>> December 2002 - January
2003
Bad Hair Day on
the Minaret and New Mixed Routes in the Bugaboos
The summer of 2002 proved to be a busy season in the Bugaboos with
numerous significant first ascents being snagged by motivated climbers.
First on the scene was Alex McAfee of Utah who returned to complete a new
aid route on the east face of Bugaboo Spire, which he had tried last year.
He climbed Symposium (VI 5.8 A2+, 15 pitches) solo over seven days in August,
adding eight new pitches before joining the Cooper-Gran route at half-height.
As with the entire east face of Bugaboo Spire, Alex reports that constant
rock fall was a major objective hazard with microwave-sized blocks missing
him by a mere 10 metres.
In mid-August, Guy Edwards and I teamed up for our annual pilgrimage to
the Bugs. Our goal was the coveted first free ascent of the Minaret Tower.
This symmetrical cone shaped formation is located on the west face of the
South Howser Tower immediately right of the elegant west buttress, which
is home to the Becky-Chouinard Route, one of the “50 Classic Climbs
of North America.” The Minaret has over the years accumulated four
routes, all using some aid. Our goal was to polish off a new all-free route.
We attempted the unfinished west face line but bailed from about half-way
up as evening thunderstorms approached.
The next day, we had a late start but managed to make the first ascent of
a small, unclimbed formation between East Pigeon Feather and Southeast Pigeon
Feather. We named our new five pitch crack climb Dingleberry Spam (III 5.10)
and the diminutive tower, Prince Albert Spire.
Not more than a week later, the Minaret finally received its justice with
a new all-free route. It took a couple of very talented, strong women to
show us boys how it is done. Lizzy Scully and Heidi Wirtz of Estes Park,
Colorado fired Bad Hair Day (V 5.12-, 17 pitches) over two days. The crux
came on the second day after an uncomfortable night sitting on a small butt-sized
ledge. Heidi sent the awkward roof using a combination of insecure, flaring
jams and lie-backing. They on-sighted every pitch except one heinous 5.10
off-width at the top, which Lizzy fell out of three times. Each time, however,
she lowered back to the belay, cursed for 10 minutes, and then started again
until she got it clean.
Around the same time, Squamish hardmen Chris Geisler and Kai Hirvonen climbed
two new routes on the previously ignored North Post Spire. This remote outlying
tower is a three-hour approach from the main area, which explained why little
interest has been shown in it. Chris and Kai unlocked the potential of the
300m southeast face with two parallel new routes. These unnamed lines link
steep cracks and run-out face moves with one graded 5.10 A1 and the other
5.10++, which I would translate into a big fat sandbag.
Marc Piche and Chris Atkinson, co-authors of the new Bugaboo guidebook,
established an indirect start to the classic southwest ridge of Snowpatch
Spire. The Beach IV (5.10+ A1) climbs exfoliating flakes and a crumbly off-width
to Surfs Up Ledge. They do not recommend the route but it might clean up
with traffic.
Near the end of September, well after alpine rock season had ended and the
peaks were caked with white, I headed back into the Bugs but with ice tools
and crampons instead of rock shoes and chalk bag. The Big Hose D+ (M4 WI3,
six pitches) on the northeast face of South Howser Tower had the long-standing
distinction of being the only ice route in the Bugaboos. After climbing
this stellar elevator shaft of ice last year, I convinced myself that this
range held more possibilities for ice and mixed climbing. I recruited Scott
Semple for the five-hour slog from the Kain Hut over two passes to the backside
of the Howser massif. We scratched our way up the deep gash between Central
and South Howser finding eight pitches of scrappy mixed climbing producing
Spinstone Gully TD+ (M7). Huge, wedged chock-stones provide most of the
action, as we had to grunt over six of these roof-like features.
In late October, we returned yet again for more mixed fun. This time Brian
Webster joined us to climb the often looked-at thin ice smears streaming
down the northeast face of South Howser Tower. Perfect ice runnels and granite
kept us smiling the whole day, hence the name Perma Grin TD- (M5 WI4, six
pitches).
Over the course of the summer, many rappel descents were fixed up with beefy
bolts including the raps off of Pigeon, Bugaboo and Snowpatch Spire. Also
a new rappel descent was established
from Crescent Spire down climbers-left of the popular McTech
Arête route.
More important are the human waste issues plaguing the Bugaboos. Many climbers
are complaining of intestinal problems from contaminated water sources so
it is time to we clean up our act and dispose of our waste properly. Hopefully
by next summer, portable toilets will be installed at high impact areas
like Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col and Pigeon-Howser Col. Be sure to use them or
you will be drinking your own filth since the watershed flows back down
to the Kain Hut and Applebee Dome campground.
All this and more will be detailed in the long awaited new guidebook to
the Bugaboos (by Chris Atkinson and Marc Piche, Published by Elaho) due
out this spring.
Correspondent: Sean Isaac
Waddington Range:
Superb New Route on Tiedemann
Guy Edwards, Jia Condon, Matt Maddaloni, Kevin McLane, Chris Atkinson and
Andrew Boyd made a fruitful foray into the Waddington Range this summer.
After warming up on the Skywalk Buttress on Combatant, Condon and Edwards
climbed a new route on a 1400m ridge on Tiedemann. With long sections of
sometimes loose rock up to 5.10+, mixed climbing and some weaving through
crevasses and seracs, the route has a bit of everything. They named the
route SW Bartizans. Condon described it as “one of the best alpine
outings I have ever embarked on.” After that climb, Matt Maddaloni
joined them on a new route on Stilletto Needle. Edwards and Condon went
on to complete the Chilton/Must on Stilletto, which they found excellent.
Finally, Edwards soloed the Ice Chimney on the North face of Stilletto.
Report by Jia Condon
Gadd and Slawinski
Make Fast Ascents in the Rockies
“I grew up with classic mountaineering,” says Canmore’s
Will Gadd, who is becoming one of the country’s best all-rounders,
“it was cool to go back to that and stand on top of two of the coolest
summits in the Rockies in the same week.”
In September, Gadd climbed the South Face of Mt Robson car-to-car in 17
hours, solo. He had poor snow conditions high on the mountain (nobody climbed
the Kain that day because of poor snow.) “I had to break trail up to
knee-deep for a long time, and that definitely added a good three to four
hours to the equation.” Gadd recalls. “I ran into two guys at
the hut and they chased me up the route, good folks. On the way down I jumped
a suspicious-looking snow bridge, which was probably a good thing as one
of the guys fell about 4 m into it while following my tracks back down.”
Gadd isn’t certain, but it may be the first one-day ascent of Robson.
Reflecting on his motive for making the ascent he comments, “I've just
wanted to do it for many years and finally trained hard and went for it.”
Gadd, accompanied by Raphael Slawinski, also made a fast ascent of Mt Alberta
via a variation on the Japanese Route. The North Face, their original objective,
had too much snow and the pair decided to try the Japanese route hut-to-hut
with no bivy below the route. “It was a really fun climb.” Says
Gadd. “We had less-than-optimum conditions on the route, so we climbed
the wall of the gully at maybe 5.8 instead of the classic line.”
Monument Sees Second
Ascent.
The most notable achievement of the Ontario climbing season is the
second free ascent of The Monument. The awesome 35 foot splitter roof crack
was first free climbed, on sight but with the gear preplaced, by Peter Croft
in 1987. Finally, this fall Andrew Boyd of Victoria BC sent the route after
several days of work. Andrew confirmed the grade at 5.12d and explained
that it was difficult to clean the route, so placing the gear on redpoint
burns was not a reasonable option. Andrew removed each piece and replaced
it before climbing past them. While the route would probably have seen more
ascents if it was in Western Canada, it does remain one of the East’s
hardest crack lines.
In other Ontario news Sonnie Trotter finally completed the Shaven Yak 14a
and Sponge 13c, both at Metcalfe, and Paul Ko and Brandon Marks made the
fourth and fifth ascent of Architecture and Morality, also 13c. Boulderers
in the area have been quite active, achieving a notable fourth of ascent
of the Phoniex V11 went to Adam Zarzycki.
Sonnie’s Sick
Summer Tick List
Last winter Sonnie Trotter hatched a preposterous plan: To climb
all the 5.14s in Canada. He had already climbed seven of them in previous
years, Titan 14a, Silent Menace 14a, Patience 14a, Down System 14a, Pulse
14a, Captian America 14b, and Superman 14c. This left eight to go and only
one season to achieve this goal. Was the task too sick? It turned out that
Sonnie achieved a lot this summer. He sent Pre-Mutation 14a, RP 14a, Endless
Summer 14a, Dynosaur Highway 14a, and the Shaven Yak, a possible 14a, along
with Leviathan, Driven and Existence Mundane all of which are14bs. While
Sonnie climbed most of the 14s, two were left untouched, Revival 5.14b in
Cheakamus Canyon was climbed by Jordan Wright days before Sonnie had to
return home to Ontario. Also at Cheakamus, Sonnie chose not to climb Killing
Something Beautiful because it is a link-up of five separate lines. “My
Favorite route is Existence Mundane,” Sonnie said, “it’s
so direct, so pure, and it’s all there, but just barely. My favourite
crag, however, is Horne Lake [on Vancouver Island], bar none.”
Heather Sagar Sends
Resurrection
In September, Heather Sagar Reynolds powered her way through Resurrection
V10, after only five days of effort. The difficult first five moves, which
demand body tension and precision were not made any easier by the presence
of a demanding one-year-old. The send happened only when the temps were
good, the toddler was content and Heather was warmed up and feeling strong.
Earlier this year Heather did many problems in the V7-V9 range in areas
from Colorado to Nova Scotia. “Ressurection initially felt impossible,”
she remarked after her ascent, “and now it's hard to believe I did
it.” Husband Nick has established yet another hard problem at LOC called
Kleos. He's given it a V10/V11 rating.
Correspondent: Nick Sagar
Vancouver’s
Sean McColl Wins World
Junior Championships
The World Junior Championships took place September 27-29 in Canteleu, France.
Canada had a very strong team with 19 competitors in six categories. After
a training camp in Calgary/Banff in August the team was well prepared and
hopes were high for some very good results.
The first day of the competition was the qualifiers and this involved two
different routes for each competitor. All six categories were run at once
and the first set of routes resulted in numerous flashes in each category.
The second set of routes were much more difficult with only a couple of
flashes on each route. Based on the results of the qualifiers seven Canadians
advanced to the semi-finals.
Qualifiers for speed climbing took place on the morning of the second day,
and in what is becoming a bit of a tradition most of the Canadians competed.
The best qualifying time was 9.68 seconds by a Ukrainian junior male. Of
the 16 Canadians that tried speed five advanced to finals. After qualifiers
for speed climbing came the semi-finals for difficulty. The routes were
much longer and trickier. Only eight climbers in each category would advance
to finals. Despite a few mistakes involving previewing, Canadians Stacey
Weldon, Jason Holowach and Sean McColl made it through to finals. Special
mention has to be made of Dan Tersmette who missed advancing to the finals
by a single touch of a hold.
The finals for speed were held in the evening in front of a huge crowd that
was anxious for a good show. The Canadians were by far the loudest and had
been bribing the announcer with pins, food and promises of maple syrup,
and in return he was very energetic when it came to announcing the Canadians.
Speed finals involve pairing the fastest climber from qualifiers against
the slowest, then the second fastest vs. the second slowest etc. and eliminating
the loser of that race. After a few buzzers breaking, impromptu juggling
performances by one of the judges and an unfortunate singing incident by
a Canadian coach, the final set of climbers were ready. Of the five Canadians
only 15-year-old Sean McColl had made it through to the final match. A couple
of false starts didn't shake him as he climbed both routes in just over
24 seconds to claim gold in the Boys14-15 category. The fastest time of
the event on a single route was 7.74 seconds by the Ukrainian fellow.
On Sunday afternoon the finals for difficulty were held. The crowd was enormous,
with people pushing to get in as soon as the doors opened. The routes were
perhaps too difficult as there was only one flash in the whole finals. Fortunately,
that flash was by Canadian Sean McColl. For the first time at a world competition
a Canadian had won gold. Jason Holowach and Stacey Weldon both climbed very
strong with Holowach moving up to an incredible fourth place finish and
Stacey finishing in seventh place. All in all it was the most successful
World Championship for Canadian Juniors yet.
Correspondent: Mike Doyle
World (Cup) Domination
If Sean McColl’s international success continues, he will eventually
come up against Frenchman Alexandre Chabot, the current World Cup champion.
The 19 year-old Chabot first started turning heads two years ago popping
up on World Cup podiums, and he captured the World Cup crown last year.
For the 2002 WC season, Chabot served notice that he was the man to beat.
Having won all six of the World Cup comps held before press time, Chabot
clinched the overall title in dominating fashion. In addition, Chabot also
won the European Cup and most impressively won the prestigious Arco Rock
Master invitational in his debut. The only person able to wrest victory
away from the young Frenchman at a major competition this year was François
Legrand, the winningest competitive climber ever, at the International Masters
Invitational held at Serre Chevalier, France. At Serre Chevalier, the young
Frenchman came second to a highly motivated François Legrand, who
put in a vintage performance coolly completing the sole onsight of the superfinal
route. The 2002 season may be remembered as the passing of the torch from
one superstar to another.
Speed Racer
Japan’s Yuji Hirayama is best known for his sport climbing exploits
and competition wins. However, his onsight of Sphinx Crack 5.13b/c, and
near miss onsight of the Salathe wall shows more versatility than your average
sport climber. Indeed in an interview in The Professionals, a film documenting
one of Hirayama and François Legrand’s roadtrips through the
US, Hirayama stated, “Rock climbing, I love it. Bouldering, I love
it. Big Wall, I love it. I have no special separation.” This past fall
Hirayama travelled to Yosemite and tried his hand at some speed records,
established new bench marks on both aid and free routes. First up, a new
record freeing the Salathe wall in 13 hours, slashing six–and–a–half
hours from Tommy Caldwell’s first one day ascent. Then, partnered with
Hans Florine, the two climbed the Nose on El Cap in 2hrs 48mins 55s, establishing
the first sub three hour ascent of The Nose and destroying the old mark
of 3:24:20 by Dean Potter and Tim O’Neill. The duo started at 7:15
am to avoid the heat, and simul-climbed most of the route to ensure maximum
efficiency. With the recent interest in speed climbing in the Valley, it
will be interesting to see just how much more the times can drop.
School’s Out
A few issues back, we told you to watch for big things in
the summer from the Spaniard Ramon Julian Puigblanque. Well, he delivered.
The ticklist from a mere ten–day visit to the Gorges Du Loup would
rival most people’s lifetime total. In ten days, Puigblanque managed
to cram in sends of La Grotte De Nonours and Magma, both 5.14a, Discoteca
and Golgoth, both 5.14a/b, 7pm JP chaud, Last Soul Sacrifice, Total Eclatch
and Total Minus, all 5.14b, Asai, Totalite, Zubble all 5.14b/c, Power Sacrifice
and Le Cote Obscur both 5.14c. For the finale, he sent one 5.14d, or the
magical grade of 9a, Kinematix in a mere five tries. Assuming at least two
rest days, that’s a lot of 14s to fit in, 13 all together in fact.
Bindhammer on Form
Christian Bindhammer has had an excellent year. As reported earlier
on in the spring, Bindhammer managed an onsight of Millenium 5.14a. Bindhammer
followed that up with a string of hard 5.14 redpoints, such as Wolfgang
Gullich’s classic Wallstreet, which has only seen ten ascents since
being put up in 1987. Clearly peaking, Bindhammer gave his best performance
to date, redpointing two 5.14d within days of one another. First to succumb
was Underground, a classic test piece at Arco, Italy. The 20m long route
consists of three boulder problems of V11, V8 and V11 respectively. Bindhammer
fell four times at the end of the last problem before finally clipping the
chains. Flushed with success, Bindhammer travelled west to the Aosta Valley
to try Ground Zero, a new route recently established by Alberto Gnerro.
Having tried Ground Zero previously without much luck, Bindhammer went up
to check the moves then surprising even himself, promptly sent it the next
go. Of his efforts, Bindhammer said “I gave it 150%, it was one of
those moments that happen maybe two or three times in ten years.
Hard Multipitch
in Vogue
There is a renaissance in interest in difficult multipitch climbing
in Europe with a bevy of top climbers applying the strength and skills gained
on one pitch desperates toward long free climbs. An exemplar of this trend
is the latest from Daniel Andrada and Daniel Dulac, two climbers best known
from the World Cup bouldering circuit. After quickly repeating Hotel Supramonte
5.13d, the pair opened a new line on the same wall. Viaje de Locos which
loosely translates as crazy people’s journey, is a five pitch route
starting at 5.12d and getting harder from there, with 13a, 13d then 13c
pitches, finishing with a 5.14a pitch. Impressively, Dulac onsighted all
but the last pitch. Others leading the charge include Mauro Bole and Christian
Brenna, currently on Bellavista 5.14b, and Iker Pou on Silbergeier 5.14a
respectively, with both groups having redpointed individual pitches and
waiting on good weather to complete the climbs in one pitch. And, as always
for the women, Spaniard Josune Bereziartu is at the forefront of it all
by leading all the pitches of El Pilar Del Cantabrico 5.13c with Iker Pou.
9a for Josune
Showing yet again that she is one of the strongest climbers, male
or female, Josune Bereziartu has redpointed Bain De Sang rated 9a or 5.14d.
Bain De Sang at St Loup, Switzerland, originally put up by Fred Nicole,
is one of the more established 9a routes, having had repeats that confirmed
the hefty grade attached. The route is a just off vertical face climb with
extremely small and sharp edges. Precise footwork is a prerequisite for
success. Bereziartu had begun her preparation in Spain with Ocho Anos De
Sexo 5.14a/b. Next she travelled to Verdon, France, and tried her hand on
Specialistes Direct 5.14b, again taking only two days for the send, before
feeling ready to take on Bain De Sang. With Bain De Sang, Bereziartu has
pushed the limit of women’s free climbing to a level on par with the
men’s, at least until some possible 5.15a are confirmed. When that
happens, Bereziartu will probably be ready to send those as well.
Correspondent: Andre Cheuk
