December 2005- January 2006
World
News
Action
Fourteen years have elapsed since Wolfgang Gullich ushered 5.14d (9A) into
the climbing world with Action Direct in Frankenjura. Futuristic for its
time and just barely within the realm of the possible even now, Action Direct
is a fitting epithet to Gullich’s legacy as the best sport climber
the climbing world had seen. The mono horror show has been coveted by many,
but has seen only five ascents in total since its inception. This past fall,
it saw not just one, but three repeats.
Brit Rich Simpson had a stellar visit to the Frankenjura earlier in the
spring, ticking many of the area classics. Poor conditions kept Simpson
from putting Action Direct together on that trip; however, he vowed to return
to complete the project. Simpson made good on his pledge this past fall
and returned in early October. On the day of the redpoint Simpson, spurred
on by Japanese climber Dai Koyamada’s near misses the previous day,
succeeded on his second attempt. It took him a mere 35 expertly choreographed
seconds to complete the crux.
Two days later, with Simpson looking on, Dai Koyamada, who had first attempted
the climb in 2002, bagged the seventh ascent, after a total of fifteen attempts.
In the same week German Markus Bock also sent the route, after several attempts
over a few seasons.
The Comeback Kid
During the late 90’s, Bernd Zangerl fairly burst onto the elite bouldering
scene, snatching the coveted repeat of Fred Nicole’s seminal Dream
Time V15. After quickly putting up his own V15s, New Baseline and Viva la
evolution, Zangerl looked set to inherit the mantle of the world’s
best boulderer from Fred Nicole, setting standards for a new generation
of boulderers. But nothing more followed. Beset by injuries, Zangerl has
spent the last few years sidelined while others grabbed the spotlight and
the headlines
But Zangerl popped up in Hueco Tanks late last winter. With the repeats
of a pair of Fred Nicole V14s, Coeur de Leon and Slashface, Zangerl showed
signs of a return to top form. With the completion of his new line, Memento
8C+ (V16), high in the Austrian Alps, his comeback is officially complete.
According to Zangerl, Memento is his hardest yet and also an independent
problem. The other two V16s, The Wheel of Life and Tonino ’78, are
both, by contrast, extended link-ups with a stamina component. Memento is
a pure test of power with only seven savage moves on a 45 degree overhang.
The moves are so severe that initially Zangerl was unable even to hang onto
a pair of crux knobs. To make matters worse, he broke one of the crucial
knobs, and had to make a huge dyno to bypass the section. Finally, late
in August, he stuck the dyno and completed the two-year project.
Nose News
In one of the best free climbing efforts El Capitan has seen, Tommy Caldwell
free climbed the Nose VI 5.14a and Free Rider VI 5.12d in 24 hours. This
involved 6,000 ft of climbing, including nine 5.12 pitches, one 5.13 pitch
and one 5.14 pitch. Caldwell fell twice on pitch 28 of Freerider, which
he then redpointed, and twice on the Changing Corners pitch of The Nose,
which he also redpointed.
The Nose of El Cap had its second free ascent two weeks before, by Caldwell
and his wife, Beth Rodden. The couple worked the route extensively for several
weeks before attempting the four-day push to the summit on which they swung
leads. Rodden led the Great Roof and the crux Changing Corners pitch was
led by Caldwell. Caldwell thought the route significantly harder than 5.13b,
the grade given by Lynn Hill after the first free ascent. He graded the
Changing Corners pitch 5.14a and the Great Roof 5.13c.
Quickly following up on their success, Caldwell went for a one-day ascent
a mere two days after summiting, leading every pitch. With Rodden belaying
and jugging, they completed the route in under 12 hours.
Since Lynn Hill’s historic first ascent in 1993, the Nose of El Cap
has attracted the attention of numerous top climbers, including such veterans
of Yosemite as the Huber brothers and Yuji Hirayama, but has repelled all
suitors. American Scott Burke came closest to repeating the feat before
Caldwell and Rodden, but had to toprope the Changing Corner pitch because
of wetness. Caldwell’s link-up seems to be an epoch-making effort.
Lama Does Rumney
Austrian David Lama is a glimpse into the future of climbing. The 15-year-old
has already redpointed up to 5.14b and onsighted up to 5.14a. This fall
the youngster, fresh off a win at the Youth World Championship, visited
Rumney, New Hampshire and got to work on Dave Graham’s testpieces.
At the end of the two week trip, Lama came away with the plum Rumney line
Livin’ Astro 5.14c, as well as Steady Slobbin 5.14b and Parallel Universe
5.14a, which he described as being hard for the grade.
–Andre Cheuk
Sharma Sends
at Squamish
On September 20, following three weeks of deep water soloing in Mallorca,
Chris Sharma returned to Squamish on a mission to finish a project he and
Sonnie Trotter bolted on the Kacodemon Boulder just prior to the Petzl/Arc’teryx
RocTrip in June.
The line, eyed by many Squamish climbers, has several of the typical elements
of Squamish climbing rolled into one architectural masterpiece. A short
5.12 slab, followed by a strange up-and-out double dyno to a sloping rail
leads out right on a 40 degree wall. The rail section involves some wild
campus moves that lead to a rest before tackling a thin seam requiring strenuous
micro-crimping and a few bad locks in tiny pin scars. The final moves are
thrutching stabs to small edges with no useable footholds, followed by one
last dyno over a roof.
Sharma attempted the route several times during the RocTrip and looked solid,
but was unable to piece it together. Shortly after, filmmakers Josh and
Brett Lowell of Big Up Productions arrived in Squamish to film Sharma’s
attempts. The crew remained in Squamish for several days after the RocTrip
and Sharma continued to work the line. Sharma climbed on the route for four
days straight, making gains each day only to fall on his last attempt, one
move from a jug that spells the end of the difficult climbing.
On September 21 Sharma walked straight to the route’s base, deciding
to warm up by re-familiarizing himself with the moves, and nearly sent it
on his first attempt that day. One day later he achieved his goal with the
first ascent of Dreamcatcher 5.14c/d, while Josh Lowell, suspended precariously
in space between two massive boulders, captured the ascent on film. Lowell
plans to use the footage in volume four of his Dosage series.
- Jack Fieldhouse
Josune Shifts Gear
After years of single-minded focus on pushing absolute
difficulty through redpointing, Basque Josune Bereziartu has shifted her
focus to onsighting. On a fall tour of new crags near Rodellar in Spain,
Bereziartu chose to sample the new areas through onsights. The prize of
her haul was undoubtedly her onsight of Fuente de Energia 8b (5.13d), followed
closely by a pair of 8a+ (5.13c) El Conformao and El Rocainomano. And to
show she hasn’t abandoned redpointing completely, Bereziartu also
quickly dispatched Narco 8b+ (5.14a). With this shift in emphasis, can the
first female 5.14 onsight be far behind?
MOUNTAIN NEWS
Big New Route
in the Trangos
Jeremy Frimer of Canada, Jonathon Clearwater of New Zealand and Sammy Johnson
of the USA climbed a 1,700 m route on Trango II (6,327 m) in Pakistan. The
climb tackled two giant rock buttresses separated by a gendarmed ridge.
They took five days to summit and descend and endured a two day storm. Their
food ran out on day four, adding to the epic nature of the climb. The Severance
Ridge 5.11 A2 AI3 M5 involved long runouts on good rock with hard aid and
mixed thrown in.
British Columbia
Coast Range
Summer 2005 made for an interesting variety of routes from widely scattered
objectives. The outstanding new routes came from Craig McGee, Sean Easton
and Eammon Walsh. Their major accomplishment was putting up an outstanding
new alpine water-ice route Uber Groove ED1 WI5X to WI3 600 m 11 pitches,
left of the Haberl-Reid, on the southwest face of the Northwest Peak of
Waddington. The threesome then made the coveted first ascent of the Grand
Cappuccino via the southwest buttress Morgenlatte ED1 5.9 450 m.
Jia Condon and Jon Walsh, who had the Grand Cappuccino scoped from them,
did a 200 m direct variation on the South Ridge of Serra 2, which created
seven pitches to 5.10. They then went onto the South Buttress of Tiedemann,
intent on a speed ascent, and finished via a major new variation, up the
snow/ice/mixed gully left of the upper Direct South Buttress, topping out
about 30 hours after starting.
Simon Richardson and Mark Robson from Scotland set up base camp in the pass
north of Mt Zeus in the Pantheon Range, 25 km north of Mt Waddington. They
failed on their primary objective, the very steep and beautiful north face
of Athena Tower, because of blank, unprotected rock, so they switched their
attention to the kilometre-and-a-half long northwest ridge of Zeus TD 5.9
550 m, which was done in 24 pitches plus some moving together.
Steve Harng, Jordan Peters and Ben Stanton spent a week climbing amongst
the peaks at the head of Sunrise Glacier in the northeastern Waddington
Range. Their outing was the beautiful eight pitch South Buttress of previously
unclimbed Isolation Peak Number Two D 5.9 250 m.
Sergio Aragon, David Rangel, Peter Renz and Mickey Schurr climbed a prominent
tower on the eastern rim of the Mount Shand horseshoe, above and northwest
of the Four Horsemen. This they named Knudson Knob to commemorate David
Knudson, the prolific and long-time Coast Range mountaineer who died in
Seattle on July 22, 2005. Starting in 1972, Dave and his companions explored
many far-flung corners of the range, where intriguing discoveries and many
first ascents lurked. The high-quality photographs which he brought back
from these trips will remain an important legacy.
Chris Barner, Paul Rydeen and friends returned to the steep peaks near Doran
Creek (about 40 km southeast of Waddington), climbing numerous summits of
around 2,600 m. Later, the crew moved north to the Reliance area, where
their best ascent was the Southeast Ridge 5.9 A1 (or 5.10+) 550 m on Determination.
Bruce Fairley and Harold Redekop knocked off the big, steep, imposing and
long-ignored East Face D 5.8 750 m, on the superb Mount Queen Bess (50 km
southeast of Waddington). 350 m of snow/ice led to 10 pitches of rock, mostly
mid-5th class with three pitches of 5.8. The face was climbed in a day,
with a bivouac being made during the rappel of the route.
Andrew Rennie and Don Serl spent two weeks in Bifrost Pass on the northern
fringe of the Waddington Range. The 400 m West Ridge of Delusion consisted
mostly of scrambling, with three belayed steps at 5.8 and 5.9, plus a short
finishing 5.10 corner. The prominent southeast buttress of the east tower
of Frontier gave about 150 m of scrambling followed by seven or eight roped
pitches on good rock, with a few 20 m stretches of easy ground, a fair amount
of 5.8, several 5.9 sections, and one short crux bulge. They named it Miles
From Ordinary D 5.10+ 300 m. This 2,800 m+ sub-summit was previously unclimbed.
–Don Serl
Québec
Ice Explosion Changes Lacelle’s Top 100 List
The publication of the new edition of Stephane Lapierre’s Guide des
cascades de glace et voies mixtes du Québec in December 2004 inspired
a new routing rampage of 70 routes.
Now that the area of the Pomme d’or V 5+ 330 m is closed to snowmobile
traffic, ascents are infrequent. The nearby La Ruée vers l’or
VI 6 M7+ 350 m is the biggest and baddest of Québec’s mixed
routes. Climbing with leashless tools in a snowstorm in early March, Maxime
Turgeon, Louis-Philippe Ménard and Guy Tremblay made the third ascent.
The trio and the two other teams who have tried La Ruée say that
it is one of the best anywhere. They recommend it for du gros fun noir.
At least three great new routes were climbed in 2004–2005 on the Côte-Nord
of the St Lawrence River. On Le Tableau, at Walker Lake, André Laperrière
and Frédéric Pelletier grabbed the first ascent of a 270 m
route graded IV 5+. Thin and very steep on the first two pitches, the route
was repeated less than two weeks later by Guy Lacelle, who rated it Number
19 on his hit list of the 100 best ice climbs in the world (Gripped Feb.
05).
North of Sept-Îles, in the Sainte-Marguerite valley, many climbers
were active on the Mulot IV 6+ 190 m which was much fatter and easier than
usual. Erwann Lelann Sam Beaugey, both from France, and Mathieu Péloquin
of Québec explored an impressive wall covered with icicles to the
left of Mulot, establishing the very serious l’Appartement 7 M8 150
m, over two days in late February. And, as if the climbing wasn’t
enough excitement, Erwann and Sam BASE jumped from the summit of the route.
For Mathieu, this was a third major first ascent on this prestigious wall,
after Speedy Gonzales IV 6+ 180 m, and L’Envol V M7+/A0 6+ 190 m.
On the Eardley Escarpment near Ottawa/Gatineau, Kirk Bowman and Mike Burke
sent Half Baked II 4 M5 R on their fourth attempt, which they called the
best climb in the area. Also on the Eardley Escarpment, Yann Troutet and
Souren Beylerian made the first mixed ascent of the summer route Labyrinthe
5.7, on the right end of Big Overhang, calling it Verglabyrinthe II M4.
In Lanaudière, the new route activity was intense enough to push
Jean-Claude Néolet to write an up-to-date guidebook. The impressive
Chant des choux-fleurs 5 65 m, on the left side of Mt Barrière, first
climbed by Yan Mongrain and François Desrosiers, is certainly one
of the best. On the Contreforts and at Rivière Mastigouche, many
were busy making first ascents up to 80 m long, both on pure ice and on
mixed ground.
Christian Martel and Charles Ostiguy entered the Batiscan – Neilson
Zec on snowmobile and discovered some long routes on great ice. At least
five new routes were climbed, including Saskatchewan III 4 135 m, Thalam
le magicien IV 3+ 130 m, and C’est comme tu le dis III 3+ 140 m. Sadly,
a few sites were forbidden to climbers shortly after the release of the
Guide. These sites include the whole Sainte-Trinité area in Mauricie
and most of the quarries around East-Broughton in Chaudière-Appalaches.
Even though they are described in the Guide, no climber should visit these
sites in the near future.
–Stephane Lapierre
Bugaboo Big Wall
In late August Alik Berg and Jake Hector put up This Monkey’s Gone
to Heaven VI 5th class A4 on the steep 1,800 ft South Face of Snowpatch
Spire in the Bugaboos. It took 18 days total to establish, 14 of which were
spent capsule style on the face. Snow, rain and frozen ropes made progress
slower than the team had hoped for. Hector developed minor frostbite and,
to add to the difficulties, “on day seven,” said Hector, “we
ran out of liquor.”
Russians Climb
Major Kazakh Peak in Alpine Style
The steep and difficult north face of Khan Tengri (6,995 m) in Kazakhstan
has seen its first alpine style ascent. Russians Pavel Shabalin and Ilyas
Tukhvtullin carried light packs and took nine days, despite having food
and fuel for only five. Shabalin suffered from frostbite on his hands and
feet. The route has been climbed many times by large parties using fixed
ropes and there have been numerous alpine style attempts that have failed;
one case involved the death of one of the climbers.
Messner Vindicated
In August, Pakistani guide Shamandur Khan discovered human remains and old
clothing from the 70s and 80s at around 4,600 m on Nanga Parbat (8,125 m)
in Pakistan. A leather boot was identified by Reinhold Messner as belonging
to his brother, Gunther, who died on the mountain in 1970.
The discovery of Gunther’s remains seemed to verify Reinhold’s
story about how they had become separated on the descent of the Diamir Face,
although they were found considerably lower than the place where Reinhold
claimed to have last seen Gunther in 1970. By burning the remains in situ,
Messner excited a burst of controversy about whether they actually were
Gunther’s. When he reached Germany, he revealed that he had smuggled
out some of the bones contained in the boot. A DNA test conclusively revealed
that they were in fact Gunther’s. This brings to an end one of the
ugliest and most contentious controversies in the history of climbing.
