UKC

A few things that didn't make the news section...

Alex Barrows has climbed a new 9a at Raven Tor. It's link up and a boulder-route but new 9a's in the UK are still a rarity.

Adam Ondra has been busy at Flatanger. First is a hard 9a+ second pitch to Thor's Hammer. Linking the two pitches he reckons will give an 80m 9b+. He also did a new 9a in the Hell area, named Hello. He also worked on a new 9b+ variant to Change, Exchange, but gave up because it was hurting his shoulder.

There's a good new interview with Adam on Training Beta where he talks about Silence, training for that route, his diet and his training in general:
https://www.trainingbeta.com/media/adam-ondra-silence/?portfolioCats=72

In reply to stp:

Well done Alex!

What do you reckon of these super routes that are 80 mtrs long? It somehow feels a bit artificial, but then again I suppose thinking a rope should be 60 mtrs long is also rather artificial. Hmmm.

In reply to TobyA:

I guess it's whatever feels most 'natural' - presumably there aren't any ledges. Of course the handy thing with trad is you can only belay when there's gear!

In reply to TobyA:

Personally I'm not keen on super long routes. I don't like the weight of all that rope dragging you down. But I also don't like routes that end in the middle of nowhere, that is not at a decent stance or logical stopping place. So I suppose if the rock dictates an 80m pitch then that's the route. Maybe if I got into doing very long routes I'd appreciate them more but there's really not much opportunity in this country.

BTW I recently heard about a new 9a in Verdon that was 100m long!!

In reply to stp:


Yeah, wasn't one of Grimer's interviewees on JamCrack Podcast going on about that? Can't remember who now though...

In reply to stp:


I stand to be corrected on this (not been to Flatanger), but I understand that some of these uber-pitches have such good knee-bar rests that they constitue auxillary belays - you can pull the rope and re-belay / transfer to another lead rope to cut down on drag.

In reply to thebigfriendlymoose:

I'm sure that's true but it's not just drag but simply the weight of the rope. If you've got 80m of rope out then when you pull some up to clip a bolt you're lifting the weight of the whole rope, possibly above your head, with one arm, while holding your body on to the rock with the other hand. Modern skinny ropes no doubt alleviate the problem to a certain degree but a whole rope is still going to be fairly weighty.

In reply to TobyA:

Mark Pretty.

In reply to stp:


This doesn't really apply so much in Flatanger as the floor of the cave runs almost parallel to the roof of the cave. So on Thors Hammer you'll arrive at the the knee bar / pull through station after about 30m of climbing, but you're actually only about 10m above the ground. Thus, pulling the rope through eliminates c.20m of rope from your system, plus removing the drag obviously. The practice makes complete sense.