Peter of the Wide

Welcome to a very WIDE blog.

Many people who know me or Pete or even both of us will know a certain obsession gets in the way of our normal lives…. Yup, Offwidths! We’ve both had a bit of fixation about these strange wide cracks that everyone else hates for over 2 years now and in many ways the whole process has been building towards one massive finale.

A mega tour of the USA – a MEGA WIDE TOUR!!

We’ve travelled over much of the UK and Europe to repeat and establish the hardest routes there are in this genre over the last couple of years. This pilgrimage has taken in classics like Ray’s Roof, Thai Boxing and Gobbler’s Roof to name a few. Unfortunately though, we’ve pretty much reached the end of the journey for what Europe has to offer and now there really is only one destination that cannot be avoided. The location of some of the most famous offwidths in the world and home to the very highest calibre of offwidth climber – the Grand Old USA!

Our trip to the USA for a 2 month Wide Tour this year will be documented by Hotaches and Alstrin Films to hopefully create a visual experience never before seen…. The story will be following our training and climbing exploits back in the UK before following us westwards over the Pacific. This blog will hopefully keep you all in touch with what we’re getting up to in preparation for the trip and also the epics that we undergo whilst out in America.

Neither of us have written a blog before, so apologies in advance for any major “blog gaffs” that we make and we’ll try to keep it fairly light-hearted! We’ll be posting up the tales of hardcore training, trad shuffling, Pete moaning and me falling off lots (that’s how it goes usually anyway…)

Peter of the Wide

By Tom:



It’s always a bit of a tricky thing trying to start a blog. It’s like you’re starting a new chapter in a book – and when you start, I think it’s always nice to have a bit of an introduction to the people involved in the story. As Pete and I have climbed together for a few years now and have done a huge amount of climbing together we thought it might be an idea to write a little introduction to each other. That way, we can tacitly take the piss out of each other and hopefully the other person won’t notice too much.



Many people know Pete for his general all-round trad climbing – he’s bloody good at it, so no surprises there! However, I think it’s actually his wide crack skills that he should be best known for. He’s repeated or established pretty much every single hard offwidth crack in Europe and as yet, none have withheld his shuffle*. Many good climbers would be happy with ticking Ray’s Roof alone, but when you’ve soloed this as a warm-up, done choss E8 offwidth, repeated Thai Boxing twice in a day and put up beefy test-pieces like Gloves of War…… well, you know you’re cooking!



Loads of people think Pete’s climbed these routes because he has this innate talent for climbing and that’s he’s as strong as an ox. Well, they’re wrong…. (well about one part anyway…) It’s actually his massive bloody-mindedness to never give up on anything and 100% commitment that truly wins through. It’s probably why I’ve enjoyed climbing with him so much over the years as it’s awesome to have someone who’ll get so psyched. It honestly doesn’t matter what it is half of the time. We’ve done deadhanging sessions at the bottom of crags in -10 degress, spent hours trying to climb V0 boulder problems upside-down, created a million variations on Technical Master in the pitch black of night and it’s all been amazing fun!



There is one weakness in Pete though. A true Achilles heel. Just ask him about The Holy Grail Grade Chart and The Walk of Life…. Oh shit, I’ve said it now.



* Shuffle can also be replaced with; Randy Hump/Trout Tickle/Invert Torpedo/Greek Toe

Randall of the Hump

In Pete's words....

It was maybe 3 years ago when I first met Tom, although it seems longer than that, having been on many trips around the UK and abroad. Or maybe it just seems longer because of the amount of crack climbs I’ve had to suffer from being his partner.

I think the only crack that I had climbed before I met Tom was The Vice, which was tough and the very first time I tried it I couldn’t actually pull off the floor (no joke). So, in reality I wonder why did the climbing partnership stick? Well, really I’m not sure…but what I do know is that he is probably the best climbing partner I’ve ever had (maybe ever will have?).

Being well known for his crack climbing prowess and obsessed by this style it was only a matter of time until it would probably rub off on me. Really it was actually inevitable, because climbing with someone who has now climbed London Wall 32 times and had a replica of Greenspit in their living room instead of a television, maybe it was impossible not to. However it was one type of crack genre that Tom was particularly engrossed and excelled in, and that was the 5+ inch variety, or more specifically…the offwidth. I quickly got enticed.

I knew very little at the start, but puntered along trying to make it look like I knew what I was doing, (accumulating lots of scar tissue in the process,) whilst Tom looked comfy and restful in double fist stacks and hanging by his feet. Over time he taught me the way - showing me that hand jams, stacked hands, knee locks and chicken wings were all better than the Dalmatian suitcase-handle holds that go up the Five Ten wall at The Foundry.

So what is it that makes him pretty flipping good at offwidthing and often leaves me thinking ‘oh crap now I’ve got to try and second that pitch…why couldn’t he just have fallen off, then we could have all gone home…?’ Maybe it’s the tenacity and ability to push past the sickness and pain, or maybe it’s just his high class bush whacking skills? (I’m not sure)

Or perhaps it’s the list of offwidths that he crushed with relative ease, Ray’s Roof, Cedar Eater and Gloves of War. Personally I think it’s his ability to eat chocolate bars in an invert position half way up Thai Boxing, the hardest offwidth in Europe.

So where has this offwidth obsession lead him? To The U S of A in September. BOOM.

Anyway I feel like I was far too complementary in the above text, so in summary – He floundered on Ray’s Roof, looked shaky on Gloves of War and puntered Thai Boxing ;-)

The Dyno Wing

I was out at Burbage South a while back doing some private offwidth coaching with someone (yes, I know - who'd pay for that you ask??!) and spotted a rather intriguing problem. Down on the normal boulder circuit is a rather nice flared crack which can be climbed as a simple 2 move problem, which teaches the art of double fist stacking. A good problem in itself - but as soon as you see the boulder opposite, the running jump into the crack reveals itself... well, it did to me!



The Dyno Wing is a tricky nut to crack for sure. It requires a certain belief that you won't rip your entire tricep off and also that chicken wings really are as good as a belay. I really had to convince (or is that fool?) myself of this whilst staring at the jump, but if you go and have a go you might get a nice surprise. Think of it as the next step up from Giggling Crack.



Think like Johnny, land like Johnny, feel like Johnny.........

Super Jam

With a trip down to Cornwall planned, most people would be thinking of beautiful granite slabs and walls to climb. However the only route that I desperately wanted to do, was the route, which if asked to be climbed, most people would say they’d rather go and stand at the very North end of Sennen on a wavy day and wait for the tide to come in; strange one really! This little number; Super jam, is probably relatively unheard of maybe due to the fact that it is only E5, the fact that you probably never see anybody on it or possibly because there are harder graded routes of this style in the country such as Ray’s Roof and Gobbler’s Roof. (I’d only heard about and seen it when I saw some photos from the BMC international meet).

 

Being only E5 I couldn’t believe how flared the final section of crack looked. No wonder nobody went up there out of option, it looked horrendous; but that’s what I liked about it and went up optimistic that I could onsight it.

 

The start is simple, reaching off big undercuts to bomber hand jams. From these I flicked my feet above my head into the flared pod and engaged some stacks, just one shuffle leads you to the lip turn where you somehow have to get your whole body from completely inverted to the correct way up in the space of about a metre. I spent about 10/15minutes on the onsight wondering what to do; right foot in, left foot in, wide ponying, trout tickling, invert torpedo. I actually managed to get the good hold and pull round the corner on it, but my right foot had got into the most ridiculous position it cammed in so hard I couldn’t get it out. I looked back into the crack and actually wondered whether it was still attached to my leg.

 

After some more ground up battles, a sore right ankle, 2 tape rolls later and a bored Katy on belay I decided to pull on and check the foot placements. 30 seconds later the sequence was solved. The route was stripped and 30 minutes later lead, to what became a much more enjoyable experience as the sensation of nausea, full body pump and tomato heads is a natural and pleasant feeling for me now.

 

This route emphasized even more then ever to me that grades of offwidths just mean absolutely nothing at all. Most are harsh or sandbags, simply because not many people climb them and the people that do climb them, know its all about the effort that is put in on these puppies that counts. Whether it is VS or E7, you’re usually just more relieved that it’s your second that has to go through what you just did rather then being happy with what you actually climbed! (I had to ab because nobody wanted to follow)

 

In comparison, I thought that Super Jam was similar in style but harder then Ray’s Roof with a broader array of offwidth skills required.

So, does that mean Jardine’s original grade of E4 for Ray’s was actually correct or Super Jam is a super sandbag?

Or does it mean you should get over to Staffordshire and get the tick before some offwidth gangstas come over from America and say it really is 5.11?

It probably just means to never trust the grade and instead trust the width…(whatever that means?!?!?)

Thanks very much to Pete Saunders for this last photo “Resting on Super Jam". © PETE SAUNDERS



Pete

Luck, Injury and Peak Performance

How the relationship between injury, luck and performance plays out over the course of a few months can be totally random - the line that we tread along these is so very thin at times. I've always liked the golfer, Gary Player's quote:



"The more I practice, the luckier I get"



I'm not sure that this works always though, if I take the last month of my life into consideration. It's seemed more like "the more I train, the unluckier I get." This is probably completely untrue, but it certainly has seemed that way. Or maybe I'm just getting paranoid about the ensuing trip to the US and not blowing out on some ridiculous bodily malfunction.

 

Unlucky once.....



First injury to crop up was a chronic heel injury that once put me out of climbing for 2 years. It's never come back (touch wood) until this month! 2 back-to-back sessions of heel-toe bathanging hanging with sit ups, resulted in hideously painful heels again. I thought it was due to the excessive "invert time" intially, but in fact it turns out that these new offwidthing shoes that 5.10 have sent through the post are rather aggressive on the heels. It's all ok though.... a week of iced peas and flip flops have brought me back.

Photo: Pete on the weighted hangs



Unlucky twice.....



Secondly, I was trying some double fist stacking laps down in the cellar and boosh, I'm out of the crack, on my back and nowhere near the mattress. Cue swollen elbow and no armbars, deadbars or dyno wings for a while. How do I miss 3 matresses and a million boulder pads?!

 Photo: No more Deadbarring for a few weeks!



Unlucky thrice....



The third instance really was a killer for me. A real moment of "have I blown the next 6 months of climbing for myself here?"Pete and I decided to take part in the Edale Fell Race a couple of weeks ago. Pete, because he's a local lad and he's done it every year (why??!) and me, because I'm an idiot. The race went pretty well to begin with, considering that we're complete fell racing punters - note that Pete wears headphones whilst competing (wtf?!) and I considered doing it in a hoodie as it was cold. We hit the top plateau over Kinder somewhere around 40th position and sustained the level of exhaustion until the drop back into Edale. At this point Pete started to run down the track like a madman and I followed like an old man. At the final steep section of wet slope I slipped over a couple times (my road running trainers didn't seem to be very adept at wet grass) and on one particularly hard fall I thought to myself "careful here old man, this just isn't worth it. Take it easy." Of course, I got up and instantly fell over again.... POP. Oh shit, the knee had gone.

 Photo: Team Wide Boyz not having a clue....



Well, what am I moaning about? I had to not work or climb for a week, see some consultants and physios in the hospital (they gave me some fairly reassuring news) and get to know my pack of iced peas very well again. Apparently it's my ITB, the tear is only minor in all liklihood and the pain is only temporary. Problem? Nah.... not any more!



So it's back to the training once more. Psyche is running high and I'm can't wait for another beasting. Pete's coming round on Thursday for a massive cellar session. Bring on the pain.

Photo: Self-talk and motivation at your finger tips



In fact, it's only midnight - time for a quick session now.

Ondra, Wide Cracks and the Next Generation

Yesterday I had a dream. A very strange dream….

Three people came together that must never come together – if they do it could be the end of everything as we know it. Somehow my mind created the potential lethal combination of a sport uber-wad, internet media mogul and wide crack punter. All fighting over one project. 

  

Phone rings…..

[Me] “Hello?”

[Mick Ryan] “Tom, glad to have got through to you. I’ve got something very special for you boys. You and Pete are going to love this.”

[Me] “Oh yeah? This sounds good….”

[Mick Ryan] “I’ve got this project to hand over to you. Apparently Adam Ondra has found this wide crack project in the Czech Republic and he’s been utterly shut down by it. It’s supposed to be 7 inches of limestone beauty and Adam hasn’t got a clue how to Tickle a Trout or Greek Stack”

[Me] What?! No…. you’re kidding….. this can’t be true Mick. How can this happen? Ok…. Hang on a second. I’ll ring Pete, get some flights booked and we’re on it.”

“Tom……… Tom…………. TOM!!”

Oh dear. It’s all a dream and my wife has just woken me from an afternoon nap. No Ondra, no Mick Ryan from UKC and no limestone project. I think about this for a second and then start to chuckle to myself. How on earth did my mind come up with this scenario? Ondra on wide cracks? Not a chance!!

Clearly though, as I’m an old codger (well, relative to Ondra) there needs to be a new entrant into the wide crack scene. Most of us offwidth aficionados are over 30 (Pete makes a significant break from the trend on this), male and think knee patches are the practical option and not a fashion statement. Fortunately there could be a new kid in town….

 

My wife and I were lucky enough to be bundled a little sack of joy, tears and soggy nappies last month. We’ve named her Hannah Sofia (I wasn’t allowed the Pamela/Handstack/Offwidthina/Lucille options on names) and she’s already proved to be quite feisty! I’m not sure that she ever will partake in the obsession that bothers her Dad so much, but if she ever does want to sneak down to the cellar to learn some butterfly jams I’ll be the first to point her in the opposite direction. Tennis is much more sensible!

Pain Threshold Training - FOR YOU!

Right before you read any further…beware this is quite a boring post that consists of very minimal pain, shuffling or pressure wounds on my behalf.

Maybe it might inflict more pain on you having to read it. I guess by reading it, it could be considered good training for offwidths then?!

It’s painful but has no bruising or cuts as side effects.

Don't worry no side affects like this will occur.

Can’t lose really!! A free bit of training without having to break sweat or move anything but your eyes across the computer screen.

So if you fancy a bit of pain threshold training read on and it might just get you up your next project. Whether you’ve got full body pump in some horrendous squeeze chimney, forearms so painful and full of lactate they feel they might explode, or the rawest tips known to man, by reading on the next time you come to one of these painful situations your mind will take you back to this painfully boring blog post and what you had to put up with when reading it and you will be able to push on easily.

(btw if your still reading this, good effort).

Right, we’ll push on……

So I got a new camping mat the other day, (oh dear, that’s it, you’ve stood up haven’t you? Your shutting the computer down now, right now your leaving the room ……sorry, I told you it was going to be boring).

For those that have managed to get through that first sentence, we’ll carry on. So, yes…I got a new camping mat the other day. It is for my America trip in September. It is a right beast of a thing, it has some fare girth to it being proper thick and wide, and its still quite light. I reckon this should give me a good nights sleep whilst I’m out there snoozing away. It should help me wake up fresh and ready to go and get munched in some sharp, Vedauwoo, flared chimney!

However I think the best thing about this mat and why I decided to write this pointless post is that it’s called a ‘WIDE BOY,’ how cool is that?! I was well psyched when I found that out. It’s like it was made for me! I can feel this mat will bring me good wide fortune in the US. Hopefully it will give me that extra bit of good sleep and help me win against the wideness. (we’ll just have to see whether that happens or not).

Right I can’t believe you actually just read all that! haha. If you did manage to digest any of it all…well…I solute you sir!! Your pain threshold training is over, well done. You are now ready to go and devour that really painful project. Go on…get to it.

Fuck the pain, one more lap

When Pete and I came up with the plan to take on the dark, painful and wonderful world of offwidth climbing, we knew that we'd have to take things to a new level - a level of offwidth climbing that's perhaps not been achieved before...

Photo: Just another day in the office



I remember being sat down in Kalymnos a couple of years back with mine and Pete's family thinking - What would Dave Binney do? After all, Dave had been a strong influence in both of our climbing approaches; Pete through his younger years in the GB Juniors and mine as a coach for the GB Team. So, what would we do....? The resounding answer was to build a cellar like no other; no crimps, no pinches, no 45 board and no campus board. Instead I strapped to the underside of my house two different sizes of offwidth roof crack, a massive long 35ft hand crack, a 45 degree double fist offwidth and a knee-bar sit up machine.



With this strange DIY task completed, we then set about getting psyched. Very psyched indeed. I've had sessions down there where after dropping from the multiple laps I could no longer walk properly, my legs and stomach were filled with so much lactic acid. I've seen Pete turn into a mushy mess where he's hardly managing to talk any more and his back has turned a colour so red that you'd have thought he would pass out from blood loss to the brain. We've broken ourselves down in that cellar and we've been happy to do it, because if you want to make a difference, it's gonna hurt.

 Photo: The Board of Truth

 

So where has all this taken us? I think (and I'm starting to believe it now) it's achieved for us that new level that we'd previously hoped for - the Binney Dream of athletic development through focused training. Where previously we'd been happy to do laps on the equivalent of 8a's down the cellar, we can now do them with huge weights vests or with 6c cruxes thrown in every 5 moves to increase the intensity of a 100 move circuit. It's still scary though, to wonder what it'll all be like when we go over to the States and actually do some of this stuff that we've dreamed of for so long.



This weekend we headed out to Harborough Rocks with Rocketman Rob Smith to do some mileage on probably the UK's hardest offwidth, Gobbler's Roof (E7 6c). It's a filthy, dirty and dark offwidth roof crack that's probably about 8a to climb if you had to give it a sport grade and is whole new level above stuff like Ray's and Giggling. Fortunately (given how much effort we've ploughed into the training) the route feels very reasonable now and it was great to feel the gains on some real rock and not just 2 pieces of kitchen sideboard bolted 7 inches apart!

Photo: Pete doing some eliminates on the crux lip turn of Gobbler's Roof



It was also great to see Rocketman on this route as well - in fact it was just good to go out climbing with him as he's so motivated! It's pretty rare that you meet other people out there that are so versatile with their styles of climbing and good at it too. I think when we go back for some filming with the Hotaches crew in a couple of weeks he'll definitely get the 3rd ascent of this filth-fest. Go on Rob!

New Helium Friends!

It's only a week away until we start with the UK part of our film project and Wild Country have very kindly come up with some new goodies - the new Helium friends!

 Photo: trialing the new gear. (c) Ian Parnell



I was lucky enough to get a bit of sneak preview of the new friends at the beginning of the year when I headed over to Wales with Richie Patterson and Ian Parnell. Unfortunately on the day I wasn't able to spend that much time playing around with the gear as it was bloody freezing and Richie was encouraging me to speed up from my usual "snail pace!"



This week however, me and the gear could get cosy and I managed to have a proper look at the business end. There's a massive list on the Wild Country website of all of the changes that have been made to these devices, but it's really a few things that stand out for me as the end user - trad climber.

1. The stem is way longer - much easier to get out of deep cracks and more play in the stem on flared grit breaks



2. Soooooooooooooooo much lighter! Not really noticable on 1 friend, but take a whole rack and you're talking.



3. New thumb loop. Much that Richie P would have killed me for saying it, I always liked the Black Diamond plasticated thumb loops and I think Wild Country have made a great choice in using this with their new pieces.Comfortable, and practical.



4. I've not seen this quoted anywhere, but in my opinion the cams are a lot better in their "stickiness/adherence" to the rock. It could be something about the way they're coated in anodising, but it's really good.



Anyway, it'll be time to get them seriously dirty in some wide cracks over the coming 2 weeks. Nine days of filming and a lot of wideness to be enjoyed - I think we're climbing practically every hard wide crack in the UK in the space of a week so better eat my Shreddies!

Filming the Wide and Wonderful - Part 1

The last week and a bit has been an interesting time for me and Pete - both mentally and physically! We've been out with Hotaches filming for our US/UK wide obsession, and also a project code-named "Crack School" and............ also a Wild Country promo. Phew, it's been quite a busy time! Whilst we've learnt lots about presenting to camera (that's a major skill I do NOT have), it's been the journey re-visiting many of the UK classics that's been the real eye opener. So much training has been done and so much has been put on the line, but would all the old classics feel hard any more?



Day 1 - Millstone and Curbar



The first day started off with a bit of crack school stuff at Millstone doing some easy cracks, but the real meat of the day revolved around Right Eliminate at Curbar. Katherine Schirrmacher was out with us to either be "set up by Richie Patterson" or "learn some wide technique from Tom."



Katherine got really stuck in the with the task and put in a bloody good fighting effort. She used all the usual techniques to start with (swearing, sliding, thrutching) but soon resorted to some good old armbars, footlocks and chicken wings. It certainly didn't all quite end as plannned though........ but maybe you'll see that in footage....?

 

To be fair to Katherine, we didn't allow her to use any face holds and she could only employ classic offwidth technique to maintain upward progress. To add to this, the chockstone was missing making the crux much harder - and that's before excluding face holds! Certainly a good effort by her on a much harder route that its supposed E3. She'll probably never want to climb another offwidth again, but I think she's got the aptitude - she likes trying hard, is tough, and knows cracks ain't always fun.



Day 2 - Ramshaw and Baldstones



The second day started with a solo of Ray's Roof - good effort again Pete for doing this as the warm-up. I pitched off from the final knee lock over the roof and landed on Pete on my effort, which rewarded me with a sore ankle and some skin loss. Pete then had a go with a 20kg weight vest on lead....... and nearly did it! Man, that was a fine effort as he weighed nearly the same as John Dunne with that vest on. US "Wad-Beast" Brian Kim had a go, so did Katy Whittaker and also Sheffield's best looking man, Ned Freehaly. You'll have to ask them how they did though!

 Photo: From the original solo day (c) Andi Turner



The day was finished off getting some footage on Melvin Bragg, a V8 offwidth boulder problem that I did a couple of years ago on top of Ramshaw. With retrospect I think I might have overgraded that one, as it seems pretty ok these days. Maybe I'm just getting better though?



Day 3 - Harborough Rocks



Gobbler's Roof, E7 6c was the plan for the third day of climbing and we were lucky enough to have "Rocketman" Rob Smith along with us for the fun. Unfortunately conditions were absolutely terrible (although, that's not saying much in that cave!) and Rob couldn't quite get the third ascent we'd privately hoped for. He made a solid effort though and I think it's just a matter of time now for him. I'm proper psyched for you Rob!



Pete and I went back on the route as well, to get some footage of some upside down madness. Paul Diffley had made an incredible job of lighting up the whole cave, so it's was a really unique opportunity to get on the route without the usual gloom. The training has definitely paid off, as the roof section felt very comfortable and only the lip turn still seemed tricky - and still not one to fall off. As Rob nearly proved on one attempt....

 Photo: Pete Re-Livin' The Dream on Gobbler's.

 

Rest of the week.....



I'll split this blog post into 2 parts I'm afraid, as I'm nearly falling asleep with 8 days of constant thrutching, but to whet your appetite, there'll be:



Giggling Crack E6 6c, Solo

Me getting totally whooped on one of Pete's FAs

Liquid Armbar E4 6c, 2nd Ascent

Some Crack School stuff on George's Crack in the Ogwen Valley

Another Stevie Hastone Slate Offwidth.....

Cobalt Dream E5 6b, onsight

Pete taking a big whipper......

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasive cellar training session.

Filming the Wide and Wonderful - Part 2

Day 4 - Giggling Crack

So after ticking and soloing the 2 hardest offwidths in the country it was time to go up to Brimham for the thrutch fest of ‘Giggling Crack’ (given E6 6c). The plan was to solo the crack. I think Bancroft may have soloed this back in the day when he was drunk, which is funny. Anyway we thought it would be cool to have a go aswell…not drunk, obviously. Tom stepped up first and to say he walked it is an understatement, he absolutely cruised it into next year, I’m not joking he made it look no more then HVS. Amazing! After Tom’s ascent I felt more nervous because of how easy he made it look. In the end it was fine and thankfully I felt solid. Infact we both felt so solid on it we went back for round 2 and put in an extra solo lap for some training mileage and Paul to get a different angle with the camera. That deadbarring seems to be paying off!

Paul with his Camera near the top of Giggling

We decided to get Richie P on it, which was funny. He definitely couldn’t have put more effort in then he did as I’ve never seen The Patterson power scream, however on the top section downward thrutching did seem to out weigh the upward thruthing and unfortunately he didn’t quite make it. Next time Richie.

Below is a video one of my first attempts of Giggling back when i was 16/17ish. I guess this just showed to me how much i have improved on this type of climbing and how much of a complete punter I was, you can see my technique is so unbelievably shocking, (i can guarantee that i won't have been arm barring and whats my left foot doing?!...puntering). Its funny that i can do this route without a rope now and it feels about E3 5c rather then feeling the E6 6c sandbag it did back then.

Day 5 - Our Forte

So today I was really out for the laugh as Tom and Richie had decided to have ago on a new route I did a few months back at Stanton Moor Quarry. The line is a 15m splitter hand and finger crack which I named ‘Our Forte’ and gave E5 6b. it requires 2 sets of cams, some good core (even though it’s a slab) and good hand jamming endurance.

Tom put in a really good effort, getting past the beach section at the start, to the last move of the crux sequence and resorted to using some of the funniest traversing technique I’ve seen for a while. Round 2 is waiting for him.

After watching Tom, Richie decided to second. He also decided not to tape up and came out with the most mauled hands I’ve seen for a while. Anybody next up on the route should be fine as sequence of jams should be perfectly lined with blood.

Richie busting the moves, seconding 'Our Forte'

Day 6 - Slate Action

We Met up with Mark Dicken (Hosey B) today, which was cool. He was psyched to show us around a slate quarry on the other side of Llanberis where he had done some first ascents. Obvioulsy being another wide crack enthusiast his route we went to try was of the 7 inch variety. He called it Liquid Armbar. It was a good route to get on because there were minimal face holds so pure offwidth technique was needed the whole way up. The crack was a little wide for knee locks so a good dose of thigh locking was used which felt like a good bit of practice. Tom and I made the 2^nd and 3^rd ascent of this short little beauty. A technical classic I reckon.

We also made a rare repeat of a Stevie H offwidth. It wasn’t hard but I just thought it was funny because Tom got his knee stuck from getting overly keen with a knee lock.

Team Wide in the Pass

After the filming I had a real personal mission I had wanted to do for so long. Basically it involved Vivian Quarry and a headtorch and that’s all I can bare to say at the moment…

Man, a lot has happened over the last 9 days, so the next few days, which consists of:

A lot of squeezing on Colbalt Dream, bit of wide pony action and a massive training session

I will post up when I’ve written them.

Filming the Wide and Wonderful - Part 3

Day 7 – Ogwen

We thought we would make a short trip up to George’s Crack in the OgwenValley today as it has some good wide pony technique going on. I think, although not sure, Will Perrin and Tom might be the only people to onsight this problem, which is quite surprising for a V5 I guess they just know how to tickle that trout. Anyway I also managed to onsight the problem aswell. Its pretty simple really, just involves some nice hand/fist stacking and abit of wide ponying.

There’s a short video of me climbing the problem below:

Anyway after this short little warm up we decided to have a go on Cobalt Dream which is high up on the other side of the valley. After a walk in which I expected to be shorter then it was, we realised that we only had time for one lead. Me and Tom flipped for the lead and I lost which meant I was sent up first. It’s E1ish up to the roof, which was unfortunately looking bigger by the time I got up there.

I just thought, stick to what your good at and get the invert on, so I went upside down for most of the roof then pivoted left side in, in the end slot. It was a bit of nightmare to get fully into the slot with a rack on, but you just had to keep moving an inch at a time.

In the end I was pretty glad I didn’t fall off as Tom was getting the real E5 treatment on belay from death by midges. After telling me he was thinking about jumping off the top after walking up because they were so bad, I wasn’t entirely sure whether he was holding the other end of the ropes, especially as I also had to untie one end because the rope wasn’t long enough!

Day 8

Today was quite restful as Richie wanted some falling off shots for a Helium Promo. So I did some jumping off Offspring which was fun. Well really it wasn’t jumping off at all, it was falling because I’m so weak.

Tom did a bit of chat for this CrackSchool thing as he is good at that and I’m a complete punter at it, and that’s about it really.

Day 9 – Cellar session

Possibly the physically hardest part of the last 9 days was saved until last. Tom’s cellar. Paul wanted to get some footage of some of the training we have done down there recently.

Paul filming (c) Wild Country

Fortunately it turned out that the session wasn’t as hardcore as usual, so that was a relief, as usually it feels like you should be trying harder then you are as all Tom's motivational messages seem intimidating!

Motivational message (apparently)

I think the Hastonater seemed to cause the most amusement as Tom showed me a new exercise he had been doing in it. The chicken wing and deadbar curls. Destined to be a favourite over the next 6 weeks I reckon.

Crack sit ups

Tom on the wide pony

Anyway I’ve been on 2 days rest now, Tom is probably still driving around trying to find Ratho, Theres 6 weeks until we go to America and we are psyched!!!

Want More Wide in Your Life?

If you'd like more wide in your life, more crack in your backyard and more brutal chickens in your nightmares, then look no further.....! Pete and I (well, it's mainly me actually as I'm the geek) have decided to dip into the murky world of Twitter and we'll updating our adventures on the Twitter account TomRandall2.



So please do follow us if you DON'T know what's best for you!



Tweet me up baby

Photo: Pete showing Paul his Wide Pony. Naughty.  (c) Richie Patterson



We'll be keeping you in touch with all the American stuff, madness in the cellar and of course everytime Pete gets on a Wide Pony..... don't ask!



Also.........................................................



We're really proud to be now supported by Sterling for our ropes and also ClimbOn (to recover from multiple scabbing injuries). Sterling make some flipping brilliant ropes and I'm looking forward to having my ass saved over a few more sharp edges! The "Marathon" single that we've used so far has already taken a harsh beating and no signs of any problems yet.



Thanks Sterling!

The Original Ray's Roof Solo

A while back when Pete and I originally soloed Ray's Roof, we wrote a few thoughts on the matter. I'm not sure that I ever did anything with those thoughts, so here they are to enjoy. Looking back at it, I'm not sure who took the piss out of who, more effectively.



Cue Time Warp............................

As many people know, the first ascent of Ray's Roof was done by the visiting american, Ray Jardine. A pioneer of hard, burly cracks in the US, it was no surprise that he managed to put up a "real fighter" on God's own rock. Much like many of his rarely repeated US offwidths, he gave his Baldstones route a fairly modest grade of 5.11c, which comes in around E4. I'm guessing that he never ventured over to Ramshaw to see how Ramshaw Crack (at the same grade, but not difficulty!) compared....



Over the following decades, Ray's Roof saw the odd repeat by local obsessives and crack deviants. However, it wasn't until Dawes, Plant and Woodward decided to have a very public tussle with this roof crack that it really began to build a reputation. These demi-gods were thoroughly shut down and shut out - even the enigmatic Dawes with his 3D (or is that 4D??!) brain couldn't work out an appropriate sequence. Tales of hidden pebbles, gardening glove ascents and missing chockstones only added to the mystery of yet another desperate Jardine test-piece. 

It wasn't until myself and Pete Whittaker headed over to the Baldstones to climb Ray's Roof in 2008, that the spell of this route started to break. After working out a more reasonable sequence of moves and passing these on to other local climbers, a number of stylish ascents followed over the next couple of years. Hearing of even the crimp-master personified - Ryan Pasquill - ascend this beauty, we knew it was time to set the next challenge. No ropes, no cams.... just some pads, friends and a load of finger tape.



Pete and I have described each other's ascents, so you can tell what's going on inside the twisted mind of an offwidther. It's not pretty, it's not very complimentary and it's certainly not fair. Enjoy:

Tom

So here we were again, sat underneath Ray's Roof. Our last soloing attempt had been aborted over a year ago after I'd catapulted over Pete's mum's head in an over-eager handjam dyno and the winds had picked up to near hurricane levels.... This time though, it was going to be different; we'd spent countless hours hanging by our feet in offwidths around Europe and picked off most of the hardest that anyone could throw at us. We felt confident.



Pete stepped up to the plate first, mainly because I let him. Mostly with these tough offwidths it's best to let your adversary go first as they'll waste untold amounts of energy working the beta out for you and perfectly lining all the best jams with chalk. Unfortunately, Pete looked really rather at ease on his warm-up attempt and pushed straight on for the leg-jam rest. As he's quite a bit weaker than me, he tends to hang around on his feet considerably more, so my hands rubbed in glee as I watched him slowly look more tired in this position. As with most offwidths, it's a considerable advantage to have small knees and large fists; something Pete is extremely well endowed with. Obviously as this makes most offwidths hugely easier for him, I try to employ ample amounts of tight rope (so he can't move up), bad beta (so he falls off), spit in his chalk (for poor friction) and demoralising shouts (come on Pete, just fall off so we can all go home...). He was too fast for me this time though - my calls of "it's starting to rain" and "I think I've just seen a buzzard nesting in the break" did little to stifle his enthusiastic jams through the crux. Damn, he'd just made the first solo ascent; as a bloody warm-up.

Pete

We were back - taping up at the bottom of Ray’s pondering the best way to start it.

Without the “Staffordshire Reach” it is impossible to reach into the good part of the crack from the good foot and hand holds and so most people who live outside of Staffordshire have to find a different way to get into the crack. Some things just aren’t fair are they?!

As Tom can actually only jam, he couldn’t use my safer crimp beta to get into the crack. As a result he had to take the bolder flake approach on the left, which seeing as though he is getting on a bit, I thought was a fine effort. This approach is fine when leading the route, but when soloing it could probably leave you over at Gib Torr if you got it wrong, as it involves a massive cut loose and swing from a horizontal position with your head actually slightly lower then your feet.

After getting through this section without any of the mishaps of last time, which involved a dismount face first into the grass slope, he crossed the roof section with relative ease. On approaching the lip he realised the offwidth genetics that had been passed on by his mother and father were all wrong and his mini-fists didn’t fit to well, so had to drop off for a re think and more importantly - a re-tape.

After redoing his tape job, which now looked more like a plaster cast, he set off again. On reaching the lip he managed to get a better seated jam, went hunting for dung at the back of the crack and pushed on. After a lot of shuffling, followed by some well executed randy humping, he found himself halfway round the lip with a dodgy knee jam. I gave no sympathy to him here as he does have skinny knees (a useful offwidthing tool) so watched and went for the arms folded, classic “British Spotting Technique” as he struggled to get a knee jam seated properly and grunt up to the top.

With relief and “an emotional experience” he eventually landed himself on the funnel and left the Staffordshire boys standing at the bottom with their chins on the floor!

8c offwidth. Surely not...

A long time ago..... in a far, far land..... Well, Kalymnos to be exact, myself and Pete dreamed up this concept of an offwidth cellar underneath my house. It seemed like a total pipedream that would never happen at the time (partly because I'd still not actually agreed a price on the house!) but with a bit of psyche, hard work and a few kitchen worktops a cellar like no other was born.

Photo: Pete on the original prototype



At first, we worked quite hard to just do a couple of laps on the 7 inch horizontal offwidth, but with time, tape and a LOT of training, it all seemed to come together. I remember when we both first did a 100ft continuous section of roof crack and being so wasted that we could hardly walk afterwards. The lactic acid had consumed almost our entire body - biceps, hands, core and legs were destroyed.

Photo: Tape gloves had to be reinforced with duct tape the abrasion was so bad over 100ft reps.



After quite some time and with even more additions to my strange cellar (a 9-inch roof crack, The Hastonator and Kneebar sit-up machine), we came up with an ultimate Offwidth Link-Up. Miles of hand fist stacking, into double fist stacking, into handjams and bathangs. When we considered a 200ft section of continuous roof climbing to be fairly reasonable (and definitely repeatable in sets) this ultimate link up seemed the living end. Nothing could be harder it seemed and in our minds we set that if we were able to do this before leaving for America, then our conditioning would be complete.

Photo: Pete focussed and working hard. (c) Richie Patterson



Sure enough, last week both Pete and I completed this 8c link-up that we'd dreamt up. Who knows if it's the grade or if it'll even be useful for a Vedauwoo 5.9, but what I do know is it makes anything else I've done seem pretty light. In many ways I think I feel more scared about the trip now that I have done this link as I know there's no excuse physically. Everything else will be in the mind.



Please dear God, some beta on Lucille would be great... 

Hairy Welsh Cracks, Hannah and (H)Ireland

As it's only a couple of weeks before heading off to America, Pete and I have been up to a few random things - some fillers, some projects and some general trad climbing.



At the moment, Pete is over in Ireland in the Mourne Mountains. No doubt, he'll be smearing his way up some desperate slabs somewhere in the mist. I spoke to him on the phone yesterday and it sounded like he'd already had "an emotional experience" on an E4 sandbag. Must be all that offwidthing that's wrecked your footwork Pete!

Photo: Pete most definitely not working on his footwork!



The previous week I headed over with my wife and daughter, to South Wales to have another look at a couple of cracks. Last year I spent a day trying a roof crack project at Dinas Rock, which splits a pretty sizeable roof on finger-locks. Simon Rawlinson had very kindly done some of the cleaning for me, but it was really to no avail as I was out of shape and the jams were just hideously painful. This year however, I vowed to return in slightly better form and to be a bit more careful how I treated my fingers.

Photo: I'm working the roof on the left-hand side of the pic. (Thanks to Robin Richmond for taking the photo)



I was really pleased this time to get all the moves on the crux crack sequence done, but still quite way from linking sections or large sequences together. I think it'll end up being around V11 for the roof crack and a tricky 20ft section to get there. Something to come back to in the future!



On the second day we braved a bushwacking walk-in with a pushchair (Hannah and wife were not amused!) to go and repeat a really unique looking roof crack on sandstone. The Clart Mountain Project was established by a mate of mine (Si Rawlinson) after it was donated to him by a local bolter and activist. Whilst it did seem unusual to have bolted the line, I can't really say I blamed them considering that every other route in the entire quarry was bolted. All in all, a great little crack and would be around 7b or E6 6b on trad gear.

Photo: Simon on the 1st ascent of the Clart Moutain Project.



The last "H" in this blog will be Hannah, my daughter. It's been a huge challenge over the last few months trying to fit in family life, keep on top of my work and still train hard. The one thing that has kept me going though, when I'm totally knackered and feeling like I can't face yet another session in the cellar has been the little cheeky grin on Hannah's face. It's absolutely brilliant; like liquid-happiness.

Indoor Offwidths and The Spread of Wide Love

Most people think of indoor climbing as being a pleasant experience. Bright blue crimps splattered all over a gently overhanging wall and funky wrestling with resin volumes at The Climbing Works. Think again....

Photo: Gaz Parry approaching a Wide Pony (c) Mike Langley





Over a year ago, myself and Pete were invited down to the Castle Climbing Centre in London to guest route set for their "King of the Mezz" boulder competition. Unfortunately I don't think Mike (the big man on campus) quite factored in how silly things can get when we double team at events. Normally, (I'm a route setter by trade) it's all quite reserved and I will set pretty standard stuff at most walls and comps, but for some reason as soon as Pete steps into the building with a drill in his hand anything can happen!!



Video of the Indoor Offwidth: See video HERE



To cut a long story short - at the King of the Mezz comp, we ended up setting some hideous V8 overhanging offwidth that required invert technique, hand-fist stacks and more than a little risk taking. All the wads from London turned up expecting 45 degree crimping and all they got were upside-down shuffling and Whittaker's V5 "Quarryman Problem" which was bloody impossible. Heads were shaken, lapis brushes were snapped and and steely-fingered beasts were shut down. We walked away from that comp expecting never to be invited back again and for the Castle to set an official policy of NO OFFWIDTHS ALLOWED.



That all changed when I received an email this week from route setting manager at The Castle - Mike Langley ..................

Photo: Mike trying the conceptual "Air Armbar" and failing....

"...In the true spirit of country “Wide” pride I thought I would drop the chiefs of the Mega-Ming a quick message of how we roll down on the South Side. No longer is it "London flicks" whilst sipping the perfectly foamed Cappuccino – us crazy men are now true aficionados of The Wide and would like to put our names forward and join the world wide elite and become BOYZ!

A truly rank set of foot stacks was set in the Castle’s roof yesterday by Gaz Parry, Mike Langley and Alex Lemel. In true Wide style the bloc was completed using a climbing shoe on one foot and a 5.10 trainer on the other from Gaz and a pair of sweaty stiff hire shoes from Mike. As for Alex he tried to flick his way through off the volumes edges..."

Good work BOYZ!!