The 6th annual Petzl Roc Trip took place in Millau, France last weekend with a who’s who of Petzl athletes coming out for the event. Among the participants were Sean McColl, Mickaël Fuselier, Steve McClure, Dani Andrada, Tony Lamiche, Daniel Dulac, Dave Graham, Nina Caprez, Martina Cùfar, Lynn Hill and of course Chris Sharma.
One of the main events at every Roc Trip is the so-called Ultimate Routes that are setup, one for the women and one for the men:
This year, the 90 meter Utlimate Routes (Infinity Lane) shot up the overhanging Cathédrale, in the Gorges de la Jonte. Invited athletes had to flash the route, and weren’t able to work the route after falling. Excellent route reading skills and a massive amount of endurance were the two key ingredients
The women’s route was flashed by Martina Cufar and Florence Pinet with Chloé Minoret, Nina Caprez and Lynn Hill sending the route in a few tries.
The men’s route proved to be a bit stiffer a challenge as none of the men could pull out a flash of the likely 5.14b route in the first 2 days of attempts. And then, on day 3, Chris Sharma showed up:
After a day of rest and chill climbing in the Tarn, Chris Sharma showed up at the Cathédrale… Using his climbing mastery and strength, he flashed the route, as photographers and the dumbfounded spectators looked on. Proof that his is still the King…
Petzl Roc Trip Millau Day 1 Report
Petzl Roc Trip Millau Day 2 & 3 Report
Update: Thanks to daniel in the comments for passing along an interview with Dani Andrada (in Spanish) about the Roc Trip:
- It was hot
- They used 200 meter ropes for the climb
- Sharma took around 1.5 hours for his flash send
- The route itself starts off with 50 feet of roughly 5.13c climbing to a long section of 5.12 that features a huge sitdown rest (not surprisingly) before finishing with some hard “resistance” climbing. 5.13c and 5.14a separated by a huge rest so more or less 5.14a according to Andrada.
- Having the Roc Trip in Millau is getting kind of boring
If you find anything else in the interview, feel free to share it in the comments.
Update #2: According to Sharma himself, this was not really a flash.
Why wouldn’t Sharma Flash 14b, he’s putting up 15b’s like a “walk in the park”, Still pretty badass though. There are only Two people in the world that you could call Bad Mother Fucker’s, Sharma and ………
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It’s kind of amazing that flashing .14b is becoming pretty commonplace. What I found especially interesting in this instance was the length of the route. It must have taken forever for him to send!
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Call me naive, but does anybody know the logistics they use to climb a 90m sport pitch? Must be at least a 90m rope with a walk off (or a long rap already set up), no? Then they mention people falling near the top and not being allowed to finish, so I assume they lower… is it possible they’re using something like a 200m rope?!? I can’t wait to hear the simple solution I’m overlooking.
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Good question. Since Petzl is the sponsor I don’t think it would be a problem for them to make ropes at any length they would want. Raises the question of how it feels to work a rope with over 500 feet of line out.
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Chris Sharma is brave and humble.
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that’s why he downgraded it to .14a….sorry, 8B+….sorry, 8b+
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in other news, MVM has blocked my account. again. your thoughts?
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You’re not missing much??
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There is an interview with Dani Andrada, who goes more into details. If only I had paid attention to my spanish teacher…
http://desnivel.com/object.php?o=18696
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Excellent find. I’ll throw some tidbits from the translation into the main post.
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Turns out that the climb wasn’t actually a flash. Its the first pitch of a three pitch 8c he climbed a few years back. bjornpohl.blogspot.com via Karin, some climbing website I can’t read, so I’m taking Bjorn at his word…
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