Gripped: The Climbing Magazine December 2015 - January 2016

The past year started with the Dawn Wall send that was heard around the world, which was followed by the Niagara Falls climb and continued with major climbing achievements throughout 2015. This year’s great climbs included Marc-Andre Leclerc’s impressive solos in Patagonia, Sachi Amma and Alex Megos’s historic 5.15 sends, Daniel Woods and Ashima Shiraishi’s groundbreaking bouldering sends to new 5.14s in four Canadian provinces, the first free ascents of old aid routes in B.C. and climbers setting Canadian records on the international competitive scene. Looking forward to the next year, what will happen in Canadian and international climbing? There are more extreme ice and alpine climbers and 5.15 and V15 senders than ever before. Will we see the first 5.15d or 5.16a? Here at Gripped, we are excited about…

Zak McGurk is an Alberta-based climber who started competing at a young age. While touring on the Youth World Cup circuit, McGurk focused energy on training and pushing his physical limits indoors. He doesn’t compete on the international stage anymore and now has time to focus on projecting and avoiding repetitive injuries. Gripped caught up with McGurk this fall. 1 What is one of your fondest memories from competition days? Hard to say, there’s a lot of great memories. One that always makes me laugh though, is Marshal German busting the arm off his glasses doing arm swings, right before walking out of isolation to climb finals at Youth Nationals. He ended up with duct tape wrapped all around his head, holding his glasses on crooked and started climbing. 2…

Vikki Weldon Sends Steep 5.14 Vikki Weldon sent Dinosaur Highway 5.14a at Horne Lake on Vancouver Island in early October. Weldon had been attempting the route on and off since her Spain visit in the spring. “Such a fantastic route. So happy to tick it off my bucket list and so happy to not have to pay for the ferry again for a while.” Quebec Cap Trinite Sends Slovenian climber Gasper Pintar and Quebec-based Em Pellerin spent a week at Quebec’s Cap Trinite. Their first route was Les Grand Galets that has a 5.12d stemming crux. Then they climbed La Cavalet that starts with a slabby 5.12b and leads to a 5.13b crux. They then sent the bold Maree Haute, a five-pitch 5.12 “splitter.” Josh Muller Pioneers Acephale Testpiece Josh…

New Bugaboo Route Tim McAllister and Pat O’Sullivan climbed a new six-pitch 5.11b on Son of Snowpatch called The Middle Child. Marc-Andre Leclerc’s Big Patagonia Solo Marc-Andre Leclerc soloed the 800-metre route that links Tomahawk WI6 M5 into Exocet WI5 and to the top of Aguja Standhardt in Patagonia in 12 hours. Newfoundland’s New Bigwall 5.12 Sam Bendroth and Bayard Russell climbed a new 12-pitch 5.12 that climbs the 400-metre ocean-side Blow Me Down wall called Betrayer of Hope 5.12. David Lama’s New Lebanese Route David Lama sent a steep roof route in Baatara Gorge in Lebanon and called it Avaatara 5.14d. Australian Sends on Yamnuska Australian climber Doug McConnell sent Blue Jeans 5.13b in September, becoming the fifth climber to climb the route. Thor’s Hammer Thor’s Hammer in the…

The last time I saw my brother was in September of 1980, about three weeks before he went to climb the north face of Mount Alberta in the Canadian Rockies. He was taking a job at a Christian youth retreat in Edmonton as a counsellor and asked me if I wanted go to climb with him. As hard as it was to decline, he understood that I was trying to make a career and couldn’t leave my job in California at the drop of a hat to join him in his adventures. This is a story about some of my climbing experiences with and the loss of, my brother Tobin Sorenson, one of the most energetic and iconic climbers of the 1970s. We had to be no more than 12…

The day I realized that there was a superhuman climbing generation developing was a few years back, during a rare-for-me indoor bouldering session. The gym was filled wall-to-wall with mini-crushers, like they were breeding young mutant climbers. There was a V6-ish boulder problem that I had fallen on a couple times and this 16-year-old girl walked over and casually warmed up on it. In fact, most of the kids were climbing shockingly hard. It has since been really cool to watch some of them grow up to become top prospects for the open tour de bloc and world cup circuits. Pia Graham was the young lady that warmed up on that V6 at Climber’s Rock and I never forgot her name because her focus, grace and confidence on the wall…