2009 Year In Review Part 4

Click here to read Part 1 (Jan. – March) here to read Part 2 (April – June) and here to read Part 3 (July – Sept.) of the 2009 Year In Review. On to Part 4:

October

• 40-year-old Yuji Hirayama visited Canada (in September really) and repeated Cobra Crack (5.14 trad) among other notable achievements (Link).
• Big Up Productions released their latest movie, Progression.  I interviewed Josh Lowell about the movie (Link) and provided my thoughts in a review (Link).
• The 2009 Triple Crown Bouldering Series kicked off at Hound Ears.  Sasha DiGiulian and Jimmy Webb won their respective Open divisions (Link).
• I speculated on the cost of free climbing on El Capitan (Link).
• Rich Simpson was obsessed with climbing Action Directe (5.14d):

• In Devil’s Lake news, I created a new mini guide (Link) and The Keymaker (V10ish) finally saw a 2nd asscent (Link).
• Dave Graham climbed two 5.14ds in October in Abyss (Link) and Chocholocco (Link).
• I shared some thoughts on the mental side of climbing (Link) as well as some inspiration from Tommy Caldwell (Link).
• Dan Beall did the first ground up ascent of the Bishop highball Luminance (V11ish) (Link).

• Matt Wilder climbed Cheating Reality, a new all gear 5.14 in the Flatirons (Link).
• Jonathan Siegrist started his impressive trip to the Red River Gorge by sending Lucifer (5.14c) very quickly (Link).
• Also at the Red, Adam Taylor opened what is likely the hardest route at the Red with his FA of The Golden Ticket (Link).
• Jimmy Webb had a good trip to Arkansas, doing the 2nd ascent of Sharma’s The Zone (Link).

• Adam Ondra did the FA of his hardest route yet, Marina Superstar, a likely 5.15a or b sport route in Italy (Link).
• Max Zolotukhin tried to free solo a 5.14b sport route at Rumney with disastrous consequences (Link).

November

• James Kassay repeated the super long boulder problem Sleepy Rave (V15) at the Grampians of Australia (Link).

• By the end of his trip to the Red River Gorge, Jonathan Siegrist amassed a pretty impressive ticklist (Link).
• Most of the news for November was posted in a massive News & Notes post (Link).
• Daniel Woods added a new V14 in Austria (Link).
• Obviously, November was a slow month for Climbingnarc.com.  This was mainly because I spent 10 days in Hueco Tanks.  I blogged about the trip here, here and here.

December

• December started with a bit of comic relief:

• Tis The Season In Spain, a big update on the latest happenings in the Spanish sport climbing scene (Link).
• The extras for Progression were made available for download (Link).
• The very popular MSA Auto Belay devices were discontinued indefinitely (Link).
• The 2009 Triple Crown Bouldering Series wrapped up at The Stone Fort.  Jimmy Webb and Kasia Pietras were overall series champs (Link).
• Dr. Topo, maker of very popular free topos, decided to shut down operations (Link).
• On a break from trying the First Round First Minute Project Chris Sharma did the FA of Neanderthal (5.15) in Santa Linya (Link).
• Adam Ondra made news with his flash of a V14 boulder problem in Switzerland (Link).
• Paul Robinson made his first trip to Arkansas, sending Wood Grain Grippin (V14) among other hard problems (Link).
• Beth Rodden shared her story as she recovers from shoulder surgery (Link).
• Jonathan Siegrist had a very successful trip to Yangshuo, China (Link).
• Nalle Hukkataival added a new V14 in Switzerland and shared a nearly 30 minute movie packed with several cool problems (Link).