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SethGwrote: Everything that happened at the top of p2 made me want to slam my head into my desk. The simul rapping discussion at 2:13:00 is gold! I think the other guy needs to be in charge. |
Greg Miller wrote: 2hr11mn. If you don’t watch any other part of the Moby Grape video - listen to that snippet. You’ll wanna see more of the gold sprinkled throughout. If a bot could just clip it down to just the dialogue, we’d be in business. Someone should tell him about hexes if he insists on not using cams for fear of needing cams later. Sometimes you just gotta place cams. The fact that he whipped and then boinked (!!!) on those nuts under the roof is insane. Then the proceeding bail and the shenanigans that followed were terrifying. |
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To be fair, he did not whip. |
MattHwrote: I thought the same thing until they started P3. It rapidly becomes the series of most stupid decisions one can make back-to-back-to-back. Does he offer any justification for the direct belay off the nuts? One or the other is passable, but together—man, what an idiot. |
Benton Hodgeswrote: Well, I followed your advice and watched just that, and... A lot of the videos on this thread seem like happy-go-lucky idiots unaware of how close to death they are. This guy isn't like that. His voice, the way way he moves, his irrational "the way the jams are working" idea and resulting decision to move right... everything in what I watched makes me think this guy was going through a prolonged panic attack. I feel sorry for the guy, but I have to wonder what would posess him to keep going. He doesn't seem like he's having fun at all. Does he just think it's normal to experience climbing as an endless terror trance? I'm not making fun of him for being afraid. Overcoming your fears is a part of climbing for a lot of people, certainly for me. I've been plenty scared climbing. But it doesn't seem like he's overcoming fear, it seems like fear is overcoming him. It's actually kind of tough to watch. He actually seems to be feeling better after the fall, which is usually how I react to a big whip. At that point he the problem is more that he just doesn't know how to ascend a rope. The kicker is that he's afraid for the wrong reasons. Getting his hand stuck in a jam probably wouldn't kill him: all that bad gear very well might. |
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I'm sure posting a |
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To be fair, as far as crack technique goes, there apparently isn't much pure crack climbing up in that area. At least according to the lady I climbed with in the Splattes who was visiting from NH. That said she still blows this guy away on technique (although I think she mentioned doing this climb already). Watching him flounder in that wide pod for ages is maddening though. |
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His partner "How many double shoulders do you need for that climb?" Him "Yes" |
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Watching the High Exposure video now. I feel for his partner. He continually speaks condescendingly to him when their partnership could desperately use some shared decision making and discussion. edit: I would be scared too if I extended everything with a quad runner. I root for him to just clip them while they’re shorter every time. Haven’t seen it yet. Edit edit: oh man. The unnecessary hanging belay next to the biggest ledge hurts me inside. Oh no. He also pulled up all the extra slack through his Gri Gri while at the hanging belay. |
Benton Hodgeswrote: Wait are you telling me he makes a hanging belay on High Exposure?? EDIT: Okay, that's only a semi-hanging belay. And it actually makes a bit of sense because a) the further out from the wall you are at that point, the better you can hear your partner, since otherwise there's a big roof in between you, and b) the crack you build your anchor in is a bit lower than is ideal for belaying comfortably, so partially hanging lets you get a bit lower in relation to the anchor. It's not the way I do it when I climb High E, but it doesn't seem totally insane. I don't think I'd want to hang on that anchor, though. I was waiting for that red nut to fall out. |
Christopher Smithwrote: In the northeast a well. Well, we're not anywhere near indian creek here, that's for sure. The main thing is that in a lot of cases, one can get away with so-so crack technique because the rock tends to have other features (e.g. not so much pure splitters). If there is a splitter crack, most of the time it's going to be for some part of a route, not the whole thing. Avoidance is sure a viabe technique here. |
Franck Veewrote: The Adirondacks certainly are an exception here, for northeast crags. It isn't Indian Creek, but nowhere other than Indian Creek is. It does have some great crack climbing though, and you can become a very competent crack climber there. Of course, this doesn't much help the Gunks gumbies in that video. |
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Dude, chill. I can see how you interpreted that comment as maybe a bit condescending, but I can also see how it could be interpreted as just making small talk. It's hard to read tone on the internet, so I try to assume the best, not the worst (which isn't to say I'm very good at that). |
David Kwrote: That's actually a wise mindset seen this way. |
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No condescension meant, just debating climbing and climbing areas, as we like to do here. I lived in the area for a number of years (50 minutes from Chapel Pond), and now live in California, so offering a both-coasts perspective. Honestly I think the crack climbing in the ADKs equals or exceeds many western trad areas (Indian Creek and Yosemite excluded). But to not derail this thread on this topic, I posted up a spin-off thread in the Northeast forum. I think this could be an interesting topic in its own right. For those who wish to continue this debate, see here: |
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At some point we should probably give this dude a break, but his whole channel is enough content for this thread for a while... 2:49 - Questionable cam placement 4:48 - Starts to spend a couple minutes placing a nut. 6:13 - That god damn locking carabiner. Instead of racking the nut tool on his harness, clips it to the rope to drop to his belayer. 7:14 - Let's extend that nut a few feet. 9:40 - Fumbling with a cam placement, opts to place a nut. 10:55 - Super bomber nut placement, where about 70% of one side of the nut is visible and not in the rock... 11:49 - Let's extend that nut a few feet below as well. 12:16 - In regards to that nut placement "It looks sketchy but it's actually ok", nervous chuckle from belayer. 15:20 - Another nut placement, also extended a few feet. 18:05 - Asks to take on a terrible cam placement, I am sweating profusely. "Yeah it's fine if I don't move", acknowledges it's not a good placement though. I stopped watching after this point. A couple sweet shots:   |
Steven Rwrote: I think I just threw up in my mouth a little..... |
Steven Rwrote: You missed the part where someone dropped their rope on him. |
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OK I just have to wonder at the video choices as much as the climbing choices. I watched most of the High E video (a good bit of it at double speed), and there is so much to marvel at. Right at the jump as his partner leaves the ground on this two-pitch climb, we see the incredible amount of crap they are bringing. Extra shoes and packs, a total junk show. We are then treated to ten minutes of video that this man chose to publish, in which 95% of the footage is from the point of view of the belayer, standing on the ground, wearing a Go Pro and looking straight ahead at a rock. His partner is leading and wearing his own Go Pro! But I guess they don't share the files. We don't get his footage. Then there is an edit (so we know SOME portions are edited out), and our hero climbs up the pitch. As he reaches the GT Ledge we are entertained with about sixteen minutes of footage while he racks up for pitch two. During this time we get to see his fifi hook (?) as well as his nice thick socks. He appears in this part of the video to be racking up for the first time ever. He takes everything off of his harness and then puts it all back on. Meanwhile his partner is carefully curling up all of their super-long slings. (I have a theory about the slings: I think he purchased them on-line and accidentally bought them too long. Then he didn't want to waste the investment, so he uses them. This is just a guess. It does not explain why he fully extends them all the time.) The belay demo he gives for the Gri Gri, and the fact that it is happening halfway up a climb, is moderately frightening. Also I know in Europe some people like to belay the leader off of the anchor but here it doesn't seem like they know that there is another option? Then comes the money pitch. His number four under "The Move" looks ok but everything after that is terrible. The .75 he places would likely hold but isn't great, especially when you know there are bomber placements all over the place. This is priceless: "Where did my chalkbag go?" The answer: "It's underneath your backpack." The clip of the piton is epic-- it is hard work to disentangle all the super-long slings! Blue X4 placement-- left side is shallow, barely in. Might be ok, but again there are amazing, mindless placements all over this climb. Gray .4 Camalot at 1 hour, six minutes in: oh my god. Purple .5 Camalot at 1 hour, 10 minutes: possibly even worse. These cams aren't just undercammed but are almost entirely open. I think the bad placements are a result of a couple of factors combined-- a combo of not being good at placing gear and being pretty gripped on the climb. It's clear he's fighting to hold on and seeing him randomly pawing at jugs, which are already clearly marked with chalk, is pretty hard to watch. We get the full fifteen minutes of footage as he builds an anchor out of two good cams and a very questionable nut. And there is still more than an hour left of this video for the descent! Hell no, I can't watch any more. |
Steven Rwrote: Here are a few more ultra bomber placements   |
