Ethan Salvo Opens The Youngster’s Roof V15 in Squamish
After making the long-awaited second ascent of Hunkster's Roof V14, Salvo explored a sit-start version of the problem
On May 1, Ethan Salvo made the second ascent of Hunkster’s Roof V14 (8B+) in Squamish. Established by Tim Doyle in 2015, the problem sat for 10 years without a repeat. Part burly, part delicate, Hunkster’s is a strange yet beautiful line found on the backside of the popular Hulkster’s Humpfest boulder in the Grand Wall area.
A couple weeks after repeating Hunkster’s Roof, on May 19, Salvo made the first ascent of The Youngster’s Roof V15. The problem adds two shouldery moves into the start of Hunkster’s, upping the difficulty of the full line. After Salvo’s ascents, Jake Scharfman and Bruce Zhou repeated Hunkster’s Roof and Bryce Viola made the second ascent of The Youngster’s Roof.
Salvo recently released a short film of his two ascents, which you can watch below. He also recently wrote a blog post about his experience on Hunkster’s and Youngster’s, which is highly recommended. To learn a little more about his time on the two lines, we reached out to Salvo. You can read our short interview below.
Salvo is one of Canada’s top climbers. He’s repeated many of Squamish’s hardest problems including The Singularity V15, Seven V14/15, and Room Service Low V14, just to name a few. He’s also put up some of the town’s hardest lines like Zazen V14/15, Sword in the Stone V14, and 1-Up V14. Known for his bouldering, last summer Salvo broke into the world of hard trad, sending the iconic Cobra Crack 5.14b.
Interview with Ethan Salvo
Do you know if the sit-start to Hunkster’s been explored before, or did you discover it?
After I did Hunkster’s I mentioned to [Tim Doyle] that I wanted to climb it again from a sit start. He mentioned back when he was trying to open Hunkster’s, Tim Clifford had envisioned climbing it from a sit start. I’m guessing [Tim Doyle] did Hunkster’s and didn’t feel like climbing it again from a sit? Honestly, not sure though. One could argue the Hunkster’s start is better and the sit isn’t worth doing. I think I only went back for the sit since I had Hunkster’s dialed, and I had so much fun on it that climbing a harder version sounded like a fun challenge.
Have you done a problem in the past that was as fatiguing on the shoulders? Was there a particular move on Hunkster’s/Youngster’s that blasted them?
Hmm I honestly can’t think of a boulder I’ve done like this one, the movement is so 3D and unique. The last two hand moves to climb into Hulkamania (V3) were the most shouldery and physical to me, and doing them from the bottom with a shoulder pump felt really hard. I think the other thing to note is the method I did it with requires you to compress two bad holds and do six tense foot moves before the end crux, which takes a lot of gas out of your shoulders.
Did you have any injuries/issues in the shoulders due to the climb?
No shoulder injuries ever for me in climbing, I think because of my long background in swimming before I started climbing. The only issue I had with Hunkster’s was my right hand/wrist feeling a bit tweaky from this crux wrap hold.
Why did you choose the La Sportiva Genius?
I actually got the Geniuses thinking they’d be good for another boulder I’ve been trying in Squamish, but they turned out to be not what I wanted. I had them in my bag at Hunkster’s one day and figured I’d give them a try for the six foot move sequence. The feet are extremely rounded and far away in that section, so the no-edge made it much easier to apply tension through my feet, I didn’t have to be as precise as in an edge shoe. Also, I’ve been loving lace up shoes lately when given the option. I found I could really crank the shoe down tight and lock my heel in (which is needed for the way I climbed Hunkster’s), more so then a Velcro shoe.
Ethan Salvo’s FA of The Youngster’s Roof
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