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CLIMBING WALLPAPERSSWEET PHOTO RIGHT? WELL NOW YOU CAN HAVE IT! |
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What's it take to send V15? Most of us will never know... The high resolution details like the chalk flying between these two crazy slopers and the intensity in Dave Grahams's eyes gives you a taste of The Island (V15) at Fontainebleau. See Graham Puts Up V15 in Cradle of Bouldering and Dave Graham - Pro Blog 15 for more about what DG's up to.
Photo by Stéphan Denys, courtesy of Pointbloc.blogspot.com. |
James Wyland slacking off after another stellar day of limestone cragging at Tonsai Beach, Thailand. And yes, there is some perfect deep-water soloing on the rocky island in the background."
Photo by Dawn Kish |
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It's a long voyage from Australia to Joshua Tree National Park, California, but when one of the planet's top climbing photographers—the Aussie Simon Carter—tells you he wants to point his glass at the world's best trad-cragging area you don't say no. On the cover of Climbing's April Issue - No. 265 - and in our High-Desert Spring Gallery (p.48), find Joshua Tree revisited and reimagined—sun, cactus, cracks, spires, and boulders—4,000 routes for the taking. Shown here: Joshua Tree’s one and only Figures on a Landscape (5.10b), North Astro Dome, Wonderland of Rocks.
Photo by Simon Carter www.onsight.com.au |
For a Joshua tree to begin life, a seed must generate, requiring perfectly timed rain in a place — Joshua Tree National Park — that yearly sees four inches pr precip. So while we climbers love the cloudless days, the Joshua trees dotting this surreal high-desert plateau might not. Here, Kurt Smith does a rain dance on the Southwest Aréte (runout 5.7) of Headstone Rck, Ryan Campground.
Photo by Michael Clark michaelclarkphoto.com |
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Vasya Vorotnikov, who authored a new 5.15 (Jaws II at Rumney, NH) earlier this year, does it The Hard Way (5.14a), Marshfield, Vermont. This photo is only part of Tim Kemple's Autumn Explosion adieu to the Northeast's crispiest climbing season ever! (FOR MORE: See page 60 of Climbing Magazine's January 2008 Issue — No. 263) BONUS: Watch a video of Vasya Vorotnikov on The Hard Way.
Photo by Tim Kemple — www.kemplemedia.com |
Stack the pads and rally the crew: Bishop highballing season is on. Here, Lisa Rands makes the mondo lockoff on Golden Shower (V10), a Buttermllk big'un and one of the lines at the Pollen Grains. Rands' was the first female ascent of the climb.
Photo by Tim Kemple — www.kemplemedia.com |
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On Labor Day weekend at Indian Creek Canyon, Utah, you'd usually find at least a few shade-seeking locals, but not this time. The weatherman called it hot — Africa hot — so everyone stayed home. Well, everyone but the gods of sunset and sandstone, who smiled on the Wingate in this symphonic display of desert color.
Photo by Jay Beyer |
Off his training wheels and smack dab in the middle of a 13-pitcher on La Esfinge (aka the Sphinx), a 17,470-foot granite pike in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru, the young Scott Corey edges up the second free ascent (with Steve Schneider) of Welcome to the Slabs of Koricancha (VI 5.13a).
Photo by Corey Rich coreyrich.com |
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After uncorking the Plunger (ca. 6,300 feet), a prominent pinnacle on the Pika Glacier of Alaska's Little Switzeland, John Mattson and Josh Zimmerman take in a rich alpine vista. Mattson fired the one-pitch line(5.12-) onsight for the tower's FFA.
Photo by John Burcham |
Bafa, Latmos, Turkey, Kapikiri, Ionia ... Rouhling? Yes, Rouhling. Here Mr. Fred takes on the benign Carapeace, on Bafa Lake in Turkey's city of Heraklea. And the bouldering? Otherworldly.
Photo by Frédéric Moix fredmoix.com |
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Some call it V0, others call it 5.9+, but no matter how you slice The Southwest Aréte of Grandma Peabody, It's pure Buttermilk-patina money. Here, Natasha Barnes keeps her poise on this grandmother of all cruiser highballs.
Photo By John Dickey |
Melissa Lacasse stretching for all she’s worth on Fluorescent Falcon (5.12c), Shuteye Ridge, California.
Photo By Shawn Reeder |
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This way to the gold — a crew of Slovenians, including Marko Prezelj, heads toward Chomolhari (23,996 feet), near the Tibet/Bhutan border. Prezelj and fellow countryman Boris Lorencic’s first ascent of the peak’s striking Northwest Pillar (delineated by the sun/shadow line) earned them a 2006 Global Alpine Golden Piton and a Piolet d’Or. |
Where’s Crockett and Tubbs? Whit Magro on Miami Ice (WI5+), South Fork Valley, near Cody, Wyoming.
Photo By Bobby Model |
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Desiree Cole cruising cobbles on The Emancipation of Dissonance (5.11c), Maple Canyon, Utah.
Photo By Andrew Burr |
Orem Bandlebush floating a V4 arete at Triassic Park, Utah.
Photo By Andrew Burr |
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With the sheer faces of Mount Dickey (left) and Mount Barille looming above, Jay Patterson and Michael Gatling head back down the Ruth Glacier after an aborted attempt on the classic Ham and Eggs (V 5.8 AI4) of Moose’s Tooth.
Photo By Joe Irons |
Curtis Suave on Silent Menace (5.14a), Cacodemon Boulders, Squamish, British Columbia.
Photo by Jim Thornburg |
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The Hainabrakk Spires of Pakistan’s Trango Valley coated in winter gnarliness.
Photo By Jozef “dodo” Kopold |
Chris Carpenter swinging through on Blinded by the Right (V4), Cibola, New Mexico.
Photo By Cody Blair |
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Where to begin? On the road to endless bouldering, Rocklands, South Africa.
Photo by Reinhard Fichtinger |
Look, but don’t touch — the Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei towers are considered sacred to the Navajo Nation and are currently off limits to climbing.
Photo by Hermann Erber |
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Sam Gerault cruising above the Aegean Sea on Marci Marc (5.12d), Kalymnos, Greece.
Photo by Fred Moix fredmoix.com |
The beautiful third pitch of Psychedelic Wall. When conditions are good on Ben Nevis, you can climb almost anywhere, as long as you're bold enough. For more about climbing in Scotland Read Rime and Punishment by Dougald Macdonald
Photo by Des Rubens |
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Ines Papert, on lead, and Mike Brumbaugh plug into the stunning third pitch of the Rectory’s Fine Jade, likely the most popular 5.11 tower route in the Utah desert.
Photo by Keith Ladzinski |
The entire country of Spain is one giant chunk of perfect limestone, with endless walls and caves filled with dreamy sport climbing. Example #2,562: Carlos Logroño cranking on Alquezar’s Los Quijotes del Montañismo (5.13b).
Photo by Bernardo Gimenez |
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Big, gnarly, and unclimbed, the seldom seen north face of Shipton Spire (19,199 feet) was attempted this past summer by two Slovakians, Gabo Câmárik and Jozef “Dodo” Kopold, via mixed terrain right of the hanging serac. Illness forced them to turn around less than halfway up the line. The pair would later go on to establish a new route up neighboring Uli Biaho (21,053 feet; see Climbing No. 252 for the Hot Flashes report on their ascent).
Photo by Jozef “Dodo” Kopold |
The fearless Michael Reardon adds another climb (this time it's a J-Tree 5.11b, Uncle Remus) to his amazing free-solo resume. To read Reardon's feature on solists who've hit the ground and lived, please visit climbing.com/exclusive/above/decking/.
Photo by Ryan Wedemeyer |
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Brody Greer and Dave Littman hanging it out on the third ascent of the Streaked Wall’s Tales of the Scorpion (VI 5.10 A3+), Zion National Park, Utah. The only person to have climbed all three routes on the Streaked Wall? Valley big-wall master Ammon McNeely.
Photo by Eric Draper ericdraper.com |
If you look closely you'll find the climber and spotter in this sureal image captured at the limestone paradise of Castle Hill, New Zealand.
Photo by Boone Speed web.mac.com/boonespeed |
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