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2008 climbing and bouldering news:
Early in 2008 Dave Graham bouldered Wood Grain Gippin' in Arkansas and The Island in Bleau, Chris Core did Gioia and Toni Lamprecht his master piece Assasin, Monkey and Man. Than, end of April till mid May, Chris Sharma put up one more "perfect line of power endurance" in Margalef, Spain called Victima perfecta and Markus Bock finally climbed the old project of Klaus Büchele, left of Kaum Zeit zum Atmen and called it The Essential. Daniel Woods established two new hard boulder problems with Metamorphosis, 8b+ and In Search of Time Lost, 8c in the Magic Wood, Switzerland.
Markus Bock opened Life's Blood For The Downtrodden, a 30 moves line in the Frankenjura. Chris Sharma finally climbed the gigantic straight line out the middle of the steepest part of the cave at the top of Clark Mountain, calling it Jumbo Love, 9b. He's spent a few months working it on and off over the last year and a half. After spending most of the last year living in Spain and sportclimbing non-stop, Chris returned to the States this summer fitter than ever and with full focus on his project.
Noteworthy, Adam Ondra repeats Alexander Huber's Weisse Rose and Open Air, 9a(+) at Schleierwasserfall.
Dave Graham made the FA of The bitter End, at Fionay, a 13m roof "almost a route" on nice rock that he describes as a resistance, "never really a hard move" and very beautiful problem.
Talking of routes, there are 5 new "hard" 9a's:
The latest is Absoluter Kontrollverlust by Toni Lamprecht in Kochel. Before the Bindhammer brothers added Hades to the “Götterwand” (Wall of Gods) a Nassereith (Tyrol/A).
Peter Kamitses The China Glide, 9a in Rumney. "links all of chinabeach into hard boulder problem into last crux of livin astro." Last month Chris Sharma did the FA of Papichulo, 9a+ in Oliana, Spain and Steve McClure climbs Northern Exposure in Kilnsey!
Old, "so 2007" climbing and bouldering news:
The last news, just around the turn of the years 07/08 was Paul Robinson's second ascent of Fred Nicole's Terremer (V15), the hardest boulder problem at Hueco Tanks, Texas!
Last update mid-December '07 adding Fred Rouhling's all natural limestone line Salamandre at Saint-Pierre en Faucigny, France and Urh Čehovin's boulder problem The End in Slovenia to the list.
Most likely the hardest new line this year, but unfortunately not the most inspiring is Dani Andrada's linkup in the Ali Baba cave in Rodellar, the sit-start of the Ali Hulk extension. That's unfortunate in so far as Dani is one of the very few climbers that have done a lot of those High-end climbs and we would hope that he puts up more one-of-a-kind climbs that don't inspire nit-picking as much as a linkup does! Well, on the other hand of course Dani can climb whatever he pleases...
Talking of Dani, his route La Novena Enmienda, 9a+has been repeated by Chris Sharma and Patxi Usobiaga. Paxi has had one of the most impressive week in sport climbing history ever by climbing two 9a+ routes, a 8c++, and three 8b or harder onsights within one week!
In November two boulder problems were added to the list: Tyler Landman's Boulder canyon problem Midnight Express and James Litz' boulder problem Warpath in Idaho.
During October '07 we added: Markus Bock's route Matador in the Frankenjura, Vasya Vorotnikov's re-redpoint of Jaws in Rumney and 2 boulder problems: Bernd Zangerl's Anam Cara close to his home in Austria and Dai Koyamada's Bongo in the Frankenjura again.
2007 has been an amazing year already with Jaws Daniel Woods' boulder problem Jade, Tony Lamiche's San Ku Kaï, Alex Chabot's PuntX, Chris Sharmas' Three degrees of seperation, Julius Westphal's Aloha and many more. More about the state of the climbing (in German) here.
As more and more young climbers are capable of climbing in the 9a and bouldering in the 8b+ range, we'll get more perspective on climbing grades.
WHY A LIST OF THE THE HARDEST CLIMBING MOVES?
The current state of rating hard bouldering/climbing is like the 100m sprint without any direct comparison, face to face competition and before the invention of even a timer...
A couple of strong athletes do their thing in some remote areas, come back and report: "It really felt like 9.6 secs yesterday, the track was fast, I was feeling strong, the wind was making this typical 9.6 sound..."
So much for the accuracy of rating climbing moves. If you're only in it for the numbers, do comps and show the world how strong you are! If your only contribution to climbing is repeating and downgrading, that's fine, it's just not what you could do with your obvious talent. Why not explain to the rest of us why you liked the climb or not, what is tricky and what is simple about it... etc. etc.
This is what we like to see in this list. A way to share information about difficult climbing moves!
Two more things: ALL the strong climbers eventually misrated climbing moves in their times. In ten years we'll know more...�
"Do we comprehend as a community a system of grading? As a community, are we confident in our current theories about the complex abstraction of high-end grades?
I think the media did a lot more consolidating of grades than we ever did as a community of climbers. For generations it has happened. Capitalism, money, "fame",...these factors of our world are real, and they have a serious influence.
Grades will never be the most inspiring abstraction donated by climbing. They rank low in overall importance. From an artistic point of view, the possible inspiration one can attain from a grade (it being an after-the-fact interpretation of something special) can never compete with the inspiration donated by the actual experience of climbing.
I changed a lot of my ideas about grades throughout my experiences climbing. I learned a lot about how to compare personal experiences and deduce their relativity. I think its amazing, as a community, how everyone involved, can appreciate the attempt to articulate (with a little number) how challenging something felt, or how one experience compared to another."
--- Dave Graham, 2004 ---
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