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Kim Carrigan BOOK 9-Dec-2017 At 3:56:56 PM ima.seriousyoungliza

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>>>Check it out, Kim gets a mention!!!

YEP...KC GETS A MENTION HERE

AND HERE

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=9629l

OK....in his chat with AndyP recently ... KC recalls many of the EVENTS ... during his UK trip ....circa 1981....

NOW...to inject some of KCz OPINIONS AND VIEWS that he had AT THE TIME ....ima gunna include here some quotes from an interview that KC did with Crags magazine ( # 32 @ Sept 1981 )..WHEN HE WAS THERE......
...........................................................

INTRO GOES LIKE THIS:

'...Kim Carrigan is a 23 year old rock climber who is journeying the world in search of new rock new techniques AND IN PARTICULAR WORLD WIDE ACCLAIM.....He is a talented climber , immodest and outspoken with some interesting and abrasive views on the state of hard free climbing across 3 continents.
...Born in Sydney, Carrigan began climbing with a school-adventure group and quickly became an independent operator visiting his local crag in the Blue Mountains 80 miles away by train each weekend.
...After some two years he took his school holidays hitching the 800 miles to Arapiles ...WHERE ACCORDING TO HIM , HE FOUND HIS TRUE PASSION IN LIFE - HIMSELF AND ARAPILES IN THAT ORDER ...;

ima loves that bit

: D

.....................................................
ON HENRY BARBER :

'...Crags : Did you feel isolated from the rest of the world regarding development ?

KC : We never really thought about it much. We thought we were climbing pretty much as hard as the rest . Then Barber came over and showed us there was a bit more to climbing than we perhaps thought at the time. WE WERE DISGUSTED WITH HIM for being so arrogant and being so good. Henry really got Australian climbing going. He just did a lot of routes that we hadnt really thought about. He did a lot of pushing in style , like he used to pull his ropes down after each try....'

...................................................
ON THE BEST ROCK CLIMBERS DURING THE CARRIGAN YEARS

In Claws book , Claw sez at one stage Kim was the best climber in the world ...

Kim doesnt quite see it that way ... :

'...Crags : Do we have world class climbers in Britain ?

KC : Of course. Fawcett is obviously one of the best in the world, BUT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE BEST. He'd certainly make the team though

Crags: What team ? Some kind of All Star 11 ? Do you really have some imaginary team ?

KC : Sure . Tony Yaniro is one just for Grand Illusion ......JIm Collins has to be in for Genesis.....Dougie Hall over here who Ive been climbing with. He's efficient , prolific , bold , totally world class...Obviously Fawcetts in. Its really impressive how he can go almost anywhere and do so many top routes. In Yosemite he's done the top crack climbs when he's not really a crack specialist - routes such as Phoenix........From Yosemite, John Bachar gets in . He's specialized but when he's good he's untouchable. He's just so good at bouldering No one has repeated Midnight LIghtning which is his showpiece right on a boulder in the middle of Camp Four.......Mark Moorhead from Australia who nobody has ever heard of but he gets in because he's done every one of my routes.......Also from Yosemite , Bill Price is probably the best crack climber. His route Cosmic Debris is pretty hard at 5.13.......By reputation, Kurt Albert the German is in and Wolfgang Gullich has done a lot in America . Those are the 2 Germans I know of ... and Jean Claude Droyer from France is highly rated I know.

Crags ; Thats 10 . Who is the eleventh man ? Do you get into the team ?

KC : I think I might

Crags : What about Livesey ?

KC ; He's past it, but young Jerry Moffat looks promising...I'll put him on the subs bench ...;

...............................................
ON BOLDNESS

'...KC : Boldness is something that Britain has which very few other places have . It's a tradition and should be protected.

Crags :Why do you consider boldness to be desirable ?

KC : It puts climbing above any other sport...'

.....................................................
ON YOSEMITE GRANITE VS ENGLISH LIMESTONE

'...KC : Crack climbing is inherently boring with only a certain amount of technique you can use and all the hard routes in Yosemite tend to be fitness problems rather than technical.

Crags : But surely the Yosemite climbers have big reputations and are rated among the best in the world ? !

KC : I would be interested to see them climb on limestone with poor protection and poor rock . So much of Yosemite climbing is pushing the physical side whereas on limestone it's pushing in your head ...'

Crags : So where would you say the future of rock climbing lies in terms of difficulty ?

KC : Certainly not in Yosemite - more like your limestone crags ..... and Arapiles..'

.................................................
ON KIM CARRIGAN VS JOHN ALLEN

@ June 2017 ... Andy P drew my attention to this gem...
>>>Hey ima, Kim gets a great mention on Nial Grimes' Jamcrack Podcast with John Allen.
>>>Cheers,
>>>AP.

http://www.niallgrimes.com/jam-crack-podcast/

'...He's The Boss.

The Boss. John Allen put up most of the best routes on gritstone. In the 1970s, as a teenager, he sizzled up most of grit's coolest lines and led the charge in what was later called the Gritstone Renaissance. Then in the 1980s he upped the technical standards of the day by styling what are today's prized ticks for any boulderer and high baller. ...'

........................................................
OK ...so wotz this all about ...

Baxter and Joe Friend reported in 1979 on the visit to Australia by Tobin Sorenson and John Allen ... the most significant visit by furrener climbers since Hot Henry Barber :

.':...Carrigan freed the four-meter ceiling on Tiger Wall, Fox on a Hot Thin Roof, after five days and graded it 28. This grade did not last long, however, as Sorenson repeated it with relative ease and regarded it 27. John Allen (UK) led the third free ascent...'

NOW ...nearly 40 years later , John Allen has some colourtul memories to share with us about his time at Arapiles

GO TO THE PODCAST AND CLICK INTO THE POINT STARTING 1.20 ( 1 hour 20 mins ) and youl get 5 mins of juicy stuff ...

John Allen : Kim was amazin ... he single handedly took Australian climbing forward.....we had friendly rivalry ...he pointed us at all these hard routes.....they were into ' sport climbing with wires ' ....sometimes youd see these climbs that had ropes hanging off them for 20 days ...KIm was a keen guy and he trained a lot ...the rock is a lot like a limestone - grit stone ...I really like it .... Kim had a climb Fox on a hot thin roof...which he graded 29 and took 30 days to climb...the hardest climb at the time ...Kim was going on and on about it ...and how horrendous it was ...and he was really enjoying the fact that we wouldnt be able to do it...this was a bit of an odd one cos most of his climbs we found to be pretty desperate...but I think we did it on like our second try !!! ...and it had taken Kim 30 days or something like that !!!!...that was a one off ... most of his stuff was dead hard ...'

Joe Friend interviewd Tobin Sorenson during the 1979 visit and it was published in Thrutch mag

http://www.supertopo.com/inc/photo_zoom.php?dpid=Ojg8NjohICYiLA,,
http://www.supertopo.com/inc/photo_zoom.php?dpid=Ojg8NjohJCMlLQ,,
Tobin compares himself to KC and contrasts his visit with that of Henry Barber :
.'...certainly we are no better than Australia's best now...This is the difference between Henry's visit and ours : he had the pickings and stood far above the climbers of that time...'
http://www.supertopo.com/inc/photo_zoom.php?dpid=Ojg8NjohKSshJA,,

Tobin was killed the year after his Arapiles visit....his pitons ripped out when he took a big fall while trying to solo a big rock n ice face

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_Sorenson

.................................................
OK !!!! ... so John Allen had his say nearly 40 years after the visit ... NOW HERE'S KCz VERSION OF EVENTS 2 YEARS AFTER THE VISIT

Crags : What other outside influences were there apart from Henry Barber ?

KC : There were more influences created by Australians going overseas and coming back. Noboby of consequence visited Australia until 1979 and that was Tobin Sorenson and John Allen.

Crags :What effect did they have on you ?

KC : Well they just confirmed that we were climbing as well as we thought we were by then Tobin had done by that time all the top routes in Yosemite in good style which made him a top world climber.

Crags : How was our own Jon Allen doing ?

KC : He hadn't been climbing much for a long time and he decided he would have to get back into shape . So he just took what was the hardest route at the time and shook his way up it in the most appalling style and technique you can possibly imagine ...
..............................................

HOWEVER ... Baxter and Friend reported that Tobin and John finished their visit on a good note :

.'... the plum was undoubtedly Sorenson and Allen's beautiful and spectacular new route up the wall (23) and over the fifteen foot ceiling (25) right of Stranger's Eliminate... Tjuringa Wall, as they called it, was done in the best style and is one of the finest new routes at Mt. Arapiles in recent times....and
...Sorenson's unroped on-sight solo of the ceiling route Kachoong Left Hand (22) really slackened local jaws.

.....................................
ON EUROPE

...now there is one sentence in the whole interview that provides a portal for KC to enter ....when he writes THE BOOK ...

Crags : How does Australian climbing stand in the world today ?

KC : There's a lot of routes now that are as hard as anywhere in the English speaking world. It's very hard to know what is being done in Europe . Maybe there are one or two routes in each area like Yosemite and Colorado that are harder