Monday 21 March 2011

Afternoon on Stob Ban


Hours of sleep have been gradually increasing over the past couple of weeks as Freida settles into life in the outside world of day and night. So I was keen to get more than just training done and make it out onto the hills before I missed the snow completely. I headed out by myself as early starts are a little hard work just now and went for a nice afternoon climbing something new on Stob Ban. 
Sadly my intended route was in the process of falling down due to the warm spring winds, so I headed off up the buttress with no particular aim except to enjoy the movement on snow, rock and turf. I mostly soloed, which I enjoyed a lot. But the rock was quite loose and turf not completely solid, so my rope and the little red belayer came out for a pitch.



Would be nice, but not today in plus 2!



Getting my rope-solo system a little more slick. Long way to go there...



Back on the board, things have been going really good. I’ve managed to surpass my previous strength PB by a good margin and feeling highly excited for the coming rock season. The cumulative effect of simply clocking up the hours on the board all winter long seem to have prevailed. Excellent.
Too early to test it on projects just yet. I tried today but ended up taking my climbing gear for a nice walk in the rain. I did nearly run over an Otter on the way home which was the highlight of the day (seeing it, that is!).



7 comments:

  1. Hi! What kind of backpack are you using for rope? And how do you stack your rope? I have led some ice with a silent partner, but the rope doesn't come as nicely as I would like to...

    Cheers,

    -saku

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  2. Hi Dave, I use the Silent Partner a lot for summer multi-pitch rock climbing with a rope pack to feed out the rope nicely. I love it. I want to take it to alpine too. But the manual said "Do not use in SUB-FREEZING CONDITIONS... ON MUDDY OR ICY
    ROPES..." But since you are using it on ice/snow, what are your thoughts on that?

    Cheers,
    Joe from Vancouver

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  3. Interesting, I was looking at getting a silent partner for winter solo'ing but was put off by the same warning as Joe, I'd be interested to hear a bit more about your system Dave!

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  4. Just bought a soloist for the same reasons as above so interested in hearing your views Dave.
    Martin - Lone Rider

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  5. Dave,

    With all due respect and more, your silent partner looks like it is loaded incorrectly. Shouldn't the hitch "cross" on the top of the device and not the bottom as pictured? I love that device, but for me it doesn't seem to feed as well loaded what I propose is upside-down.

    Your faithful student,
    SF

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  6. SF, you are right, according to the manual: http://www.bmi.gv.at/cms/BMI_Alpindienst/service/files/WREN_Silent_Partner.pdf. I wonder what's the difference between the "manual-proposed" setting and Dave's setting.

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  7. Dave, any answers to the above questions?

    ReplyDelete