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General Climbing Discussion

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Interview with the man - HB 6-Oct-2003 At 6:45:46 PM (removed)

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Some comments:

First point:
The question regarding the controversy over the FA of Serpentine was this, and it's a pretty anally retentive point at that, but for clarity ...
. Initially, everyone thought that Malcolm did it, leading, placing all gear on route on the actual first ascent
. It later came out that perhaps Malcolm put all the gear in on lead, fell, then subsequently did it with the gear in that had been placed on the previous attempt. This would agree with the "gear in, in a day" ethic he states in the interview, however it does differ from the style that most people believe he did it in.
. The interview doesn't definitively say which style he actually did it in. Hence the "controversy" continues, but if he hasn't, then has ANYONE lead Serpentine placing all gear on the actual ascent ?
. No-one's suggesting that H is anything less than extremely hard-core. I for one reckon that the yo-yo style of sieging routes (as he did with Serpentine) is bloody hard work, much harder than a traditional redpoint, and heaps more pure too as it remains truly "ground-up". It's a shame that this ethic isn't used more (at all) now.

Second point:
"His woodie" was actually Gordon & Donna's (I think). There was a finger lock (not a 1 finger / little finger) that he did one-armers off. It looked hard. And painful.