>> October - November 2000

Alberta News
Scott Milton Sends New 5.13+ Routes
Scott worked some projects which had been bolted and left dormant for a while, at local hardman crag Acephale. He said "The people who equipped them gave me the OK to do them... well sort of." Scott sent Whale Back (5.13c), which was bolted by Darren Tremaine, and Porthole to Hell, (5.13c/d) an old Shep Steiner project. At Carrot Creek, Scott climbed a line bolted by Simon Parboosingh, a friend of his who was killed while mountaineering. Milton named the route The Last Boy Scout (5.13c/d). Milton is working another project bolted by Lev Pinter, which he describes as "5.12 or somethin'. Or it might be 5.14. I1m not too sure which one." Stay posted.<<

BC News

GrandWall Freed_Chris Joseph
Ever since the Grand Wall route was climbed in 1961 as an aid route by Ed Cooper and Jim Baldwin, there have been efforts to free the entire route. Today, the standard route goes mostly free, ascending some of the cleanest stretches of steep granite on Squamish1s Chief.

A number of people have sought ways to free the whole route by avoiding the two short bolt ladders (below Split Pillar and between The Sword and Perry1s Lieback). The bolt ladder leading to the base of the Pillar has been bypassed for a few years by starting up the Left Side of the Pillar and cutting back right to the base of the Pillar past a lone bolt at 5.12b. The greater problem, though, was avoiding the longer bolt ladder that linked the top of The Sword with Perry1s Lieback. With visions of a free Grand Wall, Dave Lane and Bob Alison put up The Underfling (5.12c) in 1987, a burly undercling crack arching out right beside The Sword to a hanging belay. Upping the ante, Peter Croft freed from the no-hands rest at the base of the Pillar to the anchor at the end of The Underfling in the following year, calling it To the Hilt (5.12d). To those climbers attempting to free the entire Grand, all that remained was a steep slab that ran back left to the anchors at Perry1s Lieback. Following this, Hamish Fraser managed to gain the ledge above The Underfling anchors at 5.11d/12a and work his way out this increasingly difficult slab. Unfortunately, the slab1s final crux eluded him.

On July 17th of this year, Scott Cosgrove, followed by his girlfriend Annie Overlin, climbed through Apron Strings and Merci Me, bypassed the bottom bolt ladder with a 5.12 move, linked the Pillar and the bottom portion of The Sword to a no-hands rest at the Genius Loci anchor, then fired The Underfling to the no-hands rest atop The Underfling anchors (at 5.13a with this final 11d/12a move addition). The missing link pitch was a traverse of what Cosgrove described as an "85 degree slab with really thin edges." Passing a number of bolts, he climbed through a series of increasingly difficult slab cruxes, finishing with the 5.13b or V6/7 crux move right before the anchors of Perry1s Lieback. Cosgrove feels this crux is "not very strenuous- its just really balancy on your feet - it feels vertical but it's not... the crux is a one-finger bad sloper and a two-finger crimp and some pretty bad footholds too." Cosgrove successfully redpointed the whole route in a day, ground-up, after a week1s solid work.<<

 

Sport Climbing in the Sea to Sky Corridor: Summer Fun on 5.14_Marc Bourdon
The Cheakamus canyon powerfest Pulse was Canada1s first confirmed 5.14a. It tackles an impressive 120 degree overhanging sheet of granite as smooth as a Safeway parking lot. Thin cracks split the wall. providing strength-sapping finger-locks, pockets and edges. Footholds resemble tiny pieces of hardened popcorn stuck to the slab that pump your stomach silly. Massive reaches between funky holds frustrate the most seasoned sport climbers and, until this summer, the line had only succumbed to three ascensionists since Sandford1s first in '95.

Young Sean McColl is a mutant byproduct of the well-known Edge Junior Team in North Vancouver. Having climbed a truly unimpressive list of outdoor routes (a single 13a and a few 5.121s) he decided to stop wasting time and try something hard this summer. He first set his sights on the Division Bell (5.13d), Pulse1s easier cousin, and fired it in five days. Surprised at the outcome, he shifted gears wondering how much harder 5.14 could be. Apparently, not much, because Sean dispatched Pulse a couple of weeks later.

What1s the big deal about another kid cranking 5.14 you say? Brace yourself! Sean was twelve years old at the time, making him likely the youngest climber on the continent to crank the big number. Sean1s progress in the sport has been steady and impressive. He doesn1t see his height as a disadvantage and has adapted a fluid dynamic style to overcome big reaches. With such quick success, the future could be bright for this budding rock star.

Sean wasn1t the only climber sending big numbers this summer. Canadian National Junior Team member Nick Goodall cranked Division Bell before leaving for Amsterdam and the World Cup. Shortly afterwards, Okanagan transplant Mike Doyle managed the second ascent of Horne Lake1s wicked testpiece Driven (5.14b), confirming the grade. About 5m of horizontal monkey climbing takes you to the crux. Imagine ten brutal roof moves in a row, nowhere to clip, and a savage drive-by to a two finger pocket at the lip. Inspired by his friend, Vancouver climber Jordan Wright stepped up to the plate.He fired the route four days later following a breakfast of three huge Danish pastries. So much for sports nutrition! During this August flurry of activity, Squamish local Marc Bourdon scraped his way across a new link-up in the amphitheatre. Fastcat (5.13d) climbs the 5.11a warm up, then follows a gymnastic traverse left for 7m to finish with the brutal Globetrotters crux. Contrary to popular belief, Horne is not closed to climbing. However, it is on private land, which makes future access tricky, so climbers are reminded to keep a very low profile. Although no international stars graced The Chief boulders this summer, they were still teeming with activity. The usual testpieces saw too many ascents to mention, but some efforts are definitely worth noting. Local Tyler Jordan spent many, many days working a high, desperate project dubbed The Serpent. Just as he was edging into dangerous epic territory, Tyler amazed himself by hiking it early one morning. Never having flogged himself so long on a problem, he hesitated to grade it, but a two-day repeat by the humble and talented Victor Ting may have landed it near V11. Shortly before this, Victor pulled off the long anticipated second ascent of the scary highball Ride the Lightning (V8). Although not the hardest problem around, it had developed a nasty reputation for its committing and insecure top-out moves. Although Sharma1s Egg (V11?) may have seen a phantom ascent by some U.S. strongboy, he didn1t stick around long enough to claim his prize. So for now, a confirmed second ascent is there for the taking. The crown gem of the forest, The Proposal (FA: Chris Sharma V?) remains unrepeated and stands as a testament to its creator. Fall is here, and so is the rain. Perhaps a late season dry spell will produce more amazing feats, but if Mother Nature doesn1t cooperate, we1ll all be eagerly anticipating spring 2001. <<

Zap Crack - Taylor Sends Squamish1s Hardest Crack Pitch
Squamish1s hardest crack pitch was sent by Andreas Taylor in late July this year. The route, known as Zap Crack is found in the Valley of Shaddai. It is an overhanging finger crack, and Andreas said that "unlike many hard cracks, this is a very pumpy, pure jamming problem." It had been attempted many times before by some strong locals, and Andreas succeeded on his third day. The local concensus on the grade is 5.12d/5.13a.<<

 

Ontario News

Escarpment 5.13+ Routes Repeated
Steve "Manboy" Townsend had his best week to date in southern Ontario, when he sent three 5.13+ routes over a long weekend. Steve started with the first ascent of Last of the Microbe Hunters (5.13c) at Crag X, then moved up to Lions Head and climbed The Big Kahuna (5.13d) and then crossed the bay to White Bluff to polish off Mark Leach1s Aruga (5.13c). Not to be outdone, Matt Zavitz had a good start to his summer as well. He managed to do the second ascent of Bionic Spaceboy (5.13d), a route that has repelled attempts by some of the province1s best climbers, causing some to wonder about the grade of this one-move-wonder. Matt then polished off The Lion King (5.13c), and sent Aruga on his second go. He also completed several 5.13 and 5.13+ first ascents at Mallory Beach. According to our most recent report, Matt is living out of his portaledge somewhere in the vicinity of Lions Head. While Titan (5.14a) has seen some attempts since Sonnie1s amazing first ascent, it has yet to be repeated.

 

Banff Mountain Film Festival
Banff Mountain Summit Oct 30-31
Banff Mountain Film Festival Nov 1-5
Banff Mountain Book Festival Nov 1-3
For more information go to http://www.banffcentre.ab.ca/cmc <<

 

Karl Nagy killed at Moraine Lake
Just as Gripped was going to press, we learned that noted Rockies first ascentionist and guide, Karl Nagy was killed by rockfall at Moraine Lake, Alberta. A full obituary will appear in Gripped 2.6 in December 2000. <<

 

Qußbec News

Mathieu Fontaine Sends a new 13d at Orford , and new 13s at Kamouraska_Catherine Rivard
Mathieu Fontaine Sends a new 13d at Orford , and new 13s at Kamouraska Mathieu Fontaine says, "There is a new generation of climbers in Canada looking for harder routes, on Canadian crags, rather than in other countries." Fontaine was very busy this summer doing just that. In June, he added Le secret de la maison ñ clef 5.13d , at Orford. Most of his new routes, however, were in the Kamouraska region,where there had been only two 5.13s prior to Mathieu1s visit. Close to the College at La PocatiÀre, Mathieu discovered and bolted a new area at La grotte des fßes. There are now fifteen short difficult routes, including Roche sous l1ongle 5.13a/b, Corner 5.13c.d, and Speed limit 5.13c. In the same area, Mathieu discovered a 45Í overhanging cliff, which he named Mini Monster, where he put in a new 5.13 and two hard projects. <<

 

Nova Scotia News

Nick Sagar1s Resurrection - V10 at Land of Confusion_Ghislain Losier
This past summer saw the guidebook release for The Land of Confusion by new Halifax local Ghislain Losier (see review in this issue). The book describes over 120 problems, includes several projects destined to be classic testpieces in the V9-V11 range. In August, Nova Scotia1s well-known sport-climbing ace, Nick Sagar, and his wife Heather were back in Halifax for their annual visit and got a tour of the boulders. Nick immediately set his eyes on a project on the Corn Boulder. Sagar sent the line at V10, calling it Resurrection. Sagar said that "It's definitely a proud line." Resurrection starts on a good hold and blasts into four long, powerful moves finishing with a tricky arète top-out. Nick is psyched about the area1s potential, and he1s already working on other desperates, which we will no doubt hear about in the near future. <<

 

Tourists View Bald Egos: Possibly Squamish1s Longest Aid Route_Adam Diamond
In June of this year, Conny Amelunxen and Adam Diamond completed what is possibly the longest aid climb on the Squamish Chief. Starting only 10m left of the classic University Wall the pair linked discontinuous features for seven pitches before traversing off the Grand Wall area and continuing up an unclimbed section of the Pan Wall for a total of 12 pitches. They named the route Bald Egos in honor of the passing tourists1 favorite pastimes, watching the birds and staring at the climbers.

Characterized by ultra-thin nailing and heading on predominantly clean granite, the route was climbed in ten days over three weeks in one of the rainiest Junes on record. Eight of the days were spent with the belayer huddled under an umbrella. Even the moderate pitches were extremely technical and leads of nine hours were the norm.

The pair has given the route a grade of VI 5.9 A4 (new wave) based on their own subjective experience of the climb. Competent parties can expect to spend 4 days on the route.<<

 

Barry Blanchard and Carl Tabin make the Third Ascent of Foraker1s Infinite Spur_Barry Blanchard
On June 3, Barry Blanchard (Canmore) and Carl Tabin (Anchorage) made the third ascent of the Infinite Spur on Mt Foraker, a route described by alpine guru and first ascensionist George Lowe, as the best he1d ever done. They were closely followed by Glen Deal (Alaska) and Gren Hinton (Australia). The Spur1s first ascent was in 1977 by George and Michael Kennedy, the second ascent by Mark Bebie and Jim Nelson was in 1989. Blanchard said that 3Glen and Gren are both in their early twenties, Carl is 47 and I am 41, so we dubbed Glen and Gren ÔThe Lads.1 We spotted the Lads heading into a large gully that rises from the climber1s right to left and serves as drainage for any serac collapses and/or snow avalanches that fall from the left of the Spur. Two tumbling glaciers of 1000m cord length and two hanging glaciers with 100m - 150m seracs all calve into this gully and although a route picture in Bebie1s account in the Ô90 American Alpine Journal has an ascent line draw close to this gully, that line must be considered to be erroneous at best and suicidal at worst. Future parties should take note.2 The Lads, following this line, were hit by an avalanche and Barry and Carl thought their chances of survival were slim, but they were unable to contact either them or the Park headquarters at that time, so they continued. The main difficulties were 35.4-5.9 mixed climbing with crusty snow cover from a recent moist storm, iced up cracks in excellent granite yielding great dry tooling (we1d resort to hand holds maybe 10% of the time)2 they led and followed with full packs only hauling for one 25m section. On May 28th Carl and Barry were able to contact the Park and reported the possibility of an accident. An aerial search in misty conditions revealed nothing, but at 3500m they were surprised to see the Lads bivied in a glacier, 3we were pretty convinced that the Lads had been swept away.2 After a difficult shovel traverse, they reached The Black Band by way of 3a variant to the first ascent route which continues up right on snow until pinched off and forced to climb the crux of that route up two hard rock pitches to regain the ridge. Future parties should climb a beautiful grade 2/3 water ice gully between our route and the first ascent route. We couldn1t see into the gully until several hard pitches put us above it. Carl and I skirted the last pale granite buttress on the left and scampered up immaculate mixed ground between it and the tumbling glacier. The Lads took the buttress direct and Glen took a 10m fall.2 The rest of the climb was tiring but fairly uneventful. Mark Twight and Scott Backes met them on the way down and offered the use of their basecamp and food until their plane came. On the night of their return, they "ate and drank beer with George Lowe and Joe Terravecchia and Ian and Jules, younger Brits who had just done a new route on the North Buttress of Hunter. Carl and I were very tired lads."

 

Canmore Climber Becomes Third Canadian to Summit K2, Michael Down Climbs Everest
Canmore climber Andy Evans became the third Canadian to climb K2, the second highest peak on the planet, and one of the hardest of the 8000m peaks on July 30. He climbed the route via the Abruzzi Ridge in an expedition lead by Gary Pfisterer (USA). He was accompanied by Chris Shaw, Billy Pierson (both USA) and Andrew Collins, (UK). The only other Canadians to climb K2 are Jim Haberl and Dan Culver in 1993. Culver, however, died on the descent. Evans has also climbed Everest via the North Ridge. K2 has had a total of only 180 summitters, less than Everest has had this year alone. Also in the Himalayas, Coast climbing legend Michael Down summited Everest via the South Col route. In 1994 Down had been driven off the North Face by horrendous weather, and in a '96 attempt on the South Col Route, he made it as high as the Balcony before high winds, electrical activity and a lack of fixed ropes in the couloirs brought an end to that attempt. This year, Down joined an expedition organized by the King of the Khumbu, Henry Todd (AKA "The Toddfather" see http://www.himalayas.org/newsline/todd.htm) along with Vancouver climbers Scott Markey and Al Buchel. On his first go, Down1s regulator froze at the Hillary Step and his lack of oxygen brought on hallucinations, and he was forced to descend to Camp 2. After resting for only a day, and empowered by prednazone, bottled oxygen and hearty resolve, Michael made the summit. Few have managed to rest so high on the mountain before summiting. Michael met Byron Smith several times during the trip. Asked whether Byron1s legs really were the strongest ever, Down had to admit that 3I was never privy to them in the flesh2 but that he could 3sense their equine power.2 Michael has made many new routes in the Coast Range and is a rep for The North Face Canada.<<

 

Sean Isaac, Todd Offenbacher and Nils Davis Climb New Hard Rock Route in the Kharidas Valley
In the Karakoram range of Pakistan this summer, Sean Isaac of Canmore teamed up with Todd Offenbacher and Nils Davis of South Lake Tahoe, California to explore alpine granite in the Hushe region. They set up basecamp in the difficult-to-access Kharidas Valley, one valley north of the more popular Nangma Valley. They were the second expedition ever (and the first North Americans) to climb in the Kharidas. They found many unclimbed, unnamed granite spires but most of the rock was shattered and flaky. Despite this, the trio made the first ascent of an unclimbed 5200m tower via an all free 700m route. Their route, Azad Kashmir [Free Kashmir] went at 5.10+ R and was climbed in ultra light alpine style with only one rope, no bolts or pins, and no bivy gear. They named the peak Ibrahim Brakk after their Pakistani gourmet cook. Luckily this formation had impeccable stone with pitch after pitch of solid chicken head studded granite. <<

 

Coast Range: A Good Summer for Long New Alpine Routes_Don Serl
An unsettled spring evolved into a fine, stable summer in late July, allowing several fine routes to be climbed. Drew Brayshaw and Fred Touche tackled the long-standing (although continually falling down) North Face of Plinth Peak (2680m), the highest of the sharp, rotten, volcanic summits up the Lillooet River valley beyond Pemberton. The peak is composed of dreadful "rock:, and the 1100m face should only be considered in snowed-up, well-frozen conditions. Despite making the climb overnight the pair had a couple very narrow escapes before reaching the safety of the summit. Most of the climbing was on extremely steep snow in interconnected gullies

At the beginning of August, Alan Kearney and Brendan Cusick put up an impressive new rock route on the South Face of Combatant Mountain (3756m). Their 1000m route follows the massive pillar left of Belligerence in the first half (17 pitches), then summits via the previously traveled Kshatrya Buttress (12 pitches). Surprisingly little aid was involved on the lower buttress, but what there was of it was hard (A2+-A3). Most of the route is medium-angled, and the free climbing ranged between 5.7 and 5.10c on slabs and cracks. Because of the poor weather they had to endure during the first 2 days on the route, they named it Perseverance. Three bivvies were made on the lower buttress and another on the mid-way Terrace after summiting. The lower route was rapped to regain the glacier.

While this was going on next door, Brits Simon Richardson and Dorß Green climbed the impressive 800m pillar of rock directly beneath the summit on the 1400m South Face of Mount Tiedemann (3848m) in the Waddington Range. Twenty-nine pitches, mostly in the 5.9 - 5.10 range, were climbed on superb granite. Two bivvies were required on the pillar and another on the descent. The pair finished up the summit snowfield and gullies, then made their descent by traversing over Combatant to avoid rock fall.

At exactly the same time, Don Serl, finally climbed the North Ridge of Mount Monarch (3573m) with Bill Durtler and Bruce Fairley. The 900m route presents a tower-studded rock ridge. Although there are several pitches in the 5.8-5.9 range, the majority of the climbing was on steep ice and mixed ground on ramps and gullies weaving amongst the towers.Three days were spent reaching the summit, and a third bivy was made on the descent. Monarch1s North Summit, at about 3250m, the highest unclimbed subsidiary peak in the Coast Mountains, was also climbed en passant. This was Don1s fifth attempt on the route, which he first tried in 1983.

Mark Hartley, Lorne Hoover, and Michael Spagnut were also active in the Waddington Range early in August.The threesome climbed a bunch of routes in the Upper Tellot area (including short new routes on McCormick and Shand), then Hartley and Hoover put up a fine new 17-pitch line 2/3 of the way down-glacier from Cataract Col to the Cataract Buttress on the subsidiary "Cataract Face" on the Shand massif. Good rock, mostly clean, at about 5.9 standard was encountered, with one 20m loose band having to be overcome high on the route.<<

 

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