Canadian Catherine Laflamme Sends Historic Future Shock

Catherine Laflamme is currently living in Innsbruck, Austria, working on her PhD. The strong Canadian has sent Future Shock, a classic Reini Scherer route in Tirol. Scherer made the first free ascent in 1993 and the route wasn’t repeated for 13 years. Depending on your reference, Future Shock is given an 8b+ (5.14a) or 8b (5.13d). If the route is 5.14a, Laflamme is the third Canadian woman to tick the grade for their fist time in the past few weeks.

Photographer Peter Manhartsberger snapped a few photos of Laflamme, hoping to recapture her in the same position of Scherer in a famous photo of the route. You can see that image on the information page to the area where Future Shock is found here (it’s the photo beneath the title Chinesische Mauer). Laflamme had previously sent other hard routes in Austria, including Babylon 5.13d, Little Sister 5.13c and Klein Adlerauge 5.13c. Laflamme used to compete on the Calgary Youth Team.