Four Big Bouldering Sends in Canada in 2019
The big story of the year was Allison Vest's historic send of Terminator V13
As the year comes to an end, it’s a tradition here at Gripped to look back over the past 12 months at some of the new routes and epic sends.
From new moderate bouldering problems to mega alpine lines, there’s been a lot of memorable climbs from coast to coast to coast.
It was another historic year for Canadian bouldering and below are just a few stories that made headlines. For new 2019 Canadian alpine climbs visit here and for big sport sends this year visit here.
Allison Vest Sends V13
Allison Vest sent Terminator V13 in Squamish at the end of the summer. Vest was fresh off the World Championships in Hachioji, Japan, where she finished 47th in bouldering and 48th in lead.
It took less than 10 sessions for Vest to tick the classic route. Vest is the first Canadian woman on record to have sent V13 (8B in the Font grading system). The problem links Squaminator into the Squaminator Traverse, which adds a top-out. Vest sent Squaminator V12 earlier this year.
Earlier this year, Vest also ticked Agoraphobia V11 and Ozzmosis V11. She was the Canadian national bouldering champion in 2018 and is the current national lead champion.
New V12s in Ontario by Alex Megos
Alex Megos made his first visit to Ontario’s Niagara Glen south of Toronto earlier this year. Megos repeated one of the area’s hardest problems and established two new V12s.
After repeating The Punt V12 and Karasu V12, Megos made the first ascents of Phoenix from the Ashes V12 and Bruce Lee V12.
Pia Graham Breaks Double Digits
This spring, Pia Graham climbed the burly Zozobra V10 at Niagara Glen in Ontario for her first of the grade. “Beyond stoked to have gotten the first female assent of Zozobra.”
Graham told us that she need six sessions to climb the pumpy line found in the Romper Room area at the Glen. “I had never tried it before this month,” she said. “This is my first V10.” She went on to climb other problems at the grade this year.
Slippery When Wet
One of the fastest growing bouldering areas in Canada over the past few years has been the Boulderfields in Kelowna, B.C. and one of the leading developers has been Andy White.
White has made first ascents of some of the most difficult problems at the Boulderfields and in August, he made the first ascent of Slippery When Wet V13.
The problem isn’t completely new, as it was a must-do V12, but after a hold broke, he and Braden Mccrea found new start beta. White then started to project the low start, which he said might be harder than the high start.
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