Gripped: The Climbing Magazine April/May 2018

Indoor climbing isn’t just a great way to train for rock climbing, it’s a sport in itself. Wayne Merry, who was on the first ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in 1947, said this winter, “Sitting around the campfire at Camp 4 in the 1950s, we couldn’t even have conceived the possibility that climbing would evolve to this.” And what it’s evolved to be is a multi-discipline sport with tens of thousands of participants who travel to climb, compete, train and explore. There were no climbing gyms in the 1950s, the first indoor artificial wall was built in 1964 by Don Robinson at Leeds University in the U.K. Climbers had no idea that in 2018 there would be hundreds of gyms in North America with countless climbers scaling walls…

Twenty-year-old Becca Frangos was born and raised in Canmore, Alta, and is one of the most accomplished competition climbers of her generation. In 2015, she was the Youth Bouldering and Lead National Champion and the Open National Lead Champion in 2015. She has participated in the World Cup circuit and has been attending the University of Victoria for the past few years. Her first 5.13d was Labyrinth in Kalymnos and she has since climbed a number of other test-piece bolted climbs. 1 How has climbing changed for you? I started climbing about 10 years ago and it’s evolved from just a sport I enjoy doing to something I am incredibly passionate about. I spend a great deal of time working on and refining my training plan and thinking about my…

Second Ascent of The Theft Marc-Andre Leclerc, Brette Harrington and Steve Janes made the second ascent of The Theft, a 140 m M7 WI6+X that was first climbed in 1996, located at Bridge River in B.C. First Winter Ascent of West Coast Face Brette Harrington and Marc-Andre Leclerc made the first winter ascent of the north face of Ledge Mountain on Canada’s West Coast in February. This is a significant climb and Leclerc said after, “It was our second attempt after only making it two pitches up in December. This is the best alpine route I’ve been on in the Sea to Sky by a large margin, hard well-protected mixed climbing and Scottish style ice gullies, interspersed with wild moments like campusing through an overhanging snow wave with my tools…

New Quebec Ice/Mixed Serge Alexandre Demers Giroux, Bruno Demers-Giroux, Louis-Philippe Ménard and Pad Awan climbed a number of new routes at Cape Lake in Quebec: The Thong M6+R/X, The Shaft Dipped in Caramel WI5+ and Forked Tongue on Cape M7. New Norway Routes Anna Pfaff and Ines Papert climbed two new big routes in Norway in February: Stumbling Stone M7 WI5 400 m and Fjølhaugen M6 WI7 350 m. Josh Muller Sends V13 Calgary climber and co-owner of Boulder Climbing sent The Next Stand V13 in Red Rocks while working on The Nest Sit V15. Amanda Berezowski Climbs First V11 West Coaster Amanda Berezowski climbed her first V11 with a send of Beefy Gecko at the Sad Boulders in Bishop, Calif. She also climbed a number of V9s including Slave…

Dave Lanman 1964–2018 One of Ontario’s first homegrown hard climbers, Dave Lanman, passed away on Jan. 28. To just list Dave’s accomplishments in rock climbing would not do justice to the man and his spirit. As I got to know Dave in the early 1980s, punk music became most eastern rock climber’s music of choice. Dave’s sense of rebellion pulled him into the music of Jimi Hendrix and bootleg tapes of the Rolling Stones. Dave was his own brand. I never met anyone who had such a well-developed sense of what he liked and what he did not. He was one of the most gifted rock climbers I have ever met. Dave was shy and avoided conversation, even about climbing, with people he didn’t know. His talent and passion for…

TA Loeffler can still remember standing atop Mont Blanc and the colour of the night sky with the mountains laid out in front of her. It’s a moment that’s stood out, even six years later. She’s travelled all over the world in search of heights, “It’s brought me to very remote special places, it’s brought me to sacred places. It’s also brought me to some very wonderful, amazing teammates.” People she could depend on with her life. For Loeffler the most rewarding things about climbing is what it demands from her. “It’s asked me to be uncomfortable. It’s asked me to be physically literate, it’s asked me to do things I never thought I could do,” Loeffler says. When she isn’t preparing for the next adventure, she leads a busy…