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Alaska Vets Climb Superb New Routes
6/03/09 - Jay Smith and Jack Tackle, longtime veterans of Alaskan climbing, enjoyed a remarkable two and a half weeks in the Alaska Range in May, climbing four new routes. 6/01/09 - Chris Sharma has redpointed a 50-meter new route at Oliana, Spain, that he called Pachamama (9a+/5.15a). 5/29/09 - In April and May, Paul Knott and Guy McKinnon from New Zealand visited the Johns Hopkins Glacier in southeast Alaska, and they came away with two major new routes, including the first ascent of an 8,599-foot summit. 5/22/09 - German strongman Toni Lamprecht has climbed a new limestone sport climb, Jaws 11, at Kochel in Southern Germany that he’s graded “up in the French 9th grade”; i.e., mid-5.15. 5/22/09 - Clint Helander and Seth Holden completed the first ascent of the Ice Pyramid (9,250') in the Revelation Mountains of Alaska. 5/21/09 - Swiss climber Ueli Steck free-climbed Golden Gate (5.13b, 41 pitches) and fell on only a single pitch, onsighting the rest of the climb. (Updated - 5/22/09) 5/21/09 - Jon Bracey and Matt Helliker enjoyed a super-productive two-week trip to the Ruth Gorge in the Alaska Range, where stable weather and good ice conditions allowed them to climb two very hard new routes. 5/18/09 - Mikhail Mikhailov and Alexander Ruchkin completed the first ascent of a 6,134-meter peak in Sichuan, China, by a superb, 1,000-meter rock pillar. 5/15/09 - Kazakh climber Denis Urubko has summited 8,201-meter Cho Oyu by an alpine-style ascent of the difficult southeast face, a stylish finish to his quest to climb all 14 8,000-meter peaks. 5/06/09 - Dave Sharratt and Pat Goodman have recently completed some of North Carolina’s hardest new routes in a variety of styles: sport, trad, and headpoint. 5/04/09 - Americans David Gottlieb and Joe Puryear have completed the first ascent of Jobo Rinjang (6,778 meters) in Nepal, near Nangpa La on the border with Tibet. 5/01/09 - Joe Kinder has completed a link-up of two 5.14 routes at the Wailing Wall in southwestern Utah to create a 5.14d line called The Re-Up, the hardest route he has redpointed and one of the most difficult in the country. 5/01/09 - At an award ceremony in Chamonix, France, three climbs from 2008 were honoured with Piolets d’Or for their originality, commitment, and technical difficulty. 4/27/09 - The Slovakian Dodo Kopold has soloed the southeast side of 7,219-meter Annapurna South (Annapurna Dakshin) in a 40-hour continuous push. 4/21/09 - The American Alpine Club has announced $19,000 in grants to support American expeditions in 2009, from Baffin Island to Pakistan. 4/16/09 - The Index Town Walls of Washington feature some of the best concentrations of steep, clean granite cracks and face climbs in Western North America. 4/16/09 - In late March, Josh Hurst redpointed a mixed route in western Maine that could be as hard as M12. (UPDATED - 5/11/09) 4/15/09 - Chris Sharma is making quick work of many of China’s hardest sport climbs during the final stop of an Asian tour that included Japan and Korea. 4/15/09 - Good snow and consistent temperatures made for incredible ice climbing conditions near Cody, Wyoming this year. 4/14/09 - Danilo Pereyra of Argentina has become the first Latin American climber to send the grade of 9a or 5.14d. 4/10/09 - On March 8-15, 2009, the Norwegian Alpine Club invited nearly forty climbers from worldwide to come to Lofoten, Norway, for a come-as-you-are climbing meet. 4/10/09 - A crew of strong climbers based out of St. George, Utah, has been sending hard at the Wailing Wall. 4/08/09 - Bernd Zangerl has completed the second ascent of Dave Graham’s From Dirt Grows the Flowers (8C/V15) at Chronico, Switzerland, on March 17. 4/07/09 - Walter Bonatti, perhaps the premier alpinist of the 1950s and early 1960s, will be honored with the first Piolet d’Or for lifetime achievement. 4/06/09 - Jason Haas and Rob Pizem have free-climbed every pitch of West Side Story on 800-foot Cottontail tower in Utah’s Fisher Towers. (Updated - 5/14/09) |
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