move is brilliant!, it doesn't get easier and it's not over until you're stood on the top!

Great experience that I'll never forget!
In reply to Dave MacLeod: bloody hell! he sounds like an absolute animal!!!
In reply to Dave MacLeod: Requiem at 21 must have been a great feeling. I aspire to do it at some point in my life! Was inspiring to belay Will and watch him do battle with it. Chemin de Fer first though...Is it also strangely satisfying/bewildering that Achemine is unrepeated when it's bigger brother Rhapsody has had repeats Dave? Would be great to see some footage of you on Achemine though I doubt little exists? I borrowed an old film called Cutting Loose from Steve Richardson when I wrote my dissertation, a good document of the 90s Dumby scene and some great footage of you topping out Chemin de Fer a bit pumped!
 Graeme Barr 19 May 2011
In reply to Stuart the postie: Climbed a few times with Craig at school but don't recall ever taking his dinner money off him!
 Fraser 19 May 2011
In reply to machars:

For two ryvitas and a wee box of raisins...probably not worth it!
 Dave MacLeod 20 May 2011
In reply to John 'B' Hutchinson:
> bewildering that Achemine is unrepeated when it's bigger brother Rhapsody has had repeats Dave? Would be great to see some footage of you on Achemine though I doubt little exists?

I know lots of folk have been on Achemine, I'm sure it'll be popular in the future. Of the hardest 15 or so routes in Scotland, Rhapsody is the only one to get a repeat so far I think! Not many folk do them, and then someone will come along and do all of them and then start doing much harder things.

There's no footage of Achemine. It was just myself and Jo George at the crag when I got it.

In reply to Dave MacLeod: Thanks for clearing that up. Shame there's no footage, but good that it's immortalised on the front of Lowland Outcrops with that great photo, despite the fact you're wearing socks Will be interesting when that next increase in standards occurs and a super mutant gets all these routes repeated and then some. Certainly a pretty high benchmark to step up to, Achemine stands firm after 10 years!
 TobyA 22 May 2011
In reply to willackers: Will, congrats again - Requiem is just such a brilliant line. It really has to be one of the best looking single pitches in the UK.

As you don't seem to mind this thread slipping into a Parnaby-reminiscences-thread, I'll chuck my one in quickly. I was also at uni with Craig in Glasgow. He was a year or two behind and in his very nice way seemed to treat the people slightly older in the climbing club with respect despite us not really having anything to teach him. Due to my job in a climbing shop I had some RPs and brass HBs, and Craig wanted to do an E5 at Ratho where they were the crux protection. I was very happy to lend them to him but he insisted I would be better at placing them (as they were mine seemed to be his logic?!?) and talked me into abbing the route and preplacing them for him. He then shot off up the route with me belaying him - totally terrified having never belayed someone on anything harder than E1. He got above 'my' RPs and started sketching about trying to work out the crux. I was now doubly terrified, that he might fall and the that the gear I had placed would blow and I would be responsibly for breaking Parnaby. Of course he promptly fell off. Fortunately my placements worked - I think far more to my surprise than Craig's - he lowered off and got it on his second go.

I do remember his attempts at winter climbing weren't always as smooth. Either he fell onto his mate Tommy's head, or Tommy fell on Craig's head whilst trying to do the crux of Deep Cut Chimney in Glencoe. They were both in the pub the next tuesday giggling about it though. Happy times! Hope Craig and Tommy are doing well whatever those lads are up to these days.
 Nic_Sandy 13 Jun 2011

HEY BIG SHOUTS TO WILL ACKERS FOR HIS GROUND UP ASCENT. A fine effort on one of the most scary looking crags, love the graffiti (or Urban art, like they call it in STARBUCKS) . It seems to me like everybody wanted to talk up some lad called parnaby or summat).
Scottish rock does not get much attention in the press or many big ups. Well it seems that way, Im an ex-pat living in the states, wot do I know? What I don't understand is why dave mcleods (some people give him shit too???????) routes don't get much praise or even attempted more often. My highest grade being E5 im not an expert but would guess that some of them big chop routes are akin to being caught in dead ended back alley with some glasweigen lads, a lot of special brew, your hands up the blouse of the local hard mans missus and to make matters worse theres a language problem!!!!(Unfortunately I am an expert in this type of scenario!)).
As for the sock wearing, I love it. Bring back the old school,it is way sexier than the scruffy baggy jeans look that the young rock cougars are sporting today. I know the whole deal is look untamed and a tad homeless but I think the look has no class. I have just started climbing after a twenty year lay off, I'm forty three, Well if pete livsey did it, so can I. Im gonna wear my old lycra!!! It just feels so NNNNNNIIIIIICEEEEEE
 Tom Last 13 Jun 2011
In reply to UKC News:

>
(Why Dave Macleods) routes don't get (...) attempted more often.
_____

guess that some of them big chop routes are akin to being caught in dead ended back alley with some glasweigen lads, a lot of special brew, your hands up the blouse of the local hard mans missus and to make matters worse theres a language problem!!!!(Unfortunately I am an expert in this type of scenario!)).

Think you've jut answered your own question. As for receiving praise, it seems to me that Dave is pretty much universally praised - in the UK - for being the country's best all rounder, high praise indeed surely?

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...