UKC

Anyone else finding that when you seize an opportunity to climb in winter you get some disgruntled person who didn't make it out telling you it wasn't in condition despite the fact they've not ventured into the valley for months, or years. We climbed at Great End the other day, in a gully and were told it wasn't in. Here's why that persons opinion was wrong.

1. The ice pitch took 21cm screws to full depth and had ice threads wrapping round ice over 1 foot thick
2. The gully was banked out with 1-2ft of snow and so the turf below which wasn't frozen was protected, where it was exposed it was easily avoidable by keeping to the center of the gully. Axes were not coming out covered in mud.
3. The ice was as solid as anything else that builds up in the UK and wasn't stuff you'd chop off without hacking it to bits for an age. If it was under iced so are almost all the routes shown in the Lakes and Snowdonia sections of Cold Climbs by Ken Wilson.
4. The gully doesn't climb through the sensitive areas indicated in the BMC White guide.

All BMC advice was followed and having selected the route we were willing to turn around at any point if damage was being caused, at no point over committed to the route in a hueristic trap.

Only conclusion is that some climbers are very bitter that they, and maybe their partners, don't take the opportunities when they present themselves. This doesn't happen all the time, however is the second time I have encountered it.

Lets see how big an argument this causes.

In reply to JohnBson:

You could just get on with it and stop whingeing.

In reply to planetmarshall:

Yes but where would your opportunity to smugpost come from then?

In reply to JohnBson:


Who the f*ck still places 21cm screws?!

:^)

In reply to GarethSL:

The Op does when conditions aren't good enough for shorter ones. They tend to bite into the unfrozen mud under the thin coating of ice better.

In reply to GarethSL:

I use them for belays and abalakovs regularly. A longer screw gives me more margin for error with abalakovs... My V-threads are nearly always y-threads!

In reply to GarethSL:

Someone who only has screws that were given to him/her

In reply to planetmarshall:

I could but today I can't climb so I'm indulging in the bitter whining which climbers do when not on the rock

In reply to JohnBson:

Usually wander onto the ground conditions Facebook group and assess from the photos. We mixed climbed up some gullies on the side of Bristly ridge the other day and the turf was soft. I find that poking lightly with the tip of the axe can avoid any damage to the ground. Even in poor conditions damage can be avoided on easier routes.

In reply to JohnBson:

It's very simple. If people give you shit, drop/ block/ ignore them. They're at liberty to talk. You're at liberty not to listen.

In reply to JohnBson:

Good on yer!
That was a finer rant than the speech of Henry V about "gentlemen abed in England" before Agincourt in - er Henry V.

In reply to JohnBson:

More or less my thoughts.

I'm capable of making my own judgements as to if I'm damaging anything without some daft tw*t in Plymouth (other places are applicable) telling me because of x,y,z I'm more of a danger than Donald Trump to the world.

P's I'm about to walk in the back garden with my poons on, does anyone know the current temp of turf on rum doodle at 48.9Cm's deep?

In reply to jas wood:


40,000.5°F, obviously (22204.7°C).



A temperature you fully deserve to experience if you insist on calling them 'poons'