UKC

NEWS: Ray's Roof E7 6c by Mari Augusta Salvesen

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 UKC News 18 Feb 2019
Norwegian climber Mari Augusta Salvesen has made the first female ascent of the burly Ray's Roof E7 6c at Baldstones in Staffordshire. First climbed by visiting American Ray Jardine in 1977, the horizontal offwidth crack remains a gritstone testpiece and is one of the hardest of its kind in the UK.

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 ashtond6 18 Feb 2019
In reply to UKC News:

Great pics and awesome ascent 

Her Instagram has many pics or her climbing offwidths so the comment in the article claiming this is her first one isn't correct.

Post edited at 13:55
 myrddinmuse 18 Feb 2019
In reply to UKC News:

Now that's inspiring! How many ascents is this, total, now? Dream route.

 AMorris 18 Feb 2019
In reply to UKC News:

I love hearing about repeats of Ray's. Pure perversion that route

 Sl@te Head 18 Feb 2019
In reply to UKC News:

'Also, in Norway we have salty liquorice and you Brits are missing out.'

Ah, salty Licorice one of lifes great pleasures

 slab_happy 18 Feb 2019
In reply to ashtond6:

> Her Instagram has many pics or her climbing offwidths so the comment in the article claiming this is her first one isn't correct.

Maybe it's been edited since you posted, but it does say "first grit offwidth".

1
 slab_happy 18 Feb 2019
In reply to UKC News:

> She was forced to go back once again.

This implies she got it on the third attempt, which is wildly impressive all by itself!

I commend to everyone's attention the wonderful "Best Forgotten Art", the finale of which features many big name climbers having a picnic and taking turns to fail on Ray's.

 d_b 18 Feb 2019
In reply to Sl@te Head:

One of life's great experiences certainly.  Pleasures is going a bit far.

 Sl@te Head 18 Feb 2019
In reply to d_b:

A bit like marmite I guess, I'm an addict!

 d_b 18 Feb 2019
In reply to Sl@te Head:

If I have a packet I find I can't stop eating them but I don't actually enjoy the experience.

 Southvillain 18 Feb 2019
In reply to UKC News:

Any mention of Ray Jardine and cracks automatically conjures up `this' image to me...

https://cdn.ukc2.com/i/181976.jpg

 ashtond6 18 Feb 2019
In reply to slab_happy:

Edited

 slab_happy 18 Feb 2019
In reply to ashtond6:

In that case, well spotted on your part!

 slab_happy 18 Feb 2019
In reply to Southvillain:

Iconic!

And appropriately enough, Salvesen's tested herself on that too: https://www.instagram.com/p/BbIrRd5HgqL/

 slab_happy 18 Feb 2019
In reply to Sl@te Head:

Salty liquorice and Marmite: like offwidths, in a way.

 Southvillain 18 Feb 2019
In reply to slab_happy:

> Iconic!

> And appropriately enough, Salvesen's tested herself on that too: https://www.instagram.com/p/BbIrRd5HgqL/

I didn't know. Thanks for that. Very impressive! (although for someone of my vintage there's something special about that 70s Cali combo of long blond hair and EBs...)

Post edited at 16:42
 GrahamD 18 Feb 2019
In reply to UKC News:

E7 ? I thought it was a much lower grade reflecting it's origins as a 'US off width' and a total sandbag for UK climbers

1
 Southvillain 18 Feb 2019
In reply to slab_happy:

> This implies she got it on the third attempt, which is wildly impressive all by itself!

> I commend to everyone's attention the wonderful "Best Forgotten Art", the finale of which features many big name climbers having a picnic and taking turns to fail on Ray's.

youtube.com/watch?v=KPv02lWeiIM&

You've got to love a 3min trailer in which, by 30secs in, you're already shouting at the screen "FFS Johnny, stop talking bollocks and climb something!!" And then he does an extraordinary jump start straight into a jam/splits.

1
 alexm198 18 Feb 2019
In reply to UKC News:

This has been up for six hours and nobody's brought attention to:

> Normal beta is deep fisting

What is UKC coming to?

 andi turner 18 Feb 2019
In reply to myrddinmuse:

> Now that's inspiring! How many ascents is this, total, now? Dream route.

Hmmmm, good question. I'm going to guess at names and ascents!

I'm thinking:

Ray Jardine (incidentally, he emphatically denies ever calling it Ray's Roof, and said it was named Baldstones Roof, something which has annoyed him for some time..)

Steve Allen

Chris Plant

Ben Bransby

Rob from Sheffield (sorry, can't remember your surname just now, but amazingly good climber/dark horse)

Ryan Pasquill (climbed second go, could've flashed if the gear hadn't got in the way)

Pete Whittaker (obvs)

Tom Randall (also obvs)

Andi Turner (handsome beast, climbed it on midsummer's day at about 10pm)

Mari Salvesen 

I'm sure there're others, but these are the ones I know!

 slab_happy 18 Feb 2019
In reply to GrahamD:

Google tells me Jardine originally graded it 5.11c, which I believe would translate roughly as E4 or E5.

However, "US offwidths" do have some interesting grading traditions, and are notorious for sandbagging US climbers too.

 d_b 18 Feb 2019
In reply to slab_happy:

One thing I have always wondered is whether offwidths are really all sandbags or if the problem is that most people just don't get used to climbing them.

I always get brutalised by offwidths but I suspect it is just a consequence of climbing them once or twice a year.

Username suggests I like the same routes as you.

 Graham Booth 18 Feb 2019
In reply to UKC News:

Giggling crack next?? What an effort!

 myrddinmuse 19 Feb 2019
In reply to andi turner:

Hah, quite illustrious company there all things considered! I would love to get on it one day. 

Loved watching Johnny get on it in the video (queue twinkly magical music..), he's about to do something inspiring..! Tension builds.. he does a crazy spinny around thing.. could it be, is that the way..? Nope, music stops and he pops out. But he had me for a minute. Classic.

 Kemics 19 Feb 2019
In reply to alexm198:

Thank you, i was worried i was the only one!

 slab_happy 19 Feb 2019
In reply to d_b:

> One thing I have always wondered is whether offwidths are really all sandbags or if the problem is that most people just don't get used to climbing them.

Or both, possibly? There's an interesting interview with Danny Parker (did the third ascent of Century Crack, founded the "Offwidth Army") on the podcast "Hangdog Days", where he gives his opinion tht grading of offwidths in the US is kind of a mess, and in  some areas a deliberate joke/sandbag.

He has a story about how Bob Scarpelli and Brad Jackson used to downgrade their new routes at the end of the day -- "Nah, more like 12a." "Nah, 11d." "Could be more like 11c." -- until they hit the grade where they started laughing, and that'd be where it stuck.

But lack of practice/skill is definitely a huge issue too; it's a completely different set of techniques to learn (especially if you get into the inverted stuff).

> Username suggests I like the same routes as you.

Bit of a giveaway, yes. Unfortunately for me (and my climbing partners), I also like offwidths. I'm not claiming to be good at them, I just suffer from a tragic compulsion to wedge myself into them, so I'm trying to get less terrible in order to mitigate the suffering.

 TobyA 19 Feb 2019
In reply to Sl@te Head:

I've always been led to believe its not really licorice, rather a purely artificial concoction based on ammonium chloride, but actually wikipedia does suggest that in some versions at least liquorice root is involved. 

It is one of the more interesting flavours out there - how exactly it helps you climb Ray's Roof though, I'm not quite sure. For many Brits it might be in an effort to get away from the salmiakki!

Well done Mari.

 d_b 19 Feb 2019
In reply to TobyA:

It is made by frrding slugs nothing but licorice for a year, then killing them by putting salt on them.  That's what I will be telling my daughter anyway.  After she has eaten one.

 planetmarshall 19 Feb 2019
In reply to UKC News:

> "...Normal beta is deep fisting"

Snigger.

*edit*

Damn, Alex beat me to it.

Post edited at 12:55

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