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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User
Ben Cossey Sends the Wheel of Life 7-Oct-2011 At 7:29:10 PM benjo
Message
Continued from last post.......
Broken down The Wheel Of Life consists of:
Xtreme Cool-V8/9: In terms of The Wheel, a blur of jugs with one iron cross move that’s a bit spicy. You then have a kneebar that, shock horrer, EVERYONE who has climbed The Wheel uses. (This last fact seems to have been omitted in the midst of pontifications by anti-kneebar protagonists in the process of pulling wool). From there you have Sleepy Hollow. Made slightly harder by the fact you’ve done Xtreme Cool but not too much considering the double kneebar that, again with the capitals, EVERYONE uses. At the end of Sleepy Hollow you get a rest on positive flakes before you tuck into Cave Man. From the juggy flakes you can get a knee scuff/bar on a razor dinner plate flake. This is one of the famous, controversial knee bars that Ethan used…a sharp shit flake that gouges the actually bone part of your knee. Certainly not the comfy Nanna’s knee bar at the end of Xtreme Cool that all five ascentionists of The Wheel Of Life have used…Funny how these little details are conveniently left out of the reports of other ascents. Anyway. After you leave the masochism of the criminal kneebar you have Cave Man, again, in terms of having a good shot on the The Wheel, not too tricky. So, up to here you’ve done Xtreme Cool V8/9, to everyones favorite kneebar, into Sleepy Hollow V11. So you have a middle of the road V12. You link that into Cave Man, which goes by pretty quick considering they are juggy holds that you can shoulder roll through. Now you’re at the lip. I would say, to get to the lip realistically would be bottom end V13. Now you just have to send Dead Can’t Dance packing. Can this add 3 grades to make it V16? Unequivocally…No. Dead Can’t Dance adds a grade to what you have climbed up to now. A few set up moves, grit your teeth, fall off a bunch of times getting your feet wrong, fumbling with pumped fingers (all the redpoint blues stuff) and you’re on the finishing jugs. Finish either up the finishing jugs of Eve Reve or direct via Cave Rave (the end makes no difference) and you’ve climbed The Wheel of Life. Now, I don’t want to sound like “Oh, its jugs what are you talking about” and I’m not downgrading it for the sport but, the difficulty of the climbing really just doesn’t justify the lofty grades previously proposed. The moves are just not hard enough. There are jug rests in between every problem (the knee bars, particularly the ones used by Ethan have no baring on the grade whatsoever) and the holds are such that you can literally shake in between every move if you want to.


And so, the knee bars…

I used two kneebars on the thing. The one that I have seen Dai, Chris, Ethan and James use at the end of Xtreme Cool and the sharp razor scuff previously described. The one that Ethan used at the end of Cave Man is the most awkward waste of time considering you have a big hoofer you have to swing off.


The anti-kneebar weirdness going around with regards to the cave is so…weird! To consider the bomber kneebar at the end of Xtreme Cool as kosher and the crap ones further out as not OK…? Funny bunny. I pulled an edge up into a crimp that Dai only used open handed…should I go back and do it his way? I also skipped the rest on Have A Good Flight-25, I’m gonna take 9a for it! To not make use of the natural features or worse, deem them as not allowed; handholds and foot holds, body positions and even knee bars would render one of the best lines the earth has on offer, UTTERLY CONTRIVED! Like I said, the kneebars Ethan used have no bearing on the grade whatsoever and whether the one at the end of Xtreme Cool does or not doesn’t matter because everyone who has climbed The Wheel used it.

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