>> June - July 2004
The Machine
Spanish climber Ramón Julián Puigblanque,
has been described by Steve McClure as “just a climbing machine, a
block of muscle with technique thrown in unfairly.” Puigblanque has
spent this spring climbing on rock before his focus turns to the upcoming
World Cup season and the world of plastic. His performance should serve
as a warning shot to his rivals. Arriving in Siurana, Spain after a winter’s
training, the Spaniard quickly polished off two longstanding projects. Puigblanque
warmed up by sending Chikane 5.14c in six tries, a project bolted 20 years
ago but which has repelled all previous attempts at redpoint. Next up was
an old project of Dani Andrada, a line parallel to La Rambla. Estado Critico,
a 40 m route with long moves on bad crimps gave Puigblanque a bit more trouble,
requiring approximately 15 attempts for the redpoint. Puigblanque feels
Estado Critico to be 5.14d and the second hardest route in the area, just
after his own La Rambla extension.
Slab Technician
Bain De Sang 5.14d at St. Loup, Switzerland has been repeated
by Italian Alessandro Lamberti. According to Lamberti, the near-vertical
route with very technical climbing and a boulder problem crux at the top
required “much more fine tuning and co-ordination, it has to be climbed
much more serenely and with less rage,” an approach in marked contrast
to other high end steep sport routes he has done. Lamberti is unsure of
the grade of Bain De Sang, but feels that the V10 boulder crux which arrives
at the end combined with the lack of fast repeats, pushes Bain De Sang beyond
the realm of 5.14c.
V15 Trade Route
In the three years since Fred Nicole’s Dream Time
V15 at Cresciano was established, the problem has gone from being the world’s
most difficult to a journeyman problem, albeit a journeyman problem for
the world’s elite. This spring saw ascents by Italian Mauro Calibani
and American James Litz. Amid all the ascents come charges of chipping and
manipulation from none other then Fred Nicole. Nicole states that Cresciano
and Dreamtime in particular has fallen victim to over-enthusiastic cleaning
with steel brushes, and said “some must have used more than a brush.”
However, Malcolm Smith, a recent ascensionist, has countered that he has
“tried this problem on a number of occasions since its first ascent
and I think if there are changes then they must be very subtle indeed. I
have not noticed a marked difference in the size of the holds or the difficulty
of the problem.” Smith also stated that, “I think that what
can happen over years and after thousands of brushings and hands is that
the holds can change organically.”
McClure Becomes Grit’s Elder Statesman
Briton Steve McClure, best known for his cutting edge sport
routes, has turned his attention toward gritstone and its associated traditional
ethos. The result is Elder Statesman, the arête to the left of Elder
Crack, a longstanding “last great line” that has rebuffed the
efforts of many of Britain’s best climbers. The line starts via the
original crack and launches out on to the arête at three quarter height.
McClure gains an edge near the corner via a heel toe cam in the crack, putting
him in a fully horizontal position, before launching out around the corner
in a violent swing to latch a bad hold on the face and easier ground. McClure
hesitates to assign a grade citing his inexperience with gritstone grades,
but the route is likely to be at least E7 which translated to a 5.13 or
harder trad line.
5.14b Onsight?
Spanish climber Patxi Usobiaga has shown he is in fine
onsighting form for the upcoming season with a week-long spree in Alquezar
and Laroanna, Spain. Usobiaga kicked things off with an onsight of B12 rated
at 5.14a/b and Desafiendo Newton 5.14a. Then proceeded to link Desafiendo
Newton with Tsunami 5.14b a route he had done previously. Impressively,
Usobiaga completed the linkage on his first attempt, to produce Desafiendo
Tsunami 5.14c/d. If the rating of B12 eventually settles at 5.14b, it will
stand as the first 5.14b onsight. _Andre Cheuk
News
Smith Rocks Trad
Redux
Torontonian Sonnie Trotter recently tested his personal
limits on the run out Smith Rock classic East Face 5.13c/d (FA Alan Watts,
1985). The route follows a 44m-crack line and has five bolts, a belay station
and one fixed piton for protection.
According to the Smith guide book, the route still awaited its first true
redpoint almost 20 years after the first ascent. Trotter, stoked on trad
climbs as of late, intended to clean the route without clipping any fixed
gear. Because the route has meagre protection and requires a mandatory runout
section at the crux, it’s rarely attempted.
“My first attempt on lead I took a sweet 40-footer,” described
Trotter. “It was awesome but a heartbreaker. I had only two more moves
to go. I found it very difficult to place protection while right in the
middle of the cruxy bulging sections.”
It took Trotter seven days over two weeks before he put the sequence together.
In mid-April, he sent the route. “It was positively one of my most
rewarding climbing moments. It was for sure a huge step above You Must Be
High in Eldo.” Referring to a 5.13c/d R/X route he recently climbed.
Discussing his revamped fervour for trad climbing, Totter claimed that he
“looks forward to trying other desperately hard climbs on clean gear.
It just feels right to do things this way.”
Festiglace The North Face du Québec
On February 20th to 22nd, the seventh annual Festiglace
The North Face du Québec was held in Pont-Rouge. The ice climbing
took place in the Ile de Raisin Canyon, a spot considered by many to be
among the top five ice destinations in the world. The competition featured
top climbers Guy Lacelle, Will Gadd and Abby Watkins in the team, speed
and mixed events. This year’s Festiglace drew an excellent turnout
from both competitors and spectators. Evening entertainment included slide
shows by Gadd, Sean Isaac and Jérôme Blanc-Gras. The Adidas
amateur speed-climbing event was a spectator favourite, featuring top rock
climbers like Nick Sagar trying their hand in this icy medium. Gadd, Stéphane
Lapointe and Jérôme Blancgras were the top three respectively
in the men’s speed competition while Abby Watkins, Audrey Gariépy
and Myriam St-Louis finished one, two, three in the women’s event.
_Chris Lepik
Rockies Mixed: Euro Onslaught
With the cancellation of this winter’s Ice World
Cup many of Europe’s top mixed climbers made the journey across the
Atlantic to attend the Canmore Ice Climbing Festival and Kayland Cup Competition
as well as sample the Canadian Rockies renowned mixed testpieces. As one
local sarcastically pointed out, “The Cineplex was the Ice World Cup
this year.”
The main action was centred on Ben Firth’s latest creation, The Game
M13, now heralded as the toughest in the world. First on the scene was Harry
Berger (Austria) who made a semi-repeat of The Game by doing the first roof
(crux) then unknowingly finished up on the last half of the parallel Rocky
Mountain Horror Show (M11+) instead of its proper finish which is slightly
harder. Israel Blanco (Spain) made the true second ascent. He overcame the
crux dyno with cunning by leaving his heel-spur hooked on the tool he launched
from in order to make the span. He then proceeded to release his lower tool
with his feet and bring it up to his hand, while dangling by one tool. Mauro
“Bubu” Bole (Italy) made the third ascent but being much shorter
than the giant Firth, he had to add 10 cm extensions to his axes to make
the crux reach. Regarding these tactics, Firth quips, “It’s
all part of the game.” Evgeny Kirovshetsev (Ukraine) went on to make
a fourth repeat.
Mixed climbing is evolving at such a breakneck pace that routes like Musashi,
originally M12 and only a year ago considered the hardest in the world,
saw stacks of ascents. This 25 m horizontal challenge saw over 10 repeats
including its first flash by Blanco and first female ascent by Anna Toretta
(Italy). Other European uber-climbers also made rapid repeats including
Kurt Astner (Italy), Herbert, Bole, Kirovshetsev, Chris Cubbet (England),
Ines Papert (Germany) and Scott Muir (Scotland).
Rocky Mountain Horror Show (originally M11+), beside Musashi also saw a
flurry of traffic. The crux slot has widened, creating a very technical
torque and making it substantially harder than when originally climbed.
It saw redpoints by Kirovshetsev and Roger Strong of the USA as well as
an onsight ascent by Bole, becoming the hardest onsight of a mixed route
to date.
On the local front, Sean Isaac of Canmore sent both Rocky Mountain Horror
Show and Musashi. Along with Isaac, Kirovshetsev and Bole are the only other
two people this year to repeat both. All three believe that RHMS is definitely
the harder of the two. Musashi has gotten easier with traffic (the holds
are more positive from picks digging in) while RMHS has become harder. Having
repeated these two testpieces, Isaac believes that his and Dave Thomson’s
2001 Stanley Headwall route, Phyllis Diller (originally graded M10 and unrepeated),
is in retrospect much harder and probably closer to M11 when compared to
the Cineplex routes.
In the Hoar House Cave at the back of Haffner Creek, Joe Buszowski established
Neolithic M11, besides Isaac’s roof-and-log contrivance Caveman M10.
Like its neighbour, Neolithic has absolutely no ice but makes up for this
with difficulty. Berger made the second ascent in four tries confirming
the grade. Now in his mid-40s, Buszowski is in his mixed climbing prime.
He has witnessed the evolution of the sport since his first ascent of the
classic Mixed Master with Troy Kirwan in 1991. Caveman also received its
first flash ascent by Calgary strongman,
Mike Charbonneau.
Besides the hard sends by visiting climbers, local activists have been hard
at work establishing more mixed classics. The second edition of Mixed Climbs
in the Canadian Rockies came out in January and there are already over 30
new routes, many of which are of the traditionally protected variety. _Sean
Isaac
North Face of The North Twin Climbed Again
Steve House and Marko Prezelj recently made the coveted
third ascent up the north face of The North Twin. Their mixed route sits
between the two now infamous routes on the Twin, the unrepeated Lowe/Jones
(1974) and Blanchard/Cheesmond routes (1985). The ascent is the third time
in 30 years the North Twin has been climbed successfully.
In spite of a minor catastrophe during their third bivy in which House managed
to drop his outer right boot, the twosome worked their way up the 1371 m
headwall. House was forced to second with a single boot but managed to attach
his right crampon to his inner liner. Prezelj led the final 10 pitches before
the duo were forced to bivi just shy of the summit on April 7th. _Mark
Cohen
Drytoolers Blitz Rockies Alpine
Between February 19-21, Ben Firth and Raphael Slawinski
made the first winter ascent of the Greenwood-Locke route on the north face
of Mt Temple (V 5.8 A2 in the summer), 1200 m M6 in the winter. On day one,
the duo skied in, soloed up the Dolphin couloir then climbed five rope lengths
on the headwall before pitching their Bibler over a snow flute. Firth and
Slawinski freed the remaining six pitches of drytooling on day two.
According to Slawinski, the route had seen 10 previous winter attempts,
none of them successful. Sean Dougherty, Jeff Marshall, Chris Geisler and
the late Guy Edwards all attempted the route- Dougherty himself put in four
separate attempts.
“As for our climb,” said Slawinski, “the difference between
it and the previous attempts (and perhaps also what tipped the scales in
our favour) was our extensive drytooling experience, both on bolted mixed
climbs and on more traditional routes. We drytooled the difficult section
of the route for no other reason than it was the easiest and fastest way
to go about things.”
A month later, Slawinski returned to Temple with Russian Valery Babinov
(who recently immigrated to Canada) to climb The Sphinx Face V 5.9 A2, a
route first done in 1988 by Ward Robinson and Rob Orvig. Slawinski and Babinov
climbed the route and drytooled their way through the route’s difficult
M6 sections. Unfortunately,
they were forced to descend shy of the summit because of deteriorating conditions.
The Greenwood-Locke route, first climbed in 1966, is considered a Rockies
alpine classic. The route offers the least hazardous, most technical climbing
on the north face of Temple. It sits to the right of the easier but slightly
more committing 1974 Elzinga-Miller summer route that’s seen a minimum
of three winter ascents. _Mark Cohen
