>> February - March 2002
Rockies News
Big New Alpine Routes and Fast Ascents
The fall and early winter weather
of 2001 was some of the best ever in the Canadian Rockies. Perfect splitter
blue day after blue day allowed for excellent late-season rock climbing
at low elevations and a lot of new ice route activity up high. It was like
living in Colorado without the crowds; you could actually plan on going
rock or ice climbing in a week and sure enough, the day would be perfect.
The clear weather also meant that the snowpack, normally a serious menace
in the Rockies, was non-existent. Many of the lower and south-facing climbs
still hadn't frozen upin December, but the higher and north-facing routes
came in early.
The first notable ascent came on October 15 when Eric Dumerac and Jeff Nazarchuck
climbed Nemesis on October 15! They also started bolting a new mixed pitch
to the left-centre of Nemesis, Aquadisiac, M7, but didn't finish it until
early December because of a trip to Thailand.
On October 21 Josh Briggs, Eammon Welch and Virginia Buckley went hiking
in a major way and found A Virgin No More high between Kaufman and Mt. Epaulette.
This is a really good-looking three-pitch route with grade 6 R ice, and
whoever does the second ascent won't have to bother bringing a rope or gear
as it's still hanging up there for some reason. The owners promise beverage
rewards for the gear.
In early November Raphael Slawinski and Grant Meekins hiked into the Mini-Mecca
between Castle and Protection Mountains to repeat Superlight, but found
two new good lines and climbed them instead. Smothered Hope and Guinevere
are both high-quality three-pitch routes in a beautiful, remote setting.
The approach can be a hassle if there is deep snow.
In late November Jon Walsh, Doug Sproul and Rene Cote hiked into the Virgin
No More area and climbed an excellent 225m line with an interesting name,
Choksondik. They had substantially more snow than the late October crew
but their route sounds like it was worth the effort. The four routes described
above are all world-class ice routes in remote settings; the lack of snow
helped make them possible, but I suspect they will all receive repeats fairly
shortly. Several other shorter routes also went in; Kim Csizmazia and I
hiked up to a wild-looking smear near Bow Summit, convinced that we were
doing a first ascent only to find some bolts on the first pitch; as usual
Dave Thomson and friends had been there, but we added a very thin, steep
second pitch and called it American Triangle Revisited in honour of Dave's
unique belay station style. Travis Fenton, Tyler Ledger and a friend named
Roger climbed a nice one-pitch mixed line near Shades of Beauty and called
it Hope It's Good. Rob Owens and Jason Billings freed the old direct aid
start to Suffer Machine, calling it Suffer Less, M7+. This good pitch has
received several repeat ascents already.
Perhaps the biggest news of the season comes not from new routes but from
a subtle and powerful shift in style: Speed. In previous years routes on
the Stanley Headwall such as Nemesis, Acid Howl, French Reality, Nightmare
on Wolf Street and The Replicant on Rundle would see very few ascents, often
taking all day. These routes formed thin and early this year, but thanks
to 70m ropes, block leading and a new attitude they have all been done by
multiple parties, often in six hours or less car to car. If you wanted to
move this fast in previous years you had to solo. Things are different now.
It's hard to say exactly how the shift occurred, but it's in full force.
Kim Csizmazia and I finally repeated Joe Josephson's one-day solo link-up
(we didn't solo) of Hydrophobia and the Sorcerer in the Ghost as one example.
Block leading (where one person leads a block of the pitches) is faster,
warmer and far more efficient for ice climbing than swapping leads. I suspect
we'll see a lot more fast ascents of both ice and alpine Rockies classics
in the coming years.
Hard mixed climbing is also still in full swing; the not-so-top-secret Cineplex
projects are under siege. These routes dry-tool across a 15m horizontal
roof to a wild curtain, I feel confident they will be among the hardest
routes in the world when completed. Red ribbons are also hanging in the
Stanley Valley, where no less than three hard routes are dulling picks and
blowing tendons daily.
In mid-December, Sean Isaac finished a hard new route up at the Stanley
Headwall. Phyllis Dillar (rhymes with Thriller, Killer Pillar) crawls out
the large cave left of Thriller. M10, 13 bolts, 15m, definitely a wild line.
Joe Josephson and Margo Talbot’s rewrite of the excellent Waterfall
Ice will be out shortly with hundreds of new routes: come visit! Of course
it will be slightly out of date by the time you read this, but that's the
beauty of the Rockies.
Correspondent: Will Gadd
Manboy Goes South
In early December Steve Manboy Townsend, who is
on an extended visit to Mexico, sent The Sick Dimension 5.14b on his second
try since last year, when he spent six weeks on the route, but couldn’t
get the last move. The 30m ten bolt route is at the Culo De Gato (The Cat´s
Ass) about 20km from El Potrero Chico. It was originally done by Rodney
Blakemore two years ago. The first time that the Manboy tried it, he ripped
off a hold, sending the grade of the initial section up from V2 to V9. Manboy
describes the route as follows: "it is pretty much 5.14a to a rest
two thirds of the way up, but the hard climbing is only about seven moves,
the original crux is about a V8 move right into the new crux of V9 with
no rest between them so the whole crux is now (both hard parts together)
I think around V10 or V11. Then you get a pretty good shake and climb a
5.13b/c to the anchors. The upper section climbs a 45 degree overhung arête
to small pad crimps and a mono that you have to dyno off." Mike Doyle
from BC tried the first crux for about half an hour and couldn´t do
the move. Manboy reports that "Doyle said he thought it felt like 14b
to him."
Squamish Update
Squamish Rock Climbing Association (SRA) is currently
working with BC Railway for a solution to the recent closure of the Malamute,
Squamish’s stunning ocean front crag. Concerns are that routes are
too close to the tracks and become an insurance issue. The Malamute contains
classics such as Clean Crack, Caboose, Crescent Crack and the multi-pitch
Overly Hanging Out. The SRA would like to thank climbers for staying away
from the crag for it has greatly helped in negotiations, and ask for further
cooperation until a compromise is established.
The popular camping spot, The River, has been permanently closed. The local
municipality dismisses the potential tourism industry and its financial
benefits in Squamish so efforts to re-open the area are non-existent. The
popular locale was home to many climbers for years, including many who worked
in Squamish full-time over the winter. The Chief campground is now the best
solution for relatively cheap camping within walking distance of climbing.
Bouldering has opened the doors to climbing on Squamish’s slow-to-dry
rock. A day of sunshine can dry out many popular problems so that locals
are still climbing throughout the winter. Local boulderer Matt Lucas was
recently trying a high ball called Cool Head on the Hulksters Hump Fest
Boulder. He was just manteling the top when a sketchy palm smear blew and
he pitched backwards. He landed between two pads and his foot smashed through
a stump. His friends were amazed to find him unharmed.
Other climbers have found ways to be active on the wet rock. Matt Maddaloni
and friends came up with a new boulder problem that requires using only
hooks. The 10m traverse is slightly overhanging and has never been freed.
Several falls were taken before James ‘Scar’ Lorie came up with
a ballsy opposing hook move to complete the problem with the new rating
system AB1, aid bouldering.
A few locals are putting up new routes. John Howe hopes to have several
short new lines near Nightmare Rock by next summer and Chris Wild is working
on a new route that he hopes will have 15 pitches or more below 5.9. The
Kacodemon boulder’s high blank face was long ago drilled with pockets
for free climbing in the winter but has stayed dormant due to ethical issues.
Local climbers are looking for places to practice dry tooling but don’t
want to scratch up established climbs. This wall offers technical tooling
with shallow underclings and dynos.
Correspondents: Dave Humphreys, Matt Maddaloni
Austria
Schwaiger Does Maltatal
The Austrian bouldering scene has seen a lot of action lately. Bernhard
Schwaiger has been making waves by climbing not one but two V14’s as
well as a slew of V12’s and 13’s, all in ultra fast times. First
he put up Flying CircusV14, a 50 degrees overhanging problem consisting
of nine moves including a double dyno which Schwaiger called "futuristic."
The move involves launching from two pinches to a distant sloper. Due to
the huge swing, it’s necessary to catch an undercling sloper with your
other hand while en route to the target hold. Schwaiger followed this up
by making the first repeat of Power of Goodbye V14 at Maltatal, first opened
by Klem Loskot, in an astonishing hour and a half. In contrast, Flying Circus,
which he feels is a bit tougher, took two whole days. Klem Loskot has been
busy as well at Maltatal. Bugeleisen V14, climbs straight out a 45 degree
overhang on an impropable series of crimps facing the wrong direction. Apparently
not satisfied with this, Loskot is reportedly working on a sit down start
which, when completed, will push the grade up to V15, On par with Fred Nicole’s
Dream Time.
Italy
5.14 Repeats
On a recent trip to Italy Josune Bereziartu, a Spaniard from the Basque
region, redpointed Noia at Andonno taking five days to complete the 5.14c.
Bereziartu also went on to redpoint Total Eclatch and Last Soul Sacrifice
both 5.14b, as well as onsighting Deverse Satanique 5.13c. The only other
woman to have done a climb in the 5.14c range is French competition legend
Liv Sansoz with her send of Hasta La Vista 5.14b/c at Mount Charleston in
Arizona. Also in Italy Tomas Mrazek of the Czech Republic flashed Athena
5.14a at Massone joining the 5.14 onsight/flash club, a select group that
include such big names as Chris Sharma, Yuji Hirayama and Elie Chevieux.
Athena, a solid 14a, and possible 14b is thought to be an atypical candidate
for onsights as it features low percentage dynamic moves and lacks places
to rest. Mrazek who has redpointed to 5.14c, recently won the final leg
of the World Cup in Kranj, Slovenia ahead of François Legrand, appears
to be one of a dwindling number of climbers capable of performing at a high
level in the increasingly divergent disciplines of rock and competition
climbing.
Switzerland
Rouhling Takes Bain de Sang
Fred Rouhling of France has made the third ascent of Bain De Sang 5.14d,
an old Fred Nicole testpiece at St. Loup, Switzerland. Rouhling, who spent
about a month on Bain, first gained notoriety in 1995 by claiming the unprecedented
grade of 9b (5.15b) for his route Akira. Initially derided as overgraded,
it has yet to see a repeat, despite many attempts. One of Rouhling’s
other creations, Hugh, was recently repeated by Italian Alessandro Lamberti
who confirms the route is 5.14d. With the completion of Realization 5.15a
by Chris Sharma, the debate about which is harder and whether Akira is worthy
of 15b has been rekindled.
Utah
Graham Forks it Out
And finally, the hardest working man in climbing, Dave Graham, is on a tour
of the American Southwest, and he has the ticklist to prove it. First up,
Ice Cream 5.14c at American Fork which took Graham four tries. Next he sent
Psychedielic, a Jared Roth project at the Gorilla Cliff in Utah. It checks
in at 5.14c/d, again taking Graham only four tries. Then on to the VRG and
Necessary Evil 5.14c. This Chris Sharma testpiece, which repelled the likes
of Legrand and Yuji Hirayama took Graham all of eight attempts to complete.
Finally he also put up another new route at Black and Tan, Utah Breaking
the Law, which is only 5.14b and Flashed Crank It, 5.13d at Castle Rock.
Oh, and he did all of it in a about three weeks.
Mexico
Conspiracy of Fools on the Highest Cliff in Mexico
El Gigante, a 1000m overhanging cliff in Basaseachic National Park near
Chiuahuaha, recieved its first new route, La Conjura de los Necios (in English,
Conspiracy of Fools) by Gunda Frühwald, Holger Heuber, Hans Martin
Götz, Kurt Albert, Mariusz Hoffmann, Stefan Glowacz photographer Klaus
Fengler. Together they bolted and climbed 22 pitches mainly at the level
of 5.11, one pitch 5.12 and one of 5.13.
Correspondent: Andre Cheuk
