UKC

Dutch climber Marianne van der Steen has made the first ever known flash of a D13+ drytooling route with Kamasutra at Bus del Quai, Iseo, Italy in between rounds of the Ice Climbing World Cup.

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In reply to UKC News:
I wonder if any of the readers of this article will be inspired to go and dry tool their local sandstone crag ? Given the recent abuse of a uk crag a small footnote about current uk ethics may have been helpfull.

In reply to muppetfilter:

Good point. Perhaps all future articles should also contain the disclaimer that climbing is dangerous.

Well done Marianne, awesome stuff.

In reply to planetmarshall:

Of course its dangerous , It can get an iceaxe rammed up your arse if i catch you drytooling my local crags ;0)

It as has come to light in the previous thread that the perpetrators didnt know any better then what a perfect place to subtly introduce local ethics than an inspiring article about dry tooling.

In reply to muppetfilter:

I think the ethics ship has sailed where UK dry tooling is concerned. Most dry tooling venues rely on chipped and drilled placements which would be considered wholly unacceptable for free climbing routes. Pity, the Works would have been a great free climbing venue if it had been know it's ok to drill holds all over it.

In reply to Tyler:


If you want to free climb artificial routes, there's probably an indoor wall near you. They can even change the holds round, make them bright colours and everything.

In reply to planetmarshall:
I've no idea what your point is

In reply to Tyler:

Its not so much the cheat aidclimbing with pointy sticks (dry tooling) ethics but the "half a stoodent loan" blown on shiny sharp stuff and too much Tosstestorone to know the apropriate places to use them ethics .

In reply to Tyler:


My point is that there are probably half a dozen dry tooling venues in the UK, if that. They either live happily side by side with sport routes like Newtyle, or have been developed by enthusiasts from rock no one else wanted, like White Goods.

For all the worry that Gritstone edges would be crawling with toolers each Winter, there have been a grand total of two high profile incidents in the last decade, and by and large, with a few vocal exceptions, climbers live and let live and understand the ethical nuances pretty well.

Overall, I think statements like...


...is being pretty melodramatic.

In reply to planetmarshall:
I agree with you on the two crags you mention, maybe Clogwyn Manod and the Works are a bit more of a grey area...

I've always thought that argument was a bit of red herring as well.

I disagree, maybe it's my age but there was a time when a single chipped hold in the slate quarries would create an outcry (Chippadeedooda) never mind a whole route (the Cruel Sea) so to get all chippy about a throw away remark regarding the wholesale drilling of pick placements on crags seems a bit precious.

In reply to Tyler:

Just two ? Pex Hill , Earl Crag , langdale Boulders , Millstone , tryfan bach .....

In reply to muppetfilter:

I quite agree. Whenever there's a news story about sport climbing abroad there should definitely be a mention of the current policy on bolts in the UK. Who knows what folk might get up to!

In reply to UKC News:

God, what a pile of w*nk.

jcm

In reply to UKC News: "But when I can keep my head clear I can always recover, no matter what route and that was a great advantage in this huge, long climb."

This isn't something I have ever experienced before, but something that sounds infinitely desirable!!

In reply to muppetfilter:

Half-relevant username.

In reply to muppetfilter:

Just to be clear, there's no way you could climb with your hands and rock boots at the Works even it was chipped. Have you been there? The green slime is everywhere pretty much all year around. However, if you fancy having a go, it's all chipped and equipped, so I don't see why you shouldn't be able to try and rock climb it if that's what you like. Also if you want t to add your rock routes you are welcome too, the crag is not exclusive to drytooling. But something tells me that if you are at the Lakes for rock routes, you might want to head up to Langdale, there's slightly better rock route there that down at the works.

On another more serious note, the purpose of having dedicated drytooling crags is to keep people away from rock climbing crags. The reality is that there's a lot of folk that want to train on tools, so it is important that we develop crags for that purpose so these people can go and do it without damaging rock (and all drytooling crags are no value to rock climbing). When these people join us at this crags, they are more likely to get educated on drytooling ethics, where to do it, how to do it and respect the rules. If we don't embrace it, you'll get loads of muppets with tools running around the country ruining rock venues.

In reply to Rob Greenwood - UKClimbing:

Yes you read her say "I wasn't even pumped" then look at the photo and just shake your head!

In reply to muppetfilter:


Oh dear....are we considering "trigger warnings" for UKC now!

In reply to UKC

What a ridiculous response to a hugely impressive feat of climbing. I remember why I stopped reading UKC forums now.