Hard Onsights & New Projects For Chris Sharma In China

Hard Onsights & New Projects For Chris Sharma In China

Posted April 9, 2009 at 12:12 pm · Comments { 13 } · Photo: le niners

Chris Sharma has been on a promotional tour of Asia for Evolv with girlfriend Daila Ojeda over the past few weeks.  After visiting Japan and Korea they recently arrived in China to sample some of the sport climbing in the areas around Yangshuo.

Not surprisingly, Sharma made quick work of the hardest established routes in Yangshuo, onsighting 1 5.14b and 2 5.14a’s.  He also repeated Michael Fuselier’s American Gangster (5.14b) without using the controversial chipped hold that may or may not have been drilled by Fuselier.  According to Daila Ojeda’s blog, locals have encouraged a renaming of this route to French Gangster in reference to how the route was first “created”.

Wasting little time, Sharma has bolted two new projects as well.  He already dispatched Spicy Noodles (5.14b) and a potential 5.14+/5.15 called (Plum Dumpling or Pump Dumpling) looms as a project.

It looks like Mike Call from Momentum Video Magazine is on location in China so it’s probably safe to bet that media of both Sharma and Ojeda’s exploits will surface at some point.

Check out the English version of Ojeda’s blog for more pictures of both her and Sharma climbing in Korea.

Posted In: News, Sport Climbing
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  • Kevlar

    I’ve always been fascinated by the crags in china. They look so sick. I def want to go there. word.

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  • http://mkauzlarich.blogspot.com Mark Kauzlarich

    I was wondering if he was planning on doing American Gangster, or not, in “protest” or whatever. Never even thought that he’d be able to do it without the “chipped” hold, but thats just because I forgot Chris Sharma is Spiderman.

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  • http://www.climb8a.blogspot.com dom

    Thats awesome that Sharma was able to do American Gangster without the chipped pockets, just proves that chipping is not the answer. Its about time Cooper Roberts and BigUp shed some light on what their involvement was with the chipping of this route.

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    • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

      In all fairness they did talk about it when the controversy first broke last year. Unfortunately the thread about it was lost when they moved to their new blog setup.

      You’ll also notice that despite AG being the hardest route they filmed in China it was basically left out of Dosage V.

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  • David

    Sweet! I really enjoy hearing about Sharma’s latest climbing adventures. I agree with Dom, chipping is SO ridiculous, it’s NOT the answer, more like “French Idiot”. Sharma’s send without using that hold is awesome! AND proves that climbing is about conforming your body and skills to the route, not the other way around.

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  • Some Guy

    I understand that chipping on routes is a HUGE no no…but if you think about it… a sport climb is one huge “chipfest”. Now I’m not saying that chipping is right or wrong. I’m just wondering how much of a difference does it make if you drill one more hole in the rock for a hold….you already drilled a bunch of holes to bolt the thing…..

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    • Joe

      Dear Some Guy -

      Please make sure to renew your gym membership so that you can stay away from our crags. Thanks in advance.

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  • erik

    “some guy” makes a sense. whats the differance between a hole for a bolt or one for your fingers. if you dont like a manufactured hold, then dont use it. just don’t clip the bolt either. it wasn’t there befor. there’s lots of routes that are natural, i.e. trad. go do one of those. i hear they can be kinda hard.

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    • erik

      this is not a debate on the definition of sport climbing. its about a hole being drilled into rock. for a finger or a bolt. if your looking for “pure” difficulty of movement. go free solo or boulder. as far as bolt not making a route easier. try not using them on your warm up that you have dialed. bet it wont feel so “easy”. like i said befor, to drill a hole into rock for a finger or a bolt is still DRILLING a HOLE into the ROCK. just so one can use either one to get to he top.

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      • David

        I see, hole is a hole no matter what. A hole that defaces the natural structure of the rock.
        So what are sport climbers options because there are a lot of routes trad gear can’t go that sport bolts can? Top rope down and then go at it from the bottom?

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  • David

    In regards to sport climbing: clipping preset bolts is what makes a sport route challenging in a pure difficulty of movement sense. Traditional climbing takes away from an individuals ultimate potential to pull off moves. Bolts don’t make a climb any easier, they make it possible to even use that route.

    Re: erik, a hole for your finger makes the route easier, one for a bolt merely makes an awesome line safe enough to pursue.

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  • anthony

    David, I think Erik’s point isnt so much related to what the hole is used for, but rather, the existence of a hole period. How do we determine that one sort of hole is better than another? Look at it from the rock’s perspective or from a non-climbers perspective…it’s purely a matter of personal style..

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    • http://mkauzlarich.blogspot.com Mark

      Exactly. As a preface, I personally don’t do the whole trad thing, because I don’t have the gear and I don’t have that exact knowledge base to do those climbs, and I am not a route person to begin with. However, I think from a purist standpoint, though sport and trad are two different disciplines in and of themselves, for routes, if you are going to go with having pro, properly used trad gear will (generally) cause less damage to the rock. Though sport climbing necessitates holes, a hole is a hole is a hole, that is true. I will say, the idea of drilling holds, or chipping routes to “improve” the route is despicable, but when a bolt is gone, there is still a hole.

      Sorry to ramble, I understand both sides, and tried to bring a lot of it together, but this brings me back to Rhoad’s manifesto or any ethics manifesto which, would definitely need more time and space to explain all this.

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