>> August - September 2004
Realization Repeated
at Céüse
After making the second ascent of Chris Sharma’s
Realization at Céüse in France, Gap native Sylvain Millet is
resisting the temptation of attaching a grade to the route. Instead, Millet
has rejected Chris Sharma’s use of the name Realization to describe
the original line of Biographie, a 35 m line first climbed by Arnaud Petit
in 1995, plus Sharma’s own 2001 extension. “For me,” he
said, “the route is called Biographie. The first part is just a half-route.
There is no enormous rest position, no overhang break or any other reason
to justify the stop of a route at the intermediate belay stance.”
Millet believes the second ascent holds little meaning. “Doing Biog
was a great and enormous challenge for me. That’s the only thing that
matters. About the grade, I don’t have enough reference to say if
it is 9a or 9a+. I’ve climbed only two 8c+ routes and one of them
has not been repeated. The only thing that suggests it would be a 9a+ is
the number of very strong climbers who tried the route without linking it
and the large number of tries Chris took to link it.”
– Mark Cohen
New Wave
Eleven-year-old Adam Ondra and 13-year-old Charlotte Durif
are the latest climbing prodigies. Ondra, hailing from the Czech Republic,
already has a resume that would be impressive for anyone. He regularly onsights
up to 5.13c and has recently redpointed Baby Basher, his first 5.14a. With
this ascent Ondra became the youngest person to have redpointed a 5.14a,
a record previously held by Sean McColl of Canada. Representing the women,
Charlotte Durif of France has onsighted up to 5.13b with her ascent of Arnaque.com
at the Gorges Du Tarn and has flashed numerous 5.13a routes. As befits her
French heritage, Durif is a force on the competition scene as well, and
is
currently ranked number one in her age group.
Dai’s Australian Rampage
Japanese Climber Dai Koyamada, who had been making headlines
in Japan, is touring Australia. Arriving in peak form after recent success
on his home projects, Koyamada stunned the locals by systematically repeating
all the problems in the Hollow Mountain Cave, consistently sending V12 and
V13 in a day and then returning the next for the linkup. Having sent every
problem in the cave and the nearby Citadel area, and with almost a month
still to go on his trip, Koyamada turned his attention to putting up problems
of his own. The result is The Wheel of Life, a mammoth link-up of the entire
cave, with more than 60 moves. Koyamada is giving The Wheel of Life the
grade of V16, but with the number of moves involved, the problem is more
characteristic of a route. The problem may see a quick repeat, however,
with the recent arrival of American James Litz. Within a week of his arrival,
Litz is blitzing through at a Koyamada-like pace, sending Lost for Life
V12, Ammagama V13, and, most impressively, flashing Forced Entry V13. With
visitors tearing up the bouldering scene, local boy Chris Webb is representing
the home side on the route front by putting up White Ladder, Australia’s
first 5.14c and the hardest route in the country.
Huber’s 5.14 Free Solo
Alex Huber has mastered all disciplines of climbing, from
sport climbing to big walls, and left significant ascents in each style
in his wake. He has recently focused on free soloing. Having already made
news with his earlier solo of the Opportunist 5.13d, Huber returned to his
home ground and favourite area, the Schleier Wasserfall. This time he sent
the Communist, a 22 m long 5.14a with a bouldery crux at 10 m, directly
over a jagged landing. To explain his recent switch in focus to free soloing,
Huber states, “For me, it is the search for my limits. After the free
solo ascent of the Opportunist 8b, I knew that I haven’t been coming
close to my limits yet. On the other side, I am aware that the time is limited.
With every year it gets harder to hold a high level in sport climbing. And,
in fact, my level is not much higher anymore than the grade of the Communist–there
are not many safety reserves. Even after a time of intense training on the
route I couldn’t do it all the time. Only under good conditions and
when fresh was I sure that I could do it. But after many free solo ascents
I knew how my mind and my body works while free soloing. That allowed me
to bring the safety reserve down to a minimum.”
Caldwell Frees Dihedral
In a virtuoso performance capping his string of hard El
Cap free climbs, Tommy Caldwell freed the Dihedral Wall, one of the oldest
big wall climbs in Yosemite, in late May. Normally done as Grade VI, A3+
that takes most parties roughly five days to complete, Caldwell, along with
wife Beth Rodden, completed the free variation in a continuous four-day
push. The 25-pitch route is easily one of the most difficult and most sustained
free lines on El Cap. After the opening 5.11 and 5.12 pitches, the difficulties
begin with pitch six, the technical crux at 5.14a and described by Caldwell
as the hardest pitch he had climbed yet on El Cap. Having sent the pitch
on his first redpoint attempt, Caldwell then faced five consecutive pitches
of sustained 5.13 climbing, a 5.12+ flaring offwidth and then three more
5.13 pitches before the route eases off to less difficult climbing. Caldwell
cites the sustained nature of the route as one of the key difficulties.
“Most of the time you only had to stay really focused for a few hard
sections, I had to hold it together this time for three days.” Preparation
began last fall with Caldwell soloing the climb to check moves and replace
some old bolts. The decision to make a free attempt was taken after another
reconnaissance solo and working the route with partner Adam Stack. His successful
redpoint surprised even Caldwell himself, as he “figured this would
be a very long term project.”
New Alpine Mixed
Routes in Alaska
Shawn Huisman and Sean Isaac took advantage of cold April
temperatures to do two new routes in the Alaska Range. Canadian Bacon ED1
M5 WI4 is a narrow 800 m gully on the east face of Royal Tower in Little
Switzerland. The route was completed in a 17-hour round-trip with lots of
simul-climbing. Isaac says, “There are still a few interesting looking
ice and mixed objectives on Royal Tower.”
Two days later, they bumped over to the Tokositna Glacier and the base of
the 1,200 m south face of Thunder Mountain, which is actually a spur of
Mt Hunter. This face was the scene of Malcolm Daly’s epic accident
and rescue in 1999 while climbing Thunder’s central gully with Jim
Donini. In a 14-hour round-trip, they knocked off the last major unclimbed
gully, which is located on the left side of the south face. Maxim ED1 M4
WI5 begins as a steep snow gully that gradually pinches to fun ice and mixed
climbing. The first crux negotiated steep ice. The last couple of pitches
included a tight, shoulder-width gully, provided the best climbing of the
trip.
– Sean Isaac
French Mountaineer Dies in the Alps
On April 28 at 4,400 m, French mountaineer Patrick Berhault
died while traversing a steep face on the Dom, Switzerland’s highest
peak. Berhault fell while momentarily unroped from partner Phillippe Magnin.
His body was recovered the following day by helicopter.
Berhault and Magnin were three-quarters of the way through their unprecedented
attempt to climb all the 4,000 m peaks in the Alps non-stop by foot and
ski. The Dom would have been their 65th peak on the three-month long traverse.
Berhault was considered a visionary, freeing many rock routes during the
70s and 80s. He switched to mountaineering after climbing Everest and Shishapangma.
Some of his accomplishments include a 1991 solo traverse of the Mont Blanc
Massif and climbing eight major ice and eight rock routes on Mont Blanc
with Magnin during a 22-day siege last winter, an effort that earned them
the Piolet D’or. In a 1982 interview, Berhault said, “I climb
to feel in harmony with myself because I live in the moment, because it
is a form of an ethical and aesthetic expression by which I can be carried
out, because I seek total freedom of the body and spirit. And because I
like it.”
Berhault died where he was seemingly most content – at high altitude.
He was 46.
– Mark Cohen
Russians Climb North Face of Jannu
On May 26, Russians Alexander Ruchkin and Dmitry Pavlenko
reached the summit of Jannu (7,710 m) via the north face. They followed
an imposing three-part 3,000 m line consisting of a 1,000 m rock pillar
section, a mid-section of rock and ice, and a final 1,000 m section of steep
rock.
Jannu’s north face is considered one the most difficult big wall climbs
in the world. Severely impeded by intermittent storms, the Russians began
their assault on Jannu at the upper glacier basin at 5,500 m. In mid-May,
one member of the 11-man team was hit by falling rock and another suffered
a broken rib falling from a roof.
Despite less than ideal weather, “everyone still able to hold a gun”
headed up the fixed ropes from their 7,400 m high camp. Ruchkin and Pavlenko
scaled vertical granite and discontinuous cracks and cornices before precariously
climbing the final ridge to nab the summit.
On Jannu, the Russians said “the climb has been beyond the humanly
possible. The team was nine [injuries forced two members to descend] experienced
and strong climbers. And yet the size of this challenge forced them to beyond
their limit.”
Mark Synnott, Jared Ogden and Kevin Thaw are among at least a dozen teams
that have attempted the north face of Jannu. Synnott described the wall
as “an unrelentingly steep 10,000 foot north face that remained one
of the true last great problems in the Himalayas. There isn’t much
out there that is more committing than the north face of Jannu.”
The Russians are part of the “Big Wall-Russian Way” project
attempting to establish new routes on the world’s biggest walls.
Sherpa Shatters Everest Record
Pemba Dorjee Sherpa set a new speed record on Everest by
going from Everest base camp to the summit in 8 hours and 10 minutes. Pemba
set out at 6 pm on May 20 and stood on top of the world the following morning
at 2:10 am.
Astoundingly, this was Pemba’s second summit of Everest in five days,
both without oxygen. He had reached the summit with the Dream Everest Expedition
2004 on May 16. Pemba, 27, from Gaurishankar, Polakha, Nepal, eclipsed the
old speed record by 2 hours and 36 minutes. The new speed record highlights
a season on Everest that has seen more than 100 successful summits.
Dry Tooling Used to Free Hallucinogen Wall
Durango big wallers Jared Ogden and Ryan Nelson made a
pioneering ascent up the Hallucinogen Wall in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison,
Colorado. Ogden and Nelson freed 13 of the 14 pitches, but dry-tooled one
of the upper sections.
After closely surveying the eleventh pitch, Nelson dry-tooled his way through
an otherwise near-impossible flake wearing rock shoes and leashless axes.
Nelson, who can redpoint 5.13s and M12, freed the pitch on his fourth attempt.
Ogden, 37, and Nelson, 24, worked the crux pitches on rappel after a storm
forced them off a previous attempt. They eliminated two of the original
16 pitches by linking two sections together. Two bolts were added on the
fourth pitch to eliminate a vicious pendulum, but no other new fixed pro
was added to the route. Ogden and Nelson have graded the route at VI 5.13
D10+ R.
“Purists will point their fingers and slander this style calling it
a rock atrocity or the like, but this style has arrived and will become
more and more commonplace,” noted Ogden in a recent interview. “The
thing is, most people who don’t understand something that’s
new will bad mouth it with closed minds because they don’t do it themselves,
they don’t agree, or, because they can’t.”
– Mark Cohen
Ulrich Inderbinen, World’s Oldest Mountain
Guide, Dies at 103
Ulrich Inderbinen died at home in Zermatt, Switzerland,
on June 15. He climbed the Matterhorn for the first time in 1921 and took
his guide’s certificate in 1925. Subsequently he climbed the peak
370 times. Ulrich was born in Zermatt to parents who practiced transhumance,
moving to higher altitudes with their livestock as the weather warmed, and
spending the winters at lower altitudes.
Although the Alps changed enormously during Inderbinen’s career, he
remained a very traditional man. He had no telephone, automobile or even
bicycle and stood in the Zermatt town square to attract clients, in the
manner of Victorian mountain guides. He was a paragon of health who only
took 10 days off in his entire career, never wore glasses and first visited
a dentist at the age of 74. He took up alpine ski racing at the age of 80
and continued climbing well into his nineties.
