News…
- Swiss climber Cedric Lachat (just about) onsighted the Free Rider variation to the Salathe Wall on El Capitan
- Sarah Seeger became the first woman to climb 5.14b in Germany’s Frankejura with her recent ascent of Orakel, while Markus Bock added another 5.15a FA to his resume with The Man That Follows Hell (5.15a). Read more about both ascents at PlanetMountain.com
- Italy’s Jenny Lavarda repeated Solo per Vecchi Guerrier, a multipitch route with pitches as hard as 5.14c/d. Very impressive.
- A few weeks after doing his first, Daniel Woods did his second 5.14d with an ascent of Los Inconformistas at Rodellar, Spain
…Notes…
- I think I’m still laughing from reading John Sherman’s latest blog on DPM.
- Via TheLowDown is this excellent interview with Adam Ondra about his recent spree of 5.14d ascents
- DPM interviews Tahoe strongman Jesse Bonin
- Excellent topos for the Incredible Hulk in California’s High Sierra
- The Adventure Film Festival is taking place November 12-14 in Boulder, CO
- Check out the Access Fund’s Fall Issue here
- Proposed fee increased at Nevada’s Red Rocks
…And One Video
It’s been all over the internet (including the videos sections on the Climbingnarc.com homepage), but if you haven’t already seen this video of Rich Simpson working on (and sending) the legendary Frankenjura testpiece Action Directe (5.14d) take 20 minutes to watch the whole thing. If it doesn’t leave you psyched to get out climbing, then there’s probably something wrong with you.
How can they say that Cedric onsighted Free Rider.
“Lachat onsighted the first 10 pitches of the route — the Free Blast — about 10 days earlier, and then skipped these pitches (no harder than 5.11) during the final ascent. He also fell repeatedly while trying to climb one version of the 24th pitch, and then onsighted an alternative line at 5.12d.”
So how can you skip part of the route, fall repeatedly, climb an alternative line, and then call it an onsight. Sorry, but IMO this was not an onsight.
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I should have used slightly different terminology in the link there. I think it’s fair to say he onsighted the pitches, but as you point out his style could definitely be improved upon for a complete onsight ascent.
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After reading a bit more, I would agree that he has onsighted every pitch of the original line. So I would agree with you Narc. Style could be improved upon. But a damn nice ascent!
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So it is acceptable on FreeRider to climb either the Huber Variation or the Teflon corner (5.12d). In June 08 the Huber Variation broke making it more like 5.13b instead of 5.12d. Most people, pre-2008, had climbed the Huber variation since the Teflon corner is slippery and temperature dependent.
While the debate on 8a suggests it is no big deal to skip the freeblast (only 5.11) it is the time on the wall and the cumulative physical fatigue of spending time sleeping in the vertical that makes it a point of contention (in my mind).
This is for sure a really proud achievement and I don’t want to take anything away, just trying to share some knowledge. The obvious best style would be to climb all of El Cap, onsight (no falls at all), in a day, ground up. Most likely a full ground up onsight will happen within the next year.
For reference I was just on the FreeBlast and it took around 5-6 hours. Jugging the fixed lines to Heart ledges took about 30 mins. Big difference in both time and effort.
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Rich Simpson is one most bada#s motherf$#ker.
He runs a sub 4 minute mile and is a professional boxer as well.
I think he could easily take out Klem Loskot blindfolded with one arm tied behind his back.
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I read the Sherman piece too but I wasn’t laughing.
http://www.mountainsandwater.com/2009/10/media-matters.html
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I too found the picture in the “blog” to be unnecessary, but the rest of the piece was still fairly entertaining. A bit crude for sure, but not over the line in the same vein as the ad you reference. Consider that an audience of men and women all laughed repeatedly during the recent reel rock tour in our town that had a segment that featured Alex Honnold discussing his van life (or lack thereof).
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i would personally be a lot more worried about what dpm’s email said in peter beals blog then the raunchy picture itself. if he thinks thats what climbers respond to i dont think dpm will have a bright future by any means.
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