UKC

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

Great read, brings back rich memories - I was gripped too (led the crux traverse) but not THAT gripped!

Chris

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: most entertaining article I think I have read on this site, thoroughly enjoyable.

In reply to sihills:


You obviously haven't read John's other article then!

Great stuff..but where did they keep the car keys this time?

In reply to Nic: i think this one tops the car keys one! but that was the previous "most entertaining article"

We need more john!!

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: Glad to see that I'm not the only one out there getting severely sandbagged!

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

Brings back my own memories

Leading the travesrse pitch, eventually reached the peg just before the stance. My crab was in my hand about to clip it, when the hold I was holding with the other hand broke loose. My view turned from grey rook to wall to wall azure, apart from the now detached hold winging across it. I eventualy smashed into the corner at the start of the traverse. Fortunately the baddly bruised ribs didn't start to hurt until after we had topped out - 2 days lying very stil in my tent in St Just

Briliant route 'though

In reply to John Cox:

Do you want to buy a new harness John? Wide leg loops; relatively comfortable for hanging belays; one careful owner.

In reply to Kafoozalem:

Your shot and the one with the article both show the climbers carrying a small rucksack - what's that all about - do folks like making life hard for themselves?

Chris

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: Brilliant, thanks for posting it up.

In reply to Chris Craggs: Hi Chris -- I'm tempted to say it was bivvy gear since a (high profile) friend of mine spent a night in the Dreadnought cave stance having been benighted. Actually it's a rope bag which we swapped between us at the stance. Since the first stance is only a few feet above the sea it is a good idea to have fed the ropes into a rope bag in such a way that they will feed out of it easily. Just clip it to the first belay -- voila - dry ropes!

In reply to John Cox:

Gripping article! and highly entertaining at the same time. Brings back a lot of memories of our ascent in July this year. One of the most exciting, committing and 'out there' routes I've yet done.

In reply to Kafoozalem:

Seams eminently reasonable - I always just drape them across my lap, or over my foot mind.


Chris

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: See if you can get John to write up his tactic for bailing off Yellow Wall routes at Gogarth! I seem to recall he posted it in a thread about The Moon a couple of years back - seriously funny!

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:Enjoyed the article. Did Dreadnought in the late 70s and my overriding memory is that there were hundreds of pink/white Jellyfish (which I thought were Portuguese Men o'War but were probably Root Mouth Jellyfish) floating in the water below. I remember thinking to myself that falling off definitely wasn't an option!

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:
I have read this story, and jcm's other one about the lost car keys, several times. And every time I read them they genuinely make me laugh out loud. Again. Utter classics.

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

fantastic. so great to read a piece that isnt all about being a hero.

really entertaining and much like a few of my ,ahem, ascents.

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

Great article, nothing like sea spray, loose rock and bird shit to make a route more interesting (or terrifying).

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

"The belay is a ledge six inches wide by two feet long, set amid overhanging territory and piled high with fulmar vomit (Stefan had already kicked the nest into the sea)."

Is this not the kind of behaviour that gives climbers a bad name? Kicking birds nests off ledges and into the sea just because the ledge would make a good belay?

Superb is all I can, superb!

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

Superb.Just loved the description of not being able to untie the clove hitches on the belay.

In reply to fishy1:
it was july - what birds would still be there

You bailed off the Moon John? When?

In reply to fishy1:

The Old Redoubt is banned during nesting season, with an in-situ camera and £1000 when caught. I doubt they were climbing then.

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

A particularly fine photo of John on the Moonraker approach...

In reply to duncan:

Indeed - though little sign of the 'swell' he describes?


Chris

In reply to MK:

Nah, I was just giving advice on how it might best be done.

Nice profile pic!

jcm

In reply to duncan:

Particularly fine, duncan, even if the artist goes a little uncredited (sorry about that).

Chris - this was a different ascent, bien sur. And for that matter even a different approach: in the story it was the higher (and more alarming) one.

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Linked here, in fact

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=136103&v=1#x1891195

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Can you find your post about the chap taking a dip on Astral Stroll?

I can't.

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: Brilliant article, gave me flashbacks to when I first seconded the route, any delusions I had of leading the second pitch vanished when pumped stupid I clipped into the nearest anchor at the belay, leant back and the piece 'shifted' and suddenly my head was level with Simon's ankles...

In reply to Dr Strabismus:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=5843&v=1#x96281

There you go (one off them, anyway).

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously: Great read John, thanks for sharing your experience with us.

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

I read this with amusement. As it brought back a similar memory.One day at Gogarth back in 1978, met up with an American. He was looking to do DOWH and claimed to be a professional photographer and had suiably expensive gear. Said he climbed 5.9. For the times he was suitably attired.Loud shirt,bandolier for gear etc, you get the picture.

I was a mere 18 having been recently introduced to Gogarth and got volunteered into doing it with him. I lead the lot.He sounds like the same guy!! He struggled on some of it .

Moral of the story - steer clear of Americans who claim to be professional photographers!!

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

That's the one, very funny.

Can't believe that was written 7 years ago!

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

Enjoyed reading this immensely!

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: i always got the impression John Cox was a hard trad 'ead who didnt get scared from his posts on the forums, this leads me to belive otherwise!! but still awsome account im sure id be scared too!!