After reading a few posts this morning about "is this an onsight?... what is an onsight... etc etc blah blah blah" I decided to rant about it a little so...
I may as well put a story into this, so it starts at 6am one sunday morning with driving up to Stoke to meet Toaf. Warm day, but cool rock so we went to Ramshaw and did a classic to start, The Crank (VS 4c for anyone who can jam, 5a for anyone who can't). Then we found ourselves below Traveller in time (E4 6a). This was a route a couple of friends of mine had headpointed (practised the moves on top-rope and tested the gear placements before hand) and subsequnetly lead. I'd actually watch my mate climb the start on video, but turned it off as I didn't want to see anymore. E4 6a was a pretty high grade for me (it still is) but we thought we give at go anyway.
bah? Onsight? Ground up? You know even my Dad knows what these terms mean, and he doesn't touch rock at all (though he has argeed to come out climbing with me one day). I think the film "Onsight" managed to explain a lot of climbing terms really well. So what is an onsight? As far as I'm concerned its climbing a route without any prior knowledge of the moves or gear placements (having prior knowledge of gear or moves is termed beta). So you pretty much turn up at the crag, find a line that inspires you, check the guidebook description you make sure it's within your grade and then have a crack at it. But what happens if you fall off or downclimb, this is where people get all kinds of messed up.
If you downclimb from your high point without weighting the rope (crucial point to note) then you get back on the route I figure you can still claim the onsight. Downclimbing is sometimes flippin harder than that actual climbing, so if you do it without wieghting the rope ot your gear then you can claim the onsight.
We sat at the bottom of the route for ages, listening to "hold your colour" and deciding what gear to take. I took small wires and small cams. Then placed all the gear on the floor ready for Toaf to chuck up anything I needed. I bouldered the start as well to get a feel for the route. Then I walked around it and looked at it from all angles, without actaully abseiling down it. You really couldn't see much, and there wasn't much to see.
So what if I weight the rope then? Well if you fall off or lower off then thats it you've blown the onsight. According to Leo Holding (in Onsight) this is the best place to be. You've blown it, there's no pressure on you to complete the route first go, you can forget about your own ego and you can climb it at will now, but where do you go from here.
Well you either leave your rope in place and then re-climb up to your high point and carry on again. This is called Yo-yoing as you can go up and down like a yo-yo. It used to be acceptable style in the 80's or such. Sometimes the faff of recovering your ropes and gear is too much effort, and you just climb it again like that. On multipitch routes, if a damn sight easier to just yo-yo it. There is another choice, a "purer" ethic. It's called ground up. The climb a route ground up you start at the ground and climb up in one push, without falling off or weighting the rope. Climbing a route such as this (no falls etc) so also termed flashing a route. There is starting to get way too many terms to keep up with, no?
Ropes coiled, up I climbed and through me head ran everything that Alex and Turner had said about the route. I knew there was a gnarly mantleshelf coming up at some point and I just hoped I could do it. I started to wonder if all this information, the 5 seconds of film, the fact that I'd walked around and looked at the route, did this all count as an acceptable level of Beta? could I still claim the onsight? I placed my final pieces from a hard stretch then downclimbing to a half decent rest. Then it was time, up I went and reached out...
So you try for an onsight, if you know nothing about a route. If you fall off your next best option is a ground up ascent, then a yoyo if you really can't be bothered with pulling through your ropes and removing your gear. If you practise a route then lead it it's a headpoint (or redpoint), if you just climb it but you know the moves or gear then this is called beta. It's terms a Beta flash if you managed to climb it without falls.
Smear with the feet, match my hand on the hold and get my foot up and match that as well, then mantle like I've never mantled before. Pushing with my feet and screaming as I pull some muscles in my ribs, Toaf's worried I'll fall off not sure what to do. Tears stream as the pain in my chest subsides and I stand up on my foot, balancing with my hands and trying to get as much friction and possible. I breath a sigh of relief and oddly enough my mind is clear. No thought of the onsight, ground up, beta flash or headpoint. The rest of the climb goes easy after that final hard move. I sat on the top enjoying a quiet moment of contemptation. I couldn't work out how I'd managed to pull off the move.
So was Traveller in Time and onsight for me? I don't think it was. I mean I can bend it in my mind and kid myself that Alex and Turner didn't let on anything crucial, that that 5 seconds of film of Turner on the start, that looking at the route from all angels didn't mean anything, but it did. Even the fact that Alex and Turner had lead it added to my beta. I climbed it ground up in the end, but my lasting memory isn't that it's my hardest ground up route to date, but that all this nonsense about onsighting etc is just all nonsense. Alex Lowe said that "the best climber is the one having the most fun" and that really should be why you climb because its why I climb. My ego does get in the way of my climbing alot, but at the end of the day some of the best route's I've climbed, haven't been the hardest or highest grades, they've been the ones that made me laugh.
Lying down watching the cloud pass over head after completing a VS on Malham's Right hand wall, the only trad we could find. Me and Dan have been lay there for about an hour, just enjoying the sunshine warm soft grass, watching the clouds and scratching our nuts with a variety of different nutkeys , trying to decided which is best. One of my best days climbing ever, and all we did was two VS's.
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