August - September 2007
rock news
Squamish’s Room Project Finally Occupied
On May 21, 2007 just before dusk, as cool evening temperatures permeated the forest that skirts the Stawamus Chief, a special boulder problem received its long-awaited first ascent. Well-known as The Squamish Room Project, the problem lures climbers with an aesthetic series of barely usable holds on perfect granite in a unique setting. The problem is located front and centre in a grand, room-like space formed by the massive Kacodemon boulders. The walls of this room also house Chris Sharma’s Dreamcatcher, 5.14c/d and Sonnie Trotter’s Silent Menace 5.14a. The project has captured the attention of boulderers for nearly a decade and held off many strong local climbers, as well as those who came for the Petzl/Arc’teryx RocTrip in June 2006.
Tim Clifford, who recently moved from the UK to Squamish, would not be turned away. In 2001, after quick repeats of Bishop’s Mandala V12 and Yosemite’s Dominator V12/V13, Clifford made his first bouldering trip to Squamish. Infatuated with the Room Project, he returned twice and made gains each time. On the last day of his second trip, in less than ideal conditions, Clifford linked a series of moves he believed could work in better conditions. Squamish’s wet late fall weather denied Clifford another attempt. He vowed to return, with the thought of applying for Canadian residency entrenched in his mind.
Yuji Does It Again
Ever since becoming the first man to onsight a confirmed 8c or 5.14b in 2004, news of Yuji Hirayama’s exploits seems to have dropped off. The onsight of White Zombie appeared to cap a brilliant career at the cutting edge of climbing. But the news of Hirayama’s retirement was premature, as Yuji returned to Europe this summer in top form.
In a surprise return to international competitions, Hirayama turned up at the World Cup season opener in Imst, Austria and placed a solid ninth. This is impressive for someone who has only competed sporadically at the international level for the last few years. Hirayama followed that up with a weeklong spell at Rodellar, Spain, where he onsighted four 5.14as and bagged his second 8c onsight, the 40 m long Pata Negra.
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Stephane Perron Solos El Cap
IQuébec climber and physics prof Stephane Perron was a movie character, he would have to be the loose cannon detective. Why? Because he works alone and doesn’t need a partner. Using a Rock Exotica Soloist, Perron rope soloed and freed the 11 pitches of Astroman 5.11c, a route he had done previously with a partner, before tackling the Crucifix 5.12b, also solo. Unlike Astroman, the Crucifix, with the exception of the lower section of the crux pitch that crosses another line, was all new to Perron. In effect, Perron onsight rope soloed the nine-pitch route.
Emboldened by success, Perron turned his attention towards El Cap’s 37-pitch Freerider 5.12d variation. Over six nights on the wall Perron sent all but three of the hardest pitches first go, including the infamous monster offwidth pitch. Considered by many to be the crux, the offwidth was the one pitch Perron said he didn’t want to have to do another time, so he gave it everything he had. On all three pitches he fell on, Perron completed the lead, pulled his gear on rappel, and redpointed the pitch on his next attempt.
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News Special: The First Free Red Point Ascent of La Zébrée
Jean-Pierre PeeWee Ouellet, one of Canada’s top crack climbers, recounts his 2-year journey to climb Québec’s hardest crackline, La Zébrée.
Have you ever felt that just looking at a route makes you want to climb it, just thinking about it makes your hands sweat? When you go to sleep, all you see are the features that make it unique. Well, that ’s how I feel about one route: La Zébrée.
My love story with La Zébrée started about twelve years ago. It was on my first day of trad climbing. I had decided to climb Le Sceptre on Mt King in Val-David as my first trad route. Walking by La Zébrée to get to my project, I had a coup de foudre. I was amazed at the beauty of the line. The black and white stripes, the two roofs, the angle, the steepness; everything seemed perfect. I kept thinking that it would be so cool if someone could climb it free (at the time it was still an aid climb). I was far from thinking that one day I would clip its anchor.
Six years ago, my good friend Jeff Beaulieu started working La Z. I was so psyched for him that I belayed him as often as possible. Jeff trained hard and worked the route for three years. He did it in the fall of 2004 on his last try of the season. I was belaying him. That was the best climbing show ever.
In 2005, coming back from a successful trip in Yosemite Valley, I realized that I was single. My girlfriend had dumped me and I had all my time to myself. I started to train every day. I took Kung-Fu courses. A new ME was born. With all that energy to spare, I needed a project.
In mid-August I made a trip to Mt King and did Le Toit de Ben (13a 10 m roof crack) placing the gear on the lead and down-climbed it. I was really surprised and realized that I was fitter than I had imagined. That night I wondered what was next. The choice was easy. The next day I rope soloed La Z just to have a look at it. Self belaying with a Grigri I could make all the moves on my first weekend on the route. My new project was born.
I knew it would not be an easy task. I had helped Jeff and I had witnessed many of his frustrations. The worst was that the route was often wet (read: almost always wet). At the end of my first summer I was really close to doing it, but I still needed a bit more training. Right after the end on the season, I got back on my training regimen. I trained for 30-35 hours a week that winter and the following spring I was fitter that ever, feeling ready to send. But during this winter, I guess I had too much time to think… because I decided to try to do La Zébrée placing the gear on the lead (Jeff had pinkpointed the route). I would only call it a send if I did a redpoint of the route. Due to the steepness of the route, I knew it wouldn’t be an easy task. But I was ready to do whatever it would take. I just had to figure out a way to clean the route after each try. The plan was easy: since I couldn’t just lower and clean, I would down climb (pulling on the gear) the route after every try so I could retrieve the gear for the next go. “Easy” yes, but time and energy consuming.
In the spring of 2006 the route was wet, too wet to even try. I headed out west to try to improve on my crack technique. In early June I did Sphinx Crack in Colorado and also got the second ascent of Fiddler on the Roof in Wyoming. I returned to Mt King in early August and was hoping to finish business. That spring the conditions were the worst I had ever seen. It rained every other day all summer. The route was not drying out, but I had an idea. I started to dry it out with towels and sponges. The process was simple. I would rap in and down-aid the route while placing towels in the crack to absorb the water and I could try the route a couple of times before the towels soaked. To me it sounded like a plan, but it ended up being a lot of hard work. During the following months the weather would not improve. Sometimes it took five hours to dry the route and I would only be able to try it once before it seeped again. I came super close three or four times that fall, but the rain wouldn’t stop. At the end of October, I decided it would have to wait for another season. I spent two weeks in Indian Creek. I had a really good trip, making fast ascents of Learning to Fly and From Switzerland with Love, both 13+ and I got my psyche back and started my winter training again.
This past April I was in the Red River Gorge, completing my training when I got an e-mail from my friend Ghislain. He said La Z was almost dry, after 15 days without a single drop of rain. The forecast was looking pretty good too. I sprinted back to Val-David to have a shot. On my first day, I still had to clean it for five hours and the next morning for another two. But after that the route started to stay almost dry. I still had to dry out some jams, but that would take me only thirty or forty minutes.
On my fourth day, on my second try, I fell from the jug before the rest and easy finish. I knew I was close, but didn’t know if I had enough juice in me for another burn. And most importantly, the forecast was not looking so good for the next few days. I was really nervous. I thought I had wasted this perfect window. The route was dry and I still couldn’t climb it. I all was thinking was: what the FUCK do I need to do? I waited an hour and tried to relax. I told myself it only has to be fun, just get back on and enjoy the ride. If you fall, just try again, as long as it’s fun. And I got back on the route. I had to dig deep, but I was able to keep it together and I finally clipped the anchors. Everything seemed perfect.
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Steve McClure - Overnight Extension
For British climbers, winter is the prime season for gritstone climbing. Greasy slopers and barely-there edges in the heat of summer magically morph into usable features in the cold. Normally, the UK’s top climber, Steve McClure, would have been out on the grit as well, but this past winter McClure changed his winter routine, sacrificing quality gritstone time for training time pulling on plastic. It undoubtedly made for an even more dreary winter, but the hard work has paid off in spades this spring.
On May 28 McClure redpointed his latest project, the extension to Overnight Sensation at Malham, putting the finishing touch on – according to McClure – his most difficult climb to date. The original Overnight Sensation 5.13c is a short bouldery line up a roughly 30 degree overhanging limestone face and ends just as the face kicks back and gets even steeper. The extension, bolted nearly nineteen years ago, takes the steep section directly and continues well into the upper headwall and McClure reckons it is probably 5.14c on its own.
Aside from a winter of training, McClure put in 30 days on the route, spread over three years before redpointing. Although the ever-modest Brit said he “spent a lot of time not being able to do the moves, just staring blankly at the holds,” this is still double the number of days he spent on his unrepeated Northern Lights, a 5.14d at Kilnsey.
McClure has not yet come up with a new name for the extension, but he does have a grade. Bucking the trend for first ascensionists to be vague or forego grading altogether, McClure boldly proposes 5.15a for Overnight Extension. On a discussion of the grade of his climb on the ukclimbing.com forum, McClure had this to contribute:
“What grade is this new route? How important is it to get it right? Others like Graham, Sharma, Andrada, Paxti and Ramon would have a much better idea, their track record of hard routes is greater. All the hard routes I’ve done are my own, and they are compared to confirmed 8c+ routes, but that doesn’t mean they are 9a. This new route felt way harder than my 9s but that doesn’t make it 9a+, perhaps I was doing it wrong, it might be 8c+, but then maybe I was doing it perfectly and it’s even harder.”
“It seems important to stick a number on things these days. If you don’t, everyone else will anyway. I suggest it could be 9a+, an estimate based on effort and experience. But then how important is it to get it right? Not important at all! What’s important is honestly suggesting a level. If it gets downgraded, so what, if it gets upgraded, so what again? What counts is it’s a great route that tested me right to my limit. Had it been 9b or 8c the journey from start to finish would have been no more or less rewarding.”
Despite the modest assessment of his own qualifications, the proposed grade will likely stand the test of time. McClure’s Rain Shadow, Mutation and Northern Lights are all 5.14d and unrepeated, though not for lack of traffic. Shortly before Overnight Extension, he onsighted a 5.14a in Spain, placing the draws. McClure has the experience and the form to back up his claim.–Andre Cheuk.
mountain news
New Route on Robson and New Respect for the Past
Americans Colin Haley and Steve House added a new route on Robson’s Emperor Face on May 24-26. They finished on the line first climbed during the first ascent of the face in 1978 by Jim Logan and Mugs Stump, whose route had always been misdrawn on photos in guidebooks and magazines. Thus House and Haley were surprised to find old pitons near the top of their line. The climbers were impressed by the difficulty and quality o the climbing throughout the route, but especially on the last pitch climbed by Logan and Stump almost thirty years ago. This pitch had been the crux of the Stump-Logan and was climbed with straight-shaft, relatively primitive ice tools and limited protection. Even with modern gear, House graded it M8. It was House’s seventh visit to the Emperor Face and his first success on a new route on the wall. Haley is a 22-year-old from Washington and a promising alpinist. It was his first visit to Robson
Active Early Season in Alaska
Alaska, with its super routes accessible by fairly short flights, saw an early alpine ice season of important repeats and difficult new routes. The French Route on Mt Hunter’s North Buttress received a second ascent from Britons Jon Bracey and Andy Houseman. It was put up in 1984 by Frenchmen Benoit Grison and Yves Tedeschi. Although it has always been overshadowed by the nearby, well-publicized Moonflower Buttress, the French Route takes a difficult, obvious line up the 4,000 ft face. They made their climb in four days and, unlike many aspirants for the Moonflower, summitted Hunter.
Two other British climbers, Gareth Hughes and Vivian Scott, made the first ascent of the serac and avalanche-raked East Face of Mt Dan Beard in the Ruth Gorge. They named their 4,500 ft climb Sideburn Ridge.
Also in the Ruth Gorge, the Japanese team of Fumitaka Ichimura, Yusuke Sato and Yamada Tatsuro had a very successful trip. Season of the Sun 4,600 ft V WI4 M6R, on Mt Bradley’s southeast face, was climbed in a single, one-day push after fixing the first pitch. On Mt Church, they made the first ascent of Memorial Gate 3,600 ft V AI 4+ r/x, in another sub-24 hour round trip. Repeating the Elevator Shaft on the North Face of Mt Johnson, they scoped a new route on the same buttress, which they sent in a two-day effort and named The Ladder Tube 3,000 ft V 5.10R A3 WI 4+ M5.
The ice climbing potential of the Kichatna Spires areas was explored by UK climbers Simon Hitchens, Phil Jefferey and Michael “Twid” Turner. The trio completed three new ice couloirs in just 10 days..
Exotic Big Rock Routes in Desert and Rainforest
Two big new routes show that top climbers are exploring ever further afield for unclimbed terrain in adventurous settings.
Canadians Aaron Black and Ben Firth accompanied Americans Chris Kalous and Heidi Wirtz to the beautiful Wadi Rum area of Jordan’s desert in March. After repeating a 12-pitch 5.12b by Arnaud Petit (La Guerre Sainte), they turned their attention to new routes. Since the enticing soaring splitter cracks turned out to be too sandy for difficult climbing, they looked for possible ground-up lines on the compact, pocketed faces. Dar al’Salaam, their new route on the Southeast Face of Nassrani, was 320 m long, and except for the final, crux pitch, bolted on lead. The 5.13 crux was redpointed after toproping, and the route has not yet been redpointed.
French Alpine Club Inspires Fatwa, Pakistan Alpine Club Defies It
In May, the French Alpine Club invited Nilofar Bakhtiar, Pakistan’s Minister of Tourism, to France to discuss ongoing measures by the Pakistani government to increase mountaineering tourism in Pakistan. Recently, Pakistan has lowered peak fees and eliminated them for most peaks in the winter season. In France, Bakhtiar did a fundraising skydive for the children who were victims of the 2005 earthquake. A published photo of Bakhtiar embracing her septuagenarian instructor after she touched down elicited a fatwa by Skeikh Darul Afta, the head cleric of the El Masjid mosque in Islamabad.
