Page 29 - 2000 AMA Millenium

Advanced Rock Climbing
By John Long and Craid Luebben. How To Climb series.
Published by Falcon 1998. pp224. Price U.K. £9.99
UK Distributors: Cordee,3a De Montfort Street, Leicester LEI 7HD.
This little beauty is packed with good advice and it is fun to read. The text is better than the b&w photos, some of which are too small or lack clarity. The problem with photos on real rock is that all those rugosities (not to mention bumpy bits) cast tiny shadows that ruin the contrast. Maybe they were colour photos originally? Anyway John Long’s very readable style more than makes up for the
pics and I learned an amazing amount from a single pass. 1 asked a nonclimbing friend what he thought and after an hour’s train journey he was
still glued to it. I have found out how to backstep, ‘flag’ a foot, perform a gaston,
do an egyptian and use a figure four instead of a dyno-move.l have learned about
the american triangle and how to avoid it. When it comes to gear I must get myself a Bigbro, and some Yates Screamers. OK I have had to work out that bridging is ‘stemming’and a hook-shaped bolt is a ‘cold shut’but never mind. Dot this advice with anecdotes - witness the skyhook and drill incident on pl48 and you have a marvelous mix of entertainment and instruction. That does not mean that you have to agree with everything.
Take the advice about free soloing on p 152. Of course he is right about habitual soloers
- head bangers who insist on pushing their soloing grade up to and beyond their limit. These people have a contract with extinction but he should not discourage all unroped soloing because there is something very special about it. I have spent many sunny summer evenings on the Swanage sea cliffs, in splendid solitude, unencumbered by ropes and gear. You can get through a lot of rock very quickly that way and the satisfaction is unequaled.
At a tenner this book is a snip. No wonder it won top prize at the 1998 Banff Mountain Book Festival. Buy it and it cannot fail to help your climbing, whether you are a creaking has-been, like me, or a
rising star.
Tim K in g
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SSgt Tim Bird on the 5c boulder
at Twin Cracks. Brmham FI
Army Mountaineer
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