- Vikki Weldon has done the likely first female ascent of Divison Bell (5.13d) at Squamish, BC.
- U.S. Olympic coach Jimi Raymond Flowers was killed in a fall descending Capitol Peak, a tough 14,000+ ft. peak in Colorado.
- The always exciting Mammut Bouldering Championships at the Summer Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City kicks off next Monday (yes, Monday). Scheduled to compete are big hitters Alex Johnson, Alex Puccio, Daniel Woods, Paul Robinson and Chris Sharma. Then again, Sharma was scheduled to compete in this past weekend’s lead climbing World Cup in Chamonix and did not show.
A preview of the comp wall
- Speaking of the World Cup in Chamonix, Paige Claassen was the only American participant, finishing in 37th place.
- Sean McColl discusses his experience at the climbing World Championships held recently in China
- John Bachar climbing timeline
- Video of Kornelius Obleitner on the 3rd ascent of Anam Cara (V15) at Silvretta, Austria
- Spraylords, the next movie from Spencer Victory looks…interesting
- The 5th Annual Johnny and Alex Trail Day focused on building and maintaining trails in the Red River Gorge’s Pendergrass-Murray Recreational Preserve is coming up on August 1st. If you can’t attend, donations are a worthy substitute. ClimbingNarc.com donated $100 to the event bringing our total donations to climbing causes to $775.
In personal climbing news, I had an excellent day at Devil’s Lake yesterday where we got 7 leads in before calling it a day. I engaged in some reckless bold behavior by doing my hardest trad lead using a pair of borrowed shoes on a route with iffy gear that I didn’t practice ahead of time. I botched the sequence high above my last (and pretty much only) trustworthy piece, and I was forced to downclimb a few moves before punching it to the top. Terrifying and exhilarating at the same time…
