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News From Across The Pond
A few noteworthy sends from across the pond last week:
- UKClimbing reports that Austrian Bernhard Schwaiger did the FA of Whirlwind in Saalachtal, Austria at a proposed grade of V15. Looking at his 8a scorecard one can learn that Schwaiger has done over 20 proposed V14s in Saalachtal alone.
- In Chironico, Switzerland Japan's Dai Koyamada did the first repeat of Dave Graham's Big Paw (V15) according to this post on 27Crags. Big Paw adds a sit start to the blunt arête Boogalagga (V13). Here's a clip from Jon Glassberg that shows Carlo Traversi sending Boogalagga and Koyamada coming close to linking Big Paw (naughty word warning right off the top):
http://vimeo.com/16652527
- Also in Chironico, Australia's Chris Webb Parsons reports on his website that he did the FA of Bella Luna, a proposed V14 that adds a V12/13 into Alpahne Moon (V11).
- Dave MacLeod did the FA of a hard, desperate 4o ft. slab in Glenfinnan, Scotland he's calling Die By The Drop and giving the grade of E10 7a.
- Pierre Bollinger did the FA of Pyrrhus (5.14d) at Gauxberg near Alsace, France.
Here's some video of the FA:
http://vimeo.com/16812786
Update: Carlo Traversi reports on his 8a scorecard that he has done the first repeat of Bella Luna suggesting a grade of V12. So, yeah...
2 comments
I had a look at the pictures of some of Schwaigers routes. Surely looks insanely hard and in the picture you posted here, I wonder how he manages to hold on to that. Not that I want to question his ascents, but looking at his scorecard, all his ascents are first ascents. For somebody that climbs at his level I find it hard to believe that he (based on his scorecard) has never gone or wanted to go to repeat the stuff that all these other world class climbers put up. Anybody knows of any top climber repeating his climbs?
Just found this interview with Bernhard Schwaiger from Dec 2009. Quite interesting I think.
http://www.climbandmore.com/climbing,649,0,1,interviews.html