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News & Notes - 11/29/2010
News...
- According to La Sportiva's Facebook page Paige Claassen did the FFA of God's Own Stone (5.14a) at the Red River Gorge.
- According to his 8a scorecoard Lucas Ménégatti repeated Dave Graham's The Island in Fontainebleau, France. Originally graded V15 by Graham, Ménégatti and a few other recent repeaters like Michele Caminati are suggesting a grade of V14 for the problem.
- A bit old but still worth mentioning was the Czech Republic's Radovan Souèek doing the 3rd ascent of From Dirt Grows The Flowers, a Dave Graham V15 in Chironico, Switzerland. The problem apparently saw a 4th ascent by Brit Micky Page in recent days as well.
- Also in Chironico, Adam Ondra stopped through and nabbed the 3rd ascent of Big Paw, yet another Dave Graham V15 which saw its second ascent only a few weeks ago.
- And in other Switzerland news, Paul Robinson sent the iconic Fred Nicole boulder Dreamtime (V14) on Thanksgiving day.
- Via the Bishop Bouldering blog comes news that Brian Hedrick repeated The Mandala Sit Start at the Buttermilks in Bishop, CA using a different sequence which has become increasingly popular these days and perhaps drops the grade down to "only" V13. Here's a video of Hedrick's ascent as well as a video of Paul Robinson doing the same problem with a more direct finish which should give you an idea of the different sequence used for the bottom:
http://vimeo.com/17019903
http://vimeo.com/2617493
- According to this post on DPM, Chris Redmond has added a potential V12 to the rocks along the coast of Florida of all places.
- Petzl's Roctrip to Mexico ended a few weeks ago and the trip culminated with Steve McClure doing the FA of Cruz Diablo (5.14c) and Michael Fuselier and Gerome Pouvreau both sending the "ultimate route" project Las Chicas Superpoderosas (5.14c). Here's a brief video of a few Petzl athletes trying the latter route:
http://vimeo.com/16556200
- Alex Puccio and Nalle Hukkataival won the IMS Boulder Festival comp back at the beginning of November. Here's a bit of video from the event:
http://vimeo.com/16836990
...and Notes
- A very sad story out of Red Rocks over the Thanksgiving holiday
- Kabul, Afghanistan gets its first climbing wall
- The Devetashka Cave in Bulgaria looks too good to be real
- Watch some guy named Chris Sharma watch soccer, climb rocks and speak in a foreign language.
- Dean Potter and Sean Leary established a new speed record on The Nose of El Capitan earlier this month, but a subsequent attempt to improve on their time was thwarted by wetness near the top of the wall. Check out this article in the San Francisco Chronicle for a nice write-up on their record-breaking first push.
- Beth Rodden continues her recovery from shoulder surgery and shares a valuable lesson she learned about the importance of wearing a helmet.
- The photos in Simon Carter's latest dispatch from the Red River Gorge make me want to drop what I'm doing, get in the car, and head to the Red.
- The final leg of the 2010 Triple Crown Bouldering series is this weekend at The Stone Fort outside Soddy Daisy, TN. To help get you ready here is the final installment of this year's "Beta" series from Andrew Kornylak:
http://vimeo.com/17194764
Update: Paul Robinson has also repeated Big Paw suggesting a grade of V14
17 comments
Looking at the images of the Devetashka Cave, I sincerely hope that no bolts or climbing ever appear in that cave, irregardless of it's past usage. I think this is the first time I have ever seen a rock formation and felt this way.
The Mandala Sit Start was originally graded V13 by Tony Lamiche.
I have this funny image in my head now of Narc sitting around watching spanish TV hoping to catch a glimpse of Sharma so he can blog about it :)
I agree with SP on this one. With a view toward the preservation of natural and heritage sites, some formations should just remain off-limits to climbing.
Paul also sent Big Paw, same day as Adam
Thanks for the heads up Alex
Narc -
I heard that Paul and Adam got in a fist fight on the topout of Big Paw. I heard it was a pretty fair battle.
We took Paul to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate the send and the fight.
great day in Switzerland!
Jon G.
Accidents like the Red Rocks one are why trad climbing scares me (yet I still do it). I've witnessed a friends gear coming out while I was attempting to photograph him on the climb. It hit him in the head on the way down too. Thankfully he was wearing a hemet and had a good belayer, the second piece of gear caught him.
Apparently, this fall didn't even result from gear coming out. It was just a runout section, and a hold broke. Even scarier.
These recent top level sends are certainly not clearing up any grading confusion in the world of hard bouldering.
Dave, certainly not known for over-grading, grades The Island V15. Nalle repeats, confirms the grade. Then two less well known european dudes send and call it V14 . . .
Dave does From Dirt Grows the Flowers, V15. Bernd Zangerl repeats, I'm not sure if he commented on the grade at all, but it doesn't seem like he thought it was overgraded. Two recent repeats, and according to 27crags Mickey Page thinks it might hard V14.
Dave does Big Paw, V15. Repeated by Dai and Ondra (two strong mother fuckers to be sure), who confirm the grade. Then P Rob repeats and says that is is "only" solid V14.
The only thing that can be said for sure is that some hard, cool stuff is being climbed out there. Also, Dave Graham is a beast for putting up so much classic, hard stuff. A true visionary.
I think most of this can be attributed to the undeniable fact that all of these climbers have different strengths and when you are talking about stuff at this level a certain move may suit a few of these guys but feel impossible for someone who has a different style or is 1" shorter. If I understand things correctly this is why Chris Sharma never graded his boulder FA's.
Despite all of this I will continue to have a math-oriented mind and will think about numbers and grades whenever given the opportunity.
Isn't Paul's ascent of Dreamtime the first since that hold broke a while back? What were his thoughts on it? Is it still V14 or did Paul think it was harder without that hold?
This was at least the 3rd or 4th ascent since the hold broke. If you click the link where I mentioned Paul's send you can read his thoughts on the climb.
paul is on mithril not dreamtime
My bad, thanks for the correction
Manute bol is one of my favorite climbs at LRC. Was there for the first time last week. The stone quality is awesome.
My ego enjoyed that problem a lot more when I was under the (false) impression that it was V8 :)