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Slawinski and Olson Repeat Nophobia

Nophobia was established over four years before redpoints by Will Gadd, Will Mayo and John Freeman. The approach drive requires a four-by-four truck and an hour hike. Mayo made over a dozen trips to the cave. Pitch two had “the single best dry-tooling… I’ve ever done,” Gadd noted.

Slawinski and Olson had attempted Nophobia before making the fourth ascent on Dec. 22, 2014. Both climbers sent every pitch, making them them the fourth and fifth redpoints of the steep route. The original grade was M11, but was later downgraded to M10+ by Gadd. We will save the details for the climbers to share in their upcoming blog posts about the climb, which you’ll want to check out. According to Olson, the ice was almost non-existent. Visit Olson’s blog over the next few days to find out how Slawinski protected it.

Raphael Slawinski has long been one of North America’s cutting-edge winter climbers. Jen Olson is one of Canada’s strongest female ice and mixed climbers. She recently placed second in the North American Championships for mixed at the inaugural UIAA North American World Cup. Be sure to pick up the Feb/March issue of Gripped for some amazing photos of Olson and Slawinski on the route.

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