[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45xlTby_S2A[/video]

9b (really, really hard) and done in a few days! skip to 45 secs for the start of the climbing and then to about 4 mins when he gets the rest (at about 2.30). Truly awesome 😯 .

Meh. Whats he ever done on gritstone.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3vc9X6NZg8[/video]

deep water soloing is mental fun…know someone who landed badly and came up coughing blood as he punctured a lung..water is bloody hard after a good drop.

[video]http://vimeo.com/22244569[/video]

lovely finger/knuckle jam 😯

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_50pHrs_so[/video]

5.14 grade so about UK E7 7b/7C or chuffing heck!

The most impressive thing about that crack vid is the crapness of the belaying!

Holy belay fail!

Just saw this on vimeo and thought it was ace.

[video]https://vimeo.com/7588502[/video]

nah they have ropes thats not awesome 😉

mind on the crack climb, sack the light weight belay person, or at least tie a sandbag or anchor to the poor girl.

Jonny in his pomp…the crucifix move at 5.55 was just jaw dropping for me when I saw it as a young climber.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLyF8zcP674[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK7DfNZLK9E[/video]
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nnDliljwqE[/video]

Its about getting out and doing it yourself

Meh. Whats he ever done on gritstone.

Brilliant 😆

Actually, this is probably a bit more like it.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dJLN43G6KA[/video]

EDIT: Some slightly NSFW language…

Meh, pre-placed gear and practiced to buggery. Wall climbing outside! If you’re going for rock hard climbing there was a lad from foreign shores who spent a while rocking up to hard grit problems, chucking the rope on the floor and climbing. No practice, no abseil clean/inspection, everything else is red-pointing.

everything else is red-pointing.

Yep and look at how many get it wrong….
There will be very few on sight FA’s of the top grades now.

He sent La Dura Dura last week which he thought was 9b+

Yep and look at how many get it wrong….
There will be very few on sight FA’s of the top grades now.

He sent La Dura Dura last week which he thought was 9b+

I’ll clarify TRAD

Just watched it. It leaves me feeling, well, meh. It’s an incredible effort and the physicality of it all is incredible, but it’s just not something that gives you goose bumps to watch.

Now Dawes on the Quarryman, that’s a different matter. That is a line, probably one of the best lines of all time. And as we all know it’s the line that counts not the grade.

Dawes is the best at articulating this. Some of the things he wronte/said back in the 80s about why he climbs, how it makes him feel, combining philosophy (I think he was a philosophy under grad?) with climbing is wonderful. The interaction with rock and nature, the way that nature carves the rock and the rock contorts your body into these incredible shapes. Great stuff, really inspiring.

Having stood a number of times under the Quarryman it’s just an incredible line to look at and then to watch how he climbs it is amazing. Like all of his routes, the moves are utterly unique and there are few people who can repeat them because they tend to suit his shape and dynamic way of climbing.

All that said, THE most inspirational piece of climbing footage I’ve ever seen is Dawes climbing with Paul Pritchard on the Rainbow Slab in 2011. That brings a big old lump to your throat!

Sandwich – Member

no abseil clean/inspection, everything else is red-pointing.

Some one has to clean it, so even a on-sight lead/FA has had help.

All that said, THE most inspirational piece of climbing footage I’ve ever seen is Dawes climbing with Paul Pritchard on the Rainbow Slab in 2011. That brings a big old lump to your throat!

[video]http://vimeo.com/30899616[/video]

Here you go geetee. I agree with you on this.

Awesome stuff Martin.

I gave up climbing a long time ago but I went to Sheffield Uni in order to climb and used to see Paul and Johnny climbing from time to time. I never knew them but to see them climb was to feel inspired.

I got neck ache just watching the video. Ondra’s definitely rewriting the rules. ‘Rest’. Ho ho. The Paul Pritchard film is very poignant.

Martin thanks for that one, such a moving film, I never climbed that hard but the part about getting to know your mates in your 20’s by saving each other rings true.

The Totem Pole (where Paul had his accident is on my comeback list in some form or easiest route) I’ll keep an eye out for him now I know he lives on the Island.

Adding in the jokes are normal for climbers regardless of situations 🙂
To steal the title of the thread for that video

Now this is what rock climbing is all about!
2 mates getting together and having fun, it’s what it’s always been about.

Have had the experience of belaying Dawes, didnt drop him when he came off 🙂

In this short span

between my finger tips on the smooth edge

and these tense feet cramped to the crystal ledge

I hold the life of man.

Consciously I embrace

arched from the mountain rock on which I stand

to the firm limit of my lifted hand

the front of time and space:-

For what is there in all the world for me

but what I know and see?

And what remains of all I see and know,

if I let go?

Winthrop Young

mikewsmith – Member

Yep and look at how many get it wrong….
There will be very few on sight FA’s of the top grades now.

He sent La Dura Dura last week which he thought was 9b+
I’ll clarify TRAD

Should have been clearer – i was replying to OP, not you.

no worries, the PP JD film is awesome though and for me the true meaning

Very inspired now. Not that I could climb that hard. Would be nice for it to be dry enough to do any climbing!

Liked the dynamic belay on the crack though, certainly not going to rip your gear when done like that 🙂

pedalgogue – Member

Liked the dynamic belay on the crack though, certainly not going to rip your gear when done like that

Only when she passes through the gear on the way up 🙂

He sent La Dura Dura last week which he thought was 9b+

He did the route in the first vid about 3 days after la dura dura.

There was a vid of one of his close red points (of la dura dura) youtube for a bit, it looked amazing. Ondra by far the best climber alive, he is awesome.

Not a bad entry for top climber in the world and a super nice bloke

just can’t watch the Quarryman piece without the orginal sound track from Stone Monkey (and fat dubby).

those were the day, youngish, thin, could train for hours and no commitments. Summers were always sunny on the rock.

Not a bad entry for top climber in the world and a super nice bloke

Dont think he has climbed 9b+, onsighted 8c+/9a or bouldered 8c+. Walking up mountains dosnt count.

ianv – Member
Not a bad entry for top climber in the world and a super nice bloke
Dont think he has climbed 9b+, onsighted 8c+/9a or bouldered 8c+. Walking up mountains dosnt count

Take a read pf psycovertical
north face of the Droites (in winter I believe)
12 day solo of Reticent Wall Yosemity
15 Day winter ascent of the Dru
1 Day solo of El Cap
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Kirkpatrick_(climber)
Met the man on many occasions, amazing and absolutely normal

those were the day, youngish, thin, could train for hours and no commitments. Summers were always sunny on the rock.

<big sigh>

I am so with you on that sentiment.

geetee1972 – Member

those were the day, youngish, thin, could train for hours and no commitments. Summers were always sunny on the rock.

<big sigh>

I am so with you on that sentiment.

*Bigger sigh*
Mind this year I hope to get back to more activity on the rock, still a lot of lines I need to do, its been a few years since a new route and with the new Godsstone guide out its time to put it out of date 🙂

20121011_165422(0) by Mike Smith 79, on Flickr
Last trip to rock with the missus

[video]http://vimeo.com/23695460[/video]

4.30 onwards!

Inspiring stuff, my leaning is more towards the likes of Dawes and Fawcett than Ondra though. More emotional contact with what they do rather than the more ‘clinical’ feel of his stuff, if that makes sense?
Used to prefer the ‘adventure’ of trad, it went hand in hand with my general love of being outdoors. As time progressed and life got in the way I moved on to sport, a bit like going to a trailcentre instead of a big mountain ride. Can’t be bothered with ropes nowadays so I just keep shoes, chalk and mat in the van and potter around on the rock whenever I get the chaance.

Wife playing about on Neapolitan Slab on Portland (There is a mat under the blanket…)

Me on same slab.

Sun rock, hope to see some this year [sun that is]