More On Ashima Shiraishi’s Trip To Hueco

More On Ashima Shiraishi’s Trip To Hueco

A couple of weeks back I mentioned that Big Up Productions was out in Hueco Tanks documenting 9 year-old Ashima Shiraishi’s spring break.  In a recent update on their blog they provide more details on what was a pretty amazing trip.

Shiraishi managed to repeat a handful of double-digit problems, but what is perhaps most impressive was her near send of the classic V12 power endurance problem Shaken Not Stirred aka Martini Right.  According to their post she came close to sending the problem 3 times only to have the ascent invalidated by dabbing on a small tree that grows near the problem:

On her second day working the problem she sent through the crux but her feet swung out on the last hard move and banged a tree. She continued to the top, but the “dab” made the ascent invalid.  How harsh is it to have to tell a nine year old that the most impressive thing she’s ever done doesn’t count? Twice more she climbed through the crux and kicked the tree, virtually sending the problem three times in a row.
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It was painful, there were some tears, and she left without completing the official ascent. But it was still one of the raddest things we’ve seen in a while.
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The footage of Shiraishi’s trip is the 3rd installment of the Evolv and Mountain Gear-sponsored Origins series, and it will be featured as part of the 2011 Reel Rock Film Tour.

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29 Responses to More On Ashima Shiraishi’s Trip To Hueco

  1. Brett April 11, 2011 at 6:00 pm #

    I hope all of the publicity she is getting right now doesn’t ruin climbing for her, because it is going to be really cool to see all the things she crushes as she grows up.

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  2. Reed April 11, 2011 at 7:53 pm #

    From 8a.nu:

    “Debate/Jens: Sometimes the route setters on real rock has created an elimination in order to create a harder and possible better route or boulder.

    The rock is created by nature and that is what we challenge. Whenever you are in doubt for an elimination, especially climbing onsight, go for what you feel is natural.

    “You are not allowed to use those holds”, is just an irritating comment and what it means, in most of the cases, is that you have just created a new climb. So do not forget to give it a new grade and name, if appropriate.”

    I don’t really want to stir up a hornet’s nest but I think an inadvertent tree tap or bump, especially if that’s all it really was, invalidating a send is way bogus. There’s no qualm about using trees as pro. I don’t actively seek out tree holds, not that it comes up much, but really, nature is on.

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    • Carlos Lugo April 11, 2011 at 8:11 pm #

      Like it or not, bouldering is bouldering and a dab is a dab.

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      • Austin Howell April 11, 2011 at 9:35 pm #

        I find it hard to see how accidently kicking a tree would generate forward progress, but I understand that bouldering is a strange activity.

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        • Adam September 22, 2012 at 8:21 pm #

          Sounds stupid to me too, but in some situations breaking the swing could help you stay on the hold where you would have swung out otherwise.

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      • Go climb some trad. June 14, 2011 at 6:07 am #

        Like it or not, boulder is boring and a dab is stupid.

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    • Toothbrush April 13, 2011 at 7:17 pm #

      Interesting that was never said by Jens when Paul Robinson did the FA of Ill Trill (or “Wovenhand”). “So do not forget to give it a new grade and name, if appropriate” Everyone just bashed him for having the gall to name a problem in Magic Wood. I know thats old news but I just thought it was relevant to this post. Feel free to delete this and scorn me if it holds no place. It’s well deserved since I’m digging up the past here.

      http://www.8a.nu/forum/ViewForumThread.aspx?ObjectId=16468&ObjectClass=CLS_UserNewsComment&CountryCode=GLOBAL

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  3. David Reifert April 11, 2011 at 10:34 pm #

    A clean send is a clean send. If a running back dives into the end zone but just barely steps out-of-bounds prior to leaping it invalidates his seeming success. She needs to find the beta to stop her swing just like all the other climbers who have successfully sent this problem. Bouldering is a much shorter playing field and it must therefore maintain more stringent guidelines for what it valid vs invalid. Dab a spotter, tree, or galloping horse it makes no difference.

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  4. Colin April 11, 2011 at 11:21 pm #

    I wonder why someone didn’t just hold that skinny little tree back for her.

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    • Julien Jarry April 13, 2011 at 5:32 pm #

      we thought about it 8)

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  5. Al April 11, 2011 at 11:29 pm #

    bouldering is starting to sound a bit like golf with all its technicalities…just sayin

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  6. joeyjoejoe April 12, 2011 at 12:36 am #

    Excuse my profanity, but it’s a tiny fucking tree branch. Watch as uber-strong Ben Moon bumps his shoulder on said branch (@ 1:19):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFfAVRNgQj0

    Is his send invalid? I asked the same question on Jamie’s site and got some nonsense about “a clean ascent is better.” What a BS answer.

    Most people don’t know what the term “begging the question” actually means. If I ask you why a clean ascent (ie, an ascent without brushing against a tree branch which would IMPEDE your progress, not aid it) is better, and you say “Because a clean ascent is better,” that is begging the question.

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  7. Narc April 12, 2011 at 11:20 am #

    It’s definitely a gray area that will always be open to debate, but it’s best to err on the side of all dabs being “fatal” to your send in my opinion. I’d agree that brushing a tiny branch like Moon does in the above video is likely inconsequential but at a certain point it’s impossible to say what dab is helpful and what dab isn’t helpful.

    With respect to Ashima’s dab, until we see the footage it’s hard to comment definitively but Big Up uses words like “banged” and “kicked” which seems to indicate that her dabs might have been more than brushing up against a tiny branch. Either way, I think that with something that is going to get the amount of exposure that this segment will get it’s good to set an example that achieving a clean ascent is important.

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  8. Goetz Joseph April 12, 2011 at 1:15 pm #

    easiest solution is usually the best……cut down the tree!

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    • Narc April 12, 2011 at 1:32 pm #

      Pretty much the worst idea ever

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      • Goetz Joseph April 12, 2011 at 2:07 pm #

        ment to use my sarcastic font.

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  9. nooj April 13, 2011 at 12:38 am #

    is there any doubt that she’s going to send it sooner or later? I love the fact that I’m inspired by a 9 year old.

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  10. blastido April 13, 2011 at 1:24 am #

    This is where we’re at? Making a little girl cry? There’s obviously enormous pressure on her as well as many kids and older climbers to send hard or you aren’t worth Sh*t. Then to invalidate a 99% legit ascent, repeatedly, because her foot brushes a tree? THIS is what matters in CLIMBING? All you pebble wrestling number chasers are a bunch of JOCKS. Go back to your football stadiums.

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    • Aaron October 29, 2012 at 12:59 pm #

      Absolutely love your comment. I agree with you that most boulders are cuff balls. Further more Ashima is probably climbing harder than all the people hanging with her in that cave. Plus from the looks of the location of the tree it looks like in no way would it help you stay on the boulder. She will climb harder than most climbers in her lifetime certainly.

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  11. Sean Miller April 13, 2011 at 4:09 am #

    serriously… unless she cut loose and pushed off of the trunk (can see it in the moon vid) i don’t care what her foot did in regards to the branches… those things are twigs.

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  12. Julien Jarry April 13, 2011 at 5:39 pm #

    Ashima didn’t care she dabbed the tree. She was over the climb as soon as she did it (in a good way). She had mentally moved on. In response to watching Ben Moon’s video of Right Martini, he shoulder dabbed the tree just like Ashima did with her foot. To be very critical, we can say they’re not clean sends. However, at the same time, has any other female (let alone a 9 year old) sent Right Martini with a slight tree dab? I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. 8) It’s all goood.

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  13. Julien Jarry April 13, 2011 at 5:39 pm #

    Ashima didn’t care she dabbed the tree. She was over the climb as soon as she did it (in a good way). She had mentally moved on. In response to watching Ben Moon’s video of Right Martini, he shoulder dabbed the tree just like Ashima did with her foot. To be very critical, we can say they’re not clean sends. However, at the same time, has any other female (let alone a 9 year old) sent Right Martini with a slight tree dab? I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. 8) It’s all goood.

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  14. Jack April 14, 2011 at 1:29 pm #

    If the dab wasn’t ‘helpfull’ in any way, why don’t just send the damn thing again without dabbing?

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    • Julien Jarry May 4, 2011 at 10:17 pm #

      easy for you to say ha!!

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      • Floyd June 14, 2011 at 6:14 am #

        It’s real easy to say, except I’d have to use a tree. Shit.

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    • Floyd June 14, 2011 at 6:12 am #

      Jack, I totally agree. It’s not like it she’s the second person to ever do it. So just as you said, if it wasn’t “helpful”, she should be able to haul her little ass up it again. Hell, she apparently knows the moves, so what is stopping her from doing it again? Oh that’s right, that one move, where she used the tree isn’t “on”.

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  15. blastido April 24, 2011 at 6:29 pm #

    I hereby apologize for my previous nerd rage and would like to take you all out to ice cream.

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  16. Chrissy June 14, 2011 at 6:17 am #

    Personally, I think this is retarded. I hope someone calls her out in 10 years and asks her to try everything she did when she was 9 when she 1) gains weight, 2) her hands are full size, and 3) when she gets hips. She’s what, 65 lbs?

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    • Spro1 June 14, 2011 at 1:26 pm #

      Trying to invalidate a 9 year old’s success?  Jealous much?

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