Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Author

ben cairn history - anyone know this???


Kingerz

29-Oct-2006
7:18:23 PM

I am rewriting the ben Cairn guide...currently the route Rent A Doddle 20m 26 has this statement in the text: “The last great line at Ben Cairn, ( ... ) I brushed it 4yrs ago at the time of the Musk, Hashish and Blood attempts and eventual hoax.” Greg Pritchard.

There is no indication of what this 'hoax' is or was...anyone know?

Fish Boy

30-Oct-2006
9:23:13 AM

Probably Mike Law said he climbed something....

mikl law

30-Oct-2006
1:44:57 PM

Musk hashish and Blood is the hoax that was being referred to here.
BTW-Rent-a-doddle must be 28 by today's grades, nobody climbs slabs


Kingerz

31-Oct-2006
10:23:24 PM

still can't see what this means - mike, do you mean the whole route musk hash and blood is a hoax and never existed?

drdeviousii

31-Oct-2006
11:01:17 PM

If you have to explain the joke its no longer a joke.

mikl law

1-Nov-2006
12:47:42 PM

MH&B is not my hoax, and it may or may not be have been climbed. I haven't seen it or a description, where is it supposed to go?


Kingerz

1-Nov-2006
4:25:03 PM

thanks if anyone can clear this up it's you - it's described as this at the moment:

Rent A Doddle 20m 26
Great moves if you can do any of them. Mikl describes this as ‘A Teflon Slippery Dip’ and now feels that it could be as hard as grade 30. This starts at the deep cleft 2m right of Fiction. Up the cleft to the top of the crack. Slip up the groove above, past the remnants of those horrible smashies (have bolts replaced them yet?). Mike Law.

“The last great line at Ben Cairn, ( ... ) I brushed it 4yrs ago at the time of the Musk, Hashish and Blood attempts and eventual hoax.” Greg Pritchard.

Rum, Sodomy And The Lash ?m 24
Start: Up Skating Away till on the slab above the crack. Go left to the bolt on Musk, Hashish And Blood, then further left across an obvious traverse line originally clipping the ‘fixed’ (no longer present - see above) pro on Rent A Doddle and Fiction. Finish up Gnippils. Ian Anger. March 1988

Musk, Hashish And Blood 22m 21
A harder version of Skating Away. Starts as for Skating Away. Up Skating Away’s initial crack until on the slab. Move left and clip the BR. Thin moves upward lead to easier climbing. Andrew Black, Jill Anderson. 8.1.85

gfdonc

1-Nov-2006
5:27:02 PM

Wheerrh?
When at the bolt on Skating Away, I recall the 'normal' route climbs right of the bolt, but it is possible to go left of the same bolt and more directly upward. Slightly harder but fair to give it the same grade. We used to do this variant regularly in the early 80's.

I'm assuming the FA team of MH&B have placed another bolt and stayed further left. Must check it out this summer.

dalai

1-Nov-2006
5:39:50 PM

From what I understand Steve you clip the bolt (probably hidden by a layer of moss) not THE bolt as on Skating Away.

GTempest

1-Nov-2006
8:10:35 PM

Hmmm, a little iddy biddy bolt (hidden in the moss) just left of the WHOPPER on Skating Away? And for what? A couple of extra metres of what is pretty much exactly the same climbing. Which brings me to another point. The bolt on Skating Away. Is it the same mild steel bolt I angle grinded to the shithouse and over hammered (using a held star drill and small sledge hammer) probably 25 years ago? I'd probably want to clip the other one thanks. Glenn.

Fish Boy

1-Nov-2006
10:25:53 PM

Yeah, it is Glen...(BTW,I just climbed Catchalot at the Prom today..nice route)

mikl law

2-Nov-2006
6:52:06 AM

well, those 2 varients sound fine but probably undergraded and mossy.
I did Skating Away 3 years back and had a bit of a slabpiphany at THE bolt. Got up it quickly but realised that slab 21 = somewhere between18 and 25 depending on what you've been climbing lately.

drdeviousii

2-Nov-2006
8:28:20 AM

yeah but you can't upgrade everything just because sport climbers can't climb slabs

dalai

2-Nov-2006
8:46:01 AM

On 1/11/2006 GTempest wrote:
>Hmmm, a little iddy biddy bolt (hidden in the moss) just left of the WHOPPER
>on Skating Away? And for what? A couple of extra metres of what is pretty
>much exactly the same climbing. Which brings me to another point. The bolt
>on Skating Away. Is it the same mild steel bolt I angle grinded to the
>shithouse and over hammered (using a held star drill and small sledge
>hammer) probably 25 years ago? I'd probably want to clip the other one
>thanks. Glenn.

Glenn - that bolt has remained because of it's unique nature. Are you giving the okay to remove and replace?


tmarsh

2-Nov-2006
9:06:20 AM

If it is replaced, it should be with a similarly sized stainlesss glue-in, IMHO. It's too iconic to become just yet another BR.

gfdonc

2-Nov-2006
10:11:18 AM

On 2/11/2006 mikl law wrote:
> Got up it quickly but realised that slab 21 = somewhere between18
>and 25 depending on what you've been climbing lately.

And depending on traffic, and time of year. A little bit of dirt, lichen and moss makes a huge difference to friction. Time for the annual wire-brushing .. but I think the Ben Cairn Janitor has retired from climbing..

gfdonc

2-Nov-2006
3:27:38 PM

Actually speaking of the Janitor here's one of him in his climbing days (daze?)
http://staff.data.com.au/stoal/Araps1982/index.htm


Kingerz

2-Nov-2006
9:40:20 PM

the slab is very clean on the route even now. Could not see the bolt to the left at all. Would seem pointless. Anyway, back to the main theme: is this route even real and what is this HOAX that is in the current guide (I am rewriting): no one seems to know so far!?!

The quote is attritubed to Greg Pritchard - anyone know him??

Currently I'm thinking of removing all reference to this untraceable weirdness that would go left into moss just to finish in a bush! But only if it's a hoax!

re the ICONIC bolt - it has character sure but from the sound of it someone will die off it soon at this rate in which case the crag may well end up banned/restricted.

In a thread on the bolting forum I've suggested rebolting this route, Digit dance and Glass Slippers b4 someone gets hurt. What say you the wise?

gfdonc

3-Nov-2006
12:12:38 PM

Skating Away & The iconic bolt.
Yes it is a bit of history but if you like history that much then leave it there as a museum piece and put a decent stainless FH in next to it. I've done the route a number of times, always happily slipped a wire over the head with a long sling to make sure it stayed put, but really in this day and age I don't think an oversize carrot that won't take a bracket makes any sense. So if you think it needs replacing, then this is one instance where I don't think we should advocate replacing like for like.

By the way, most people taking wingers off this route do so BEFORE they clip the bolt. The bolt has been placed as high as possible to avoid needing to place a second bolt on the top slab. I'm sure this was done to avoid hand-drilling rather than encourage boldness. The effect is that you have to do one hardish slab move to reach the bolt, which is where ppl come unstuck. Good cam(s) below your feet, but with some slack etc the route has dealt out some big falls. I'm sure most people putting this route up today would place one bolt slightly lower so it could be clipped from the stance, then another one higher.

What I'm really trying to say is, I wouldn't lose sleep over the sturdiness of this bolt - it is only likely to hold short, slab/sliding falls. Once you've clipped it and climbed past it you're probably OK (provided you're not wearing sandals).

Digit Dancer
Yes in a thread somewhere else I agree we (?) should replace my 20-year old rusty carrots with new stainless carrots. Like for like.

Glass Slippers don't recall.
Enough change out of $0.02 for a Friday.
- Steve

kieranl

6-Nov-2006
9:40:16 PM

On 2/11/2006 sking wrote:
>The quote is attritubed to Greg Pritchard - anyone know him??
I know Greg. I'm a bit surprised that no-one else has contacted him already - he's not exactly anonymous. I forget what the deal is with Musk, Hashish and Blood - I'm sure it was a hoax route but the story should be good. I'll try to catch up with Greg shortly (deliberately vague timeframe) and get the story.
Kieran

There are 28 messages in this topic.