UKC

Just got a look at the new MB book (Vertebrate Graphics)

Looks very nice on the bookshelf next to the battered old Rebuffat.

Does not disappoint when you look inside.

A quick count in the index and I got to 15 ticks.

The index page and a few others can be viewed by looking on UKC-articles-latest product news-outside shop link.

In reply to Rick Graham: But how many points?? 1 point for the easiest and 100 for the hardest...

In reply to Rick Graham: Possible 5050 points I got 862. I must be bored to have worked that out....

If deffo got some mates on 3-4000

In reply to Rick Graham:

I will buy a copy, since I'm a sucker for books like that.

But, looking at some of the sample pages available on-line at various places, some of the photos look ludicrously tilted. E.g. the shot on the Walker Spur; and one on the North Face of the Charmoz.

With the book in front of you, what's your impression? Have I got that wrong?

In reply to Rob Parsons:

Yes, look tilted, but the one off the Walker could be a bit of wide angle distortion.

In reply to Dave Searle:

I'm bored too with the first rainy days for a while.

I'm only on a measly 669 off 17 (recount) routes.

I have not skied any of them.

In reply to Rick Graham:

Hmmm, 20 for me... but an even more measly 626 points. Dave and Rick, I'm really surprised you two haven't got a load more than that.

In reply to jon:

I did not choose the list.

In reply to Rick Graham:

Yes exactly. I actually added 'just shows it's not a Brit's list' but then deleted it.

In reply to jon:

Just been for a kip, how old man is that?

Woke up feeling guilty, so did a (few) pull ups and press ups. I am definitely not admitting how few/many.

Went to look in (the mattress high squalor that is )the room (my son calls his bedroom during his fleeting visits back at home) for the original Rebuffat. Found it elsewhere eventually.

I have a theory it is for post holing / snow wading practice through the assorted smelly socks , guidebooks, beer glasses, climbing hardware and unmentionables to compliment the climbing board in the cellar.

Anyway, I digress, i got up to 29 routes and 1335 points in the old book.

In reply to Rick Graham:


Has one of them fallen down, perchance? Can you count that? I haven't got my copy here with me but I'll be sure to count up when I'm reunited with it. I remember when Ken reprinted the last edition, he tried to get Madame Rebuffat to allow him to substitute the Red Pillar of Brouillard (I think) for the Bonatti Pillar. She was having none of it!


Nothing wrong with that. It's just falling asleep during belay duty that's a problem.

In reply to jon:

The Bonatti pillar in the old book I counted in.

The Dru North Face is in the new book published in France last year.

I have not done it completely but was there not a problem with major rockfall in 2012?

In reply to Rick Graham:

Certainly I saw a photo of one of the rockfalls on the west face and there was definitely dust/rockfall also coming from the north face. Don't know any more than that.

In reply to Rick Graham:
Could somebody please post a link to the list. Whenever I try to view it, it asks me to sign into a Facebook account, which I don't have.

In reply to Fredt:

http://issuu.com/vertebratepublishing/docs/mont-blanc-philippe-batoux
Turn over the pages till you get to it.

In reply to jon and Rick Graham:

Well, my score is even more depressingly low in the new book than in the old one. I hope that might make you gods of my youth sleep a bit more easily - whether on the belay or in the chair after lunch!

In reply to Solaris:

PS - On the showing of what's available from Jon's link, the writer hasn't a touch on Rebuffat; for him climbing and writing about it seemed to be a serious cultural activity, mocked by the Brits, maybe, but wonderfully French.

In reply to Solaris: It's like pub quizes that ask all the wrong questions! He's selected all the wrong routes!

In reply to MG:

You're telling me!

In Rebuffat's list I got 343 points.

In that new one I got 42

In reply to Rick Graham:
Excellent, was lusting after this book all winter in Cham, but now don't have to struggle with a French version. 445 points for 14 routes on this list...

Will

In reply to Rick Graham:

442 from 15 routes... way better than I expected!

I think I might have to buy this book!

In reply to Rick Graham: How do the points work out? is it thta you get the number of points of where in the list the climb is? so route 13 gets 13 points?

In reply to MG:

Yes, that's what I thought. Does the list reflect more the compiler's own taste, or a shift in fashion, I wonder? Ditto for Rebuffat, too, of course.

In reply to Solaris:

Rebuffat's reflected his era. Batoux's reflects (I suppose) his era. Neither of which seem to reflect my era...

In reply to jon:

I think Batoux's mirror the routes he has climbed. He has 5050 or 5151 points.

In reply to puppythedog:
How do the points work out? is it thta you get the number of points of where in the list the climb is? so route 13 gets 13 points?

thats right..

In reply to Rick Graham:

614 points from 14 routes for me. I may have missed one or two.

Some interesting choices in there: The Ratti on the W. Face of the Aiguille Noire du Peuterey for example - I thought that the glacier crossing all but prevented access these days. The Contamine - Vaucher on the Peigne but not Le Ticket?

Also interesting is that Rebuffat's top route - the Central Pillar of Freney is in the list at 93 so only 8 routes of quality harder than that were deemed worthy of inclusion.

ALC

In reply to a lakeland climber:


Probably wanted to make it an (more) achievable list for us punters, than filling the second half with impossible ticks to 'prevent this puerile ticking'...! Mind you, having said that, some do just that, I suppose.

In reply to Rick Graham:
Hmmm, 00 points in new book compared to >1000 in Rebuffat's; confirms I'm behind the times.