Wen Zawn and Caff attempt to climb Hardback Thesaurus.
A few days ago I read a forum thread started by Chris Craggs on UKC titled, Aware of the danger, Here is a link
Chris explains in the opening paragraph,
“We were climbing at Horseshoe today, and Colin pointed to the group to our left. The leader had climbed up about six carabiners, fell a few times and let go, ripping off all the remaining quickdraws on the way down. Another guy roped up to a bolt high up, held on, and then fell right back down.
I yelled in my best school accent that he should lower himself and at least hold one more bolt underneath him, just in case. He apologized, thanked me, and did just that. A member of our group chatted with them later, and it was their first time climbing outdoors.
I was a bit shocked at their apparent lack of awareness of the danger they might be in, bolts don’t usually fail and ropes don’t usually come undone – but it could happen.”
*
Reading this article reminded me (roughly) of when Jack Geldard, James McHaffie, Adam Wainwright and I decided to go rock climbing at Wen Zawn in Gogarth a few years ago.
It was overcast. The monotonous sky gave a feeling, but it was not a good thing. The four of us roped down into the cliffs. The water was deep and the boulders were tall and slippery. As soon as we started jumping on the boulders and looking around, the rain began to fall. The water must have been at high tide, churning around the boulders, but it was shallower than I had seen before. The swish of the water echoed in the closed and dark space. The steep and glittering walls were looming.
Adam and I wanted to climb a route first climbed in 1991 by Paul Pritchard and Leigh McKinley called Rubble, which is E7 6a and is the best and probably the softest route in Zawn. Jack and Kraft were going to try Johnny Dawes and Bob Drewry’s E7 6b route called Hardback Thesaurus. Johnny had set the standard for Hardback Thesaurus by attempting it multiple times over several days. It didn’t take much searching on Google (other search engines are available) to find a video of Johnny attempting and falling multiple times from the climb, which is E8 and clearly dangerous. Of course, Kraft was improvising the climb with a bunch of gear he didn’t need and a couple of skyhooks, which he did need!
It was raining hard, and the four of us were hiding behind the cave. Adam was climbing Mr Softy and The Mad Brown with George Smith, both first time climbers. The walls were orange, yellow and grey, spiralling upwards, with water running above. The light was chilling, the rock was dark, and getting darker. Oh well, I thought, nothing to do today. At some point the rain stopped, and Cuff squeezed over the boulder and stood under Hardback.
“Shall we give it a try, Jack?” Kraft suggested.
Jack looked a little confused, but he wasn’t the one to charge at this wet, unsuspecting wall, so he said,
“Uh, ok, James.”
[I’ve always known Caff as Caff, but Jack had always called Caff by his proper name, James. To this day, I’ve never really wondered why this is, and I’ve never asked Caff which he prefers?]
Adam and I hopped over boulders and came to the start of a rather crazy looking overhanging concrete levee, which was just a pile of rubble. I ran my hand over the rock and it was soaking wet.
“I don’t feel like trying that today, Adam.”
I turned back to look deeper into Zawn, where Caff (guarded by a very worried Jack) had already scaled the wall. I was pretty sure this attempt would end quickly once Caff decided things were bad, but Caff made careful progress. I should have known Caff would keep going, as he had done on other occasions when I had guarded him, and his perseverance in the face of adverse conditions was amazing. In part, it was probably this perseverance, the fact that he kept trying even when things were against him, that led Caff to many difficult routes.
There was the odd bit of gear, but as he got higher it was definitely odd gear and it really didn’t look good. Kraft would occasionally tell Jack to keep an eye on it, but to be honest I’m pretty sure Jack wasn’t running far enough (from one side of the hill to the other) to avoid falling to the ground.
Kraft made some rather tricky, wet, and unprotected moves to the right and placed a skyhook. If the hook broke, he would surely fall to the ground, as the last piece of gear was far below. He swung his body, smeared it repeatedly with chalk (remember, the rock was wet!), and aimed at a small cliff where he said he could see a possible nut location. He reached the nut location and then yelled that it wasn’t looking good, then easily placed another skyhook on a small edge. After a while, he began a series of seemingly difficult moves to cut down a small cliff. Kraft yelled that he could definitely see a nice hold and some gear a little above, but in a split second, a thin slice he was cutting broke and he went flying. I have never screamed more when I saw someone fall. I was sure I was witnessing my friend’s death, but he stopped and a hook on each rope caught.
“Put me down, Jack.”
He got down on the floor and untied the rope. I admit I felt a little shaky and Jack looked a little sick, but Kraft seemed fine.
“What do we do now?” Jack asked, looking up at the wet wall with some gear hanging on it and two ropes hanging from two skyhooks on the far side.
Kraft looked up, then turned to Jack and said, “Jack, you should try climbing the top rope, those hooks are pretty powerful.”
*
I must admit, Chris’ story and his shock at seeing the climber remove all the ropes below the one he was lowering and then the next guy abseiling from that rope and bolts reminded me of the Wen Zawn episode. I wonder if Chris would have spoken to Caff in his best schoolboy voice that day?
