BASECAMP ... Where Every Climber Starts Issue 15
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e-Blast http://www.rockandice.com/basecamp/Basecamp15.html Having trouble viewing this email? Click here BASECAMP ... where every climber starts Issue 15 Third Ascent of The Path Boulderer turned headpoint-trad climber Matt Wilder recently made the third ascent of one of North America’s proudest gear-protected climbs, The Path (5.14 R), at Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. This 60-foot face takes slippery crimps through beautiful black and white stone, and is sparsely protected by just a few TCUs. The Path was originally bolted as a sport climb, but it remained an unclimbed project until Sonnie Trotter made the first ascent of this modern test piece, but not before removing the route’s bolts first after seeing the potential for solid, albeit sparse, IN THIS ISSUE gear. Ethan Pringle, in his first year of trad climbing, quickly achieved the route’s second ascent and, in doing so, brought Still Unclimbed recognition to the climb as being a new-school classic. Photo Contest Does Anyone know Wilder spent four days trying the route on toprope, and took two who Scott is? days trying it on lead, during which time he fell off of the last hard Triple Crown move and took a 35-foot whipper onto a gray Metolius Master Bouldering Series Cam. On his seventh day of work, he made the redpoint. Birkett and MacLeod in You can see a great video of Wilder trying The Path by logging on Good Form This to www.rockandice.com and visiting the Breaking News section, or Summer by simply clicking here. Got Reynauds? Video: Hound Ears —Andrew Bisharat Beta Rocktoberfest Don't Miss These Climbing Events! 1 of 11 8/24/09 12:52 PM e-Blast http://www.rockandice.com/basecamp/Basecamp15.html SUBSCRIBE AND GET A GRIP PRO TRAINER STILL UNCLIMBED The summer season for Himalayan and Karakorum mountaineering has drawn to a close, and one of the biggest prizes in the ranges, the North Face/North Ridge of Latok I, still remains unclimbed. This year, Josh Wharton, Dylan Johnson and Colin Haley traveled to the north side of Latok 1, in northern Pakistan, but came away empty-handed. This summer marks Wharton’s third trip in three years to the Choktoi glacier to attempt this objective. “It's disappointing,” writes Wharton on his Mammut blog, “to have given so much time and effort to Latok without getting the proper conditions and weather for a decent attempt, but alpine climbing can be a fickle game. I'm certainly not the first person to be beaten back by Latok, as I know of at least five other climbers that have been on three expeditions to the peak. And there have been at least 35 unsuccessful expeditions to Latok in the last 40 years! Obviously it is not an easy mountain.” The North Ridge of Latok 1 was famously first attempted in 1978 by Jim Donini, Michael Kennedy, George Lowe and Jeff Lowe. Over 26 continuous days, the foursome nearly completed the route, turning around just 300 feet below the summit ridge. Despite many other attempts, no other team has managed to match this high point. “Will I be back?” writes Wharton. “I'm not sure. I wish I could say my obsession had run 2 of 11 8/24/09 12:52 PM e-Blast http://www.rockandice.com/basecamp/Basecamp15.html it's course, but I've never seen another peak that wrapped difficulty and beauty into such a perfect package. I don't think any climbers have been to Latok four times, maybe fourth time's the charm!” Josh Wharton is one of America’s most accomplished alpinists and all-around climbers, with difficult ascents in sport, bouldering, trad, mixed, ice and in the mountains. To read a feature profile of Wharton that appeared in Rock and Ice Issue 171, click here. —Andrew Bisharat PHOTO CONTEST DEADLINE APPROACHING! Rock and Ice is proud to announce the Second-Annual Photo Contest presented by Mammut. Now is your chance to show off your great climbing photos! Simply email your images to Rock and Ice and we will publish the best submissions in our Everyman’s Exposed in every issue this year. Then, on October 15, we’ll announce the best of the best who will receive great prizes from Mammut . Each winner will also be profiled in Rock and Ice—you’ll get your photos and your own mug in print! Each contestant may submit a total of 15 photos. Send photos, in 72 dpi jpegs, to: [email protected]. Deadline for entries is October 1, 2009. The editors of Rock and Ice will select the winners. Winners must have a US or Canadian shipping address to receive prizes. Check out www.rockandice.com/mammutphotocontest for more info on the contest and visit www.mammut.com to learn more about the prizes. All entries must be submitted by October 1st. Be sure to get your photos in to have a chance to be published and win cool prizes from Mammut! 3 of 11 8/24/09 12:52 PM e-Blast http://www.rockandice.com/basecamp/Basecamp15.html DOES ANYONE KNOW WHO SCOTT IS? That was the question posed by Hans Florine, stalwart of the Yosemite climbing community, in his latest e-newsletter. “My friend Tom [Lambert] picked up a hitchhiker this summer in Yosemite. The hitcher’s name was Scott,” Florine wrote, “and he said he did THE Link Up. Does anyone know Scott's last name or his partner’s name? Scott works with SAR.” Florine is seeking to update his annals on “the Link Up,” the best-known combination—that is, of El Capitan and Half Dome—in Yosemite climbing. Even in the wake of the recent stunning loss and profound appreciation of John Bachar, it is hard to convey the significance of his and Peter Croft’s achievement, in 1986, in first combining these two giant walls, doing the classic Nose and Regular Northwest Face routes in a day. No matter how much we respect anyone climbing 5.14 and 5.15, it will always be amazing to think of covering 55 pitches, with many miles of hiking in between. Croft and Bachar’s feat was not repeated for nine years. Then it fell to Peter Coward and Joe Terravecchia, followed next by Greg Murphy and Chandlee Harrel. Even today, approaching a quarter-century later, as far as is shown on record only 10 other parties and two individuals have linked El Cap and Half Dome, for what is thought to be a total of less than 30 persons. The latest reported ascent was this summer by Aaron Jones, age 22, and Hayden Kennedy, age 19, in 19 hours. Over the years, some have added amazing fillips to the feat: Dean Potter and Timmy O'Neil threw in Sentinel Rock on top of El Cap and Half Dome, and later swapped in Mount Watkins for their third consecutive wall. Potter free climbed both the 5.12+ Free Rider on El Cap and the 5.12- RNWF onHalf Dome, as did Sean Leary and Leo Houlding (UK). This past May, Alex Honnold set a new speed record (8.5 hours) on the free Salathé with Leary, with the pair intending to proceed to the RNWF, but storm thwarted them. (In June they were stopped by hot temps after zipping up the Salathé in a new record of 4:55, and the Nose in 7 hours, planning on Half Dome next.) Nancy Feagin remains the only woman on record as having accomplished the link up, climbing it with Florine in 1998 for only the fourth completion. In 2004, Heidi Wirtz and Vera Schulte-Pelkum did the Nose in 12:15, creating new women’s speed records on it as well as the West Face of Leaning Tower and the RNWF within nine days. The two had intended those climbs as preparation for linking Half Dome and El Cap, but Schulte-Pelkum 4 of 11 8/24/09 12:52 PM e-Blast http://www.rockandice.com/basecamp/Basecamp15.html ran out of vacation time. Florine and Potter have done the linkup the most, four times each, including a solo linkup by each that created one of our sport’s great races. According to Florine’s own history on his website, speedclimb.com, the process essentially began in 1998 when Dean managed a “mind-blowing” (rope) solo of the Regular route on Half Dome in 4 hours and 17 minutes. “I got wind that Dean was trying to get fit enough to not only do the link up, but do it solo!” Florine also thought a solo linkup could be possible, given his own previous solo time of 14 hours on the Nose, and the inspiration of Potter’s Half Dome time. He began aspiring to solo them in the 1999 season. Being an open and eager personality, Florine told his friends of his plan, and soon the whole Yosemite community knew he would attempt it during the full moon of July 28th. Potter heard about it, too. Having put work into the project himself, he swiftly booked a flight to Yosemite and soloed the enchainment the day before Florine did. The names involved in the history of the El Cap-Half Dome linkup range from those you know to those you have never heard of, those you didn’t realize were so hard core, and those you mourn: Micah Dash as well as Bachar. The late Jose Pereyra also figures strongly in the history of “multiple” Yosemite walls.