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General Climbing Discussion

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The singularly most dangerous thing ... 28-Oct-2005 At 11:49:55 AM nmonteith

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On 28/10/2005 manacubus wrote:
>Neil, I request your Ozy approach-shoe-free-climbing story.

Ha ha! If only it they were as good as approuch shoes! They were a pair of converse ratty skate shoes
- my poverty 'aiding' shoes of choice (they matched my home-made 3-step etriers). Anyhow, I was
aiding the 6th pitch (i think?) - the one straight off the deck of Big Grassy. Pretty easy aiding up a big
flake in the middle section. I aided up a few moves not leaving any gear behind then got a sinker nut in
slot and and high stepped up. The flake was really good, and there were some obvious footholds...
hmm i thought - i reckon i coudl free a few moves here saving me some time. I took my feet out of the
etiers and leaned back on the flake to start laybacking up it (surely it couldn't be much harder than 16
or so i thought). As I leaned back and unweighted the aid piece at my feet my foot tapped the wire, it
levered then popped out of its placment - sliding down the rope below. Suddenly I was in a layback
position - on a grade 24 pitch 100m up Ozy with my last pro about 7m below - a ledge fall onto big
grassy was a very real possibilty! I looked around desperatly for a gear placment at eye level. Nothing
was obvious. I rapidly became pumped, my crappy converse shoes started smearing off the footholds,
the exposure was maxing me out. I began to panic... the weight of a full aid rack, three ropes and
assorted jumars weren't doign me any favours either! No pro was forthcoming asd i despertaly tried to
get anythign tpo fit the flared flake. My only hope was to re-place the same wire in the placment below
me and downclimb to it. I managed to get a wire, sling it, and drop it into the slot from above and fiddle
it into place with one of my feet (!!). I then powerlaybacked back down a few moves and clipped into
the wire. I was safe again. That was my one and only attempt to free-climb Ozy in street shoes...