[Dr T]

From Javu

Second Deep Water Solo Ascent of Christine (15 July 2010)
Gavin Symonds has made what is almost certainly the second deep water solo ascent of Christine, Ken Palmer's French 8a at Long Quarry Point. The route was first soloed by Ken in 2003 who also made first ascent of the line, with bolts, the previous year.

Prop's to Gav

Ken on the first ascent

[Jaspersharpe]

Charlotte Durif has onsighted an 8c, Le Roi du Petrole at St Loup. Also an 8b+ and a couple of 8bs for good measure.

http://www.chadurif.fr/index.html

[chris_j_s]

Charlotte Durif has onsighted an 8c...

That is quite amazing and really closes the performance gap between men and women. I think it's only Patxi who has onsighted harder is it not? (I know Ondra was reported to have done one but he said he couldn't take more than 8c for it)

Also mighty impressive that she is onsighting so close to her best redpoint grade (8c+?)...

[Palomides]

In case anyone was wondering, the routes that Charlotte Durif did are all on a small sector on the north face on Pic St Loup, north of Montpellier:



Pic St Loup is the mountain on the left. The big crag to the right is Hortus, where there's nothing above 8a.

To get to the routes, you have to walk to the top of Pic St Loup, and abseil down 40m. This  is one of my local crags, but I've never been there, as the easiest route is 8a+! It's unusual for the area, in that it's completely north-facing, unlike the ovens of Claret, Seynes, Russan and so on.

This is one of the 8bs she onsighted:
.

The 8c goes up the steeper bit to the left (I think).
More pictures and info on Charlottes blog and this old news report about Snails Paradis here (there's a long version at 8c+)


It's worth noting as well that Dave Graham did the FA of Roi du Petrole in 2005, and thought it was 8c+

[Neil F]

The big crag to the right is Hortus, where there's nothing above 8a.

That's as maybe, but there are still some great routes at Hortus!  2 or 3 pitches, some dodgy rock, fantastic outlook...

Still, I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know!

Neil

[Carnage]

No 'new' news I guess, but heres Ethan Pringle's blog post on his trip to Aus and links to pics:

http://www.ethanpringle.com/2010/08/06/quick-oz-recap/

Daniel Woods and Phillip Schaal are in the Grampians at the moment so i expect there'll be some significant repeats soon. I'm sure they'll get pointed at this uber hard project of Sam Edwards (seen here trying the moves):

[Pantontino]

Caff and Pete have had a good week in North Wales: 3rd ascent of Infanticide and 4th of The Very Big and the Very Small.

http://news.v12outdoor.com/climbing-news/

[Doylo]

I hope one of them does Big Bang!

[Jaspersharpe]

Excellent stuff. Re Pete's comments about grades, if he's comparing TVBATVS with LA at 8c then he's obviously going to think that it's a fair bit easier as everyone knows LA is about as 8c+ as 8c can get.

Great Diamond pic by the way Si.

Oh and what Doylo said.

[Doylo]

Sea of Tranquility could do with a repeat too. It only 17 years old! Pete's had a quick look.

[Stubbs]

http://www.b3bouldering.com/2010/08/18/angie-payne-climbs-the-automator-v13-rmnp/

first 8B by a woman?

Edit: Vid to give a flavour of the problem

[DaveC]

Daniel Woods and Phillip Schaal are in the Grampians at the moment so i expect there'll be some significant repeats soon. :

They may be having some problems with the weather. We're having the wettest winter in over a decade down here and Western Victoria has been getting the full brunt of it! Relative humidity has barely dropped below 97% in many places (including the Grampians) for three weeks now!

[Richie Crouch]

Massively impressive that Stubbs. Looks like a great set of moves too and not some 100 move shuffle 

[chriss]

Daniel Woods and Phillip Schaal are in the Grampians at the moment so i expect there'll be some significant repeats soon. :

They may be having some problems with the weather. We're having the wettest winter in over a decade down here and Western Victoria has been getting the full brunt of it! Relative humidity has barely dropped below 97% in many places (including the Grampians) for three weeks now!

I see from 8a.I'm better than you.com that Woods was still in the USA two days ago.

Webb- Parsons has logged 8a, but that's not significant for an 8b+ crusher.   

[Adam Lincoln]

True North got another ascent last week. Richard Waterton this time. Effort, considering wetness on Full Tilt.

[Stubbs]

Nacho did Never Ending Story!

http://www.8a.nu/?IncPage=http://www.8a.nu/articles/ShowArticle.aspx%3FArticleId%3D6786

[andy_e]

bestia!

[chriss]

Paul Robinson (under fed US wad, not Neighbours bad guy) has repeated Big Fred's 'Monkey Wedding' in Rocklands. He also suggested 8c rather than 8b+ as originally graded.

Info here.

http://27crags.com/teams/27-crags/blog/paul-robinson-makes-the-2nd-ascent-of-monkey-wedding-8c

[Jaspersharpe]

Fuck, with his ticklist saying it's the second hardest thing he's done is serious shit. When did Fred climb it? Amazing. <<EDIT: Just checked, it was 2003. 

Oh and re Nacho. 

[Nike Air]

True North got another ascent last week. Richard Waterton this time. Effort, considering wetness on Full Tilt.

Well done Richard. Now Gangle, come on!!!

[the_dom]

Paul Robinson (under fed US wad, not Neighbours bad guy) has repeated Big Fred's 'Monkey Wedding' in Rocklands. He also suggested 8c rather than 8b+ as originally graded.

I ran into Paul when he was trying this about 2 weeks ago - he thought it was the hardest thing that Fred had opened and in a completely different league to Amandla, which Fred thought was the hardest thing he'd opened.

[SA Chris]

Hi Dom, you been stuck under a rock?

Or just making the most of winter?

[Tommy]

Pete Whittaker became yet another Brit to yard his away across the Greenspit crack in Italy last month. He did it on his 6th day and looks like it's settling in around French 8b. Nice work boyo! 

[duncan]

Buoux Dolomites 8c has had a decent summer:

Soloed The Brandler-Hasse in 1 hour 37 mins
Redpointed the crux pitches of Pan Aroma
Got into Cambridge

Not bad for an alpinist!

[JFreeman]

Daniel Turner did the full traverse (R-L) of the ladder face at Bowderstone on Monday - 'The Link' aka Lateral Gruntings into Final Curtain. At around 28 moves Dan gave it hard font 8a+, significantly harder than the Lateral into Grand Link.