[Fultonius]

In other news, I can happily confirm the Bugaboos fit the criteria of this thread better than anywhere else I've been: brilliant place. Everything from Diff to E4+, 6-30 pitches on immaculate granite.

It's been on my list I was told about it by some Canmore locals when climbing in Skaha - still trying to convince the lass that Vancouver should be our new home...

That and the Lotus Flower Tower.

So much good rock in the world, and so little time to climb it...

[Johnny Brown]

I'd rate the Lotus Flower as better than any of the routes we did in the Bugs (its a lot like a souped up version of the Beckey-Chouinard). On the other hand the Bugs are a lot cheaper to get to, have better weather, and offer a much greater variety of routes on quality clean rock. 80% of the rock in the Cirque of the Unclimbables is covered in a luxurious 2" quilt of lichen.

[i_a_coops]

Just got back from 6 weeks big-walling in Kyrgyzstan, I'll stick a small amount of info and some photos up here to try and get other Brits psyched to go out there - seems like Americans, Germans, and Russians have the most info on the place, we were the second british team in the last decade or something!

So the Karavshin area is about 45km walk from the nearest road in Vorukh, you will need to hire donkeys. There's a company called Ak Sai who if you pay them lots of money will actually sort you out a plane from Bishkek to Batken and then a helicopter to the valley, we didn't want to do that so we got taxis for the entire length of kyrgyzstan and then got Ak Sai to sort out our donkeys, which didn't work so we ended up hiring them off the local garrison. I digress, essentially the point is either you need someone who speaks Russian well enough to haggle with taxi drivers or you need to pay Ak Sai lots of money.

When you get there, there are are two valleys, Ak-Su and Kara-Su. Ak-Su has the Perestroika Crack which everyone does (7b and normally climbed over 3 days, there are two big ledges to sleep on apparently), and Kara Su has Yellow Wall, home to Diagonal Route on Yellow Wall, which, again, everybody does (one pitch of 7a, the rest is much easier I believe, and usually climbed in a day). We didn't do either of those routes though, mainly because everybody does them and we wanted to be a bit different.

Peak 4810 is the most hellishly impressive mountain-suitable-for-rock-climbing I have ever seen, here is a picture: (sorry it's FB)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/533770_10151100837341225_1433408746_n.jpg

It's about 1200m vertically, takes about 3.5 hours to walk in from base camp with heavy bags and the last bit is up a nasty bit of glacier, I actually ended up leading the fucking-terrifying first pitch (F7a slab climbing protected entirely by RPs and pitons I placed on lead, I am never doing anything like that again ever) to get out of carrying one of the haul bags up the glacier. It faces NW so gets the sun in the afternoons, this means that every morning there is a fairly serious build up of ice on the inside of your portaledge. It would be possible to climb it without portaledges as there are a few good ledges but you would need to move VERY fast and be pretty confident - we packed 6 days worth of food and 8 days worth of water, but right from the beginning we rationed ourselves as much as we could which was just as well as we were on the wall for 10 days. All the routes on the NW face were put up as aid routes in the late 80s and 90s, the first ones were mainly winning entries in the USSR climbing championships. I have no idea about aid climbing and even less about Russian grades (they all got the maximum Russian grade of 6B), but I would say that you do not want to have to aid the first pitch - it would involve copperheads or drilling bolts!

Ok so we did the Mirror Route:

http://mountains.tos.ru/kopylov/pict/g8.gif

We did it entirely free in 40 pitches at about 7b+. The first pitch was absolutely terrifying, there was one other very run-out 7a-ish slab but the rest wasn't too awful (mainly good-but-sometimes-spaced protection and climbing in the 6s), with two well protected pitches of 7b and one of 7b+ (these crux pitches were all absolutely superb on immaculate rock):

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/487606_10151242088259595_1040962822_n.jpg

We did need to take crampons for the summit ridge sadly, I now have a deep seated hatred of rock with snow on it.

We also did a new route on Peak Kotina, we're working on a topo but it took probably the best line on the crag through as much steep ground as we could find, and always taking the easiest line through it. The rock is incredibly free-climbable,  all the steep bits turned out to be about 4 grades easier than they looked! The crux pitch (7a) was escaping a groove through a series of blocky roofs to a belay on the prow of the entire mountain at about 3/4 height, we think the route is about 1000m and have called it Dreaming Spires, we would definitely recommend it as the rock is mainly sublime (ok there are a few pitches where the rock is whack but its a 26 pitch route and the good bits are worth it!)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/225971_10151100836096225_557687990_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/376571_10151100849446225_1969791675_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/305033_10151100859431225_846635480_n.jpg

There's a vast amount of rock, much of it unclimbed. The hardest route done out there was in the Ak Su valley and had one hard pitch of 7c/+ and a few pitches of around 7a+, there is probably potential for harder though! So there is a lot of potential for new-routing, and a lot of potential for trying to free Soviet aid routes of the late 80s, and a lot of opportunity for bivvying in fairly unpleasant conditions. The Russian climbing team was there and they were the hardest men I have ever met - they did a different route to us on Peak 4810 almost entirely free in Alpine style in 4 days, with 7 litres of water between them and sleeping in slings! They said the hardest pitch was 'quite dangerous', which turned out to mean 7b with no gear for the entire rope length. When they got back they stayed up tol 1am drinking vodka, then got up at 5 30am the next day to chase cows away from the campsite with a shovel. The day after that, one of them casually did Perestroika Crack........

Anyway, I would recommend the place to anyone a bit harder, fitter, and psyched for rock-climbing-based-mountaineering than myself (I nearly died on some of the approaches!). I have to admit for the foreseeable future I am going to be a single-pitch sport-climbing pansy!

[i_a_coops]

As an aside, if anyone has any suggestions on where we could find out if the Mirror Route has been freed before, I would love to know! All I've found on the English-alphabet based interweb is that is has been mainly freed at up to F7a.

[Paul B]

The backdrop to your photos looks amazing.

[i_a_coops]

Thanks! (I have to admit I didn't take many of them myself as I'm too cheap to buy my own camera). It was definitely the most impressive landscape I've ever climbed in. Just looked back through that and realised it's a bit self-indulgent, sorry for the 'look-at-me-and-my-amazing-ticklist' nature of the post.

[Paul B]

Didn't read like it. The soviet death bolt on facebook looks terrifying.

[i_a_coops]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/192697_10151242100219595_879387735_o.jpg

Yeah I never want to clip one of these again! you could easily bend the hangers with your fingers...... apparently they won't take a fall of more than 1m, they were originally used for aid. 

[SA Chris]

. Just looked back through that and realised it's a bit self-indulgent, sorry for the 'look-at-me-and-my-amazing-ticklist' nature of the post.

Fuck that - didn't come across that way at all and if I had done that I would have been hollering from the rooftops "LOOK AT ME!

[i_a_coops]

Cheers guys! Oh and in all seriousness for anyone thinking of going to Kyrgyzstan -  you will get food poisoning. Diarrhoea off the side of a portaledge is now the absolute low point of my life... 

[Wood FT]

cheers for the write up, certainly an adventure in the real sense of the word. wadded.

[duncan]

Planning this summer's jaunt I'm making a map of long rock route venues in Switzerland, Austria and Italy.  Feel free to suggest other places to add.

I've also sketched a rough idea of driving times between centres. 

A route or two in each of these should be easily manageable in 9 days don't you think?!

[slackline]

A route or two in each of these should be easily manageable in 9 days don't you think?!

You could always employ a Travelling Sales-person Problem solution to minimise your travelling time.

[duncan]

You could always employ a Travelling Sales-person Problem solution to minimise your travelling time.

I think that's entering into the spirit of the venture admirably!

I couldn't spot where to enter the crap weather variable anywhere though.

[slackline]

  I'll see if there are any add-on modules that account for weather uncertainty.

[Paul B]

Are any of the venues mentioned in this thread worth a look in March / early April? Riglos perhaps, anywhere else?

[Muenchener]

From what I hear about current conditions snowballing the Cima Grande might be an option

[duncan]

Riglos should be good by then.

Aiglun? 3 'Petit' ticks and reputedly better weather than the Verdon.

Presles or Verdon might be good but more of a risk weather-wise.

Vilanova de Meià just about counts.

I expect there are some good long routes on the Costa Blanca but I'm not really a fan of the area.

Wadi Rum of course!

[ghisino]

also in spain, should be ok (although i'm not 100% sure)

terradets. (the meain wall is pretty long but it can be a bit boring, as on some routes you pull exactly the same move for 500 meters...)

monrebei.

[Paul B]

Riglos should be good by then.

That was my immediate thought but what we have left is going to be a big ask from my better half and she hasn't been that keen on climbing since we got back.

Aiglun? 3 'Petit' ticks and reputedly better weather than the Verdon.

Hmmm Aiglun (slightly like above), I've always wanted to go but never found an acceptably affordable solution to where to stay?

Presles or Verdon might be good but more of a risk weather-wise.

Again, the Verdon isn't the best bet as the things I'd like to do are probably not currently going to be practical. Presles perhaps, I've driven past lots but never got out of the car.

Vilanova de Meià just about counts.

I've been here a fair few times now and think I'm done.

Wadi Rum of course!

Interesting. Wadi Rum looks fantastic in Parois. I was really keen for Taghia but I think that'd be better early May (?).
Thanks

From what I hear about current conditions snowballing the Cima Grande might be an option

Don't be daft, the snow will clearly be strewn with boulders already.

[Paul B]

Rocher du Midi?

[ghisino]

rocher du midi in late mars? 

maybe with skis and settled snow, since it's 2000m from the sea.
also, only gets sun in the morning since it's very vertical and perfectly east facing...

anyway if one goes there:

-Lion is the best trad route, especially in its second part (nice long corners and chimneys, good rock)

-Among bolted routes, De Charybde en Scylla is Verdon-quality with amazing sustained climbing apart from the first two pitches which are merely "good".

-Bille de Clown is apparently very good as well, Carnet d'Adresse too if you can afford it.

-the shorter lines on the right are ok for 1/2 day.

-good bivi spot 20 min from the wall, @"cabane du berger", a very spartan building with fireplace and a sort of table/bed that can comfortably accomodate two short people but will be a little unconfortable for the tall.
Flat groud all aroud though.

-the rock on Rocher du Midi is generally good or very good, but the sourrounding cliffs are famous for their rather big rockfalls (Dent de Crolles) or the object of a strict geological observation as more or less the whole structure could collapse (Piton de Rocheplane)

[Tom de Gay]

Paklenica probably worth a look in April. However, I'm there now and the weather is quite British…

[Paul B]

Well Taghia was quite high on my list but it's been suggested we'd be a little early. This is all tied into the jobs thread and thus it'll likely be very last minute!

[Tom de Gay]

Climbed on the big face at Paklenica today. Bone dry, if a little chilly in the shade with wind. Recommended.