http://www.tomadventure.org/en/tomadventure/
A bit of advertisement but if anyone wants to get guided climbing in these areas, this guy is super friendly and very experienced. I met him down in Tassie and climbed over in Adršpach a couple years ago with him. This place is awesome! Camping about 50 metres from the towers and 500 metres from the climbers pub. I will definately go back. There are bolts too, its not dangerous if you have a guide like Tomas. ~$100 per person all day guided climbing. I reckon if you are experienced with 1 or 2 days of guiding and you will be able to sort it out yourself for the rest of the trip. 1000's of climbs.
It always looks badass to see someone climbing with only knots, but I always wondered if they actually hold fall. I have never seen someone falling on a knot.
It looks like he ties a figure 8 with his mouth, just wondering which knots they use, will any knot work? It also looks like a combination of tape and cord. I've seen monkeys fist knot for pro, are these really used there?
I've slumped on a monkey fist style thing, never brave enough to take a whipper, nor did I climb hard grades.. Czech Code is "moral" climbing, by which I think they mean "courageous", like have good morale.
I have never met a Czech climber who does high grades on rope knots... They usually say there's one hard person and everyone follows; usually to the pub.
The proximity of pubs to crags in CZ is awesome.
They use overhand figure of eights and tape knots as well as a new device called a UFO. I've taken a fall on the slings and a UFO and yes they do hold. The clip also shows him threading a sand hour. The sandstone is much courser than lets say blue mts sandstone so the slings hold better than here.
On 22/07/2015 gaetanr wrote:
>It always looks badass to see someone climbing with only knots, but I always
>wondered if they actually hold fall. I have never seen someone falling
>on a knot.
>
>Did you try taking a fall John ?
I never fell on the knots. However, many of the climbs are protected by sparsely placed bolts. Especially harder (>18) climbs. There are regulations on bolt spacing and use of chalk. These rules are followed to the letter on the German side and not so much in Czech. If you are comfortable onsight soloing grade 18 it is safe. If not, it is not so safe. I was on many routes where a fall on a grade 18 move would be very bad. I protected harder moves with knots but thankfully did not test them. As was said, there are many threads (hourglass) that are of course bomber.
Go there. It is an adventure!
EDIT: I want to make clear that there are hundreds(1000's?) of routes that are easier than 18 and well protected by knots and bolts. I was speaking about hard climbs and going for it in general. I advise using Tomas as a guide on your first visit. He is the dude and well worth it.
On 23/07/2015 Colg wrote:
>They use overhand figure of eights and tape knots as well as a new device
>called a UFO. I've taken a fall on the slings and a UFO and yes they do
>hold. The clip also shows him threading a sand hour. The sandstone is much
>courser than lets say blue mts sandstone so the slings hold better than
>here.
In my short stay I noticed a huge increase in ascents because of UFOs. Do you think they are cheating?
I've been going there for close to 20years and have climbed close to 500 summits and thousands of routes. I find that the harder the route the more bolts it will have. As for if the UFO's as cheating not at all. I climbed a grade 20 route in rathen in may that was put up 99years ago by Perry-Smith I didn't use UFO's but I did use Kevlar and nylon slings and rope as well as sticky rubber was that cheating? As Perry-Smith had neither of then. They are just a brilliant idea using accepted materials in a new way.
By the way I have some UFO's that I'm hoping to give a go in the blue mountains. Anyone wishing to give them a try is more than welcome to borrow them.
On 24/07/2015 Colg wrote:
>I've been going there for close to 20years and have climbed close to 500
>summits and thousands of routes.
I haven't climbed nearly as much in Czech but I am aware that some people there think the UFO is a little cheating. They are a massive game changer. There were some routes that had logged as many ascents in the last 10 years as in the previous 50 because of the UFOs. It is a bit like the invention of cams and some guys, like Henry Barber, refused to use cams. Personally I don't think UFO's are cheating. I actually tried using them but it was too much of a learning curve for me.
There is a level of technology that climbers make a choice to stop using. What Potter was doing with Freebase was probably insane but imagine if you had a foolproof BASE solution that would protect any fall... Dare I say, anti-grav boots... At some point all of the danger and with it, much of the adventure is taken out of climbing. Yeah so Perry used hemp ropes,etc. But 80 years later Burndt Arnold was onsite barefoot soloing, no chalk, grade 24s. So increase in technology does not mean that climbing has to lose its adventure. In fact it never has meant that. The level of risk some people are taking in mountain sports is as high now as it ever was. It is a choice if you want to use technology to kill the adventure.
I can see both sides too it. When I go back next year, I have not decided if I will use UFOs or not.
Worst name for passive protection I can think of...
How are these cheating? If someone else ties your monkey fist is that cheating? How about using twin ropes? I didn't forge my belay device, cobble my shoes or even mine the magnesium in the chalk I'm not allowed to use... So unless I climb naked solo and only eat deer meat and pine cones - I'm cheating... Fckin Czechs!