Quality Bouldering Films Take to YouTube
Several radical bouldering films and videos were released last week. From Quebec to Ontario to Spain to Switzerland, the season has returned
Although this week has concerned itself with the upcoming World Cups in Salt Lake City, many boulderers have taken to outdoor pebble wrangling in an effort to prepare, or to simply get outside.
Starting of the list comes the second in a series of new releases from Jackalope TV. The series, title Jackalope Bouldering, centres itself around the radical and expanding outdoor bouldering scene in Val-David. The multi-part series, directed by Alexa Fay, brings forth a bit of the story behind the area’s newer ascents, older projects, and decade long lore.
This last episode covered details even relating to the old Sharma Dyno and has shed light on an incredible, yet underrepresented, Canadian bouldering area.
Moving west, Ontario’s Ethan Salvo released the uncut of his recent V13 first ascent: Vilified. The direct line to a previously established V8, the power-endurance test-piece climbs through a challenging V8 before carrying the climber into a delicate, no-shadow crimp sequence that requires tension, strength, and clarity. The progressively steeper wall pitches back at least 50-degrees before the thuggier moves at the top. It has not yet seen a second ascent.
Though the Glen has continued to give up hard boulders, the number of open projects has shrunk to just a few. Either new blocs will have to be found up or down stream of the main climbing area or developers will have to get a bit braver. An incredibly high-quality project moves up the right arete of the Fear boulder, but it offers a gnarly fall into a steep hill-slide if dropped at its highest point.
In Albarracin, Spain’s Nacho Sanchez took down the second ascent of one of the area’s most difficult lines. The boulder problem, Juneru, is a V15 established by Ruben Diaz over six months ago. The challenging boulder problem climbs just left of the classic V13 Esperanza.
Furthermore, the golden boy of international rock climbing, Alex Megos, has forgone an exclusive dedication to competition climbing and has, instead, found himself in Switzerland, running volume on some of Brione’s easier 8-level boulder problems. Megos, as always, looks strong and will be looking to make finals this weekend in Salt Lake City.
To that effect, Adam Ondra expressed his love for local areas in his flashing of Hloukba Ostrosti, a heinous looking 8B from Babà Lom. Ondra, too, will join Megos in the fight for finals set to take place tomorrow.
Finally, Jorg Verhoeven decided that bolts only get in the way of an otherwise radical boulder problema and, as such, completed a daring ascent of Total Brutal 8b+. He adds a not toward his own feelings in regard to the ascent as well as his feelings toward social media. His caption is equally worth a viewing.
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