Up at 5 am to beat the heat. Climbing with Sophie. In the event it was too dark until about 6 am really. Tackled the left hand of the obvious pair of cracks opposite the cafe. I led the first and 3rd pitches; Sophie led the middle pitch - hard 5b (?) - overhanging jamming crack. I'd give the route E1 5a 5b 4c and not at the bottom of the grade either. Another *** route too. Epic struggle to free the ropes after the abseil: prusiked up the fifty metres of rope - reclimbing through the hard stuff to avoid weighting the rope too much. Freed the rope and abseiled - but ropes jammed again. They are still there (9:55 pm). Will retreive tomorrow. Went into the local town (Kermanshah).
Not very interesting place really - but probably because we missed the interesting parts. Found internet cafe. Wandered around with Simon. Local food: good but a few flies. Chicken pieces on a metal skewer and flat breads. Taxi back to Bisotun - a real rip off...just an argument over the cost. At the city boundary or limit the taxi driver stopped and took the taxi sign off the car roof - I assume that he's not allowed beyond the city limit or something. He had a spanner in the glove compartment to do this, and put the sign in the boot of the car.
Another spanner or mole grip allowed us to open the car windows. Back in Bisotun I did a few more routes - a slab thing (VS 4b ish), then I had a good go at one of those USA-style off-witdths - some sort of natural eroded water channel down the rockface - some (old) bolts. In the end the crack won - it proved too hard when it got steeper at the top, what with my left foot completely stuck in the thing. In the end had to extricate myself onto the rope / extender. Walked along a bit to find a truly immense rock wall - say 100 feet high - looks completely hand carved - a massive undertaking from a long time ago in history.
Up at 5 am to beat the heat. Climbing with Sophie. In the event it was too dark until about 6 am really. Tackled the left hand of the obvious pair of cracks opposite the cafe. I led the first and 3rd pitches; Sophie led the middle pitch - hard 5b (?) - overhanging jamming crack. I'd give the route E1 5a 5b 4c and not at the bottom of the grade either. Another *** route too. Epic struggle to free the ropes after the abseil: prusiked up the fifty metres of rope - reclimbing through the hard stuff to avoid weighting the rope too much. Freed the rope and abseiled - but ropes jammed again. They are still there (9:55 pm). Will retreive tomorrow. Went into the local town (Kermanshah). 
Not very interesting place really - but probably because we missed the interesting parts. Found internet cafe. Wandered around with Simon. Local food: good but a few flies. Chicken pieces on a metal skewer and flat breads. Taxi back to Bisotun - a real rip off...just an argument over the cost. At the city boundary or limit the taxi driver stopped and took the taxi sign off the car roof - I assume that he's not allowed beyond the city limit or something. He had a spanner in the glove compartment to do this, and put the sign in the boot of the car. 
Another spanner or mole grip allowed us to open the car windows. Back in Bisotun I did a few more routes - a slab thing (VS 4b ish), then I had a good go at one of those USA-style off-witdths - some sort of natural eroded water channel down the rockface - some (old) bolts. In the end the crack won - it proved too hard when it got steeper at the top, what with my left foot completely stuck in the thing. In the end had to extricate myself onto the rope / extender. Walked along a bit to find a truly immense rock wall - say 100 feet high - looks completely hand carved - a massive undertaking from a long time ago in history.
2 comments:
Wow, love that porous rock (reminds me of El Diente). Basalt, you think?
Rock was excellent - I am pretty certain it's limestone - I guess with some iron in it making it a bit orange? Reminded me of El Diente too :)
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