>> June - July 2003
Spanish Strongman
Part One
Boulevard, the extension to Alex Huber’s La Rambla 5.14c at Siurana,
Spain has long been a prize that has repelled all comers. Dani Andrada,
one of Spain’s best climbers and top World Cup competitor has spent
years and hundreds of hours, but to no avail. In March, the line finally
succumbed to the efforts of 20-year-old Spanish phenom Ramon Julian. For
the 50m climb, which has a hard boulder problem at the end, Julian proposes
the grade of 5.15a. Considering his CV, this route is unlikely to be downgraded.
Among Julian’s more impressive feats are two 5.14a onsights in a day,
a victory in the final leg of last season’s World Cup and a five-tries
ascent of Kinematix 5.14d. For comparison, Boulevard took Julian between
40 and 50 attempts.
Spanish Strongman Part Two
While his countrymen go for the 5.15a redpoint, Patxi Usobiaga thought he
would do more climbs at an easier grade. Within the span of a month, Usobiaga
redpointed three 5.14ds. Starting with his own route, Usobiaga completed
the first ascent of Il Domani at the Baltzola cave in Basque region. The
route shares the same start as Rikar Otegui’s Ini Ameriketan, also
5.14d, but veers left out the huge cave. Having already dialed the start,
Usobiaga naturally followed up by quickly dispatching Ini Ameriketan. Still
not sated, but bored of the Baltzola cave, Usobiaga traveled to a new area,
Planeta X at Teverga. There, he redpointed Especie Olvidada en el Tiempo,
a 45m endurance nightmare established by yet another Spanish strongman,
Pablo Barbaro.
Spanish Strongwoman
Basque Climber Josune Bereziartu’s route climbing prowess is well documented.
With a string of hard redpoints, including Bain de Sang 5.14d, that no other
women can match, Bereziartu has consistently pushed the limits of women’s
redpointing. Having focused her energy on redpointing hard routes, Bereziartu
hasn’t made much of a splash in the bouldering milieu, until now. This
spring, Bereziartu put together Solaris V12, a steep seven-move problem
with dynamic snatches between bad crimps at Cueve de Balzala. With Solaris,
Bereziartu moves to the forefront of women’s bouldering along with
Lisa Rands, the only other woman to bag a problem at the V12 grade (Chablanks
at Hueco Tanks). Three others: Claire Murphy of Britain, the Italian Stella
Marchisio and the Swiss Yvonne Niederberger have all done problems thought
to be hard V11 or soft V12. The race for the first female V13 is heating
up.
Representing Down Under
Australian climbing’s relatively isolated development, and the knowledge
that many of the hard problems at the Hollow Mountain Cave in the Grampians
are endurance link-ups have led some to wonder if those Australian V14s
are really V14. Traveling Aussie climber James Scarborough should dispel
any doubts out there with his tour of the fashionable bouldering areas in
Switzerland. At Magic Woods, Scarborough swiftly repeated Massive Attack
and Voigas, both V13, as well as Die Unendliche Gesichte part 1 at V14.
While at Cresciano, Scarborough managed the standing start version of Dreamtime,
which is still V13.
Correspondent: Andre Cheuk
Lev Pinter sends
Spectre V13
On March 21st Lev Pinter of Calgary made the fourth ascent of Spectre V13
in the Peabody boulders of Bishop, California. His ascent puts him into
the elite company of Dave Graham, Fred Nicole and Tony Lamiche. After trying
the problem for eight or nine days scattered over a longer trip, Lev found
that “when I actually sent, it felt so easy I could not understand
what took so long.” Lev chose to do the slab finish, following Fred
Nicole’s line instead of the traverse done by first ascensionist David
Graham, but said that he had tried both, neither of which was hard enough
to alter the difficulty of the problem. Lev and local climber Eric Sarvey
discovered crucial foot beta that increased the probability of doing the
crux move consistently. Sarvey later used this same beta to make the climb’s
fifth send. This was the most difficult problem to date by Pinter and among
the most difficult sends by a Canadian.
Evil Sonnie
On March 20, 2003 Sonnie Trotter, one of Canada’s premier sport climbers,
completed the fifth ascent of the 110-ft crimp nightmare Necessary Evil,
14c. The route, first bolted by Boone Speed in the early 90s and completed
by Chris Sharma several years later, is the direct start to The Route of
All Evil 14a. Necessary Evil begins with a very hard boulder problem (V11)
and climbs into the crux of The Route of All Evil, to end with another 70
feet of hard climbing, thus comprising one of North America’s hardest
routes. The following is a first person account of Sonnie’s journey
into Evil.
“The reason I wanted to try Necessary Evil was because I needed to
know how the other hard routes I had done would stack up. Necessary Evil
is considered a solid 5.14c and the next logical step in my ladder for difficulty.
Although I have tried and done other hard routes, Necessary Evil was by
far the most difficult.
The most problematic aspect of the climb was not the size of its holds,
but for how long I could maintain maximum strength on them. Forty feet of
this type of power endurance was required to get through the opening crux.
I was barely giving the route two tries a day because the skin on my fingertips
would split open by my third attempt. To remedy this, I tried the route
with tape on my fingers, however, I couldn't do a single move, so I gave
up on that approach.
Weather was also a problem. It was either too cold or too hot. We did not
often get perfect conditions: 20 degrees Celsius with a cool breeze. But,
when we did get those days we took full advantage of them.
I went through a learning process on this climb. All the other routes I've
done have come together so quickly and so easily. This was the first route
I’ve tried where I was stopped by the same move 13 times. I realised
that I've never pushed my body this hard before and I didn't know how to
react. I needed everything to be perfect. My mind and body needed to be
at full capacity in order to break through. I also realized after climbing
this route that I'm ready for harder things. But my work ethic has to improve,
it's too easy to become lazy and rest on your laurels.
Al Johnston, my climbing partner, also had a very successful trip. He has
always been known as the shy, skinny kid who could boulder hard in the gym.
On this trip he challenged himself on a climb that was unsuited to his bouldery
footless style of climbing to succeed on his most difficult route to date.
After a month of sending plenty of 5.12s Al decided to try something more
serious, Don’t Call Me Dude 13c. This route is a 110-ft lactic acid
bath, a power endurance torture test that leads to a technical nightmare,
the kind of route most 5.13 climbers fear. However, Al was undaunted. After
12 days of effort he strolled to it's anchor with a victorious scream.
In addition to Necessary Evil I also managed to climb my 8th 14b, Incredible
Huck. I made the second ascent of this Todd Perkins testpiece on a desperate
fifth try. Our van was practically packed up, and the sun was down as I
clipped the chains. I lowered in complete darkness and we left the next
morning.
The best part about our trip was the lessons I learned from Al. You cannot
know how hard you can climb unless you ask yourself. We both set out on
this adventure demanding a new level of performance and found the greatest
reward in the world is achieving your goals because it teaches you self-worth
– which is a powerful thing.”
New Long Mixed
Route on Mt Stephen
The spring alpine season in the Rockies started in early April with the
addition of another large new mixed route on the NW Face of Mt Stephen.
Great Western is the creation of Saskatchewan-born duo Rob Owens and Scott
Semple. The 1900m line was completed in 32.5 hours car to car including
a seven hour bivy near the summit. The line links up two steep ice pillars
WI 5R combined with a large amount of classy quartzite mixed terrain. A
very strenuous flaring chimney (M7 offwidth), formed by a massive chockstone
proved to be the crux pitch of the route. The upper part involves extensive
negotiation of steep snow gullies and short steep rock bands. The ascensionists
were roped up for most of the climb using a rack of six Petzl Ti-blocs to
attain safer simultaneous climbing. The massive descent was done in a complete
whiteout, without a map. “Thanks to Scott,” commented Owens sardonically,
“for leaving the map in the car.” Owens predicts that "The
season is just starting to shape up and many talented, motivated climbers
have their sights on coveted unclimbed lines. With this given pool of talent
more should be expected before the ice is gone for good.”
Canmore Ice Festival
This year’s festival was another hit despite the cold weather. Things
got off to a roaring start on Thursday evening as the Vsion climbing gym
held the indoor mixed competition. Then Barry Blanchard delivered his usual
crowd-pleasing Friday night slide show at the Chateau Canmore. But the crowd
didn’t really appreciate the wonders of winter climbing until Saturday
morning at the ice wall, as sponsors set up their booths in minus 30-degree
weather. There were just as many spectators as in previous years and the
interest and excitement surrounding the event was greater than ever. After
dozens of people tried the wall, the speed competition was held. Awards
were given out at the Saturday night party at Hooligan’s Nightclub
with Karen McNeill nearly getting kicked out of the bar for hitting a bouncer
in the head with a door prize. The festive mood was high as we danced through
the night to the tunes of the djs. Sunday dawned at –30 once again
and several of the clinics were rescheduled due to participants’ choices.
Event organizers (Gear-Up and the Glitter Girls) are looking forward to
next year’s performance. For comp results and information about the
festival check us out at www.canmoreiceclimbingfestival.com.
Correspondent: Margot Talbot
Guy Edwards and
John Millar
In the first week of April, Guy Edwards (30) and John Millar (24), both
of British Columbia, disappeared during an attempt on the NW Face of the
Devil’s Thumb, one of the most formidable unclimbed faces in North
America. It is thought that they were victims of an avalanche. Kai Hirvonen,
also of British Columbia, accompanied them on the trip but didn’t join
in the attempt.
Guy and John were both extremely experienced climbers whose passion had
taken them from Squamish to Peru, Baffin Island, Khyrgyzstan and many other
places most climbers only dream of. Together with Vance Culbert and other
friends they had completed one of the most ambitious ski mountaineering
traverses ever conceived: from Vancouver to the Alaskan Border. They had
also climbed a new route on the previously unclimbed West Face of Swachand
in Pakistan. Guy, whose charmingly idiosyncratic writings often found their
way into Gripped, was an accomplished rock climber and mountaineer, who
was well known for antics like his speed nude solos in the Bugaboos. John,
also a very experienced mountaineer, inspired many by his adventures and
his passion for the mountains. Our condolences go out to their families
and friends. Matt Maddaloni will write a memorial in our August issue
