Tom Codrington

Tom Codrington (22): Expedition leader and Big Wall climber, Tom is an ex-Secretary of OUMC and a master of spreadsheets and application forms.

Fresh from organising an independent, unsupported expedition to the Karavshin region of Kyrgyzstan with Ian Faulkner and Ian Cooper, Tom helped create a 1050m, F7a 26-pitch route on Pik Kotina, Dreaming Spires, in mixed siege and alpine style as well as participating in the second free ascent of the award-winning 2000m Rusyaev route on Pik 4810. In Papua Tom climbed a number of DWS routes from the Tonga Moon which are unlikely to ever be repeated due to their remoteness and the rock’s friability (indeed, one route attempted 4 times presented different holds on each ascent). Tom’s Big Wall career began in Yosemite at the age of 18 when he and partner Hamish Legge completed the Nose and Regular Northwest Route. Tom just finished studying Maths and Philosophy at Merton College, Oxford.

What motivates you to climb?

The adventure, and the feeling you get when you’re reading the rock just right: everything clicks, move after move falls into place and you feel like you’re doing some intricate, athletic dance that you’ve only just discovered – but you’re doing it flawlessly. Nothing beats that.

Do you have any superstitions when it comes to climbing?

I always bring my lucky green cam. Camalot 0.75 – that thing’s magical. Ian’ll back me up on that one.

Why did you think this trip would be worth the suffering?

I fully intended to admire the view and leave the suffering to others! Climbing gigantic new routes in the Arctic Circle and watching Jacob struggle with chossy offwidths – why wouldn’t it be worth it?

What was your role within the team?

I’m the guy who does all the logistics. It’s the main role of the Expedition Leader: in practice once we get over there there’s no such thing as a leader. Oh, and I’d done a bit of Big Wall stuff before, so I had some useful knowledge to impart/experience of vertical suffering.

What were you looking forward to most and least?

Looking forward to most: having a crack at the first ascent of the Horn of Upernavik Island. Still unclimbed after at least four attempts, I think it could go. We had a strong team, lots of tips from the previous attempts and a potentially winning strategy… Very pleased that we ticked it.

Looking forward to least: Delamination. Luckily we mostly avoided it! It’s when the dry air and the effects of granite add up to strip away the soft parts of your fingernails around the edges, leaving the nail itself loose and very painful.

What have been your best/worst/most memorable moments in climbing?

Best: A series of three moves on a route called East Buttress on Middle Cathedral Rock in Yosemite. We were moving really well that day, and we decided to deviate onto a harder route for a rope-length to overtake a slower moving group. There was this huge pancake of rock stuck onto the face that I had to pull on to get past. I placed a cam (the green one!) near the middle, then did three quite hard moves one after the other, almost without noticing! By the end of the third move, I’d widened the gap between the pancake and the cliff so much that the cam fell out – but it didn’t matter, because I was on easier ground and it felt like nothing could stop me. In the end we finished the route in 3 hours instead of the 9 hours it’s supposed to take.

Worst: Hearing the news about an avalanche on Dec 30th 2009 which killed my mentor and friend Rupert Rosedale. He introduced me to climbing and died shortly after encouraging my friend and me to go on our first big trip, to Yosemite as it happens. A really inspirational man, sorely missed.

Most memorable: The relief of summitting Pik 4810 in Kyrgyzstan. That was mental – we limped over the finishing line after ten days on the wall and all manners of tests: diarrhoea, ice fall, rock fall, off-route adventures, delamination, portaledge collapse, exhaustion, hypothermia, you name it. I can’t remember ever being so relieved!

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