UKC

"Punks in the Gym" (8b+) was the world's first of the grade. First climbed by Wolfgang Gullich, this route stands out as a classic test piece of our generation and is still regarded as an incredibly challenging climb even 25 years after the first ascent.

In this video, Scottish climber Robbie Phillips takes on the challenge and discusses some of the facets of this climb that motivated him.

Watch the video: http://www.ukclimbing.com/videos/play.php?i=2122

In reply to UKC Videos:

Just adding a link to Mayan Smith-Gobat's ascent: http://www.ukclimbing.com/videos/play.php?i=1803 which makes an interesting comparison.

In reply to UKC Videos:

Nice video - good use of the word 'skite' in Robbie's commentary!

In reply to elliptic:

Yeah very interesting I knew how she had done it from talking to my friend Logan Barber. I belayed him on his ascent of "Punks" too which you can see here:

youtube.com/watch?v=9yvxYpXtmM8&

The same thing again, when I did the 8c "Tigercat", I was belaying Monique Forestier on it as well. Her climbing the first 3/4 of the route might as well have been a completely different piece of rock :P It was so different to the way I climb it. Just goes to show that grades mean nothing... it's just a piece of rock to climb on and everyone is going to climb it different, even if only very subtly

In reply to UKC Videos:

Yeah but whats he ever done at Ratho?

In reply to UKC Videos:
Yeh...whatever...... but has he pulled his finger out and climbed 9a yet?

In reply to UKC Videos:

Excellent achievement. Excellent filming. Appalling 'music' and no sounds of the environment or climber ... really, sort it out.

In reply to Robbie_Phillips:


Know exactly what you mean (though at a lower level of performance!) I had a regular partner like that, her style was so different to mine it was sometimes hard for me even to figure out what holds she was using let alone understand the sequence. We gave up trying to swap beta! But we were pretty much a perfect match in terms of raw numbers, she could do most things I could and vice versa.

In reply to UKC Videos:

Birds!

In reply to ericinbristol:

I liked it :P

In reply to Robbie_Phillips:

If that was me in the video I would too

Big congrats man, must have been a wonderful experience.

In reply to UKC Videos:

There's a really cool interview with Mayan here, where she talks about the amount that went into doing it ...
http://enormocast.com/episode-27-mayan-smith-gobat-mama-dont-take-no-mess/

big up to the enormocast..

Nice 1 robbie also..