>> August-September 2002
Millar and Edwards
Smell the Roses
John Millar and Guy Edwards climbed a hard 500m new route just left
of the Central Pillar of Joffre and right of the Flavelle-Lane route. The
first five pitches had been done before some of the route was climbed as
a summer rock climb by Robinson and Buszowski in 1980. Most of the climbing
is dry tooling, with some steep snow climbing.
Two pitches were climbed following the right trending gully to the snow
cone below the upper chimneys. A third pitch was completed before dark.
They retreated back down to the snowcone and cut a bivy ledge. The next
morning they climbed the steeper upper chimneys. Hard mixed moves, some
points of aid and a smidgen of good ice over four more pitches gave way
to the upper snow couloirs. A last mixed pitch and then a steep snow arête
led directly to the summit. Edwards said, "The protection is sufficient,
and the climbing is of great quality for Coast Range winter alpinism."
New Long Free Routes
The Squamish Chief saw some intense activity over the winter and
spring, which has produced three awesome new free routes. Local guide Kris
Wild finished his massive project The Ultimate Everything (5.9). It climbs
the walls left of the South Gully and if combined with a South and Upper
Apron route, provides up to 22 pitches of excellent climbing. The ten new
pitches are found by picking up a flagged trail, about 100m before the start
of the Squamish Buttress. Ledges and fixed lines lead through the South
Gully to a belay bolt, marking the start. The last pitch can be freed at
5.11a or aided off the bolts at 5.9, A0.
For years, climbers had looked to the stunning Black Dyke as obvious free
climbing potential. Dean Hart and Randy Atkinson took up the challenge in
the 1990s but were unable to free the entire dyke. This spring, Matt Maddaloni,
along with a number of partners, bolted and redpointed every dyke pitch
to Bellygood ledge. The massive lower roof is rated just 5.12a but exfoliating
holds could change that. The 5.13a crux is above this on an overhanging
wall. The route is still awaiting a base to summit ascent, but beware, loose
rock, runouts and dirt still adorn various pitches although Maddaloni intends
to return to clean it up.
In Cheakamus Canyon local guide Marc Bourdon pieced together the endurance
nightmare Patience (5.14a) following Sonnie Trotter and Jordan Wright. The
route links the cruxes of Gom Jabbar (13b) into the finishing crux of Heat
(13d) through a wild traverse. At close to 100 moves long, all roof, this
climb is not for the faint of heart. Also in Cheakamus, Mike Doyle repeated
Heat after working out a sequence through the bouldery and reachy upper
sections. With that in the bag, Doyle polished off the fourth ascent of
Patience, with the holds still warm from Bourdon’s ascent.
In the boulders, the main event was Jamie Chong’s repeat of the Egg
(V11). The producers of Squamish Select are working on an exclusive bouldering
guide to the entire region and ask that anyone interested in having their
problems recorded contact the authors at info@squamishrockguides.com.
As a final note, climbers that come to the Chief are asked to respect any
recent raptor closures. As the birds move, so do the closures so please
check the notice boards at the major trailheads alerting climbers of any
changes. When in doubt, contact BC parks of check with locals as to your
route of choice. Climbers are also asked to continue to respect the closure
at the lower Malamute. Access work continues, and any infractions of this
rule will slow those efforts.
Correspondent: Marc Bourdon
Puma on the Prowl in Alberta
In the five weeks following his powerful performance at the Bouldering
Nationals (both as a sponsor and as a competitor), Seth Mason proved that
he’s still near the top of the Rockies bouldering food chain. At Frank
Slide he warmed up with a quick send of Cartel V9. Salacious, at the Slide,
and Mandalorian and ig-88 at Tonquin, both V10 first ascents, were his hardest
sends at these areas. He made the second ascent of Kevin Wilson’s V11
Staring Into the Sun at White Buddha on his first try, but not onsight.
Thunder Bay: Another
Wave Passes
Wiggling a blood slippery hand into the next perfect jam solved another
ground-up, on-sight, first ascent riddle. All around gritty splitter sprinkled
diabase bluffs rise up from the birch and fir forests to loom over the royal
blue cloak of Lake Superior. In quality and volume Thunder Bay is graced
some of the finest rock in Ontario.
Unfairly overshadowed by the fantastic ice climbing, Thunder Bay's growing
selection of established rock climbs numbers in the hundreds and is spread
over many incredible crags. Over the years visiting rock stars have augmented
the small, tight and active local climbing community to develop this wonderland.
The past fall and spring seasons saw more new development under the hardworking
fingertips of Jeff Hammerich, Dave Benton, Jonny Bamfield and Will Meinen.
Many new lines were pushed, ground-up on some old cliffs like Squaw Bay
and Lost Falls, while new crags like Mahkwa Buttress and Spy Wall were
also developed.
Looking to encourage climbing activity in the area, this posse put up user
friendly lines, cleaning when necessary, with solid anchors. Inspiring 5.8-5.11+
cracks went clean while some of the 5.7-5.11+ slab and face routes ended
up mixed to ensure safe leads. Thunder Bay and the surrounding area offer
more than a great road trip stop-over’s worth of rock as well as endless
potential for new routes. So wander up to T-Bay, bring your first ascent
shoes and have some fun on some of the sunniest rock in Ontario.
Correspondent: David Benton
Ontario’s Other
5.14 Repeated
Much attention has been given to the admittedly awesome Titan, Ontario’s
first 5.14a, but this spring Sonnie Trotter repeated Jeremy Smith's less
known RP 5.14a/b, on his fourth try. Despite breaking off the crux foothold,which
made the already powerful move just a little harder. "The footwork
was the best part," Trotter commented "you are always doing these
amazing step throughs and body positioning is critical."
Mathieu Fontaine
Sends
The hunting season began early for Mathieu Fontaine. On May 20, he
easily sent Cowboy (v10/11) at Val-David after three tries. During a previous
visit to the bouldering spot, he also on-sighted two v8.
At Rumney he redpointed his winter project Parallel Universe (5.14a) for
his warm-up on May 23. This three star route is located at the Monster of
the Id area. It starts with a crimpy V10 and finishes in a 5.13b.
At La Pocatiere Nick Sagar and Sonnie Trotter made the second and third
ascents of the short, powerful Pre-Mutation, the province’s first 5.14.
and then did it again right away for the cameras. Trotter said "The
moves were awesome, big and explosive."
Sonnie Sends at
the Seashore
During a ten-day visit to Nova Scotia, Sonnie Trotter confirmed,
established and filmed many of the beautiful bouldering problems in the
Province.
As the car rolled to a stop and we exited at Chebucto Head, Sonnie exclaimed,
"There's a whale, I've never seen a whale before." With this excitement
still fresh, he began his trip with a first ascent near Fynnished, called
Suck it up, adding a V8 to this area. He then went on to wear out his skin
on Fynnished, confirming the grade.After a wet day and some skin healing,
Sonnie warmed up on Tsunami, sending it second go, and projected the V6
around the corner. The afternoon was spent trying the Wave, which remains
undone and preparing the boat for a trip to Dover Island the following day.
Nick Sagar and family, Sonnie, Mike Orr, Simon Sagar, and Ghislain Losier
spent the entire afternoon playing in the sun with a backdrop of crashing
waves.
Nick managed the first ascent of a new problem called Wet Walkie-Talkie,
V9. Ghislain did the first ascent of a running dyno, which was quickly repeated
by Sonnie and Nick. Sonnie took the torch from here and did the first ascent
of Ocean Playground, V10 to the right of the V4 roof problem.
Despite a little thin skin, Sonnie and Nick headed out again the next day,
this time to a new area called Duck Head. Sonnie did a quick flash of Z-haul
V9, a first ascent of High Tide V9. With time running out and more to see,
Sonnie and Nick headed out to Terence Bay where Sonnie flashed Fear of Flying
and Inabangyang and sent Pushed on his second try.
After a rest day, Sonnie went out to LOC and flashed Resurrection. He was
eager to go back to Terence Bay and finish Hardly Easy, a V9 first done
by Ghislain Losier. With little time and skin, they moved the pads to the
right and established, Strike 3, V10ish on the bulge.
Correspondent: Heather Reynolds Sagar.
Heather sent Tsunami, V9, a great effort, especially considering that she
was
recovering from the C-section birth of her and husband Nick’s son Fynn.
Iker Sends Rumney
14s
Dave Graham has repeated many testpieces in climbing areas all over the
world, but has always wondered why no one came to try his routes in Rumney,
his home crag. This spring he got his wish, as Basque climber Iker Pou stopped
for four weeks in Rumney as part of his US tour. Pou, who is no stranger
to hard routes (3rd ascent of Action Direct) came away with an impressive
ticklist, including Dr. No and Parallel Universe, both 5.14a; and three
5.14bs: Supernova, Steady Slobbin and All Day Slacker. Pou commented that
the grades at Rumney are not just solid but harder than the international
norm.
5.14a Onsight
German climber Christian Bindhammer, who has controversially stated that
he is only interested in climbing outdoors as training for competitions,
visited Osp, Slovenia for a quick tune-up before the world cup in Bolzano,
Italy. During his five day stay, Bindhammer flashed two 5.13d/14as, Missing
Drink and Marjestica, and made fast redpoints of Strelovod 5.14b and Mira
5.14b/c. After the competition (in which he placed 5th), Bindhammer returned
and made a proper onsight of Millenium 5.14a even though the last 5m were
wet. Bindhammer is only the fourth person to onsight 5.14a since Elie Chevieux’s
1995 effort on Massey Ferguson. This shows how far ahead of the times Chevieux
was in 1995. He remains the only person with two 5.14a onsights to his credit.
Interestingly enough, all four members of the 5.14a onsight club (the others
are Yuji Hirayama and Christian Brenna) are all current or one-time top
world cup competitors. Perhaps WC routes are more relevant to "real
world climbing" than some would suggest.
Another 5.14a Onsight?
What would the dream road trip where everything went perfectly be like?
Perhaps you would head somewhere sunny and warm: Spain for instance. You
would onsight everything, without falling once the entire trip. For Steve
McClure of Britain, that’s pretty well what happened during an eight-day
visit. Within hours of his arrival in Siurana, McClure onsighted two 5.13bs
as a warm up. McClure onsighted thirteen 5.13bs, five 5.13cs, two 5.13ds
and one 5.13d (possible 5.14a) Golpe de Gas at Terradets. That was possibly
the best eight consecutive days of climbing by anyone –ever.
A Day at the Hotel
Redpointing a 5.14a sport route is hardly news these days, because stacks
of climbers have done it, including some without (gasp!) sponsors. But to
do it hundreds of metres off the deck, on run outs above hand drilled bolts,
is another thing entirely. This summer and fall Italian climber Mauro ‘Bubu’
Bole and Korean Mi Sun Go set out to tick many of the longest difficult
routes in Europe. The first stop is Hotel Supramonte on the island of Sardinia.
The 400m route climbs one of the biggest overhangs in the world, with each
pitch overhanging by 10m for the first 250m. It contains two pitches of
5.13d. Bole freed the route in a day while Mi Sun Go did all but the 5.13d
pitches.
With plans to make a stop at the Verdon Gorge in France, the duo might attempt
Frenchman Yann Ghesquiers new route Ultime Demence. Originally bolted as
a six-pitch route, Ghesquiers ran the first four pitches as two long pitches
in order to avoid the hanging belays. The route breaks down as 5.13c, 5.14a,
5.13a, and 5.12d. Just who is Yann Ghesquiers? According to François
Legrand, he is the most talented climber in France.
Correspondent: Andre Cheuk
