Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2022 Vol. 24 Issue 1 i Gripped: The Climbing Magazine

When I started climbing, the idea of having a secret crag was crazy. Climbing, to me – then and now – is about community and the more people around for a day at the crag the better. Over the past two decades of developing hundreds of pitches across Canada, I thought it was time to find a crag that I wouldn’t advertise to the world. Having a place to go run laps and bolt new routes alone made sense this past year, especially in spring when restrictions were keeping us out of climbing gyms. I hiked around the base of Waskahigan Watchi (Mount Rundle) near the town of Banff looking for a close-to-the-road piece of solid rock that could become a crag. I found one a few hundred feet to…

New Hard Rockies Drytool Greg Barrett made the first ascent of a hard new drytool climb at the Rockies crag Alcatraz that he called Kabukimono and graded D12-ish. He said, “Big moves on big holds. Head up the wall to a slot at the base of the roof. Reach a full wingspan straight up, cut your feet, and launch into 15-plus metres of roof climbing. The goal of the line was to build an accessible training ground for routes like Musashi. The name Kabukimono refers to gangs of Samurai in the 16th century.” Bold New Himalayan Route At the start of December, Polish mountaineers Marcin Tomaszewski and Damian Bielecki made the first ascent of Frozen Fight Club at A3 M7 up 780 metres of granite cracks and systems on Uli…

It’s the day after climbing Epinephrine, an 11-pitch mega classic rad climb in Red Rock, Nev. It’s unlike anything that I’ve climbed and starts with a burly three-pitch chimney. Then after a fun pitch, it takes you up four pitches in an exposed corner system hundreds of metres off the ground. I’d climbed it with one of my best friends, Michael, who’s a mentor and a real old schooler. After having brutally dragged myself up to the first belay of the chimney, it was Michael’s turn to follow. He was climbing with a 30-litre, brand new Patagonia bag. It was loaded with a lot of stuff. About 10 feet up the pitch, he realized that he would not to be able to squeeze up the chimney carrying the pack, or…

The first ascent of Crime of the Century was in 1978 by Peter Croft and Tami Knight, and ever since then it’s been the must-climb test-piece 5.11c single-pitch trad route at the Smoke Bluffs in Squamish. It starts just left of Penny Lane 5.9 at the Penny Lane wall and starts with a few bouldery moves off the ground, which might leave your pinky numb, and leads to a great finger crack above. It finishes with a sting-in-the-tail mantle. This technical and balancey route isn’t for everyone’s tick-list, in fact if you’re not confident placing gear at 5.11 then you should skip it for another nearby classic like the legendary Penny Lane. It’s been described as relentless and physical, but some suggest it isn’t 5.11c, but more like 5.11a/b. Croft…

DMM Torque Nut $30 If you are looking for a hex to add to your rack, look no further than this must-have piece of protection from DMM. They fit great in standard crack placements, but they also cam nicely into horizontal features thanks to a rounded side. They have double slings to keep them high on your harness and to help reduce drag on meandering pitches. Wild Country Offset Zero Friends $115 Friends are one of the most iconic pieces of trad gear ever made, and the new Offset Zeros should be on every gear climber’s rack. There are five sizes, they have extendable dyneema slings, they are ideal for small and narrow placements, and the flexible stem allows you to place them in awkward spots. From single-pitch to big…

Allison Vest on Fire Canadian Allison Vest climbed three V13s in a month with Army of the Dead, Blackout V13 and Masterpiece V13 in Joe’s Valley. In 2020, she climbed Firestorm V13 in Ogden, and in 2019 she climbed her first V13 with Terminator in Squamish. Bayes Wilder Crushed at 10 American 10-year-old climber Bayes Wilder sent Southern Smoke 5.14c at Red River Gorge in November. Found at Bob Marley Crag, it was Wilder’s hardest ascent to date. At one week shy of 10 ½ years old, he’s the youngest to climb the grade. Wilder sent on his third day on his fifth attempt. Alex Honnold Sends Red Rock Test-Piece Alex Honnold has made the second ascent of one of the hardest multi-pitch routes at Red Rock with Synthetic Happiness…

A lot of Canadian cities have a nearby crag, but Thunder Bay’s might be the closest to the city core. The Bluffs are a park on the city limits, just north of town, known for short approaches, classic splitters and easy access to top-rope anchors. It’s a well-developed area that got its first routes back in the 1970s. It’s been the scene of many rock climber’s first outdoor experience, thanks to the nearby Lakehead University programs and the local Alpine Club of Canada section. Of course, like many urban crags that act as a lookout to locals and tourists, you must deal with broken glass, some trash, and a lot of graffiti. But if you can look past the trappings of an edge-of-town hotspot, then you’ll find some of the…

Snow buried me to my neck in an avalanche once. I was backcountry skiing at a fly-in lodge, following a guide with ten other skiers, skinning uphill in snowy, flat-light weather. Up ahead, the guide stopped, made a kick turn to reverse direction, and continued uphill until he was directly above me. Whumph! I felt the snowpack jerk under my skis. I’d felt whumphs before, so I waited, expecting the slope to settle. It didn’t settle. It began moving. And it carried me with it. I swam. The force knocked back in a sitting position and the snow pushed me downhill with me waving my arms the entire time. “Keep it off my face. Keep it off my face.” I recited the words like a mantra. When the world stopped…

Legendary B.C. climber Don Serl has more experience in Canada’s Coast Mountains than most climbers. Serl wrote the most in-depth guidebook to the area called The Waddington Guide in 2003. In 2017, he received the Summit of Excellence Award from the Banff Mountain Festival for his many contributions to mountaineering. In 2021, several climbers expressed that protecting peaks and glaciers around Mount Waddington with a provincial or national park status would be a benefit to current and future generations. However, Serl believes that a park wouldn’t be good for backcountry enthusiasts hoping to continue to access the area. We touched base with him at the end of the year to hear why he thinks the area should stay wild. At 4,019 metres, Waddington is the highest peak entirely within B.C.’s…

A mountain town and cottage country are two of the most popular places for weekend warriors, and they now have one more thing in common: they both have fantastic climbing facilities. Banff’s Sally Borden at the Banff Centre and Bracebridge, Ont.’s Climb Muskoka are two very different climbing gyms, but they, maybe not surprisingly, share one very climb community thing in common: the energy and stoke are unlike anywhere else. I’ve been lucky to have climbed in countless gyms across Canada, and always try to visit a new one when it opens. After spending the fall climbing in Banff, I travelled to cottage country for the grand opening of the new Climb Muskoka. While the two gyms have very different spaces, walls, holds, pads and setting styles, they overall vibes…

“Probably the best eight-pitch crack collection in the Valley,” says SuperTopo: Yosemite Valley Free Climbs. “A truly rad climb,” echoes Mountain Project. Summit Post calls it “the most enjoyable multi-pitch 5.11 in the Valley.” Yosemite Valley, Calif. Of the many routes that pepper the 750-foot granite feature the Rostrum, which is sliced with unrelenting cracks and sharp chicken knobs, it’s the 5.11c North Face route that takes the cake. Other classics include Kaukulator, a glassy, slightly overhanging single-pitch splitter that rivals anything found at the famous Cookie Cliff down-valley. First attempted by John Bachar, who backed off according to the SuperTopo forum, it was Ron Kauk, belayed by John “Yabo” Yablonski, in 1975, who led Kaukulator clean with the tools of the day – nuts and hexes. Kaukulator is the…

The 2006 Youth World Cup was held at the imposing overhanging gym of Kletterzentrum Imst, in the Austrian Tirol. There had been challenges in putting on the event. The outdoor wall where the speed climbing was meant to be held was closed due to rain and the speed finals were being moved indoors. During the finals, Canadian climbers Sean McColl and Katie Mah were in ISO with their coach, Mike Doyle. “Mah was really nervous,” remembers Doyle, “but went out and crushed it, finishing in third. She had been my athlete, and so she made me cry.” It would be McColl’s last year of youth world championships, and he was Canada’s most decorated comp climber. Doyle had coached McColl since he had started climbing at The Edge gym in Vancouver.…

Vatnajökull National Park is one of three national parks in Iceland, and beneath its ice is the country’s biggest mountain. While the park has big landscapes, raging rivers, and volcano activity, it’s the huge seracs, deep crevases and ice slopes that attract countless climbers every year. Some go to enjoy the vanishing millions-year-old ice and others go to try the rare ice climbing experiences. Vatnajökull National Park isn’t old, it was established in June 2008. At the time, it covered over 12,000 km2, but with the fissure Lakagígar, Langisjór Lake, Krepputunga Range and Jökulsárlón glacial lake, it now covers 14,141 km2 or 14 per cent of Iceland. It’s Europe’s second largest national park in terms of area. In 2019, the park was inscribed as a World Heritage Site. From a…

Patagonia Black Hole Duffel Bag 55L $225 The Black Hole line of packs from Patagonia has stood the test of time as one of the most reliable ever made in the world of climbing gear. It will protect your gear in travel and on the approach. The big U-shaped lid gives quick access to your equipment in the main compartment. Two internal zippered mesh pockets are good sizes for small items. The padded bottom keeps the load safe when the duffle is being tossed around. There are webbing daisy chains on all four corners that provide lash points for extra gear. For carrying options, there are padded backpack style straps, webbing handles with a snap closure and haul loops at both of the short ends of the bag. Osprey Daylight…