News & Notes – 06/11/08

• Sonnie Trotter recently repeated Dave MacLeod's trad testpiece Rhapsody (5.14c R?) at Dumbarton Rock, Scotland.  You can read Sonnie's own words on the entire experience at his blog.  You can read additional reports here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Sonnie Trotter repeating Rhapsody

Photo:  Hot Aches Productions

• Ethan Pringle continues his return to top form, this time he repeated Chris Lindner's The All Around Routine (5.14b) at Ibex, UT.  You can see footage of what Ethan calls "The best sportclimb ever" in the Momentum Video Magazine Premium Section.  It looks really, really good.  Read Ethan's report on his blog for more info.
• [Climbing] Rapper Odub has written a tribute to Todd Skinner
• This Saturday at 2 PM EST, Beth Rodden and Tommy Caldwell will be on NBC's Jeep World Of Adventure Sports.  The show will feature them climbing and exploring in the Grand Canyon. (Via Climbing.com)
• Speaking of Tommy Caldwell, on Sunday he made a one day ascent of his new free route on El Cap.  The route has 11 pitches of either 5.13 or 5.14 climbing!  Climbing has a more in depth write-up if you are interested.  Below is the approximate route followed:

Photo:  Luke Laeser

• Joost has some nice pictures up from Melloblocco 2008
• Check out this video courtesy of The Cloudveil blog of Chuck Fryberger climbing the SDS to Get Over It at Big Elk Meadow in Colorado's Frontrange