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Crag & Route Beta

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Muesli enhanced - or have I gotten better? 12-Dec-2009 At 1:54:04 PM grurper

Message

Hi 'stugang'

In answer to your question "Did you chip 'the stench before the storm?'" - an emphatic NO!

My involvement with that climb (we're talking about the climb to the right of Japetus right - horizontal roof then up
hard?) is referred to in my last posting. I started to go through all the 26's I could find to verify if the 27 grade I put
on 'Grurper's Skateboard' was just. I used to climb mid-week with a friend called "Bob" - Plumb Bob actually. I would
counterweight my rope with about 10-15 kg of lead ingots and as I climb up the weight comes down (frequently
cracking my skull at the exact halfway point :-) and it takes in the slack cleanly as I ascend (and, if you arrange it
correctly, using a twist around the dead rope in a sort of single turn Klemheist, it will grab the rope when you fall and
release when you climb - [disclaimer - no guarantee this actually works is implied or given and it is not recommended
by me] ). I worked on "Stench" over and over and got really frustrated with it because one move was bloody hard for
me. Some details because I don't know where this chip is!

The solo technique I used at the time prevented me from doing the roof start so I would lower to start right on the lip,
feet in the air sort of thing, although when climbing with a partner a couple of times I did managed once or twice to do
that desperate move out from under the roof, which from memory involved an undercling and high toe/heel hook
above the lip of the roof up high to the right and a pinch crimp?

My problem with the climb always came after ascending from the lip of the roof, up the little central prow and then
finding a very high diagonally up/left layaway move which I just can't make - being about 12 cm short of the
necessary reach. I tried everything and could and occasionally I could slap it on a failed dyno but couldn't stick it.
Eventually, I worked my way around it by keeping to the right of the little prow and climbing the flat face on tiny
crimps, coming back left on open crimps until below the base of the exit ramp. I always hated this damned thing and
once I'd done it to my satisfaction I gave it away and it was f---ing my hands anyway! This was back in 2004-2005
and I haven't been on it since 2005.

So, where's the chip - is it on the lip of the roof or, is up where I could make the move below the start of the rightward
ascending ramp to the finish?

I went up to Thorn Buttress when I got back from Switzerland in early November hoping to do some laps on Japetus
because my upper body has wasted away having spent the last 15 months sitting at a friggin computer and Japetus
is a blast to wake up your arms! To my dismay someone seems to have removed my counterweight I left at the top.
If you know where it is I would appreciate getting it back.

However, while I was there I see there seems to be some action on a climb just to the left of 'Sardine' which I know
as "Pussycats and Kneecaps" or something like that, and that climb definitely seems to have been chipped quite
strongly. Maybe I'm getting these two climbs confused?

I hope this helps?

grurper

PS Are you being sarcastic about the climb of the same name?