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General Climbing Discussion

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Taipan 23-May-2006 At 10:55:25 AM Nottobetaken

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In reply to Pebbles...
(This looked like fun - so I thought I'd waste a morning joining in...)

With a name like ‘Pebbles’ I’m guessing you’re a Henry Barber fan… Yeah – I like his records too, but given they’re over 30 years old – I’ve since moved on (though I am still listening to Rage Against the Machine – and they’re ANCIENT!). Barber had a couple of good lyrics though – I particularly like the one stating “Placing gear interrupts my rhythm” – boy – was he on the money with that comment or what? Anyway I digress…

The year is 2006 and I thought we had all gotten over the style issue as long ago as those days of pink lycra tights and what they then called yo-yoing. - Now how about that for a funny concept hey? Who in their right mind declared that yo-yoing was a better form of ascent than today’s headpointing/pinkpointing/redpointing games? Didn’t they know that they were headpointing anyway? Next time I fall off the 2nd to last hold of an onsight attempt – I’ll remind myself not to pull the rope from the last clipped piece of gear … yes – that’ll be more stylish! What bollocks!

On 22/05/2006 nmonteith wrote:
>Who gives a shite how its done? - providing at the end of the process
>it gets climbed as a lead with no falls. Most hard routes are beaten into submission by dubious means. >I know heaps of people that have top-roped perfectly safe routes before leading them. It's called >seconding.
Exactly.

And so finally….
As for this project/route on Taipan – it was bound to happen. That ‘weakness’ has no doubt been speculated upon for years – but probably not seriously attempted for the majority of reasons you list. I too don’t like the look of it – due to its close proximity to WP and IF in the upper reaches (indeed – it finishes as for IF!), - but as a climber I’m prepared to accept its addition. It might even climb well! Sometimes variantions of existing lines end up being far better climbing experiences than their originals (though I doubt it in this case) – but just look at the latest state of play at Diamond Falls for instance – and of course (as Simon says), the Strolling buttress at Arapiles. All that said though I think where you’re obviously coming from is from the ‘Holy Book of Taipan’ – that being – this is a unique wall, both with regards to the type of gear required to climb its routes – as well as the natural features one grapples with - and one has to respect the history of the existing routes, the style in which they were put up, and the strength of their ‘lines’. Your bottom line is: This is not, and should never be – a type of French consumer sport crag. Indeed.

I think a lot of climbers out there do respect this attitude – however – to suggest that the best lines on Taipan follow the ‘best looking weaknesses’
>In nature, this will be the first route to not climb some independent feature)
…is a bit out of order. That would come down to your perception of what you consider a brilliant feature is - surely. Sure, for my money routes like Groovy, The Great Divide, and Naja are the best looking lines on the wall – but then so too is Rage, Feather Boa and what will one day be the 2nd pitch to Mirage. Those things look fantastic – but they’re face routes!

>Yes, there are lines that are still to go, but are they bolted topropes inbetween classics?
Well – I think we’ve done the style issue to death… but on this point, was IF, Groovy, Rage, Naja (to name a few) put up ground-up? I don’t think so. Does this detract from their current status as brilliant routes – obviously not.
>If so, we can expect the wall's world-class features to be lost among a sea of fixed >protection, chalk and red tags.
Perhaps a bit over the top. The lines on Taipan will remain adventurous (and in some cases – serious) affairs due to their position, the effort involved accessing them, and the level of climbing ability required to climb them. How many potential new routes on the wall – for instance – are going to be easier than 28? Probably not that many – which is one point where the author of this route is most likely coming from.

> Or are there alternate, perhaps less honorable motives at play here??
If ‘less honorable’ means ‘You don’t belong to the exclusive Taipan Grade 26+ Onsight Club’ – then yes – there are other motives at play here. But just because you’ve been playing this board game known as ‘Taipan Monopoly’ with a bunch of similarly educated individuals – doesn’t mean to say that someone else can’t have a go and attempt to buy some real estate!