>> August-September 2005
World
News
Separate Reality Soloed
Nearly twenty years after the late Wolfgang Gullich first managed the feat,
Austrian Heinz Zak has made the second solo ascent of the classic Yosemite
line Separate Reality 5.11d. The ultra-exposed roof is one of the most famous
lines in Yosemite, due in no small part to photos taken by Zak himself immortalizing
Gullich on his historic ascent. The 6 m roof, with its crux just before
the lip, sits 200 m above the Merced River, a level of exposure which explains
why the second solo ascent took nearly twenty years. Zak himself commented
that the idea of a solo ascent had captured his imagination ever since Gullich’s
coup. He had been back at various times to climb the route, but wasn’t
ready mentally for the solo until this year. After a month of specific preparation,
Zak travelled to Yosemite specifically with the route in mind. Though a
fine climber in his own right, Zak is best known for his photography, especially
his documentation of the various free ascents in the Valley by the Huber
brothers.
Andrada Continues on Form
Feeling in the best shape of his life following a string of recent hard
redpoints, all first ascents at his own area Santa Linya (including La Novena
Enmeinda, a possible 5.15a), Spaniard Dani Andrada has turned his attention
to travelling to test his new form. The results seem to back up the grades
of his own routes. At El Convento Andrada onsighted Satán 5.14a,
while at the Baltzola Cave in the Basque country he scored a repeat of Tas
Tas 5.14c/d. Like many of the hard lines Andrada has put up lately, both
lines are long, overhanging stamina affair.
Eva Lopez, also from Spain, has redpointed Nuria 8c 5.14b at Cuenca, becoming
only the sixth women to reach the grade. The long list of different climbers
doing hard redpoints and onsights shows that Spain has clearly surged ahead
in the sport climbing game.
Another 8C Boulder from Dai
The latest news from Japan shows Dai Koyamada up to his usual tricks again,
putting up yet another hard boulder traverse that blurs the line between
a boulder problem and a route, this time in the Shiobara region. Uma comprises
more than 30 moves, and typically for Koyamada, climbs out a steep cave
on heinously bad crimps and monos. Koyamada judged it to be 8C or V15.
While Koyamada continues to set the pace in Japan, Hirotaro Hashina, age
21, has repeated one of Koyamada’s old test pieces Hydra V14, giving
it only its second ascent.
Josune Does it Again
Josune Bereziartu has spent a month in St. Loup Switzerland, coming away
with the second ascent of Bimbaluna 9a/9a+ or 5.14d/15a. The route, originally
put up by François Nicole, brother of Fred, is an extremely bouldery
line, slightly overhanging with a difficult crux in the middle of the route.
Bereziartu put in a total of ten days of effort, and feels the route’s
original grade is correct, finding it a bit harder than her other 9a sends,
Bain de Sang and Logical Progression. Nevertheless, she believes this to
be her best effort to date, and by extension the new hardest send by a woman.With
this latest ascent, Bereziartu shows she is firmly operating at the cutting
edge of sport climbing and is able to keep up with the very best, regardless
of gender.
New World Cup Star
Austrian Angela Eiter has dominated the opening three events of the 2005
World Cup difficulty season, which extends her win streak to four, going
back to the last event of the previous season. Eiter first gained prominence
at the 2003 Arco Rockmaster. At that point she was an unknown 16-year-old
who stole the win from veteran Muriel Sarkany of Belgium. Eiter has steadily
improved, gradually shedding her dark horse status. The start of the 2005
season saw Eiter stamp her authority on all three events with commanding
wins. This sort of performance has not been seen since French champion Liv
Sansoz retired from the World Cup circuit. Eiter is only 18, and this signals
that Eiter will be next to rule the women’s competitive arena, following
in the footsteps of such luminaries as Sansoz, Robyn Erbesfield and Lynn
Hill.
Standards March On
The last couple of years have seen 5.14a onsights barely making it into
the back pages of news sections. Despite the fact that 5.14 is still the
gold standard for many and most will never even manage to redpoint the grade,
too many elite climbers have been able to onsight a 5.14a, some consistently
at the grade, for it to be newsworthy. The new benchmark in the onsighting
game, logically, is 5.14b. The latest contenders to make a splash are Swiss
Cedric Lachat and Iker Pou Azkarrga from the Basque region of Spain. In
May, Lachat onsighted Nobody is Perfect 5.14a/b at Burs in Austria, and
Azkarrga flashed Alpinismo Deportivo 5.14b in Cuenca, Spain. While neither
is an onsight of a confirmed 5.14b – only Japanese climber Yuji Hirayama
can make that claim with White Zombie – the two do join a very select
group, the others being Austrian Killian Fischuber and Basque Patxi Usobiaga,
who have flashed 5.14b or onsighted 5.14a/b. In such a rarefied atmosphere,
grades are never exact, and Lachat and Azkarrga’s achievement certainly
merits attention as well as applause. How much longer this will be the case,
however, remains to be seen.
–Andre Cheuk
ISO News
Canadian National
Bouldering Championship
Allez-Up Montreal, May 28-29
On May 28 and 29, Allez Up of Montreal hosted the 2005 Canadian National
Bouldering Championship, the final stop of the Tour de Bloc. This year saw
many changes from the last few National Championships in Toronto. A new
city and host gym, a switch to a two-day format, and for the first time
in recent memory, genuine suspense as to the eventual winners, especially
on the men’s side. With Nels Rosassen and Zoe Kozub both missing in
action due to injuries, the field was wide open, with various competitors
chomping at the bit to fill the vacuum. The addition of American power couple
Matt Bosley and Charlotte Jouette and Japanese mystery man Ken Saito added
to the already rampant speculation as to who would win.
Vicky Weldon of Calgary made her intentions clear by capturing first place,
followed closely by Nicole Reeve of Toronto. Twelve year-old Sasha DiGiulian
from the US was the only woman to complete problem three, and had everyone
in the crowd asking “who’s that girl?” On the men’s
side, finals shaped up to a four-way battle between Sean McColl of Vancouver,
Jason Holowach from Saskatoon, Saito and Bosley; all looked on form, with
a slight advantage to McColl.
Finals the next day wiped the slate clean, and a large crowd packed the
gym to see how it would all shake out. The round once again started with
the women, with Erin Ford from Toronto setting the benchmark early, rebounding
strongly from a sub par qualifying effort. Her mark was eventually overtaken
by Jouette and DiGiulian, who went on to finish third and second respectively.
Weldon, who climbed last, looked like she had never entertained thoughts
of anything but the win, and marched through four of five problems, taking
a decisive victory.
On the men’s side, Simon Villeneuve turned on the jets for the finals
to capture third, while Bosley, showing why he is a top-ranked competitor
in the US, ended in second place with an impressive display of power. But
the day surely belonged to Seth Mason, who was the last man to gain a berth
into the final round. Coming out clearly fired up, in a singlet shorts combo
bearing the Québec flag, Mason quickly dispatched all but one problem,
wowing the crowd and leaving the setters shaking their heads. In the process,
Mason pulled off what is likely the biggest upset ever in Canadian competition
climbing.
The Allez Up crew, along with the head of the tour Luigi Montilla, put on
a great event, with varied and exciting problems from the route setting
team of Andrew Wilson, Antoine, successfully closing out the first truly
national season of the Tour de Bloc.
–Andre Cheuk
The White Puma Speaks:
The Gripped Interview
Now that you’ve won the Nationals your life must be pretty glamorous.
Where are you now?
Oh, Big Time Glamorous! I’m sitting outside of the Teknik Handholds
factory, covered in hold dust from the sanding room. I’m surrounded
by industrial garbage left by the last company to use this building, empty
45 gallon drums, structural steel and food processing equipment.
Isn’t sanding the holds Zoë’s job? After all, she didn’t
win.
No, we share the jobs!
How long have you been involved in the Canadian Nationals?
Since the first one in Edmonton in 89. They had a big junior category where
all the kids just brawled against each other and I won it. Since then, I
have competed in all but two of the Nationals. At every Nationals I have
placed in the top three and Teknik has been a proud sponsor for the last
five years.
Are the Canadian Nationals important?
For me the Nationals are the biggest comps to get up for. I definitely
train my hardest for the Nationals.
How did you win?
I don’t know. I just let ’er rip. Really, I was just hoping
to get in the top 10. Before the comp, I hoped I could win back one of the
medals Teknik made for the top three. On Saturday, I barely qualified in
14th, but I wasn’t strategizing or anything. The field was just really
deep. I knew if I went out on Sunday and really went for it, I would move
up from 14th. I didn’t expect to win, though!
How did you get the name White Puma?
My friend Pat Lucas and I used to be mental on kung-fu movies. We decided
we needed kung-fu names for ourselves. He was throwing out potential names
one day and said “White Puma.” I thought it was so cool I called
it straight away, and it stuck!
I hear they had other holds besides Teknik at the Nationals this year.
If you see a hold that’s not a Teknik one do you pass it by or
do you use it?
In these comps I have to desperately squeeze anything I’m given! If
it is a Teknik I do grab it with more fondness and panache though!
Will there be Teknik underoos in the pattern of the Québec provincial
flag to commemorate your victory in Montreal?
Not likely! I will streak around my house every year in them on the anniversary
of the Nationals, though. For sure.
Alpine News
Hard Canadian
Season in Alaska
Eamonn Walsh (Canmore, Alberta) teamed up with Alaskan
veteran Mark Westman (AKA Denali Mark) to make the second and third ascents
of Mt Grosvenor in the lower Ruth Gorge, both of which were new routes.
First they climbed the moderate south face, finding exposed but non-technical
ridge climbing. As they descended the original 1979 route and past the north
face of Mt Grosvenor, they spied a deep gash cutting through the granite
wall.
On April 6, the twosome started up the gaping fissure, which began as 600
m of steep snow climbing that abruptly narrowed to 400 m of “fun mixed
climbing in the amazing feature.” The gully
climaxed with a funky grade 6 pitch of difficult sn’ice.
“Eamonn accomplished a truly masterful lead,” Westman recalls
of the penultimate pitch. “It required difficult mixed climbing inside
a cave, punching a hole through the ceiling, squirming through to the outside,
then strenuous climbing up a nasty, leaning, vertical squeeze chimney packed
with snow and plastered with thin ice.” They named their new route
Once Were Warriors V Grade 6 ice/mixed.
On May 1, Roger Strong (USA), Rob Owens and Sean Isaac (both from Canmore)
climbed a new route on the northwest face of Kichatna Spire in Alaska. Their
new line The Voice of Unreason ED2 M7 A1 WI5 700 m, required a 25-hour round
trip to complete. The 13-pitch route terminated at the junction with the
1966 original north ridge route about 200 m below the summit. The line followed
a thinly iced mixed chimney system to a 300 m ribbon of blue ice. Isaac
recalls, “Both M7 crux pitches, led by Roger and Rob, involved 3-dimensional
body-English, technical torques and a whole lot of grovelling to pull through
overhanging off width/chimney features.” The final handful of pitches
wound up fun WI4 punctuated by M5 chockstones.
Also in the Alaska Range, Louis-Phillippe Ménard and Maxime Turgeon
of Québec made the first ascent of the North Face of Mt Bradley (2,775
m). Their route, named Spice Factory V WI5 M7 5.10R, took two days and was
climbed on the second attempt, in alpine style. The route was predominantly
mixed climbing, and although conditions were generally good, they encountered
white-out conditions near the top.
In June, Valeri Babanov and Raphael Slawinski of Calgary made the first
ascent of Infinity Direct, a line on the Southwest Face of Denali. The climb
had difficulties up to M5 and the pair completed the mainly simulclimbed
route in just 14 hours. Bad weather hit them when they merged with the popular
West Rib route at 14,000 ft. They had originally intended to go on to the
summit, but whiteout conditions forced them to descend from this point.
Deadly Season
on Mt Logan
In the last week of May a vicious storm slammed into Mt Logan, (5,952 m),
Canada’s highest peak. Eric Bjarnason, Don Jardine and Alex Snigurowicz
were pinned down at Prospector’s Col, 400 m below the summit. The
wind carried away a tent and a stove, shovels and other equipment and they
suffered extensive frostbite while waiting out the storm in a snow cave.
When the weather cleared temperatures remained low and the Denali National
Park Service sent in a Llama helicopter to airlift them down to the landing
strip at 1,800 m.
The climbers were experienced members of Vancouver’s North Shore Search
and Rescue team. The climbers were still being treated for frostbite in
a hospital in Anchorage at the time of writing.
In early June, conditions on the Peak remained dangerous with large amounts
of fresh snow. Jessica Aulik, a Calgary climber living in Fairbanks, Alaska
and Chris Davis from Fairbanks were descending the East Ridge when Aulik
was caught in an avalanche that swept her to her death. It took Davis a
day to reach and excavate Aulik, who was already dead. It took Davis a week
to get help, since he had no satellite phone. He was spotted by a helicopter.
He was uninjured.
Aulik was the youngest person to climb Logan when she made her first ascent
of the mountain at the age of 17 in 2000. In the 1990s she had represented
Canada in the World Youth Competition circuit.
French Climb
Hard New Himalayan Lines
In May, Christian Trommsdorf, Yannick Graziani and Patrick Wagon of France
climbed the North-West Ridge of the unclimbed north summit of Chomo-Lonzo
(7,199 m). They encountered difficult rock climbing at 7,000 m. Shortly
afterwards, Stephane Benoist and Patrick Glairon-Rappaz made the first ascent
of the North Summit of Chomo-Lonzo (7,540 m) via the steep West Face.
Ice Axe that
Killed Trotsky Found
The most famous piece of climbing equipment in history is the ice axe used
in the murder of exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico City
in 1940. The murder weapon lost shortly after the arrest of assassin Ramon
Mercader, has now re-appeared 65 years after the crime.
Trotsky was head of the Red Army in the Russian Civil War and was exiled
by Stalin in 1928 for his extreme view that no deals should be made with
capitalist nations and that Russia should encourage world wide revolution.
Stalin killed most of Trotsky’s relatives, and an all-out machine
gun attack on his home left him unscathed. Finally, Mercader, a Spanish
communist and alpinist who was probably working for Stalin, befriended Trotsky
by pretending to need help writing a socialist tract. He had a dagger concealed
in his jacket and .45 calibre pistol stuck in his boot, but he chose to
commit the murder with the shorty ice axe wrapped in his raincoat
Now, 65 years later, the ice axe has surfaced in the possession of Ana Alicia
Salas, daughter of Police Commander Alfredo Salas, who stole the axe after
the murder. Seva Volkov, Trotsky’s grandson, has said he will provide
blood for a DNA test to prove that the stains on the axe are Trotsky’s
blood, but on condition that Salas donate the axe to the museum in Trotsky’s
house. Salas, however, says she is “looking for some financial benefit,”
before giving up the world’s most famous ice axe.
Strange Sightings
on Everest
The world’s highest summit is no stranger to bizarre sightings and
occurrences of all kinds. This spring, however, two very unusual sightings
were recorded. In the first, the endangered Snow Leopard was photographed
by biologist Som Ale. There are fewer than 8,000 such animals remaining
in the wild and it is encouraging that they are returning to the Everest
area. In the second, it appears that you no longer need $100,000, a mid-life
crisis and a famous mountain guide to get to the top of the world’s
highest point. Since French pilot Didier Delsalle nipped up and landed on
the summit on May 14 and again the next day in his French Ecureil/Astar
AS350 B3 chopper, the way has been opened for passengers who might just
want to go up to the top of the world for a beer and a smoke.
Hard New Alpine Style Routes on
McArthur and Catenary
Joe Josephson and Dave Dornian took single push tactics
to the Logan Massif in Canada’s Yukon this spring, producing new technical
alpine routes on the North East Face of Catenary Peak, and on the North
Face of Mount McArthur.
Despite bad weather, which contributed to rescues and a fatality on other
parts of Logan, and which never allowed a clear period of longer than about
24 hours, Dornian and Josephson climbed the high-quality Flowers For Blãise
(1,200 m) on the steep NE Face of Catenary Peak on their third attempt,
over May 29 and 30, 2005. This fine route involved mixed, ice, snow, and
a little rock climbing on good granite, beginning up a narrow chute draining
the centre of the face and eventually exiting to the right of the serac
band fringing the upper ridgeline. They then descended the northeast ridge
in deteriorating weather, bypassing the fixed ropes left by the 1978 FA
party via downclimbing and more than 11 rappels.
A rising barometer lured the pair onto the striking line that sweeps up
the centre of the previously unclimbed North Face of Mt McArthur, 4,300
m. Swimming over the bergschrund at 9:30 in the morning on June 2, 2005,
they began simulclimbing the glass-hard, spindrift-tempered ice. Stopping
only once at 7 pm to stand and melt snow to refill their hydration bladders,
the pair carried on climbing into the night, and over to the next day. Mostly
60 degrees or better, and with very little snow, the route required an incredible
1,850 m of brutal frontpointing. Near the end, rising winds and plummeting
temperatures turned the final waterfall gully to the summit icefield into
a torrent of spindrift. The pair finally fought their way out to the top
of the face at 9:55 am on the third of June. Descent through the serac barrier
and down the complex North Ridge of McArthur in heavy snow and whiteout
conditions took a further 11 hours.
Josephson and Dornian believe Some Kind of Monster may be a candidate for
the longest alpine ice climb in North America. They’re doing their
research, but the outcome doesn’t really matter – the McArthur/Catenary
complex is to Mt Logan what Mt Hunter is to Denali, except for a lack of
crowding and possibility of endless new routes – there are more monsters
waiting.
Obituary
Jessica Aulik
1981-2005
As reported in the Alpine News of this issue, Jessica Aulik was swept off
the East Ridge of Mt Logan and died of head injuries
sustained in the 1,500 vertical foot fall on May 31, 2005.
Five hundred attendees at Jessica’s memorial service, held in Canmore,
Alberta on June 14, shared stories of a young woman who was larger than
life itself. Additional memorial services were held in Fairbanks, Alaska
and Wisconsin. Jessica moved from Calgary to Fairbanks in 2002 and was studying
photo journalism at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Her wild spirit
and love of big mountain places made Alaska a fitting choice for her new
home, from which she was planning to pursue a career behind the lens, travel
in pursuit of wild adventures and train for climbs of the world’s
highest peaks.
At 17 years old, Jessica had become Canada’s youngest climber to summit
Mt Logan (via the King Trench) with guide Mark Whalen, and in 2004 she climbed
Denali, while breaking trail for 10 hours “with 10 to 12 men in tow.”
Jessica grew up in Canmore, Alberta and was an alpine racer with the Banff
Alpine Racers. Jess also attended Camp Chief Hector (YMCA) and climbing
camps with M&W Guides in Canmore from the age of nine years, progressing
in technical ability, physical prowess and passion for mountain sports equally.
Jessica represented Canada in the 1995 World Youth Sport Climbing Championships
in France. The nation saw her in action as one of the winning team members
of the reality-based show “Drifters: The Water Wars” on the
Outdoor Life Network. Most recently, she placed first in the men’s
category this spring in the annual Arctic Man Ski & Sno-Go Classic competition
in Fairbanks, which is known for being the world’s toughest downhill
race.
Jessica’s achievements cannot hold a candle to what her friends and
family miss about her most – her amazing smile and infectious exuberance
for life. One of her lifelong friends noted that “most people appear
50 to 60 per cent happy, but not Jess, she was always 100 per cent happy.”
Jessica was predeceased by her father, Peter Aulik, who died in an avalanche
in the Canadian Rockies when Jessica was two years old. She will be dearly
missed by her mother, Karen Aulik, of Calgary, Alberta and friends and family
in Canmore, Banff, Calgary, Alaska and Wisconsin. The Jessica Aulik Foundation
for Mountain Rescue and Education has been established and donations can
be made to the Royal Bank of Canada in Canmore, Alberta.
–Wendy Rockafellow
