Bouldering in Galicia - Granito Galego (II)

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FONTAINEBLEAU

It must be a middle age thing. I'm developing a growing frustration every time I see French names misspelled.

So this post is for any English speaker who attempts to write about Font.

Copy/paste the spelling below whenever you need it (Select the text with your mouse and use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to insert the name in your word file/blog/facebook/twitter or whatever support you are using:

FONTAINEBLEAU

Or in lower caps :

Fontainebleau

And if you really, really, really, really, really, really cannot be arsed, then (by all means) stick to the usual English spelling - use "Font".It's perfectly fine. Everyone knows it and this way, you won't be polluting the Internet.

Finally, for those who don't understand texts that don't contain smiley punctuation, I want to stress that the tone of this post is not angry. The aim of this post is  to help you, genuinely. 

Grading traverses II

Bouldering grade maths - adding grades

So with Full Frontal sent, I'm scratching my head again with traverse grades.

The problem with traverses is their hybridal status. The number of moves is usually way beyond what's in your average boulder problem. Indeed, I've counted 24 hand moves for Full Frontal - 64 moves if I include foot placements.

The fontainebleau approach is to use sports grade for traverse, e.g. if the hardest move is 6c, the traverse would be worth 7a+. The problem with such system is that there is no difference between a 7a+ traverse of 10 moves and a 7a+ traverse of 40 moves, not to mention the fact that traverses are still boulder lines and their grades should not take into account any other factor than technique, which is not the case for sports routes.

Another solution is to break the traverse into boulder problems, then grade these problems and use a logical rule to add the grades. Here's the Australian Bouldering proposal for instance:

"The rule of thumb that we use at AB.C is this: the addition of two boulder problems of the same grade equates to one boulder problem of the grade +2. So a V9 into a V9 should produce a V11. Everything else works around that premise. The following examples (based on V9) should help convey the idea:

V9 + V6 = V9,
V9 + V7 = V10,
V9 + V8 = V10,
V9 + V9 = V11,
V9 + V10 = V11,
V9 + V11 = V12,
V9 + V12 = V12"

Whatever system I choose though, one may argue that I won't really be objective because I have been trying that line for nearly two years.

I had done the R-L and L-R traverses last year and started to try and link them during last summer. Back from Galicia in September, I had to rework the sequence because it had become much harder after I broke a key crimp. 

Then November arrived with its usual rainy days. Then came December with its unusual 40 cm of pow. Work picked up. Life got busy. I was close but I needed more time.

So when I finally sent it two weeks ago, I felt like if I had climbed something really hard for my standards. But none of the moves is harder than 6b+/c and when I try to be objective, I must admit that it is simply of matter of stamina.

This and the fact that I never really enjoyed this type of climbing - lots of moves on small edges on a nearly vertical rock - made me wonder about the grade. Should I actually knock down a couple of grades because it does not suit me?

Achievement

Sigmund Freud is supposed to have said that the Irish are one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever. This quote is invented, I checked. But it became famous with the release of a brilliant film by Scorsese, The Departed.

The fact is that to analyse people, you must let them talk about their feelings. This is something that the Irish are certainly not prepared to do.

My wife, who’s an Irish academic, sometimes complains about the fact that American and UK researchers always introduce themselves by stating how great they are. While she knows she should do the same if she wants to stay in the race, she finds the procedure extremely hard because pride is not something people easily express in her own culture.

I have seen this attitude in many areas of Irish life, and climbing is no exception. Grades, which are always a matter of heated discussions, no matter which country we are talking about, are usually contemplated with a fainted disdain in Ireland. Irish climber Dave Ayton regularly underlines this fact on his blog. In his latest post, he notes that in Irish climbing circles, grades don’t matter, and that “Grade Whore seems to be the phrase of choice at the moment back home”.

The fact is that talking about your achievement is expressing your pride, and pride is a feeling. Since the Irish are brought up not to express their feelings, they regard most expressions of pride with disdain, climbing achievements included.

But this attitude conflicts with national pride, because national pride is vital to Ireland unity. National pride is what allows any people to express a sense of identity, especially if we are talking about the most famous emigrating people!

And so, while the Irish do as if they disregard the importance of grades, they are desperate to make Irish climbers’ achievements more visible. This is probably why the Irish are often seen as a friendly bunch, because they manage to express national pride without the arrogance of self esteem.

Pretty much the contrary of the French!

My first E10

I never climbed harder than E1 in trad, but yesterday I got my copy of Dave Flanagan's guide book and discovered that I climbed an E10 in 2004.

I had originally graded 6a what was possibly the first ascent of An Taobh Tuathail, but it looks like Dave thought the line was even more lunatic that Lán Mara  and Lag Mara.

Okay, it is a bit reachy, fair enough. But the landing is fine (at high tide that is).

My big willy dot and you (3)

Seen on the 8a year book from 8a.nu (source: Zebloc):

"Dès que le grimpeur est à votre niveau, placez votre corps sous le grimpeur afin de pouvoir servir de pouvoir amortir avec votre corps la chute du grimpeur."

So stupid that I though I'd try to give you a back translation:

"Once the climber is at your level, place your body below the climber so your body can be used to soften the fall of the said climber".

Yet another fool who thinks that Google translate works. Well done 8a.nu, once again, you look like a bunch of eejits.

Posage Video

Have you watch the last one? That's what I call a proper video:

Bouldering in Galicia

I am just back from Galicia. I am not going to give you the usual touristic description. Let's just say it's a paradise in terms of food, wine, sun, landscape and not the least, people friendliness.

In terms of rock, it was not the season. Indeed, the main spot in the southern part is Pena Corneira, near the town of Ourense, which did not really see the temperature dropping below 30 during this summer. So I stayed on the coast instead and had a few sessions among the mini sea cliffs.

The guys behind Cantil (A bloque en Galicia/bouldering in Galicia) have gathered a few topos and drafted a Google map of the various areas that have been developed:



There's a great spot called A Pedra Rubia where I had a few nice sessions, but I even found a good spot closer to where we stayed: the Supertanker boulder of Portocelo. I'm not sure if it's got a name or if there's any info about it so I just gave it that name for the sake of it. It's got a good few problems and features a steep overhang with very poor holds. Potential for 8s from sit-start, but hard enough from stand start. Video here:





There's a lot of other stuff around especially between Portocelo and La Guardia. I even found a jumble of boulders with savage roofs and overhang but the landings were also savage, so I did not go near it. It's all in the following video:





And finally, also in Portocelo, close to the Supertanker, is a nice roof with three obvious lines: left arete, centre crack and right arete. But between the last two there's a really hard eliminate that will see me again if I get the chance. Video here:






Special thanks to Miguel and his family for looking after us during As Festas do Monte. It was great!


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UPDATE (23 /09/ 2010):

Luis Vigo (that would be his forum nickname), says that the Portocelo's boulders have been a climbing spot for the last 15 years and it even saw the first Galician bouldering comp in 1998. He says there used to be a topo but he doesn't seem to know where that info is gone.

My Soft Spot

Climbing dad?

Don't miss this article by Sarah Stirling-Assistant (ukclimbing.com):

Mountaineering and Climbing Dads