anyone near Stonehouse, Gloucs

Oh, dear. Sounds like I might have to make an effort.

Ah, that's okay then. The first time's always scarier.

 

You should've come round yesterday when I was climbing a ladder leaning
against a very mobile tree in a strong wind. I wasn't happy!

JPEG!

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Champ

Oh, I dunno. They're handy for search and rescue too.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

I have already made the greatest contribution to the fight against climate
change that I can make: I have decided not to breed. Now quit bugging me and
go and talk to the Catholics.

 

[...]

And the whole point of motorcycling is to ride from point A to point B
on all kinds of roads, in all kinds of weather.

Those guys in leathers who ride round and round and round the same stretch
of asphalt are obviously not doing "proper" motorcycling, just like the
indoors climbers, I guess. ;-))

Personally, I like both outdoors and indoors climbing. Outdoors is
more about endurance, proper gear, checking the weather and so on,
while indoors is much more technical.

And just like in motorcycling, outdoors climbing is more likely to
get you killed. :->

Leslie

 

It will be interesting to see if the lad wants to take his climbing gear
to France this summer. He did two or three routes here at Easter (which
is half an hour from 'the chateau':

http://groups.google.fr/group/escalade-87/web/bussy-eymoutiers

SWMBO says he wasn't terribly keen on doing the longer ones. He doesn't
seem to like 'exposure'. Shame really, as he did pretty well at the
'Cliffhanger' BMC national bouldering competition at Sheffield last
weekend.


--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

There's the other side to it as well that indoors most of the holds
are easy to spot and often colour coded, outdoors they're not, so it's
a whole extra skill to work out what you actually want to hold onto
and how to plan your climb as you go.

 

He's far more sane now of course...

 

I suppose so. Perhaps the lad would prefer somewhere with natural
outdoor bouldering problems like Fontainbeu. Fortunately I've never
succumbed to any of Andy's schemes, such as entering the Jurby endurance
race or doing an impromptu Dieppe sea front sprint.

--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

This pile of potential posts for printing out and showing to your OH is
getting bigger and bigger...

 

If you're just going up a route that's already got a rope (or bolts,
even) on it, then it's not /that/ much different to indoor climbing,
apart from the holds not being so obvious, the weather, the chossy
holds, etc. etc.

Leading a route, and having to trust gear that you've placed yourself,
is a very different experience.

 

That's my mate Danny, who I spanner for when he races. Danny doesn't
have a bike licence, in fact he doesn't even have provisional
entitlement. The closest he ever got to being a biker/motorcyclist was
when he was 16 and owned a Honda MB-5 for a few months.

He doesn't class himself as a motorcyclist, biker or anything other
than a motorcycle racer.

 

It's got that vital element called risk.

Climbing walls are ok if you want to exercise the muscles used when
climbing but you'll never reproduce that gut churning feeling you get
when you realise you've gone off route, are way out of your comfort
zone and it's starting to rain.

 

I only ever got as far as soloing E4 but I could lead 'selected'
routes up to E6. I was better at the routes where protection was
minimal at best because the chance of hitting the floor hard seems to
focus your mind on the route.

I did stand at the bottom of an E6 I'd just led and state that I was
going to solo it but the person who'd given me a lift said that if I
was going to be that stupid they were going home and leaving me there.
Laziness ruled that time.

 

Obviously.

 

BTDT, lowered off, walked round to the top, and abseiled off to retrieve
the gear. 'Orrible.

 

You northerners are so quaint!

My OH has no problem with me referring to another woman as "easy on
the eye".

 

Quite a few racers don't have road licences.

Well exactly.

 

You're not right in the head, you're not. Just going from top-roping
to leading causes me to drop a grade.

That was your bruvver, wasn't it?

 

I'm taking that bait back to the shop.

 

Ah... I believe the theory amongst soloists is that since you're not
encumbered by all that heavy gear, you don't have the weight of the rope
dragging you down, and you don't have to worry about faffing around
placing protection in places where it probably won't do you any good
anyway, it actually becomes *easier* to solo, once you get to that kind
of grade.