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General Climbing Discussion

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Fully sick bolt wars at Araps 9-May-2016 At 11:34:15 PM Macciza

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Well tim, I reckon if that 'fudged' gear is absolutely bomber, close enough to be safe and left pre-placed, then yeah you are effectively sport climbing ...

If you abseil down a route, discover you can get brass micro nuts in the top half of the climb, above some pretty decent gear at 'maybe' halfway, some micro-cams meant for 'direct aid only' at the crux, and with the first gear at 5m and one other small piece in to protect you from either a nasty impact on a fin of rock or the ground; then even after you've head pointed it a few times to discover that you can fall off it, slightly less often as you can do it, whilst imagining that you are on the sharp end; and then racking up the meagre assortment of gear that you will be using, half as much as the sport route down the cliff, maybe putting them in some sort of order as if it is going to somehow magically help you place it better or not fall off; with a pretty good idea of where they might go, even the somewhat crucial several kN sideways 4 RP placement manages to disappear before your very eyes in the haze of the send ....

And then you get on it for the send, manage to get the crux gear in, which is much harder to place on lead, hesitate then commit through the crux to battle flash pump fear, rising anxiety and doubt, without the usual various safety nets; you might wish you were sport climber but the reality is that you aren't