October - November 2006
mountain news
Slovenians on Janak
Janak (7,100 m) in Nepal, was opened for climbing in 2002. On a 2003 visit, Andrej Stremfelj climbed a new route on the Southwest face to the summit plateau before descending. In May, Stremfelj and Rok Zalokar of Slovenia climbed a route up the difficult and impressive Southwest buttress. The crux was a difficult two pitch traverse followed by two three pitches of hard mixed terrain.
Historic Alpine Rock Route Soloed
When Modern Times 5.12a, 27 pitches, on the South Face of the Marmolada in Italy was put up by Hans Mariacher and Luisa Iovane in 1982 it represented a new standard of difficulty and commitment for alpine free climbing. They used only pitons and natural protection and onsighted everything except the first pitch, which they redpointed. In June, Austrian Hansjörg Auer made the first free solo. Auer had tried the route several times in the past, but was turned back by cold conditions.
Kazakhs on Manaslu
The experienced and fit team of Denis Urubko and Serguey Samoilov, who completed a hard new route on Broad Peak last season returned to the Himalayas this spring. In spite of a major storm, they climbed a new route on Manaslu’s Northeast face, alpine style and without oxygen. Urubko has climbed 10 8,000 m peaks, and summitted Broad Peak and Manaslu twice. The pair are now one of the strongest teams active in the Himalayas and seem likely to continue their annual attempts on some of the biggest and hardest faces on the planet.
rock news
Busy Season of Free Big Walls in Europe
Having served his apprenticeship by completing Switzerland’s alpine free trilogy (Silbergeier by Beat Kammerlander, End of Silence by Thomas Huber and Des Kaisers Neue Kleider, all of which include pitches up to 5.14a), Austrian Harry Berger has added his own line next to Silbergeier. Antihydral, six pitches ranging from 5.12b to 5.13d, an abandoned project bolted more than a decade ago, is capped by a two-metre bulge.
Like the area’s other lines, Antihydral involves very technical climbing. Another feature of Antihydral, typical of the routes in the area, is long run outs. The adventurous nature of the climb meant, according to Berger, “even if you’re not necessarily facing death, you have to think creatively to check out the moves to avoid spectacular whippers.”
Also in Switzerland, German climber Robert Jasper, with partner Stephan Eder, freed the Yeti Route on the north face of the Eiger. First climbed with aid in 1998 by Andreas Gianni and Max Ghirondi, the 1,000 m long route contains multiple pitches of 5.12 climbing and two 5.13a pitches. The pair blasted up the route in a 12-hour continuous push.
German ice champion Ines Papert knocked off the first female and only third overall ascent of the Camilotto Pellisier 5.13d on the north face of the Cima Grande in the Italian Dolomites. Papert attempted the route briefly in 2005, but an injury put paid to any hope of a quick ascent. This summer, after roughly ten days of work, she nabbed the redpoint after a 14-hour effort.
Basque brothers Iker and Eneko Pou have added Lurgorri, the latest and most difficult big wall line on the Naranjo de Bulnes formation in Spain. The Pou brothers eschewed bolts where possible and led the climb in a single push on their redpoint. The first and most difficult pitch at 5.14c as well as the fourth pitch have no bolts, while the second at 5.12b and the third at 5.11d have one bolt each. Only the 5.13a fifth pitch is mainly bolt protected.
Lurgorri is part of an ongoing project of the Pou brothers to free all the lines on the Naranjo de Bulnes. In addition to Lurgorri, they have also established Zunbeltz 5.14a and repeated Quinto Imperio 5.13d and Pilar Del Cantábrico 5.13c, all on the Naranjo de Bulnes formation.
European Championship Fiasco
The European Championship this July in Ekaterinburg, Russia, collected more than 150 athletes from 14 countries and managed to disappoint every single one of them. The competition started promisingly enough, with news of a new lead wall built expressly for the competition. However, when competitors arrived for preview, they found a barely overhanging wall straight out of the 1980s. Many competitors felt it was a travesty, and that the older steeper competition wall, though smaller, would have provided a much better show. Despite the old school style of the comp route it was the young guns that prevailed. David Lama (AUT) and Charlotte Durif (FRA), both only 16, took first place for men and women respectively.
The news got worse when it was discovered that event organizers had failed to secure enough mats for the bouldering competition, forcing UIAA officials to cancel the comp on the grounds of safety. The episode prompted calls from the athletes for the UIAA to explain how so many things went wrong in such an important sanctioned competition overseen by its own officials.
David Lama in Yosemite
David Lama has popped up in the Mecca of Yosemite for some trad climbing experience. Lama took to it with unnerving ease. With little previous experience on granite cracks, Lama onsighted the 450 m long Leaning Tower West Face which goes at 5.13b A0 and even more impressively authored the first ascent of Ma chochon d’inde 5.13c. With these ascents, Lama seems to show that he is much more than a talented competition specialist.
Into the Abyss
One of the possible reasons that this has been an unpredictable World Cup season may be the absence of Alex Chabot, the most successful male competition climber ever. Chabot is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with and suspended from the national team by the French climbing federation, making him ineligible for international competition, for his refusal to wear team uniforms bearing corporate logos and to sign contracts with sponsors.
Chabot has not been sitting idle, however. In addition to attending disciplinary and appeal hearings, Chabot has been logging significant time at the crags. At Deversé in southeastern France, Chabot completed a line he first spied and bolted a year ago. The all-natural Abyss follows a tufa on a face that overhangs from 45 to 70 degrees for its entire 20 m length. It kicks off with a V8 boulder problem then continues for a further 40 moves, requiring precise and dynamic movement without any rests. Adding to the difficulty, the route is only in condition for two or three months of the year, and the steepness means ground falls from missed clips are possible. Chabot feels it is difficult to grade because the climb is all natural and different sequences could be found on subsequent ascents, but after comparison with other routes in the area, proposes 9a or 5.14d.
Competition News: Asia Edition
The World Cup series swung through Asia for a whirlwind tour this summer, drawing huge crowds in the Qinghai province of China, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, all in three weeks. Whether due to the jet lag and gruelling travel schedule, neither of the current points leaders, Italian Flavio Crespi and Austrian Angela Eiter, will have left Asia satisfied with their performance. Crespi, after winning the opening round in Purrs, has seen a resurgent Ramon Julian Puigblanque take two wins on the trot in China and Singapore, while Crespi was only able to muster a string of fourth-place finishes. Thanks to a disastrous showing in Kuala Lumpur, which saw Puigblanque disqualified for touching out of bounds and finishing a lowly 20th, Crespi still hangs onto a slender lead of 30 points heading into the final two events in Marbella, Spain and Shanghai, China.
Puigblanque was not the only Spaniard to recover from a slow start to the season. Patxi Usobiaga finished on the podium in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and Edouard Marin Garcia completed an all-Spanish podium in Singapore. While Puigblanque probably rued the missed opportunity in Kuala Lumpur and Crespi breathed a sigh of relief, German Timo Preussler will remember it fondly as the venue of his first World Cup victory. With Preussler’s win, he will be the fifth winner in six events, making this year’s championship the most wide-open in years.
Even though Malaysia has been on the calendar for the last few years, and the series has touched down in Japan in the past, almost all World Cup events have been held in Europe. But with stagnating growth in Europe and a continual inability to move beyond the grassroots level in North America, Asia – the only place to see significant increase in the popularity of competition climbing in the last few years (climbing, both bouldering and speed, is still featured in the Asian X-games) – seems poised to take over as the centre of competition climbing.
Unendliche Geschichte Repeated
On his first visit this summer to the forest of Magic Woods, Austrian Kilian Fischuber repeated Unendliche Geschichte or the Neverending Story. The line climbs out the underside of a steep, almost roof-like prow, and is often divided into two halves due to a jug in the middle. According to Fischuber, “I had tried many other problems (at Magic Woods) but they were all nothing compared to Unendliche Geschichte (the whole thing). I saw that the parts are divided by a big hold but for me it did not count. I saw that it is ‘one’ line and I decided to try the whole thing.” He made the ascent of the whole problem on his third visit. Unendliche Geschichte was a project of Bernd Zangerl completed in 2003 by Chris Sharma. Sharma declined to grade the problem, prompting speculations of V15 or even V16. However, second ascensionist Julius Westphal suggested V14 may be more appropriate. Fischuber is best known as a competition boulderer who (unusually) mostly climbs routes when climbing outdoors, although this may be changing, according to Fischuber. “I thought that after I will do Unendliche Geschichte I will use my rope and harness again, but now I am really psyched to go back to Magic Wood.”
Andrada Testpiece Repeated
On July 17, Tino Lois made the first repeat of Definición de Resistencia Demócrata, Dani Andrada’s 9a+ (5.15a) testpiece at Terradets, Spain. The route connects an existing 5.14b to the crux portion of a 5.14c, with the crux of the whole route coming from the section of new climbing that links the two climbs. Lois, little known outside of Spain, is hesitant to confirm the grade without trying other 5.15a routes. He had never sent a 5.14d before redpointing Definición de Resistencia Demócrata. However, he possesses a solid track record up to the 5.14c level, having redpointed one in four attempts within a day. Lois will say that the route is at least 5.14d, noting a huge difference in difficulty between Definición de Resistencia Demócrata and other routes at the 5.14c level he has done.
Squamish Link-up Bar Reset
On August 7, Sonnie Trotter and Matt Seagal (USA) linked The Free Grand Wall 5.13b, University Wall via The Shadow 5.13b and the Black Dyke 5.13a. On a single day in 1994, Sig Isaac led every pitch on the Freeway and University Wall, a feat not equalled until 2004, when American Tommy Caldwell and Trotter linked The Grand Wall, The Shadow and Freeway 5.11d.
Obituaries
Hans Gmoser
Canadian Mountain Pioneer
1932-2006
Story Chic Scott
Hans Gmoser, the eminence grise of Canadian mountaineering, died July 5th, 2006, from injuries sustained in a fall while cycling the 1A highway near Banff. In recent years Gmoser had shunned the limelight, content to enjoy his two favourite activities – cross-country skiing in winter and cycling in summer. But during the 1950s, 60s and 70s he laid the foundation of modern mountaineering in Canada. He pioneered rock, alpine and expedition climbing, popularized ski mountaineering and was largely responsible for creating our professional mountain guides association. Through his films and later through helicopter skiing he made the Canadian mountains world-famous.
Born in Braunau, Austria, on July 7, 1932, Hans grew up during the troubled war years. As a teenager he discovered the mountains and a lifelong passion was kindled. With his friend Franz Dopf he climbed and skied and developed his mountaineering skills. Then, in 1951, Hans and his friend Leo Grillmair immigrated to Canada. Life was pretty spartan for the pair and their first job was logging near Whitecourt, Alberta. Soon they made their way to Calgary, where they were joined by Dopf. Linking up with The Alpine Club of Canada, they began to discover our incredible mountain wilderness. During the summer months their passion was rock climbing, pioneering new routes on Mount Yamnuska in the front ranges of the Rockies. In the winter it was ski touring near the Stanley Mitchell Hut in the Little Yoho Valley, near Field, BC. Here they celebrated their first Canadian Christmas and learned to love their adopted country. Hans played the zither and Leo loved to sing, so the wilderness cabin was full of music.
Hans’s mountaineering achievements during the 1950s and 1960s are numerous and a brief list would include early ascents of Mount Alberta and Brussels Peak, two of the hardest challenges in the Rockies; a remarkable ascent of the east ridge of Mount Logan; the second (and possibly first) ascent of Mount Blackburn in Alaska; and a new route on the north face of Denali. As a skier he pioneered new high-level ski traverses in the Purcell Mountains and along the crest of the Rockies from Kicking Horse Pass to the Columbia Icefield. He inspired several generations of fledgling mountaineers. The idealistic articles he wrote in the Canadian Alpine Journal were music to young ears looking for an alternative lifestyle: “What were we trying to do? Were we trying to show off? Were we trying to kill ourselves? – No! We wanted to inhale and breathe life again. We were rebelling against an existence which humankind has forced upon itself. We were rebelling against an existence full of distorted values, against an existence where a man is judged by the size of his living-room, by the amount of chromium on his car. But here we were ourselves again: simple and pure. Friends in the mountains.”
But it was as a mountain guide that he really made his mark. He began leading ski tours for Erling Strom and Lizzie Rummel near Mount Assiniboine in 1953. Lizzie became a close friend and confidant, as did Fred Pessl, one of Hans’s first clients. Hans never forgot the early friends he made in the mountains. They supported him when he needed help and he repaid their trust many times over. In later years Hans would host ‘Nostalgia Week’ at his lodge in the Bugaboos and invite his early clients and supporters to join him for a week of heli-skiing.
In 1957 Hans founded Rocky Mountain Guides Ltd. He led mountain climbers during the summer, but the real bread and butter programs were the ski weeks in the winter, at Mt Assiniboine, Rogers Pass and, of course, at his beloved Stanley Mitchell cabin in the Little Yoho Valley. From 1957 to 1967 Hans made 10 ski and climbing films that he toured all over North America, from Alaska to California and east to Montreal and New York. One year he had 53 lecture dates on his schedule and attracted a crowd of 2,500 people in Detroit. Hans accompanied these films with a romantic narration that thrilled and inspired audiences. A critic in a Milwaukee newspaper wrote, “In narrating the film Mr. Gmoser offered more than entertainment… there was a simple lesson in philosophy.” Hans was a gifted communicator, a poet in fact, and wrote in the Canadian Alpine Journal, “In the end, to ski is to travel fast and free – free over the untouched snow-covered country. To be bound to one slope, even to one mountain, by a lift may be convenient but it robs us of the greatest pleasure that skiing can give, that is, to travel through the wide wintry country; to follow the lure of the peaks which tempt on the horizon and to be alone for a few days or even a few hours in clear, mysterious surroundings.”
Although Hans loved traditional ski touring from small cabins in the wilderness, he is today known as the father of helicopter skiing. In 1965 he ran the first two commercial heli-ski weeks from an old logging camp in the Bugaboo Mountains, near Radium, BC. Heli-skiing took off, for the timing was perfect: the requisite jet helicopter technology was just being developed. By 1968 luxurious Bugaboo Lodge was open, welcoming blue-ribbon clientele from around North America and Europe. Hans’s Rocky Mountain Guides Ltd. grew to become Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH), with 500 employees and a dozen lodges scattered throughout the interior of BC.
Hans was also a founding member of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides and its first technical chairman. Throughout his career he took a keen interest in guides’s affairs and for a number of years was the association’s honourary president. Hans’s pioneering efforts in mountain climbing, ski touring and heli-skiing created an industry that today employs hundreds of guides and thousands of support staff.
Beyond all these notable achievements, Hans was simply a remarkable man who inspired loyalty and in return would be your lifelong friend. He was a man who, in the words of the poet Rudyard Kipling, could “walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch.” Gmoser numbered among his friends and clients Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (whom he guided up Bugaboo Spire), the King of Spain and the King and Queen of Norway, but during his tenure at the helm of CMH he probably knew the name of every guest who skied at his lodges and every staff member who took care of them.
Hans met his wife, Margaret MacGougan, skiing at the Stanley Mitchell Hut and they married in 1966. They have lived all these years in the same modest house in Harvie Heights (near Canmore) and have two sons, Conrad (Lesley) and Robson (who is a ski guide like his father) and two grandchildren.
Hans was greatly honoured over the years, receiving honourary memberships in The Alpine Club of Canada and the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations and an honourary doctorate from Thompson Rivers University. He was a recipient of the Banff Mountain Film Festival Summit of Excellence Award and, in 1987, was awarded the Order of Canada.
Not long ago Hans commented: “Looking back, I’ve had a good interesting life. I had my time in the mountains. I had my time as a businessman. So what more can I ask for?” Hans’s passing will bring to a close a large, interesting and very creative era in the western Canadian mountains.
According to his wishes there will be no funeral or memorial service. Margaret and Hans’s family have asked that you all remember and celebrate Hans in your own way.
Toben Anderson
1959-2006
Story Jon Popowich
Calgary mountaineer and award-winning speaker Toben Anderson passed away on July 10, 2006. Always determined to fight the breast cancer she was first diagnosed with in 1994, Toben brought a distinctive and practical message of hope to the many people whose lives she touched. Living with the symptoms of cancer several times over the past twelve years was in and of itself enough risk and challenge for a hundred lifetimes. Despite this, Toben managed to push herself in the mountains, climbing routes locally and abroad that would make any mountaineer proud – often during physically difficult periods of recovery. She was well-known for her publicized ascent of Vinson Massif in Antarctica in 1996, a personal victory over the adversity she’d experienced in 1994 when she endured a double mastectomy and months of rehabilitation. It was just prior to Vinson that Toben climbed Pico de Orizaba in Mexico; there she met and was guided by Raul Carsolio. Falling in love, the two were married in 1997 and their partnership was nothing short of inspirational.
Toben was a tireless advocate, and spoke publicly about her love, her life, her cancer and her climbing. Possessed of an infectious enthusiasm and lust for life, she saw adventure in the outdoors as a metaphor for the many challenges and opportunities that come along the paths we walk. Toben’s absence is only physical, and the sadness of that vacuum is quickly filled with the love, vision and wonderful wisdom she will never stop bringing to this world.
