Innholdsfortegnelse for December & January 2021 / Vol 21 Issue 6 i Gripped: The Climbing Magazine

“It doesn’t have to be fun, to be fun,” said top Canadian ice and alpine climber Barry Blanchard about suffering in the mountains. There are a lot of words that describe ice climbing, from dangerous to cruisy, but no matter what – it’s always fun. With over 20 years of ice climbing under my harness, I’ve been lucky to experience some of the most extreme conditions imaginable, from T-shirt weather on Weeping Wall in Alberta to -40 C on Le Gringalet in Quebec. I’ve been scared off two-pitch WI2 climbs due to circumstances and have climbed notoriously hazardous lines like Slipstream in near-perfect conditions. I’ve bailed on WI5 curtains and have made first ascents of WI6 pillars. Some of my most memorable days are the ones spent at ice “crags,”…

Wolke 7 is New 12-Pitch 5.13 In October, Luka Lindič and Ines Papert made the first ascent of Wolke 7 on Hintere Feuerhörndl at Reiteralm in the Berchtesgaden Alps in Germany. The two have spent much of the past few years in Canada, climbing new routes in the Rockies. Wolke 7 is the German expression for cloud nine; they climbed the 12-pitch 5.13 shortly after they got married. Brette Harrington Solos Alpine Wall Top alpinist Brette Harrington soloed the Northeast Face of Haddo Peak, a big alpine wall that goes at IV 5.8, in a day this fall. While the climbing isn’t technically difficult, the rock quality ranges from chossy to nearly solid, which requires extremely careful climbing. “I carried along a very simple hiker’s pack with food, water, and…

Shasa Alexandriw moved to Thunder Bay from Schomberg, Ont., for school six years ago and decided to stick around for the outstanding rock climbing and community. The first gym she ever climbed at was Of Rock and Chalk in Newmarket, the hometown of many of Canadian climbers including Sonnie Trotter and Sarah Hart. Alexandriw is currently the manager at Boulder Bear climbing gym in Thunder Bay and one of the area’s top climbers. We touched base with her as the rock climbing season was winding down. What’s it like being the manager of Boulder Bear? Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet deal. I’m super fortunate to be able to work at Boulder Bear and have an employer like Dallas Markall [a longtime Ontario climber and route developer]. Thanks to Dallas and…

I am pissed about Free Solo. Pissed that Alex Honnold now defines climbing for so many. Pissed that Free Solo made it at the multiplex, (perhaps) sinking Dawn Wall’s chances. But I’m not pissed off about soloing. Soloing can be a beautiful act – the pure expression of mental focus and skilled movement over rock. Everyone who’s done some trad or mountaineering has dabbled in soloing: it’s a sliding scale from runout to soloing when on loose fourth class or far above marginal gear. And many climbers, perhaps mostly men and mostly folks into trad or mountaineering, have done some deliberate soloing. I have vivid memories of soloing some 5.9 in the Gunks early one October morning in the mid-80s. I was gaining confidence as a new climber. I knew the…

Autumn, 30 minutes west of Yosemite Valley: Will Stanhope and Wilson Cutbirth weave down the hillside, poison oak brushing against their arms and plumes of white dust kicking off behind their flip-flops. They’re headed to the Octagon swimming hole, a local getaway, to escape the harsh California heat and take a rest day from the 30-pitch 5.13d Pre-Muir route on El Cap. Things aren’t going well after six weeks on the project, making them question if this is the route for them. Despite their best efforts, both climbers are still unable to do the route’s stemming crux. Stanhope, age 33 – a climber since he was nine – is one of the world’s top trad climbers, soloists and runout face climbers. Over 24 years on the rock, he’s pushed his…

I was sitting in the Port Severn Family Restaurant with my brother Dave on our drive home from climbing in Algoma, in Northern Ontario. He looked at his meal the protein between the greasy pieces of bread, and said, “I mostly eat at these places with you.” I knew what he meant; we always eat much better cooking at our camp sites. Learning how to cook and prepare decent meals on climbing trips didn’t come easily. It took dedication, decades of experimentation and a few near bouts of scurvy to figure out how to cook on the road. Both of us are in our fifties and we have developed into excellent cooks at home. I try to bring as much of homemade food as possible on climbing trips. Being healthy…

The North Face ETIP Recycled Gloves $50 The North Face ETIP Recycled Gloves feature recycled polyester with a women-specific fit and touchscreen-compatible fingertip. An excellent glove for warm-winter-day ice cragging and trail running. Petzl Rad System $500 The Petzl Rad System kit comes with thin hyperstatic cord for rappelling, crevasse rescue and roped glacier travel. Perfect for trips of low technical difficulty, it offers a means of protection in escape situations. A great consideration for ski-mountaineers and alpinists going light and fast. Arc’teryx Piedmont Vest $350 A vest can make your good day ice climbing a great day out. The Piedmont works as a warm layer for the climb, but doubles as a stylish layer for post-climb. It’s filled with 750-fill European grey goose down and has a water-repellent finish.…

Basecamp Bloor Street is one of Toronto’s most popular climbing gyms. It features a small bouldering area and lots of angular walls for lead and toproping. Owner Matthew Languay has opened a new 7,000-square-foot bouldering gym in Chinatown with dozens of problems set at any given time. His Bloor Street West location took over the space once used by the Metro Theatre, an adult cinema that many locals were happy to see go. His Queen Street location occupies a space once used for the Toronto Underground Cinema. The gym is located about one block north of Queen Street on Spadina Avenue. Prices are comparable to other gyms, with day passes going for $23 and annual memberships starting at $655. There are more indoor climbers than ever in Toronto and having…

Will Gadd is in trouble at work. Work is steady, sure, but his future is uncertain. He’s the best in class, no doubt – perhaps that’s why he’s still in the game. His colleagues across the pond haven’t been so fortunate; an unpredictable market liquidated most available products and forced them into North American business trips. When Gadd clocks in for a winter’s day of work he can’t help but notice a redecorated office. The pathways to summits and across ridgelines have changed. The mountains maintain a similar rarified air, but its character is scarred. Glaciers crack and boom more frequently than he remembers. They slip then crash down rotten limestone faces, ruining classic ice routes and creating new Rocky Mountain horror shows. But Gadd can’t ask a secretary to…

Canadian Guy Lacelle was one of the world’s best ice climbers. He was known for his sense of humour, responsibility, bold visions, big heart and historic free-solos. He was revered as an ice climber and as a tree planter. While he dismissed being called a hero, he become a legend. He died in 2009 in an avalanche at the Bozeman Ice Festival. In 1997, he made the first solo link of three classic ice routes on the Trophy Wall on Banff’s Mount Rundle in only five hours: Terminator WI6+ 150 m, Sea of Vapors WI7+ 165 m and Replicant WI6+ 145 m. He was one of the first climbers to solo Weeping Pillar WI6 170 m and Polar Circus WI5 700 m in a day. He also made legendary solos…

With access to the American northeast still unavailable at time of writing, Ontario climbers who used to make their big ice climbing trips of the winter to New Hampshire, Vermont and New York’s Adirondacks may be wondering where to go this year. Thunder Bay’s amazing ice is about a twenty-hour drive from Southern Ontario. Of course, the best ice climbing in the world is in the Canadian Rockies, but that involves plane flight and a car rental. So both of these spots are out of the question for weekend trips for most climbers. With average temperatures rising to the point that much of the southern ice in Ontario has become ephemeral, and some hasn’t been seen for several seasons, Ontario ice climbers are looking a little farther away for some…

I craned my neck back as far as I could, trying to take in the magnitude of what stood before me. I was dripping sweat, my shoulders ached from my pack and my feet burned, but my spirit soared at the gargantuan Emperor Face rising above the trees. It was the most impressive thing I had ever seen: a black wall erupting from the valley, 2,500 metres high, striped with grey ice and white snow, its pyramidal peak piercing the clouds above. It was July 5, 2018, my first attempt at Mount Robson via the Kain Route on the northeast face. At 3,954 metres, Robson is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, and with 3,000 metres of relief above the Fraser River to the south, it’s by far the…