UKC

I'm after stuff along the lines of Paping About Like a Man With No Arms (VS 4c).

Amusing, yet actually fitting the route in some way.

In reply to Mr P Brown: How about my very own classic contribution to climbing on Lundy - "With friends like these who needs anemones?"

In reply to Mr P Brown:

F.A.T.D. on Millstone. The older guides/climbers will explain!

In reply to Mr P Brown:

I did this route so I could use the name

Concretion Depletion Can Cause Excretion (D)

In reply to Mr P Brown:

In these secular times, you can argue that The Strait Gate (E2 5b) is an esoteric name. It's from the bible, Matthew 7:13/14, where the King James' Version gives:

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

One of Jim Perrin's routes, and I remember him writing a stiff letter to the climbing press, or possibly a rant in his column, when a guidebook once titled it 'The Straight Gate'.

Is it an appropriate name? Well, that depends on how well you're going.

T.

In reply to Mr P Brown:

The White Wall of Impending Doom VS at Strawberry Quarries [might not exist now!]

In reply to Mr P Brown:

Hardd at Carreg Hylldrem - because it is both beautiful (Welsh meaning) and hard - well, it was for me.

In reply to Pursued by a bear:


Ah, I didn't know that. I've just checked all my Pembroke guidebooks and can't find a reference to 'straight', though - any idea which one it was?

Note: if it'd been me, it would have been to piss him off...!

In reply to jon:

'Fraid not Jon, sorry. If memory serves it was late eighties, early nineties and the more I think about it, the more I think it was in one of his magazine columns. After the grumbles he then went on to propose a way that first ascentionists could highlight if something was a deliberate spelling rather than a mis-spelling when a word or two looked odd.

Perhaps only an assiduous search of magazine back issues (life really is too short) or asking the man himself will sort it out.

T.

In reply to Frank the Husky:

My all-time favorite corny pun for a route name is "Tanks for the Mammaries" at Hueco Tanks, TX.

In reply to jon:

Hi Jon,

Jim should be so lucky! A scary micro-route I did called 'The God of Sleep' got changed to 'The Good of Sleep' by Rockfax. I thought it was funny; the original was a book title, a prior reference and hinted at what was in the back of your mind should anything go wrong. I think I pointed it out in proofing the next guide and they changed it back. Though it remains on the database. Anyway, the important thing is that I wasn't in the least offended. Guidebook writers work so bloody hard that expecting perfection off them seems downright unreasonable imho.

Would suspect 'The Strait Gate' (also?) refers to Gide's 'Strait is the Gate'. But, in a way, it's nice to have multiple possible meanings.

Last week, did the FA of a fun micro-route in a sculpture park. 'Stone Child', the title of a wonderful article (by Al Baker?) about Tony Willmott. It felt poignant. Brian Cropper and I both loved that article. He used to read it out to me on the phone. So it was a little memorial to both of them - tiny but exquisite moves.

Mick

P.S. Love your 'Thieves in the Temple'. Perhaps it's a reference to...

In reply to Mick Ward:


Love that!
And all his writing. My ascent of Heart of the Sun was made with his words in my head.

In reply to Chris_Mellor:
And another vaguely esoteric link, between the names: hyll is the opposite of hardd.

In reply to Mr P Brown:

'Does humour belong in climbing?' at leashaw brow... the top out answers that question...

In reply to Mick Ward:

Probably of no significance [unless Jim ever taught French?]: "La Porte Étroite" was a set book in the French A-Level syllabus from one of the examination boards in 1970.

In reply to Mick Ward:
And of course the route next to Strait Gate, Joyous Gard, got written up more than once as Joyous God. Again, not me... in fact I can't remember where... though maybe Ian can?

In reply to Ian Parsons:



That would be Andre Gide's book.

In reply to nniff:

Yes - the one that Mick mentioned: "Strait is the Gate."

In reply to jon:

Can't help with the "God" version, but I note that the 1971 Alpine Journal has it as "Joyous Guard".