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A video by Bernardo Gimenez
24 May 2010, 11:13 am

Photographer (and now film maker) Bernardo Gimenez has made a 7 minute video in which we get to follow Argentinian climber, Danilo Pereyra for a day when he's working Chikane, a hard and technical 8c+ at Siurana, Spain.

Brilliant footage!

TheLowDown approves.

from Bernardo Gimenez on Vimeo.

Source: TheLowDown

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Hotel Supramonte by Nina & Cedric
25 May 2010, 6:17 am

Nina Caprez and Cedric Lachat have repeated Rolando Larcher's and Roberto Vigiani's Hotel Supramonte (7b, 7c+, 8b, 8a+, 8b, 7c, 7a, 7b, 7b+, 7b, 6b+) in the Gole di Gorropu in Sardinia. Cedric, who narrowly missed the onsight on a previous visit, now fought his way up the whole thing with just one fall on the first 8b-pitch (he reclimbed the pitch from the start of course). Cedric's ascent was a perfect opportunity for Nina to reherse the route once more on top-rope. A couple of days later, the couple was back. Now it was Nina's turn to tie in on the sharp end. She only took one fall, on the 8a+ pitch, but swiftly reclimbed it and continued to the top.

Full story on Nina's blog.

Photo: Nina Caprez and Cedric Lachat on the wall. Caprez coll.

Source: TheLowDown

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Climbing and where it's going, by DW
25 May 2010, 6:55 am

Daniel Woods has written a piece about where he thinks climbing is going.

I think this is a very complicated issue... and I suspect I'm not unique in this sense (either). On the one hand, if we by progress mean more difficult climbing, a significantly harder problem or route must get a higher grade, because it's on open ended scale. On the other hand, it's not always easy to know whether the thing you've climbed (this is even more true for bouldering) is just very hard (or easy) for you, for any number of reasons (body type, specific strengths or lack there of, skin type, flexibility or lack there of, style, rock type... etc., etc.). 8A for one person can be 8C or even impossible for another.

Also, as a grade is not a dot, but a span, how much more difficult must a problem be to warrant a higher grade? And again, how much more difficult according to who?

It's great that Daniel speaks up and tells us what he thinks. More world class climbers should do just that.

In the end, consensus is impossible.

Accept it.

Source: TheLowDown

[a dense loner]

i'm just glad that daniels had the courage to speak out n put into words something that claude e. benson knew in 1902. i too hope other big names speak out n tell us something we already know. very brave of them

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Jörg Guntram repeats The Hourglass
26 May 2010, 5:39 am

Jörg Guntram, on tour in Sweden with Tobi Kleemair, has managed to make the 2nd ascent of Stefan Rasmussen's great looking The Hourglass, ~8B+, at Björnblocket, near Västervik. Stefan, portraid in Shawn Boye's movie The Sends, has been working tirelessly for many years, developing bouldering areas around Västervik on the Swedish east coast. The Hourglass is his hardest so far, and a contender for the hardest in the country.



Source: TheLowDown

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The Dai Koyamada interview
26 May 2010, 4:53 pm

A couple of weeks ago, Dai Koyamada made the long awaited 2nd ascent of Dave Graham's 'The story of 2 worlds' on the Dreamtime boulder at Cresciano. The problem, which links an extremely crimpy 7 move ~8B/+ or so into Toni Lamprecht's ultra physical 'The Dagger', 8B+, to create what Dave, at the time, called "the new standard for 8C". It went more than five years without a 2nd ascent, and it wasn't because nobody tried it...

I decided to ask Dai a few questions.

All photos: Dai Koyamada on The story of 2 worlds, by Ikuku Serata

You have now climbed at least four problems in the 8C/+ to 8C+ range. Both FA and repeats. How would you compare 'The story of 2 worlds' to these? Is it possible?

It's difficult to compare, but I think 'The Story...' felt harder than those problems.  Conditions during the ascent was bad, so maybe I would have had a different impression in better conditions.  Either way, Dave having climbed this problem as long as 6 long ago is very impressive.

There is a lot of talk about grade inflation these days. Is it something that you have noticed? What do you think?

I don't think the grades are actually inflated. Perhaps the level of climbers as a whole has improved compared to the past. And this has pushed establishment of harder problems around the world, and may have resulted in the misperception.

Frankly, I'm fed up with the grading talks. My interest is not in simple numbers but rather in whether or not moves in a problem in front of my eyes is possible. That's all.

If I understand your blog correctly, you wanted to try some more 8C's. I know the weather was very bad, but did you get a chance to try any? What were your impressions?

Yes, I did try a couple: 'Big Paw' and 'In Search of Time Lost'. 'Big Paw' seemed impossible unless we had very low temps. 'In Search of Time Lost' seemed possible with more time and right conditions, but I couldn't climb after a sudden change of weather in the area. 'From Dirt Grows the Flowers' is a great line. I definitely wish to try it next time."

Every year or so, you come to Europe and make fast ascent of many of the hardest problems. Does this mean you could climb a lot harder problems if you had the time and the right conditions?

I think I should be able to. More time means getting more chances of having the right conditions. I wouldn't have to go out to the rocks and try even in the rain, like this time.  But I also think that with less time you have a sense of urgency and that is a factor in bringing out more power and focus than usual.

Have you found and tried any futuristic projects here that you'd want to come back to?

There is an unsolved link project in the Darkness Cave at Magic wood that I want to try next time. There are lots of rocks, anyway, and there ought to be lots of unclimbed problems if you look for them. I wish to do those developments overseas, but it also takes so much more time than doing repeats of established problems. So right now, my hands are full with doing repeats abroad.

Do you have any plans to visit the US, South Africa or any other countries?

I want to visit many places and climb. I also want to go to the US and I am interested in Bishop, Hueco and RMNP as well. But I like Europe. What's important for me is not just the rocks and the lines but the whole environment around them.

There seem to be many strong Japanese climbers, but my impressin is that most of what happens in Japanese climbing, don't reach media outside the country. Is this correct? If so, why do you think this is?

I think we can say the same thing from us, that there are many strong and promising climbers other than so-called 'top stars' in foreign countries (outside Japan), but there are little chance of knowing about them for Japanese climbers. The situation may be attributed to culture of Japanese media.

Back to the question, certainly, there may be many strong climbers in Japan, but there are only a handful of 'real' climbers. By that I mean most of the climbers who are said to be 'strong' in Japan are competition climbers who don't go out to climb real rocks. For me this is kind of sad.  It may depend on what 'media outside the country' means, but I see that there are only few cases where a Japanese climber comes up as a subject in foreign climbing magazines. As I said before, that's because there are few 'real' climbers and may well be because of tendencies of media either in Japan or in other countries. You can find Japanese names and records occasionally in foreign websites, though.

You are starting (or have already started?) your own gym. What can you tell me about this project?

About 330 sq.m of bouldering only gym - really great gym, I think.

What goals have you left to achieve in climbing? What are you doing to be able to progress even further?

Of course, I always want to be stronger than I am now, but with age my big challange from now on will be how to maintain the performance at the highest level. And although I'm focused on bouldering and sport climbing now, I want to try trad climbing as well. In any case, I wish to be true to my own motivation.  For training I just climb in the gym.  But I climb kick-ass hard problems and volume! And I also do campusing occasionally.

Thanks a lot Dai, and good luck with everything!

Source: TheLowDown

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Jan Hojer on Action directe, 9a
27 May 2010, 2:57 pm



Source: TheLowDown

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Help Salavat Rakhmetov's daughter
27 May 2010, 4:55 pm

Salavat's 5-year-old daughter, Zalia, sustained severe injuries when she was hit by a falling rock at a crag in Turkey. Surgery, treatment and transportation is very expensive, so please help by donating money, if you can.

The data for Western Union (currency account maybe later):

RAKHMETOV Salavat (Kipaevich)

63 ? 8399932

28.04.2009 - 28.04.2014

Moscovskaya oblast, g. Odintsovo

Read more on Mountain.ru.

Source: TheLowDown

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Victimas Perez by Enzo Oddo
27 May 2010, 7:57 pm

Enzo Oddo has done it again. After five 9a-ish routes last year, Enzo has now done the first for the year by making the 3rd ascent of Victimas Perez, 9a, in the Raco de la finestra sector at Margalef. The route basically consists of a 30m of steep left traversing wall climb, roughly ~8c+ in its own right, up to a spicy 7C crux at the top.

Full story and more photos on Nice-climb

Photo: Enzo Oddo on Victimas Perez, by Dave Graham

Source: TheLowDown

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Jade, by Carlo Traversi
28 May 2010, 5:11 am

Just a couple of hours ago, Carlo Traversi has made the 6th(?) (Woods, Landman, Robinson, Hukkataival, Schaal) ascent of Daniel Woods' Jade, 8C, in the Upper chaos of RMNP. What's remarkable is that Jade is rather (or brutaly) crimpy and..., according to what he told me, he doesn't crimp. Ever. I think that's kinda cool actually.

Carlo has had a great last couple of months with ascents of classics like Black lung, Circadian Rhythm and Suspension of disbelief, so that he would do Jade was no surprise.

Photo: Carlo Traversi cutting loose on the crux of Jade (not recommended). Traversi coll.

Source: TheLowDown

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Two more 8B's for James Webb
29 May 2010, 10:09 am

Jimmy Webb is quickly ticking his way through the Colorado test-pieces. This month, he has dispatched no less than 4 8B's, 6 8A+'s and 10 8A's. Two of the 8B's, Top notch and Don't get too Greedy were done yesterday. Here's a video with Jimmy Webb and Brion Voges.

from Jimmy Webb on Vimeo.

Source: TheLowDown

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Carlo Traversi doing Jade. The video
30 May 2010, 7:20 pm

... can now be found over at DPM.

Not bad!

Source: TheLowDown

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8B+ FA by Nalle in Norway?
31 May 2010, 12:14 pm

One week ago, Nalle Hukkataival embarked on a roadtrip to Norway. The weather forecast looked grim to say the least, predicting heavy rain every day in the Trondheim area. This didn't put him off however, and apparently, and as usual I suppose, the forecast was not entirely correct, because today I got a report: "Rumour has it Nalle Hukkataival has sent the Diamanten project at Vingsand, giving it a grade of 8B+. This means it should be the hardest problem in Norway. Vingsand is a newly discovered area in Norway about 10 hours from the capital, Oslo. It's located in Trøndelag, and is a popular destination for the Oslo climbers, even though they have to drive 10 hours for it!"

I'll try to get in touch with Nalle, to find out more and hopefully get a photo or two.

Photo: I found this on Meningsloshetens galleri. I don't know who Pablo is or what he's climbing, but it looks nice!

Source: TheLowDown

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Schubert is in the flow
31 May 2010, 12:50 pm

Jakob Schubert is killing it at the moment. So much in fact that, a couple of days ago he paid Hades, 9a, (the underworld in Greek mythology) a visit, dispatching it on his first day of the year. This particular Hades can be found at Nassereith, Austria.

Jakob, who's still only 19, has had a splendid spring season, with ascents of two ~9a's, one 8c+ and three 8c's, two of which flash!

Photo: Jakob Schubert

Source: 8a

Source: TheLowDown