 |
|
|
Big New Route in Alaska's Mendenhall Towers
4/08/08 - Ryan Johnson and Sam Magro, recipients of a 2008 Mugs Stump Award, have made the first ascent of the north face of the West Tower of the Mendenhall Towers (near Juneau, Alaska), via a beautiful 2,500-foot mixed route. 4/08/08 - Italian mountaineer and artist Alberto Peruffo has unveiled a plan for a series of mountaintop protests of Chinese repression in Tibet. 3/31/08 - A Soviet era Mi-8 helicopter owned by the state carrier Tajik Air, which was transporting eleven climbers, crashed in the Pamir mountains, according to a statement issued by the Interior Minister. 3/27/08 - Natalija Gros has redpointed Histerija, an 8c+ (5.14c) route at Misja Pec in Slovenia. 3/26/08 - Two major Canadian Rockies walls have had significant ascents in winter conditions: one by a first winter ascent, and the other by a new route. 3/26/08 - An all-star international team has reaped a rich bounty of new ice and mixed climbs in the Canadian Rockies during a nine-day trip to the remote Icefall Brook area. 3/24/08 - François Bon has made a speed-flying descent of the south face of Aconcagua, one of the world’s great mountain walls. (New Video Added - 5/20/08) 3/22/08 - Rob Pizem has done the first ascent of a long horizontal crack near Moab, Utah, that he is giving 5.13d, making it one of the hardest roof cracks in America. 3/21/08 - Alex Honnold crushed two wicked crack routes, Bushido and Hong Kong Phooey, in the arid southeast desert of Utah, between March 9 and March 11, 2008. 3/19/08 - After making news earlier this month for his free solo of a possible 5.14b in Spain, all-star all-arounder Dave MacLeod returned to his home in Scotland, where he finished off one of the hardest winter routes in the United Kingdom. 3/14/08 - The bold Scottish climber Dave MacLeod has soloed a 5.14b sport climb in Spain. MacLeod free-soloed Darwin Dixit (8c/5.14b) at Margalef; he had made the third ascent of the climb last spring. (New Video Added - 3/17/08) 3/13/08 - Jim Donini and Thom Engelbach have made the first ascent of the southernmost Avellano Tower, a group of remote granite spires northwest of Lago General Carrera in Chilean Patagonia. (New Photos Added - 3/17/08) 3/13/08 - Americans Toby Grohne and Jesse Huey established a striking new route on Agjua St. Exupery, a satellite peak south of Fitz Roy in Patagonia. 3/11/08 - On February 14 (Valentine’s Day), Beth Rodden made the first ascent of what’s likely Yosemite’s single hardest traditional pitch: Meltdown, a 70-foot 5.14 crack at Upper Cascade Falls. 3/11/08 - Blind mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer has climbed the 700-meter frozen waterfall Losar (VI WI5) in Nepal. 3/07/08 - Mike Anderson and Rob Pizem have added yet another desperate free climb in Zion National Park. 3/06/08 - Four Americans climbed a new route on the 900-meter south face of Jebel Misht, the enormous limestone wall in Oman, at the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. 3/06/08 - Dean Potter has completed a 40-foot sandstone roof problem near his Moab, Utah, home that he called “definitely the hardest roof crack that I know of.” 3/04/08 - A Russian climber has BASE jumped from the upper tower of Cerro Torre, making the first known flight from Patagonia’s iconic spire. 3/03/08 - Once again a phenomenally strong young European climber has climbed a hard 5.14: This time it’s Geoffray de Flaugergues from France, who redpointed La Novena Puerta (8c+/5.14c) at Santa Linya, Spain, during his February school vacation. 3/03/08 - Italian Christian Core has completed the long version of a boulder problem called Gioia at Varazze, Italy, and given it 8C (V15). 2/25/08 - Inspired by high-end winter activity in Scotland, some of the Canadian Rockies’ leading winter activists have adopted a back-to-the-future attitude this season, with a slew of new mixed routes protected with traditional gear. 2/21/08 - Frenchman Jeff Mercier, who won the international competition at the Ouray Ice Festival in January, subsequently made a trip to the remote town of Lake City to attempt Ryan Nelson and Jared Ogden’s Jedi Mind Tricks, a possible M14. 2/19/08 - Coloradan Jody Hansen sent Rumble in the Jungle (V12) at Hueco Tanks, making the first female ascent of the roof problem—and making Hansen one of the few women in the world to boulder a consensus V12. 2/19/08 - Paul Robinson and Alex Puccio won the men’s and women’s open bouldering comps at the ABS National Championships in Colorado. |
Copyright 2009 Skram Media LLC, All rights reserved.