Conny, José, and I are huddled up on our tiny ledge next to the raging waterfall that had beat us to submission the day before. We spend the next few hours watching as help assembles itself. A police car arrives at the valley bottom; the first sign that help is on its way. Shortly after that, another police car. Then a fire truck. Then an ambulance. By noon there is probably a dozen vehicles and a large crowd of people staged below.
My mind is reeling as I envision the alternate reality where the tail end of the wet rope slips through my frigid right hand. I look down again at the rock slabs through the spray and picture myself tumbling to the valley bottom where it’s warm and dry. A shield of goosebumps attempts to protect me from the frightening thought; or perhaps it’s the intensifying wind. My consciousness returns to the present moment and I tense with anticipation. I hear José bellow out a low guttural scream. Round 2 with the waterfall begins.
Let me tell you about the time I got stuck in a waterfall. I tend to tell this story around campfires and usually preface it with: “It was the worst experience of my life.” It begins with a trip to Peru in 2004. My adventure buddy, Conny Amelunxen, was guiding a 12-day trek through the mountains surrounding the infamous Machu Picchu. I was invited to tag along and help setup and take down the expedition. Afterward we had 7 days to kill in the tourist city of Cuzco before flying home. Three or four of those days were spent partying at Mama Africa with some Australian girls we had met earlier in the trip. Conny and I needed to break the habit of sleeping all day and being reckless all night so we devised an adventurous plan to rappel down a waterfall in one of the nearby valleys. The plan was simple: taxi to the farming town closest to the waterfall, porter some horses to ride to the top of the cliff, drop a couple ropes down, do 3 or at most 4 rappels, then taxi back in time for drinks. We eventually got those hard earned drinks – 2 days later…
Just last week climbers celebrated the announcement that sport climbing was added to the programme of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Social media feeds were filled with prominent climbers sharing their excitement about the news. Magazines published quotes from the IOC and IFSC press releases. Generally, people were happy to see climbing recognized as an Olympic sport, but discussion and criticism about the proposed format quickly took over the comment sections.
We reached out to Sean McColl, a professional climber who will almost certainly be competing in the Games, to get his perspective.
In 1982, Greg Foweraker, Hamish Fraser and Peter Croft freed the University Wall, which is a towering dihedral line to the left of the Grand Wall on the Squamish Chief. They deeked out left in two places, most importantly down low, to avoid a gigantic, blank-looking corner: an open book of grey granite. In 1988, 6 years after their initial free ascent, Croft aimed to straighten out the University Wall and free the obvious plum line. In one of the most impressive leads I can think of, Croft did it first try, calling it, “The Shadow”.
Jimmy Webb gets the first ascent of The Matriarch (V15) in Rocktown, Georgia. This boulder seems to be a completely opposite style to Terremer, another V15 we featured last week. The V15 club is still small and it would be interesting to see which climbers are the most well-rounded at this grade.
Simon Parton sent Terremer (V15) earlier this week. He just posted the video of his send on Facebook. The intensity of his battle cries give us no doubt he’s trying his hardest and that this problem is HARD!
Simon Parton sent Terremer, V15 on his first day back to Hueco Tanks. This problem was originally put up by Fred Nicole and then later repeated by Paul Robinson, Daniel Woods and Dan Beall. It links Diaphanous Sea (V12) and Terre de Sienne (V14), both of which are crimpy, powerful problems.
You probably know a climber, but you may not know what they want this holiday season. Here are some gift ideas that most climbers will appreciate.
Ashima Shiraishi continues to prove that she’s a top climber. On her first day back to Hueco Tanks she takes down two test pieces in North Mountain. Terre de Sienne is a Fred Nicole special and Diaphanous Sea is one of Hueco’s classics.
I shocked myself by getting the first female ascent of the legendary razor blade climb, Terre de Sienne (V14)! It feels so good to see improvement in my climbing and that I’ve grown!! 3 years ago, I tried this climb for 2 weeks and got shut down on it. I also quickly sent Diaphanous Sea (V11/12), the iconic climb right next to it. I did not expect myself to do both of these climbs today!!
Source: Instagram
