Watch First Ascent of Highball on Big Chocstone in Rockies

Miles Adamson has made the first ascent of the McGillivray Canyon chockstone at V4. The massive rock is wedged in the canyon around 30 minutes from the car.

Adamson is one of Canada’s most accomplished highball climbers with first ascent in Alberta, B.C. and California. Last winter, he made the first ascent of Too Tall to Fall, a V10 highball in Bishop. Watch the first ascent here.

The year before, Adamson climbed Abrosia V10 highball in Bishop and the year before that he climbed a new V13 highball in Red Rocks. In 2017, Adamson became the first climber to complete the 25 top highballs in Marc Bourdon’s third-edition of the guidebook Squamish Bouldering.

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I've wanted to climb McGillivray Canyon chockstone ever since walking under it years ago. It's one of the most unique and amazing features I've ever seen. After checking in to see how people would feel about it being bolted, it was clear that was not the way to go. Being one of the more iconic hiking destinations in the area, it would kinda ruin it for people to be hang dogging it all day. Bolts would also detract from its natural state, and in this case I think that matters a lot. This evening I free soloed it for it's first ascent. I top roped it for a while before off of a nearby anchor which someone put in. I'm assuming they wanted to climb it as well haha, not sure. I've named it Artistic Works of Fiction and Falsehood. With the side walls in, it's not even that hard. Maybe V4. I didn't see the point in trying to eliminate them, seeing as you have to use one or the other to reach it. The start holds are around 12ft off the ground, and the whole climb is maybe 25ft tall over a rocky creek landing. I'm assuming no one will want to ever repeat it again, but it's not that kind of route to be put up for others like the sport climbs in the area. It's there because I thought the chockstone needed to be climbed, and I loved every second of it!

A post shared by Miles Adamson (@miles_adamson) on Sep 22, 2020 at 8:58pm PDT

Artistic Works V4