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"Bigger, wilder, harder, more dangerous, complicated, and everything an ice climber could ever want..."
The post World Premiere of Epic New Will Gadd Film to Screen at Banff Festival appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
"Bigger, wilder, harder, more dangerous, complicated, and everything an ice climber could ever want..."
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
A 1:1 haul is the big wall standard for moving up your vertical camping supplies. But when it starts to be close (or even a bit more) than your bodyweight, it can be very hard to lift. Here’s a #CraftyRopeTrick that let’s you haul extra-heavy bags 1:1.
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A 1:1 haul is the big wall standard for moving up your vertical camping supplies. But when it starts to be close (or even a bit more) than your bodyweight, it can be very hard to lift. Here’s a #CraftyRopeTrick that let’s you haul extra-heavy bags 1:1.
Alpinesavvy (www.alpinesavvy.com)
This event was supported by Vibram, Adidas FiveTen, and First Western Trust.
At this year's AAC Gala, the energy for celebrating climbing was unprecedented. Three hundred sixteen climbers from all over the country gathered in Denver, CO, including longtime members, athletes, awardees, and climbing legends. The night was filled with bold stories of climbing, community, and history. There was a thread connecting them all: the American Alpine Club.
“The AAC is a people-first organization,” Nina Williams remarked in her opening speech. She noted that the AAC’s grants, lodging, events, advocacy, library and archives, volunteers, and membership all bring people together.
AAC Executive Director Ben Gabriel noted that climbing isn’t only about the summits we reach but the partnerships we build, and as the AAC looks towards the future, we are stronger together.
As one way to celebrate the richness of the people that make up the AAC, the 2025 awards were given out for accomplishments in climbing, advocacy, literacy, and volunteerism. French Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne of Chamonix received the David A. Sowles Memorial Award. Other award winners included Michael Wejchert for the H. Adams Carter Literary Award, Brooke Raboutou for the Robert Hicks Bates Award, Rick Wilcox for the Angelo Heilprin Citation, and Outdoor Alliance for the David R. Brower Conservation Award. Later, Jack Tackle accepted the Honorary Membership award, and Kelly Cordes accepted the Pinnacle Award during their speeches.
Recipient of multiple AAC grants, AAC member Zach Clanton told the story of his most recent climb on the Southeast Face of The Trickster in Alaska, where he and Matt Kilgerman put up The Raven-Wolf Route (5.10 C2). It was the second ascent the mountain had seen. John Svenson had first climbed it 42 years ago.
“This summer, we pulled off a 6,000-foot pure rock climb on a mountain with all the mysteries intact. This was high adventure at its finest,” said Clanton.
During this climb, Clanton felt connected to past generations of Alaskan adventurers like Svenson, an Alaskan artist and climber, whose art was included in the Gala auction. The climb inspired Clanton to connect to his artistic side. Clanton went on to reflect on how the Trickster ascent represented how all of those AAC grants over the years had literally changed his life’s trajectory.
When former AAJ editor and Pinnacle Award winner Kelly Cordes took the stage, we learned he was a super fan of Jack Tackle when he was a young climber in the 90s. When Tackle visited Missoula, Montana, where Cordes was living at the time, Cordes went to hear him speak. After Tackle was done speaking, Cordes got the courage to go up to Tackle.
“Jack gave me the gift of his attention and his presence, and I came away feeling not that I can be him—we all know there’s only one Jack f***ing Tackle—but deeply inspired as a person beyond the super hero I thought he was and who I now know him to be,” said Cordes.
Cordes went on to describe his inspiration drawn from the AAJ—”it was, and it still is, like the Bible to me”—and his many adventures as an alpinist.
After all this talk about Jack Tackle, Tackle himself finally took to the stage and imposed wisdom on the room.
“The three tenets I came up with as my mantra for alpinism were first, commitment. Commitment to the goal, to yourself, and to your partners. Vision, the second one, was the ability to see what is possible and make a plan to achieve it. And the last was trust. Trust in yourself and trust in your partners,” said Tackle.
Much like the chatter around a campfire after a long day of climbing, this Gala was full of high energy, sharing stories and laughter. The celebration of our climbing history and the push to pave the way for the future of climbing were inspiring. With all the laughter and catching up with old friends, there was an undertone of passion—passion for what we want to see next, passion for the importance of storytelling, and passion for uplifting one another. When climbers come together through the AAC, we make an impact.
The money raised through the liv...
This event was supported by Vibram, Adidas FiveTen, and First Western Trust. At this year's AAC Gala, the energy for celebrating climbing was unprecedented. Three hundred sixteen climbers from all over the country gathered in Denver, CO, including longtime members, athletes, awardees, an
American Alpine Club (americanalpineclub.org)
Alex Megos sent Kangaroo’s Limb 5.15a in Flatanger, a side project while he worked B.I.G. 5.15d
The post Alex Megos Climbing an Adam Ondra 5.15a appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
Alex Megos sent Kangaroo’s Limb 5.15a in Flatanger, a side project while he worked B.I.G. 5.15d
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
Che sogno stupendo!
#climbing #patagonia #alpinismo #avventura
-Riders on the Storm, Torre Centrale del Paine, Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Questa via di 1300m, salita per la prima volta da Kurt Albert, Bernd Arnold, Norbert Bätz, Peter Dittrich e Wolfgang Güllich, prende una linea diretta lungo il compatto granito della parete Est della Torre Centrale del Paine, è ampiamente considerata un gioiello tra le varie salite classiche del repertorio Patagonico. Originariamente gradata VI 5.12d A3, la via è stata ripetuta nel 2006 da una forte squadra Belga composta da Nicolas Favresse, Olivier Favresse, Seán Villanueva e Mike Lecomte, i quali sono riusciti a liberare alcune, ma non tutte, le lunghezze di artificiale. In 15 giorni dal 16 gennaio al 20 febbraio 2016 Ines Papert, Mayan Smith-Gobat e Thomas Senf hanno ripetuto la via. Anche se alcune sezioni sono state salite con l'uso dell'artificiale, nuove varianti sono state aperte, aggiungendo un importante tassello alla ambita prima libera di uno dei gioielli dell'arrampicata in Patagonia. Nel gennaio 2017 Mayan Smith-Gobat e Brette Harrington, incontrando condizioni difficili, sono comunque riusciti a capire 'che i tiri chiavi potranno essere saliti in libera' Riders on the Storm rimane una sfida formidabile e testimonia la capacità e lungimiranza dei tedeschi che l’hanno salita in sei settimane alla fine del 1990 e l'inizio del 1991.
PlanetMountain.com (www.planetmountain.com)
This marks the first new routes up the southwest side of Manaslu since the 1970s
The post Climbers Succeed with New Himalayan Route on Manaslu appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
This marks the first new routes up the southwest side of Manaslu since the 1970s
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
The vast Nyanchen Tanglha (a.k.a. Nyainqentanglha) ranges in Tibet span more than 750 kilometers in an arc north of Lhasa—it’s one of the world’s great collections of unclimbed or seldom-climbed high peaks. In the first decade of the 2000s, the Japanese geographer and photographer Tamotsu Nakamura, an AAC honorary member, published a series of articles describing these mountains, including a three-part opus in AAJ 2003 on mountains “East of the Himalaya” (also the title of Nakamura’s landmark 2016 book), with enticing photos from the Nyanchen Tanglha East range.
A bit of a gold rush followed, with various Western climbers snagging the first ascents of attractive summits in Nakamura’s photos. However, there are major logistical difficulties to climbing in this area, including road access and permits. The last AAJ articles about climbs in the Nyanchen Tanglha by Western climbers were published in 2017.
Into the breach has stepped a cohort of Chinese alpinists who have rapidly gained experience and skill in their home mountains in recent years. Now ready to tackle more difficult and remote objectives, they have made many impressive ascents, aided in part by rapid development of road and rail networks in Tibet. Three climbs from late 2024 are highlighted below. These reports could not be completed in time for the 2025 AAJ, but these ascents and many more in Tibet will be described in detail in next year’s book.
Many thanks to Xia Zhongming, who facilitates and writes AAJ reports from China— including these three—and has contributed greatly to the world’s knowledge of modern Chinese alpinism.
In 2005, British climbers Mick Fowler and Chris Watts made the first ascent of Kajaqiao in the Nyanchen Tanghlha East mountains. Two years later, Fowler returned with fellow Brit Paul Ramsden to climb Manamcho, a spectacular, Matterhorn-like peak nearby, by the northwest ridge. In September 2024, Chinese alpinists Liu Junfu and Wang Shuai climbed Manamcho’s second route, up the southwest side of the 6,264-meter mountain, in one long day from high camp. To overcome a crux rock slab near the top, Liu tied a rope to one of his ice tools and threw it up the rock. After more than ten tries, the tool stuck and Liu was able to batman up the rope and surmount the slab, opening the way to the summit. See the full report.
In the southwest section Nyanchen Tanglha East lies Nenang (6,870m), the highest of this range’s unclimbed peaks. Around 10 kilometers from Nenang to the west and east stand two spectacular mountains: Chuchepo (6,613m), west of Nenang, and Jiongmudazhi (6,590m) to the east. Both peaks were noted in AAJ 2007, but no known attempts were made on either peak until August 2024, when Tong Haijun and Wang Yongpeng from China climbed Chuchepo by a direttissima on the northeast face.
On August 16, the two began their approach from the Niwu Valley to the north, establishing advanced base at 5,300 meters after an 11-hour day. From there they scoped a feasible line up the northeast face. The next day, the pair spent seven hours crossing the snow-covered, crevassed glacier before camping at 5,900 meters.
On the 18th, the two left camp at 3 a.m., and after a difficult pitch to cross the bergschrund, they continued up easier terrain to reach 6,230 meters before sunrise.
The major technical difficulties now followed. Wang led a pitch where the ice was too thin to place screws and the rock too compact for cams. Tong then climbed a very run-out pitch on snow-covered compact rock. After this, the snow became deeper and the difficulties eased. Wang made a final belay in deep snow a couple of meters below the summit ridge, and Tong then tunneled through the cornice and continued up left to the highest point. The 700-meter route was graded D+ M4 AI3 75°. See the full report.
Less than a month after climbing Chuchepo, Tong Haijun and Wang Yongpeng returned to the area in September 2024 to attempt the first ascent of Jiongmudazhi (6,590m). Again, Tong and Wang approached from the north, via the Biyong Glacier, where they spent a very difficult day bypassing an 800...
The vast Nyanchen Tanglha (a.k.a. Nyainqentanglha) ranges in Tibet span more than 750 kilometers in an arc north of Lhasa—it’s one of the world’s great collections of unclimbed or seldom-climbed high peaks. In the first decade of the 2000s, the Japanese geographer and photographer Tamotsu Nakamura,
American Alpine Club (americanalpineclub.org)
He's the third climber in a row to send the problem in a day
The post 16-Year-Old Beckett Hsin Climbs Defying Gravity V15 in a Single Session appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
He's the third climber in a row to send the problem in a day
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
Alpiner for the TI-99/4A
#Alpiner #TI994A #Action #Climbing #TexasInstrumentsIncorporated #TexasInstrumentsInc #TexasInstruments
The Spanish climber continues his very sendy Fall season
The post Three Big Sends in Three Days for Jorge Díaz-Rullo appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
The Spanish climber continues his very sendy Fall season
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
The accomplished Swiss climber made the first female ascent of the mega route
The post Katherine Choong Climbs Five-Pitch 5.14a appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
The accomplished Swiss climber made the first female ascent of the mega route
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
Climbers visiting Storm Creek found Difficile Monster to be in thin conditions
The post Ice Climbing is Game On in Canada’s Rockies appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
Climbers visiting Storm Creek found Difficile Monster to be in thin conditions
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
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