August - September 2006
rock news
Squamish’s Cobra
“the World’s Hardest Crack”
Cobra Crack at Squamish’s Cirque of the Uncrackables, is described in Kevin Lane’s guidebook as “the most awesome Last Great Problem at Squamish.” The thin overhanging 30 m crack was first attempted by Peter Croft in 1981 and since then by almost every hard climber at Squamish as well as international athletes like Swiss trad master Dider Berthod. After 30-40 attempts over three years, Canada’s Sonnie Trotter finally sent it on June 23, grading it about 5.14a/b, but acknowledging that for some it could seem like 5.14c/d. “It’s certainly the hardest pure crack climb in the world,” says Trotter. For those who want to give it a try, Trotter offers the following beta: “The crux is pulling over the lip around the 2/3 mark. It involves huge dynamic throws between one and two finger locks, pain is ever-present and the mental crux is overlooking the pain move after move. The redpoint crux comes over the lip on a slippery side pull, the feet are next to nothing and it takes momentum and a huge throw to latch the final edge, at which point you’re about fifteen to twenty feet above your last piece of gear; it’s really exciting.”
State of the Art Onsights
Spaniard Ramon Julian Puigblanque has onsighted Suma 0 8c (5.14b) at Cuenca in Spain. With this send, Puigblanque becomes the fourth person, after Japanese climber Yuji Hirayama, Czech Tomás Mrázek and Basque Patxi Usobiaga, to onsight a 14b.
All four climbers have a strong competition background and each has registered one or more victories at the World Cup Level. This is no surprise, since onsighting is absolutely imperative in competition climbing. It is interesting that all four onsights have taken place in Spain, although two of the climbers are not Spanish and spend a limited amount of their time climbing there. Some might conclude that Spanish grades are softer than elsewhere, but it is possible that Spain simply has an abundance of long high end stamina climbs on impeccable limestone with weather conducive to onsight attempts.
Meanwhile, Josune Bereziartu has quietly onsighted Hydrofobia 8b/+ or 5.13d/5.14a at Montsant, also in Spain. The route was flashed by Katie Brown years ago, and has seen numerous onsights since. The grade has also fluctuated between 5.13d and 5.14a. If the grade eventually settles at 14a, then Bereziartu will have set the new benchmark for female onsight ascents again. Regardless of the grade of Hydrofobia, Bereziartu will have Frenchwoman Caroline Ciavaldini close on her heels. This summer, Ciavaldini managed to onsight her second 8b (5.13d), A Bout de Souffle in Peillon, France.
Dani Android
Dani Andrada is up to his usual tricks again, putting up hard new ascents, but this time, he is going ropeless with traverses. Neither boulder problem nor route, traverses are an amalgam of the attributes of both, with the unfettered freedom of bouldering by going ropeless, combining with the endurance aspects of route climbing. At the Baltzola cave in the Basque region of Spain, Andrada repeated the established traverse Trave Arroita de Laja at 8B or V13, and then added his own, Star Sin Piedra Trave Arroita, also 8B, and La Trav. De Arroi Total (sin pegao), at 8c+/9a, the hardest traverse in the world. Andrada feels that, if translated into a route grade, La Trav. De Arroi Total should be 9a+/b, making it roughly 5.15a/b.
Andrada has been garnering attention for the past year with his headline-grabbing 5.14d and 5.15a first ascents. Of late, however, Andrada has been garnering the wrong kind of attention from the community at large as some of these routes are repeated and downgraded by the second ascensionists. Some of these included El Intento in Cuenca, repeated by Ramon Julian, Iker Pou and Patxi Usobiaga, all of whom downgraded it from its original grade of 9a or 5.14d to 8c+/5.14c; and C.S.E. Ultima Lola at the Santa Linya cave by Julian, who suggests 8c+ instead of 9a. This has led to accusations of overgrading to gain headlines.
Much Ado About Arches
On May 7, American climber Dean Potter successfully climbed Delicate Arches at Arches National Park, Utah, and in so doing set off a firestorm of controversy. News of the ascent filtered out through video footage released by Potter and a press release from Potter’s sponsor Patagonia. Initially presented as a spontaneous, leave no trace, free solo of the formation, it became clear from the footage that significant rehearsal and preparation had gone into the ascent. Most damagingly, it seemed that ropes were used to shoot stills and video footage of the ascents, which can easily abrade and wear grooves in the soft sandstone formation.
Due to the delicate nature of the formations, the Park Service has a policy which actively discourages, but stops short of forbidding ascents, and climbers have circumvented the regulations by scaling the formation clandestinely. Subsequent to Potter’s ascent, Arches National Park Service closed all named formations in the park to climbing indefinitely, as well as placing a ban on new fixed anchors in the park.
As a result of his actions and the subsequent rule change by the Park Service, Potter has drawn the ire of the many in the climbing community at large, with many condemning him on bulletin boards and the blogosphere, as well writing angry letters to Potter’s main sponsor Patagonia. But as the groundswell of controversy grew, and the stance that he left no trace grew untenable in the face of mounting evidence, Patagonia and Potter issued a joint statement containing public apologies from both the company itself as well as a personal one from Potter.
Fifteen-year-old Wins World Cup
The second leg of this year’s difficulty World Cup, held in Dresden Germany, announced the arrival of Austrian sensation David Lama, who has dominated the junior circuit at the adult level. In only his second outing at the senior level, Lama won, albeit in a rain-shortened event. Held in an outdoor venue, the Dresden World Cup was abruptly ended by a thunder shower, and Lama was announced as the winner based on his semifinal result of provisional first place. Despite the minor snag, Lama’s performance – coming within four moves of onsighting the semi-final route rated 5.14a, closest of all the competitors including reigning world champion Tomás Mrázek – should leave no doubt that he is a talent to watch not in the future, but right now. As if to drive home this point, Lama arrived in Ceuse shortly after his win and promptly dispatched Biographie 5.14c in only three attempts.
Lama’s compatriot Angela Eiter continued her winning ways, dominating this event from beginning to end just as she has done in every World Cup but one for the past two years.
On the bouldering side, the fourth stage of the World Cup was held at Grindelwald Switzerland and showed the current points leader Jerome Meyer – who has finished on the podium at every event so far this season – in commanding form. Meyer was the only man to complete all six final problems, while runner-up Loic Galdloz, also of France, managed to complete only two. Third place was filled by Austrian Killian Fischuber who maintained his second place in the overall points standing with his podium finish. Canadian Sean McColl, making his World Cup bouldering debut, finished a respectable thirteenth. In a shocking upset, the current women’s points leader, Olga Bibik of Russia and runner up Juliette Danion of France both failed to advance to the finals, Anna Stohr of Austria won for the women.
mountain news
Second Great Season in Alaska for Québecois
Last year Louis-Phillipe Ménard and French Canadian Maxime Turgeon climbed the difficult Spice Factory on the North Face of Mt Bradley in Alaska. This year, they returned to climb a new direct line on the South Face of Denali. The Canadian Direct tackles a 5.9 M6 AI4, 9,000 ft line between the Japanese and American Direct Routes and was climbed alpine style in a continuous 58 hour push. Ménard says the first half of the route was mainly “stellar, bare hands rock climbing with the occasional ice pitch.” The last half, which they climbed through heavy snowfall and spindrift conditions, was mainly mixed.
The week before, Turgeon teamed with American Will Mayo to climb a difficult new line on the southwest side of Mt Foraker’s (17,400 ft) French Ridge. Shortly after their 5,000 ft line joined the French Ridge at 13,500 ft, about 4,000 ft below the summit, they rappelled due to bad weather.
Turgeon and Ménard, trained on the hard mixed terrain of Québec, are emerging as formidable players in the Alaskan alpine scene.
Tragedy on Foraker
On May 14, Canmore’s Karen McNeill and American Sue Nott, two of the most experienced female alpinists in North America, set out on Mt Foraker’s Infinite Spur. The spur is 9,400 ft long and has sustained technical terrain in a remote, high-altitude setting and is rarely climbed.
A week later, Denali Park rangers found a pack and some of its contents, suggesting that the pack had fallen and burst. It contained a sleeping bag and a radio and some clothes were found close by. On June 6, tracks were spotted at the 16,400 ft level, 1,000 ft below the summit, but bad weather and poor visibility hampered attempts to investigate them further. After 18 days, the search was scaled back, as no further evidence of their survival was found.
The loss of these talented and well-loved alpinists is a hard blow to the North American climbing community. Please see the obituaries for more information.
Andromeda Gets Hard New Line
Few would describe Rockies mixed and ice testpiece Andromeda StrainV 5.9 A2 WI4 as “child’s play,” but that’s how Rockies aficionado Raphael Slawinski says it compares to his and Scott Semple’s new route to its left. On May 15, they climbed eight pitches up a corner and gully with a “demanding, pumpy crux.” They named it The Doctor, the Tourist, His Crampon and Their Banana and graded it V M7.
Kazakhs on Manaslu
The experienced team of Sergey Samoilov and Denis Urubko have added a direct route to the Northeast Face of Manaslu (8,156 m). Their climb took four days and was done in alpine style. The most difficult section on the route was a rock step near the top. Last year, Samoilov and Urubko put up a difficult alpine style route on Broad Peak (8,047 m), which, along with House and Anderson’s new Nanga Parbat climb, was one of the year’s best Himalayan efforts.
Everest Epics
In May, the world’s highest peak became the subject of mass media reporting when 40 climbers passed dying Brit David Sharp without offering assistance. While this embarrassed but didn’t surprise many climbers, including Sir Edmund Hillary, soon afterwards Andrew Brash (originally from Southern Ontario and now residing in Calgary) did his bit to redeem the reputation of Everesters. On May 25, Australian climber Lincoln Hall reached the summit of Everest but on the descent sat down overcome with altitude sickness. His Sherpas spent nine hours trying to help him and announced him dead at 7:20 p.m. The next morning, Brash and his teammates found Lincoln irrational and sitting on a cliff edge without gloves or insulated clothing. Brash forfeited his summit to look after Hall until help arrived to move him to a lower elevation. This was Brash’s second attempt at the summit in two weeks and he was within 200 m of the top of Everest when he chose to abandon his climb and help Hall.
Obituaries
A Glitter Girl Retrospective
Story Margo Talbot
Karen McNeill
1969–2006
Several years ago Karen and I helped organize the Canmore Ice Climbing Festival in our hometown of Canmore, Alberta. We decided that we needed our own logo to plaster all over the posters and leaflets, and it was out of this that The Glitter Girls were born. Who could have known at the time to what heights this farm girl from a New Zealand sheep farm would take this nomenclature.
Born in 1969 in Taihape, Karen showed early on a strong connection to nature, indigenous people, and the empowerment of women. Never a stranger to athletic endeavours, she turned her attention to mountaineering at the age of 18, at the same time she began a teaching degree at the University of Christchurch. Unsatisfied by the lack of waterfall ice and steep alpine terrain in her home country, Karen moved to Canada in 1994 in search of these.
I met Karen shortly after her arrival in Canmore. There were not many women climbing ice and I happened to be one of them. I was struck by Karen’s mixture of naïveté and determination. Karen pointed out that I needed to climb with other women to find my capabilities. At that time she was climbing with other women as much as possible and all of her later expeditions reflected this choice. Karen believed that women were as strong as men and could climb as hard as men. She felt women learned the most when they climbed with other women. All of her female friends agree that she was the most supportive and encouraging of climbing partners, whether climbing with peers or teaching clinics for Mountain Hardwear and Chicks with Picks.
It is interesting to look back on the seemingly haphazard choices that in retrospect form a lucid and comprehensible pathway. Karen spent several years focusing on her technical skills on rock and ice, but the whole while she planned to take these back into the big mountains that were her first love. When she finally decided to take these skills back to the mountains, we watched her plan expedition after expedition, leave us for months at a time, and return with her Kiwi accent and a beautiful, thoughtful gift. She spoke about her most recent foray into the hills and in the same conversation let you know what her next trip was going to be.
In the midst of all of this, Karen lived in a small cabin with her partner Brad Bennett. Brad did not climb and lived totally separate from Karen’s glitter-filled social life. This was good for Karen as it allowed her the freedom she needed and a stable background to return to. In the same pursuit of freedom, she became a substitute teacher, at first preferring to work on the Morley reserve and eventually exclusively teaching the indigenous people with whom she closely related.
Once Karen got a taste of expedition life she was terminally smitten. Between 1995 and 2005 she went on 13 expeditions, 12 of which were organized by her. These expeditions took her all over the world, where she revelled in the natural beauty of the planet as well and its cultures.
When Karen left for her last expedition, her life had evolved much from her humble beginnings. She had met the man with whom she would spend the rest of her life, was dearly loved by the children of her school, had accumulated much sparkle jewelry and faux fur garments, and moved to a spacious condo overlooking the limestone face of Chinaman’s Peak. She had attained the level of sponsorship needed to pursue her dream of climbing the world’s big mountains, and found the perfect partners with which to pursue these dreams.
Karen never returned from her last trip. She and Sue Nott disappeared on the Infinite Spur on Alaska’s Mt Foraker. She is dearly missed by her partner, family, and many friends who watched this shy, curly-haired woman turn into the outrageously determined Glitter Girl.
Sue Nott
1969–2006
Nott, a resident of Vail Colorado, disappeared on the Infinite Spur of Mt Foraker with Canmore’s Karen McNeill in May. She was one of the outstanding American female alpinists of her generation. Nott left a career in competitive figure skating for climbing in 1990. She eschewed the obvious path to fame of big name Himalayan snow plods for technical alpinism and ice climbing. Her ascents included not only classics like a winter ascent of the Eigerwand and the North Face Les Droites, but modern testpieces like Beyond Good and Evil on Mont Blanc. In 1998, Nott survived the collapse of an ice pillar when she was climbing The Seventh Tentacle in Colorado, and doctors thought she might die from the internal injuries. She recovered and returned to the mountains with a vengeance, however, teaming up with McNeill in 2000 to climb the East Ridge of Shivling in the Himalayas and, in 2005, for the first all female ascent of the Cassin Ridge on Denali. She was a role model for many aspiring female alpinists and ice climbers and will be sorely missed.–Gripped
