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Big New Routes in Isolated Argentinean Valley
4/03/09 - Two North American teams have completed routes on the striking granite towers of the Piritas Valley of Argentina, a little-explored and remote drainage above the upper Rio Turbio, near the Argentina-Chile border. 4/03/09 - In the first round of the Climbing Grants Preservation program for 2009, the Access Fund awarded over $20,000 to support local climbing activism and conservation of the climbing environment. 3/30/09 - Rock climbers recently noticed canyon wrens nesting at a popular climbing site at Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site near El Paso, Texas. 3/27/09 - German climber Felix Berg has set two possible speed records on Africa’s Mount Kenya. 3/25/09 - Best known for his bouldering — he was national champion in 2008 — Paul Robinson has completed the second ascent of Psychedelic (5.14c/d), eight years after Dave Graham first climbed the route. 3/20/09 - Matt Segal climbed a new 5.13+ R/X trad line in the Kloof Alcove in Eldorado Canyon, Colorado. And, near St. George, Utah, Joe Kinder redpointed an ultra-steep Todd Perkins project at the Hurricave. 3/16/09 - 37-year-old Toni Lamprecht of Munich, Germany, has climbed a new limestone boulder problem at the cliff Altantiswand in Kochel, Germany, that he has graded 8C+, or roughly V16. 3/12/09 - Chris Sharma continues to work several 5.15 projects in Catalunya, Spain, and photographer Pete O’Donovan has posted a mini-album of photos from these attempts at 8a.nu. 3/10/09 - Six climbs from 2008, including one by an American, have been nominated for the 17th Piolets d’Or — the “golden ice axes” — which will be presented during a four-day festival at the foot of Mont Blanc in April. 3/05/09 - Separate teams of Norwegian, German, and Swiss climbers seized the day in unusually cold temperatures during February and established gigantic new ice routes on Norwegian cliffs the size of Yosemite Valley’s walls. (Updated - 3/11/09) 3/02/09 - Ian Austin and Josh Hurst have completed Luna Kahuna (180m, M8 5.11 NEI5+), a five-pitch mixed route above Lake Willoughby in Vermont. 2/27/09 - Nalle Hukkataival, 22, of Helsinki, Finland, has been making quick work of many boulder problems at Hueco Tanks, Texas, including the first flash of Fred Nicole's classic Full Monty (V12). 2/27/09 - Jacinda “JC” Hunter has completed the first female ascent of Breaking the Law (5.14b) at the Black and Tan area southwest of St. George, Utah. 2/24/09 - Will Gadd and EJ Plimley have climbed 1,000-foot Hunlen Falls in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, east of Bella Coola, British Columbia, the first ascent of Canada’s third-highest waterfall. 2/23/09 - After a three-season effort, a team of Canadians has completed a major new mixed route in Alberta with a long crux pitch that could be as hard as M12. 2/23/09 - Chris Sharma has completed the first ascent of a 9a+ (5.15a) roof project at Margalef in Spain. 2/23/09 - A 13-year-old European has climbed a possible 9a (5.14d) route in Spain. No, it wasn’t Adam Ondra. 2/18/09 - French climbers Philippe Batoux and Lionel Daudet have completed a new 12-pitch mixed rock and ice route on an overhanging 1,000-foot wall at Freyssinière. 2/16/09 - Daniel Woods and Alex Johnson won the adult Bouldering National Championship at the Spot gym in Boulder, competing in a field that included some international superstars of bouldering. (Updated - 2/17/09) 2/12/09 - Coloradan Daniel Woods has posted a first-person account of his three-and-a-half-week New Year’s trip to Arkansas at the Sportiva website. 2/10/09 - The Belgian-American team of Nico Favresse, Sean Villanueva, and Ben Ditto have completed a 13-day, all-free ascent of the South African Route on the east face of the Central Tower of Paine in Chilean Patagonia. 2/09/09 - Simone Moro (Italy) and Denis Urubko (Kazakhstan) have reached the top of Makalu, completing the first winter ascent of the world’s fifth-highest peak. 2/06/09 - On January 11, Gianluca Daniele, of Rome, has linked the most difficult moves of three existing routes (from 5.13c to 5.14a) in the Areonauta Cave, Sperlonga, Italy, to create Grandi Gesti. 2/05/09 - Hard-core winter climbing thrives in Russia, and a quartet of climbers has proved it again with the first winter ascent of the north ridge of Mizhirgi East in the Caucasus Mountains. 2/04/09 - During a long trip to France, British climber Tim Emmett has completed some rarely repeated ice and mixed routes, including the first free ascent of a seven-pitch testpiece from the mid-1990s. |
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