Tom Randall Solos 'Trench Warfare'

Tom Randall Solos Trench Warfare - alexekins.co.uk/tom-randall-solos-trench-warfare/

That thing is just a boulder problem. In todays high ball bouldering with a tower of pads, TW is no big deal.

BASE, if you had, you know, actually read the post instead of jumping to conclusions you would know that there were no pads used.

sickness!

Yeah, but even if you fell off without pads you would get a little scratch at most:-)

yeah, falling upside down into a pile of rocks doesn't sound too casual to me. i think the thing i am most surprised by, is that these blokes are from the UK. are there many hard OW's over there?

The rest of the blog is pretty damn inspiring. These guys are tearing it up! Guess the training regimen of doom pays off.
"Fuck the pain. One more lap"

yeah, that's something that blows my mind. i always have trouble transitioning from style/area to style/area throughout the season. the new folks don't seem to mind what type of rock, style of climbing, etc - they just transition pretty seamlessly.

johnL wrote: That's just it though, they are incredible climbers, the specific style doesn't matter half as much as I used to think it does. I'd go as far as to say that every single climber at that level could do the same thing with a few days to tune up. Basically, I see this trip as a referendum to American trad snobs and further reinforces my new strategy of improving trad by improving my overall climbing, most notably sport.

F all that, it makes me psyched to climb OW! :)I should really get a pair of pants up to the challenge as I quickly burned up all my triple patched reject jeans. Any recommendations?

johnL wrote: It goes to show that Americans and their perceived "crack mastery" aren't shit in comparison to the truly elite level of climbing that most of Europe calls average.

+1

I'm usually climbing a bit harder than most people at the crag when I'm traveling around the US... no matter which part. But in Europe and England, I kind of suck. In fact, the last time I climbed in Spain, a pregnant woman walked up to the crag alone, asked if she could join us, and onsighted the route that I couldn't redpoint as her warm up.

Climbing in the UK and Europe is totally different than in the US. Sport climbers climb 10 pitches just to warm up and if you don't climb 8a then you're below average.

Carrying 83 cams up to a wall that has bolted anchors and a guidebook that tells you how many cams and which color to take is not considered "trad climbing." In fact, in the UK people make fun of you if you have more cams than hexes or if you belay with a cordelette.

And like you said John, the best climbers climb everything. Sport, face, cracks, bouldering, etc. I climbed in Castle Valley once w/ some guys from The Basque Country. They started Fine Jade an hour after my partner and I and while we were eating lunch under Castleton they ran past us and started the North Face. They hung out on top and then rapped past us as we were starting the second pitch. Later that night I asked them where they crack climbed in Spain and they said that they didn't really know how to climb cracks "until this morning."

Ryan,

Are hexes that in vogue in Europe, in the states they seem to have lost their appeal?

Bill Matlin wrote:Ryan, Are hexes that in vogue in Europe, in the states they seem to have lost their appeal?

Ehh, I guess I was speaking more about the UK where I spent a good part of 2011. They are very popular there, as the cracks are quite irregular and passive gear is much easier to place than cams. This is especially true of the granite on the southwest coast where there are often too many crystals for cams to feel solid.

DMM is a leading gear manufacturer based in North Wales. They make seven different types of passive gear.

Europe is a pretty big place though, and not counting the UK, I've only climbed in France and Spain. I guess most of my experience w/ European climbers has come from living in Thailand for so long and road tripping in the US. Europe has the best sport climbing in the world though, and a shit ton of it in a relatively small area... so they have the strongest climbers. Makes sense.