[Duma]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUXa7B0Bb5_/

Megos onsights 9a again

[remus]

Funny little interview on UKC https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item/71104/tct_second_9a_onsight_by_alex_megos

So...how do you think it was possible for you do pull it off then?
Good question. It was weird. It felt like I can focus my energy better on one try now?

It sounds weird but after the route I was really, really exhausted.

I still did an 8c and and an 8c+ but I felt really tired

[jwi]

Cracking interview, thanks Björn.

[jwi]

This should probably go with the fell-running thread, but I couldn't find it. Nevertheless:

Killian Jornet did the normal route of Everest without oxygen, and without using the via cordata, in 26 hours from base camp at 5100 masl. On the way back he reached the ABC (6500masl) after 38 hours, where he stopped, complaining about stomach pain.

http://desnivel.com/expediciones/kilian-jornet-hace-cima-en-el-everest-en-26-horas-desde-que-partio-de-rongbuk

[Duma]

"Ali" Kennedy did The Big Issue at the weekend [/fb stalk]

[Ged]

...after removing the threads and pegs, and placing gear on lead I think.  Nice one "Ali".

[dave]

Nice one "Ali", if indeed that is your real name.

[cofe]

He'll always be 'French' 'Ali' to me. Great effort.

[duncan]

Killian Jornet did the normal route of Everest without oxygen, and without using the via cordata, in 26 hours from base camp at 5100 masl. On the way back he reached the ABC (6500masl) after 38 hours, where he stopped, complaining about stomach pain.

This is a bit like strong sport climbers going trad. Takes a little time to adjust but when you've got power fitness to burn you can do some impressive things.

Messner took about 3 days in 1980. Erhard Loretan and Jean Triollet's c.40 hours round trip from ABC (1986) seems even more of a breakthrough now. Jornet took 38 hours but started lower than ABC. I'd be surprised if one of the locals couldn't do better though. Perhaps they have?

...after removing the threads and pegs, and placing gear on lead I think. 

Hats off. That's very good if true.

[ali k]

Thanks all. The peg is still in, mainly cos I'm not sure of the best way to get it out cleanly and didn't want to piss anyone off that's trying it. But I did chop the threads and remove all the 'stuck' wires and the cord on the peg and chose not to clip it so that hopefully there's no excuse to replace it. All gear placed on lead (first time?).

As I said, peg still in for now but would welcome thoughts on removing it and will do so if people think that's best thing to do?

[T_B]

Bravo!

Congrats "Ali" and a big fat well done for removing most of the fixed gear and leading without. Cool to see this happening and to see an improvement in style.

It's a crying shame the scene in Yorkshire is so backward. Instead classic E5s like The Overlap at Kilnsey are reputedly about to succumb to the retro-bolters (so my spies tell me). What next - Wise Blood? Probably. Then Balas no doubt (a nice little 7a in the making).

[T_B]

Killian Jornet did the normal route of Everest without oxygen, and without using the via cordata, in 26 hours from base camp at 5100 masl. On the way back he reached the ABC (6500masl) after 38 hours, where he stopped, complaining about stomach pain.

This is a bit like strong sport climbers going trad. Takes a little time to adjust but when you've got power fitness to burn you can do some impressive things.

Except it's a lot more complicated than that as you need the right physiology. Actually, runners generally perform poorly at altitude (this is anecdotal, but I've been involved in commercial high-altitude expeds for 18 years and I've seen enough runners perform really badly that there's definitely something in it), so having a world-class athlete's V02 max score (apparently Kilian is on a different level to the late Ueli Steck in that respect), isn't necessarily going to get you up E w/o 02. It'll be interesting to read interviews and find out how it was for him. Though I have to say I'm more interested to see whether he breaks Billy Bland's Bob Graham record when/if he tries that.

At the end of the day someone who has the right physiology could beat the Everest speed record as there is little technical difficulty on the normal routes. Indeed, even taking into consideration 'running' from BC to ABC I suspect a lot of Sherpas would perform just as well, given the opportunity.

[Muenchener]

Messner in his autobiography says the second step on the north ridge is about UIAA VI free (and therefore there's no way Mallory got up it). Not sure if UIAA VI counts as "little technical difficulty" at 8,500 metres.

[T_B]

Just read the interview ont other channel with Colin Haley who has just soloed the N Buttress of Hunter and he says of the European Alps:

 The Alps are much more awesome mountains than what is available in the contiguous US, but still they aren't really serious mountains at all in comparison to Alaska or the Himalaya, or even Patagonia. While there is lots of badass stuff you can do in the Alps in the realm of hard free-climbing, or speed ascents, there is nothing to do in the alps that is really significant in modern alpinism, in my opinion.

So yeah, in terms of where the top Alpinists are UIAA VI is V0.

[Muenchener]

I  must have missed the bit where we were talking something in about the Alps. Or your point.

[Will Hunt]

Just read the interview ont other channel with Colin Haley who has just soloed the N Buttress of Hunter and he says of the European Alps:

 The Alps are much more awesome mountains than what is available in the contiguous US, but still they aren't really serious mountains at all in comparison to Alaska or the Himalaya, or even Patagonia. While there is lots of badass stuff you can do in the Alps in the realm of hard free-climbing, or speed ascents, there is nothing to do in the alps that is really significant in modern alpinism, in my opinion.

So yeah, in terms of where the top Alpinists are UIAA VI is V0.

Could this be a comment on the remoteness of the mountains? With the climbs in the Alps being comparatively roadside?

[jwi]

Messner in his autobiography says the second step on the north ridge is about UIAA VI free (and therefore there's no way Mallory got up it). Not sure if UIAA VI counts as "little technical difficulty" at 8,500 metres.

The Hillary step is gone. The entire thing vanished in last year's quakes according to an interview with one of the via-cordata-for-idiots-operators on planetmontain

[T_B]

I  must have missed the bit where we were talking something in about the Alps. Or your point.

Ha ha. You were the one who brought Alpine grades into it!

Seriously though, I'm not sure I have a great point to make - sorry. Other than I'm skeptical even climbing around the ladders/fixed ropes that are there in place as a massive security blanket in case it all goes pear shaped (fair enough, he'd been in the post-monsoon season before with no one around and realised the weather is not good then), the technical difficulty has much to do with success or not with this kind of endeavor. Still, more to it technically than the normal route on Aconcagua or the west buttress of Denali.

[Will Hunt]

Megos has onsighted another 9a. It's the one that Ondra onsighted (after Megos became the first to achieve such a feat). In the interview on UKC there's some beautiful indirect trash talk/casual deliberateness where Megos bangs on and on about how weak and shit he was feeling that day. That day when he matched Ondra's best onsight. Miaow!

[dave]

How many onsights does it take for a 9a to get downgraded these days?

[monkoffunk]

Megos has onsighted another 9a. It's the one that Ondra onsighted (after Megos became the first to achieve such a feat). In the interview on UKC there's some beautiful indirect trash talk/casual deliberateness where Megos bangs on and on about how weak and shit he was feeling that day. That day when he matched Ondra's best onsight. Miaow!

Ondra still on sighted more 9a. Not that it's a competition I'm sure.

[Johnny Brown]

Messner in his autobiography says the second step on the north ridge is about UIAA VI free (and therefore there's no way Mallory got up it). Not sure if UIAA VI counts as "little technical difficulty" at 8,500 metres.

The Hillary step is gone. The entire thing vanished in last year's quakes according to an interview with one of the via-cordata-for-idiots-operators on planetmontain

The Hillary step was always easy though, whereas the second step on the north ridge has only been freed once hasn't it? And not by Messner, who bypassed it up his eponymous couloir? Everyone else goes up the Chinese ladder.

I had presumed by 'normal route' for Killian meant western cwm south col etc, and the missing Hillary step.

[Muenchener]

All the accounts are pretty clear Kilian did the Tibetan side "normal route", but presumably "without using the via cordata" doesn't include "without using the ladder".

[Will Hunt]

Megos has onsighted another 9a. It's the one that Ondra onsighted (after Megos became the first to achieve such a feat). In the interview on UKC there's some beautiful indirect trash talk/casual deliberateness where Megos bangs on and on about how weak and shit he was feeling that day. That day when he matched Ondra's best onsight. Miaow!

Ondra still on sighted more 9a. Not that it's a competition I'm sure.

If climbing isn't exclusively about being The Best then I want no further part in it.

[Duma]

If it's about being the best then posting on news threads is about being first ;-)

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