Gripped: The Climbing Magazine April & May 2020 / Vol 21 Issue 2

Unless you’re free-soloing or bouldering, your climbs will be completed or attempted with a partner. That means there are at least two climbers, one on either end of the rope, trusting the other. Sometimes, one of those climbers gets scared or uncomfortable. There are many reasons why, including exposure, height, health and relationship status, but the one I’ve seen the most is experience. One climber will always be more experienced than the other, which means their risk management and tolerance will be different from the lesser experienced. While leaving your comfort zone is a big part of rock climbing, being pushed out is completely different. If you’re new to climbing, don’t let others convince you to attempt something that you don’t think is safe. Maturity in climbing comes with time…

Alberta-based Miles Adamson is one of Canada’s top technical climbers. He made an early repeat of The Path 5.14R trad, has established many difficult highball test-pieces in western Canada and recently made the first ascent of a new V10 highball in Bishop called Too Tall to Fall. His new route was the first boulder ascent of the slab face on the 20-metre-tall Grandma Peabody boulder. The balancy new route starts up Dan Beall’s Tiers of Uncertainty, a 5.14 only climbed on toprope, and then branches left onto new terrain before connecting into the 5.9 Southwest Arete. Adamson said the crux of Too Tall to Fall comes nearly 15 metres off the deck. We touched base with him after his first ascent. 01 How did you decide that highballing was for…

New Quebec M10 Jean Francois Girard and Carl Darveau made the first ascent of Trans-Balkan Express, a 110-metre M10 mixed route in February. The route is on Mont-Gol, across from Mont de l’Ours in Parc National des Grands-Jardins north of Baie-Saint-Paul in Quebec. Carveau headed up with a drill and made his way through the four-metre roof. The first pitch is M10 30 metres on bolts, the second is a 30-metre M4 on gear and the last (a chimney/off-width that required a six-inch cam) is a 50-metre M7. “It’s the most beautiful pitch of this nature I have ever climbed,” said Francois Girard. Ontario’s Rebecca Lewis Wins Ouray Gold The 25th Ouray Ice Festival took place in February with big names competing at one of the oldest ice comps in…

Zach Richardson Ontario climber Zach Richardson finished in fourth at the U.S.A. bouldering nationals. He said, “I was surprised by how similar, or in some cases better, it was to a World Cup in terms of the production quality and organization.” Jon Siegrist’s New 5.15 Jon Siegrist made the first ascent of One Hundred Proof at Mount Potosi in Nevada. It’s his 10th 5.15a to date. Brittany Goris on Stingray Brittany Goris has made the first recorded female ascent of Stingray 5.13d at Joshua Tree in February. It’s one of the most famous trad climbs in North America.…

Legendary Rockies climber Charles “Chas” Yonge, who made hundreds of first ascents in Canada and was a world-renowned cave explorer, passed away on Jan. 20. He was 74. Chas earned his PhD in karst paleoclimatology while living in England and went on to open Canmore Cave Tours, which explored many caves, including Rat’s Nest Cave on Grotto Mountain. Chas moved to Ontario and opened a number of new rock climbs on the Niagara Escarpment, including traditional routes at Buffalo Crag and Mount Nemo. He mentored climbers like Steve De Maio, Pete Zabrok and John Kaandorp. He soon resettled in the Bow Valley. “He was instrumental in the development of sport climbing in the Rockies,” said longtime friend and guidebook author Chris Perry. “He established a number of other routes over…

We want the event to be inclusive and diverse. Of course, some people still raise their eyebrows asking how a “women’s festival” can be inclusive, but we don’t want to close our doors to anybody, regardless of their gender. What we want to create is a safe space – not safe from any particular group, but safe from attitudes that don’t align with our values of treating everybody with the same respect and giving everyone the same opportunities. And again, there’s this sentiment that nobody’s banning anybody from going outdoors and climbing, and at least within our culture that’s true. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t systemic, cultural barriers preventing people from doing certain things. Outdoor recreation is incredibly empowering; there are countless studies talking about…