Alain Robert Speaks English :)

[Dru]

From an email originating from Tami Knight (www.tamiknight.com)

 

The author, describes himself in part :

The taking risk can be simply financial: large miser to take down the gold mine with can be the risk all to lose. But you reassure, it did not die there of man. Simply values hardware which leave in smoke. That can also result in the ridiculous one by taking the risk to receive tomatos in full figure.

 

There is no way I could ever expand on this so in addition to M. Robert's most erudite climbing 'dictionary' below rendered in best engrish.... I direct you to his astonishing site

 

alain website

 

Read and weep as we here have done.

 

Cheers and howls Phil and Tami

 

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DICTIONARY OF THE CLIMBING

 

A-vue: to carry out a way in first of cord without to have recognized the movements beforehand, i.e. to discover the catches at the time to seize them and find the best solution to arrive at the node.

 

After-work: opposite of the with-sight. It is a question of working the movements in a way, often to the maximum of the level of climbing, to include/understand and memorize the sequence which he will have to carry out at the time of his realization in good style, i.e. using only the catches available.

 

Artif: contraction of the " artificial " word. This type of climbing, the ancestor of the free climbing, was particularly used before 1970 when the goal of the climbing-mountaineer was only to arrive at the node of a cliff, even at the price of a vice of hardware (pitons, hooks, clamps, coinceurs...) enabling him to progress while using artifices. Sociologiquement, one speaks about "function" (to arrive at the node), the free climbing being the form (to put the style at it).

 

Acid lactic: result polluting of the work of the muscles, with the image of the carbon dioxide emitted by the spark-ignition engines. To strong amount, a badly involved body does not manage to evacuate it (one speaks about threshold of resistance), which causes the stop of the muscular function, aches, etc.

 

Vat: large catch allowing to recover.

 

Bidouiller: to manage to cross a delicate passage by using an aesthetic or particularly complicated method not very on the gestural level.

 

Bottle: to have the bottles, it is to have the inflated front armlevers of lactic acid, i.e. to be with its muscular stress limit.

 

Bourriner: to make speak the power with the detriment about the technique.

 

Goal : to take a goal, it is not to manage to cross a section, i.e. to fall or désescalader.

 

Slipper: shoe particularly designed for the climbing and which presents two characteristics: the slipper must be particularly about the foot to be precise on the small catches, but contrary to the preconceived ideas, its sole smooth, is provided with a gum tender and resined, in order to be able to adhere to the maximum, the image tires used Formula 1 of them.

 

Pork rind: short but difficult way.

 

Hook: technique of the foot where it is not a question of pushing on a catch, but to draw above, either by lower part with the point of the slipper, or over by posing the heel.

 

Crux: the most difficult passage of the way.

 

Continuity: autonomy. Capacity to endure the lactic acid, to recover.

 

Dülfer: name of a German mountaineer who invented this particularly effective technique in crack. They are by a set of oppositions (the feet push perpendicular to the crack whereas the hands draw in the other direction) to create a kind of keystone.

 

Engagement: says itself of a way where the points of insurance are very distant, without being particularly dangerous. Engagement is calculated according to the supposed length of the fall for the climbing assured ones, but in the case of climbing in solo, it is the taking risk, i.e. the margin between the climbed way and the level of climbing, the fall being inevitably crippling.

 

Exposure: known as of the taking risk of climbing encordé in a way where the quality of the points of insurance (even the spacing or aspect of the ground) would generate a physical risk. The climbing in solo is logically the paroxysm of the exposure.

 

Exploded: éreinté, with the muscular stress limit.

 

Sleeving: capacity to contract the muscles of the trunk in order to push as well as possible on the catches of the feet, mainly in the pouring or overhanging ways.

 

Gas: name given to the vacuum surrounding the climbing one, air becoming like palpable.

 

Glaucous: says itself of a fatty catch or a dirty way.

 

Drip of water: says itself of small a catch in the shape of hollow cut by the streaming of water.

 

Jeté: to make a jeté, or to throw, means to carry out a dynamic movement, therefore random, to seize a distant catch. One could imagine the difference between the concept of statics or dynamics by taking the example of a water bottle: if it is posed on a table, statics, nothing easier than to seize it. If it falls, to catch up with it with the flight proves more complicated because the movement is dynamic.

 

Free: one speaks about free climbing, or sporting climbing, when one is not useful oneself of the hardware in place (pitons, etc.) that for the insurance. No artificial rest or material aid is accepted. It is it contrary of the artificial climbing.

 

Magnesia: to take magnesia, also used by the gymnastes to drain the hands and to obtain a better adherence, remains the gesture fetish for the free climbing.

 

Mono-Finger, Bi-Fingers, Tri-Fingers: catch where one can use one finger, or two, or three.

 

Moulinette: to carry out a way while being ensured since the top of cliff, i.e. without being useful themselves of the cord like means of progression, but by removing any risk of fall.

 

Morphological: says itself of a movement where the two only catches are particularly distant, making the passage much more difficult, even sometimes unrealizable for the small ones.

 

Lead: to take a lead, it is to fall, of one meter or thirty meters, but while being ensured by a cord.

 

Relay: last point of insurance, often doubled, located at the node of a way.

 

Bag with pof: there small bag filled with magnesia, placed at the level of the belt in order to be able to plunge the hands regularly.

 

Solo: climbing " with naked hands ", without cord nor hardware of insurance. Ultimate climbing for some since the error shows death.

 

Block: to be with the block, i.e. in very bad posture. Often precede a lead.

 

Cowherd: autoassurer with a strap or a cord on a piton.

 

Bolt: in climbing, certain cracks make it possible to lock the fingers, the fists or the feet, by a simple mechanical effect of jamming.

 

Zipper: to slip of the feet, but to catch up with themselves.

[slothrop]

My favorite from the website: "Is he out the law?"

[Dru]

 

and so studly too !!!!

 

look at da hairy chest!!!

[Jens]

Slightly off topic...

 

but I have been loosely following A. Robert's climbing feats since 1992.

 

This guy is by far the most extreme dude of any of us 7 billion people here on earth. He makes rodeo clowns, alligator wrestlers, base jumpers, 8000 meter unsupported soloists, Harry Houdini, motorcyle racers, or Hollywood stuntmen look like pussies.

It's kind of ironic to because he is French and a sport climber. The French were whimps during both world wars and those of us that sport climb are realtively sane. Does anybody remember the feature about him in mountain magazine about 10 years ago? It was the issue with the Index feature. He was doing some crazy stuff. Free soloing 5.14a a thousand feet off the deck in the Verdon gorge. And he had only done some of the climbs a few times on rope before!

[D-dog]

He is one of my all-time heroes, a balls-out pioneer who did so many amazing things with so little fanfare relative to the rest of the sporting world.

 

I have a framed photo of him free soloing a multi-pitch .13b in the Verdon Gorge in the late 1980s. It hangs above my bed - I see it first thing in the morning, every morning when I awake. Inspirational.

 

Most importantly, he has always followed his own path. At times, the climbing world has come in his direction. At other times, it has veered away into other dead-end corners. All along, Alain has been pushing his own personal boundaries in ways that truly frighten me. I don't really frighten that easily, so I love it that there's someone out there who is simply off the end of my "how crazy is that" meter.

 

Also, candidly, he has pretty much silenced his detractors from back in the '80s who claimed he was simply a nut-case with a death wish. Almost twenty years later, he's still going strong. That's not luck - it is otherworldly skill combined with unparalleled courage.

 

He, Peter Croft, Wolfie Gullich, and Fred Rouhling are way up there on my climbing list as incredible inspirations - all for their own reasons, but all amazing nonetheless.

 

Peace,

 

D-d0g