Smashed Holds, Sending and the Country's Best Belayer
Thats right, random Japanese guy. A strong Japanese climber has been at the Cave recently, on holiday with his wife and small child. He has reportedly done every route at the Cave (there are some routes he has not done, but few people climb these) in a short space of time. This includes a 3 day ascent of Space Boy and two days to do Dracula (32). To do routes of this style so quickly (i.e. without perfect beta) is very impressive.
Not to be outdone, Derek Thatcher has returned to work after a brief holiday with some sends at the Cave. Yesterday he did the modified Kaiser Soze on his second attempt of the day (he had tried the route pre-smashing once two and a half years ago, but was uninspired by the manufacturing). He was able to find two good kneebar rests on the way. Today he managed to fire one of Ivan's new routes Snakecharmer (29), also second attempt of the day after trying the route once before. He also managed to rest his way up this route, finding a good lie-down on the pigeon ledge from which he complained to Gomez on belay that there was no head-rest. He found another good rest further on. Derek commented that Snakecharmer and Kaiser felt pretty similar (as the facts of the ascents would suggest), cheekily remarking that Kaiser must then be 26 without the sika holds (Snakecharmer is a link-up of Hung Like Elvis (26) with the end of Bogus Machismo (29), but with two massive rests between the two sections).
All these events may cause much discussion for bored climbers, but perhaps the biggest revelation of recent times is that Gomez is surely now New Zealand's best belayer. After belaying Derek, Mayan and Stefan up all sorts of tough routes in the North Island and at Paynes Ford towards the end of 2003, he has now quickly added belays of Kaiser Soze and Snakecharmer (thats a combined grade of 60!) in two days at the Cave to start off 2004.
Not to be outdone, Derek Thatcher has returned to work after a brief holiday with some sends at the Cave. Yesterday he did the modified Kaiser Soze on his second attempt of the day (he had tried the route pre-smashing once two and a half years ago, but was uninspired by the manufacturing). He was able to find two good kneebar rests on the way. Today he managed to fire one of Ivan's new routes Snakecharmer (29), also second attempt of the day after trying the route once before. He also managed to rest his way up this route, finding a good lie-down on the pigeon ledge from which he complained to Gomez on belay that there was no head-rest. He found another good rest further on. Derek commented that Snakecharmer and Kaiser felt pretty similar (as the facts of the ascents would suggest), cheekily remarking that Kaiser must then be 26 without the sika holds (Snakecharmer is a link-up of Hung Like Elvis (26) with the end of Bogus Machismo (29), but with two massive rests between the two sections).
All these events may cause much discussion for bored climbers, but perhaps the biggest revelation of recent times is that Gomez is surely now New Zealand's best belayer. After belaying Derek, Mayan and Stefan up all sorts of tough routes in the North Island and at Paynes Ford towards the end of 2003, he has now quickly added belays of Kaiser Soze and Snakecharmer (thats a combined grade of 60!) in two days at the Cave to start off 2004.