Burning off Ben Moon by Stevie Gibbose Haston

Ben, Mike and Stevie the stalker

Ben Moon did the first ascent of Hubble in 1990, it was the first 9a in the world under the new Uefa grading system, I burnt him off once. He wasn’t pleased!
Ben Moon was eclipsed in many ways by Wolfgang Gullich, who was certainly not Bens equal in pure bouldering, or redpointing. This is the odd way history is,  its not an accurate thing, its easily subverted.
Now then a few months after Ben did Hubble, his best buddy Jerry Moffat was climbing well so he thought he would try Hubble. By some weird coincidence I was there with Kurt Albert, Wolfgang’s old training buddy. The World is indeed a small place full of odd coincidences. Anyway Jerry huffed and puffed but could not blow Hubble away, Kurt and I laughed, Jerry fumed and then went incandescent but all to no avail. Hubble is apparently a hard nut to crack. Kurt and I being out of our league decided to go arête climbing on the Grit instead, we did Archangel, Ulysses, Edge Lane and Great Arrete, we Talked about how routes can break you mentally, we had a great time. Kurt was a talented pianist and told me that certain bits of music broke him, a bit like redpointing, you know you can do them, but you cant!
Some years later in Salt Lake City I met up with a few strong people and we were all messing around. A certain Ben Moon became interested in picking up a weight attached to a needle, he was adamant that he could beat everybody, he was wrong. He couldn’t beat me. I burnt Ben Moon off.
I went out a few times to watch Ben and Mike Beck bouldering as a master class lesson. Mike Beck was really cranking at the time and it was very inspiring to watch him, very short, no excuses, and him and Ben enjoyed each others company. Anyway I moved Mats for them and brushed a few holds, and generally gawked.
At one boulder venue however I was lucky and did something and Ben looked at me shocked, and said ‘Stevie you could be good if you lost a bit of weight’, inside I laughed. “Condescending young Whippersnapper” I said, ‘I am the Champ at weight lifting with a needle and don’t forget it’..
After my tiny victory I was relegated to labouring for Ben and Mike, Ben would point at tree stumps and I would up root them like the trained Mule I am. Its horses for  courses, and bouldering is not weightlifting. 

Rules of training by Stevie the Dictator Haston.

First rule of training, is don’t hurt yourself.
Second rule of training, is don’t hurt yourself.
Third rule of training is, don’t hurt yourself.

These rules apply to every sport, not just climbing.

Drink lots of Liquid, it helps protect your tendons.
Be courteous and pleasant to others so that they are courteous and pleasant to you, so that you can all profit from training.
If you do hurt yourself, even in a minor way, take 10 whole minutes to think about it, go have a coffee, and think about it, do not carry on in any way which might make the injury worse. Do not keep squeezing and testing the injury, you only make something worse by hurting it more.
Tidy up your mess before you leave. After you finish turn to the training area and bow just like in Martial Arts, now do two things, say thanks and goodbye, and check you didn’t leave anything!

Blisters by Stevie Haston.

Blisters are a bugger, better not to have them. How to not have them can be a trial, but prevention is way better than cure. I am tough but although they haven’t yet made me cry yet, blisters have made me yowl, and yell, and wince and wobble. They have even put me in hospital with serious blood poison once, so are defiantly not a laughing matter.
Prevent them. You need to monitor your feet all through the year. Your feet must be kept supple and clean, and most importantly, no hard skin. The best time to sort your feet out is sitting in the shower, or with your feet in a bucket of water. You soften the skin and scrape it off with a stone, or file. Don’t be too aggressive, better to do it over a few goes, than all at once. After filing, apply some oil, and massage it in. Sort out your nails while you’re here, Not just because you get in-growing toe nails, but because they can rub adjacent skin, and also catch in socks, and against the inside of the shoe. The skin on your feet should be soft like a baby.
Shoes and socks are really very important. Check your socks for stones, tiny sticks and seeds. Discard any sock with a ridge in the material, or a hole. Pay a lot of attention when you put the perfect sock on, to prevent any rucking of material. Two thin socks are better than one thick one, but at all costs don’t have feet that are too hot.

Blisttered to the Ying Yang but happy at the finish of the TDG, notice preventative beer can in hand...

Shoes have to be the right size for the distance, They need more room on long, to very long runs because your feet will swell. They must not be so baggy  that they allow excessive movement in long traverses, and while contouring. They need to be perfect! Goretex or waterproof lined shoes can be way too hot, and will promote blisters. I love my goretex shoes but only when I, and conditions decide. Even unlined shoes can be too hot so watch out for dark coloured ones, as well as ones with lots of plastic toe protection. Examine the inside of your shoes for rub points, discard shoes that become rough inside, and rub a toe, or keep them for short runs.
On really big runs were you have to keep on running with blisters, be really super careful about infection. A blister which is broken, is an easy entry point for infection, that’s why you are normally advised not to touch them. If you must touch them its better to do it earlier than let your shoe, and the terrain do it for you. You need a clean needle to pierce the skin, clean fingers to get rid of fluid, and then a clean dressing. Betadine is my preferred solution because you can see it, due to the colour, so you know where it has been.
Blood blisters are supposed to be one step up, and doctors sometimes refuse to do anything for you. A blood blister can sometimes happen at a very deep level especially if you haven’t sorted out those callous. If it is very deep and you continue to run it gets worse, the pressure opens up from inside. If it is close to the surface an incision with a scalpel will drain it, clean it up, disinfect the hell out of it, and make sure see a doctor after the race or course.  I have cut thru deep layers to relieve pressure, but I would not do it for some one else, because it is a serious procedure. If you are anywhere remote take a course of antibiotics with you. Blood poisoning comes on quick, you will have a swelling or stiffness at the juncture of your leg and hip in 12 to 24 hours. With out treatment you can die.

Feet one month after a race...

Some people pre tape their hot spots, and there rub spots, if this works for you good. What works for me is prevention. I am also keen on not running when I have damaged feet, but there is a bit of a problem because of special races that you don’t want to miss, the entries are expensive. It is on your own head right, your decision. You can have a blood blister, and not know about it, because of depth, but you will be aware that something is amiss. If you do alotta tarmac you can sometimes have an almost permanent one on your heel strike area. A telltale black line sometimes gives it away. Cooling down your feet in freezing mountain streams can be good but not after you have holes in them remember infection doesn’t need much.
I have seen people with horrific feet still finish tough races, and they heal up in a month, its up to you. 
On multi days the commercial Compede works well, as does climbing tape, the higher quality ones work best. All the adhesive tapes work best on dry skin, putting an expensive Compede on damp skin, is worse than useless, as it will just slip. If you don’t have fancy plasters for the job, even gaffa tape will do- that’s Duct tape in America.  If you carry sticks you can always put a couple of turns around the pole, for a bister repair, or to tape up a twisted anckle.
 Hope this helps. More fun and Success to you, and less pain.

The Way of the Dervish, by STEVIE HASTON

Katie Haston on the Dervish

Are route names important? 'Seventy Thousand Assyrians' is the title of a short story by a brilliant writer called William Saroyan. I was going to use it as a route name but instead I chose 'Comes the Dervish'. It became the name of a symbolic route of a thousand shades of mauve and purple.
A slab that had been chipped for me by an unknown...SEE MORE...

The Education of a Mountaineer - by Stevie Haston

 

I grew up, if I ever grew up at all, in two places; the Dickensian jungle that was the East End of London and Gozo, a small cliff encrusted island paradise that sits in the Mediterranean a few miles north of Malta.
I grew up in the Sixties, I was born in 1957.
It's a long time ago and the world has changed, but I am almost the same as that long lost boy.
I climbed before I knew the word ....SEE MORE....

Biased News and stuffy stuff, by Stevie Haston.

This bit of writing is an experiment, to see if you lot out there in the web zone actually read! I have had a tremendous amount of hits on this blog recently!!!! And I cant really imagine its just my Mum, cos she is dead. But what do you lot want? I like all climbing, little rocks to Giants, but I also like Sense and Sensibility, and learned opinion, I am getting very little from established mags and web zeens.
Firstly, the Fontainebleau boulders seem to be being torn apart by young climbers from all over. What is interesting is that it is not the obvious bouldering specialists who are doing the damage but many lead climbers and comp climbers. The excellent freezing temps have helped but things have been pulled down in all weathers.
Adam Ondra was notable in a flash of an 8B+ which he did say may have been 8b for him, Adam is 6 feet tall (?).
I am ashamed to say my knowledge of these boulders is second hand so if I added comment it would be a bit hollow. It seemed only yesterday that there were only one or two operating at the big grades and now there seems to be a short dozen, if some one would care to explain, that would be good. There is also a lot of weird work being done at Font to control sand, maybe they are making work for the sake of making work, and some people don’t like it. Perhaps boulderers could spread themselves around a bit more to help stop the erosion. Boulderers all over the world seem to be operating just under the magic Font 8c, which  now seems to be the new leval to aspire to.

Mixed climbing is doing well this winter, with lots of activity. The problem with the Mixed climbing game is however a lack of good reporting which is not doing the routes, or the protagonists any favours. It’s a great shame, as I don’t think that many climbers have caught up with the advancement and  new gear yet. This great gear does allow fantastic things to be climbed.  Ines Papert did the fourth (?) repeat of Illuminata, which is one of the most spectacular mixed routes in the world as a girls team, which I thought was very interesting, they were full of praise for the route. I would love to do that route.

Nanga Parbat is being tried this winter, which  although not of a high standard of climbing; is of a hard standard of toughness. One day the Himalayas will become the Alps of yesterday and we might see some interesting routes, but financial constraints is effectively blocking good alpinists from venturing away from there own back yards. Interestingly enough the Pakistan mountains are very good value at the moment due to the lack of tourism, due to American foreign policy in the area.
While we are talking Mountaineering, the annual nonsense of the Piolet d’Or  has come around. This is where a panel of Judges, pretend to judge studiously, some apples that were eaten in another country, and then compare them to some tangy tangerines described on a topo, with a google fish translator.  Not to mix metaphors, or shazam similes, or anything, but the Cerro Tori Burning Inferno of silliness seems to have fizzled out into what it is, a fate accompli. The Bolts (actually only a certain portion) have been pulled, and it doesn’t matter why they were, because lets face it they were unnecessary. Perhaps soon people will demand wheelchair access as well, and we will all have to agree or we will be branded elitist. The next thing the two boys should do if they want to remove monstrosities are remove the loop road around Yosemite, and take out the CIC hut from Ben Nevis, and the Aiguille de Midi télécabine. If they do this I will give them the Piolet de Diamond, paste of course, as in copy pasted around the globe instantly.

Meanwhile at a scintillating cliff in Spain two young climbers are trying to do a very hard route and I hope they enjoy success. Notable at Oliana  was the ascent of an 8c+ by two girls and this was  reported but as usual the reports were so shallow that they finnally  evaporated. The route is now regarded as 8c. The fog that lies over many Spanish grades is not transparent; and will have to be faced sooner than later. I think it will be faced much later, as all anybody seems interested in are short  snippets of  pseudo news. One of the problems in Spain are the big temperature differences, and the initial often dirty condition of new routes which then get easier due to cleaning. Also many of the routes are on conglomerate which seems to get easier as the climbers fiddle with the holds.
There is lastly some very partisan reporting, certain people are being treated very oddly by the web masters and the Mags, there is no real conspiracy, just amateurism and business, coupled with a soupson of old fashioned childishness.

Rather than say Ciao, I’ll say Goodnight and Goodluck, these immortal words were of a real news commentator of the 1950s in America : Edward R.Murrow. He was courageous, and of course there is not his like in the Climbing press today . In France a few years ago, the staff of an Ink Mag kept on trying to do a good  job, they were pressurised by the owners, who new nothing about climbing, and then finnally sacked. In Britain the same thing happened……. 

Man I am Psyched, by Stevie Psycho Haston.

Tools of the trade

I got 10 weeks of new routing ahead of me, I am buzzing already.
Got mail from mates who are training, it’s keeping me Motownvated,
Got up at 5am to do my 1000, easy peasey, then an old mate came round, used to do the Competition thing years ago, he wanted an assessment, you know like an Mot (don’t know the US term), anyway it was really fun, he was so poor in so many areas! But man, his crimp strength! We had a great day, except I had to do a bit of stuff with him, like showing him how to do the Bug, so we were both BUGGERED. Feel like I had an Appendectomy. How youall doing? I send my regards to the Salt Lake City boys, Downs and Maisch, maybe I’ll come over, just to check out Maisch’s forearms,  I can barely do the Number two Gripper, by the way. Send me a photo of Steve’s Forearm, I got one of Wolfgang’s somewhere, I can make bookends out of them, haha.

New dancing shoes

Feel coltish to day, frisky, snows amelting, saw some flowers, Spring time is coming, Rocktime. Can you here it, the music, I mean, ‘We will, we will, Rock you’. 
Here’s a few photos for Maisch.  And Co.

Excess bagages????

The Dumbell is rigged with a wide handle like a Thomas Inch replica, its feels welded to the ground.
We will, We will, Rock You.