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Nine-and-a-Half Ways to Identify Climbers in the Wild

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26 Sept 2024, 20:00

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    We stared out at the treacherous somber surfaces, weathered by wind and storm. The mountains transformed in our minds, revealing an expanse impossible to comprehend. It is upon this sea of summits we desired to stand. I was born in flatland central Wisconsin, and often biked with my childhood friend Devin Grdinic up the 1.56-billion-year-old, 1,924-foot prominent hill, Rib Mountain, located in our hometown. From the gouged rim of the hundred-foot quartzite quarry, we grew an affinity for mountains, dreaming of summits. In our early 20s, ambitious and hell-bent, we drove from Minneapolis to Mt. Elbert in a day. Devin did the planning, and I went along. Knowing the importance of acclimatizing but lacking the time, we spent a night in the Never Summer Mountains. With a pound of venison strapped to my chest to prevent the blood from leaking in my bag, we set forth to high camp and shivered through the cold night. In the morning my appreciation of the mountains solidified as I opened the tent to the majestic view. Over a cup of coffee at a wayside diner a few years later, Devin proposed another scheme—to tag Mt. Whitney, the tallest in the lower 48. Without hesitation, I said yes. We descended into the smog of LAX and drove north to the Sierra Nevada. Finding residence in Mammoth Lakes, we improved our acclimatization period by visiting the ancient bristlecones of the White Mountains of California. Parking late in the afternoon on October 7, 2008, we hit the Mt. Whitney Trail with heavy packs. Unbeknownst to us, our map remained in the back seat. We missed the creek crossing at Lower Boy Scout Lake and went off-trail, bushwhacking into the night. Panicked, we trudged over bush and boulders, reaching an icy ledge where my foot slipped and I hung by loosely fitted gloves. Devin instinctively reached with his hiking pole and hoisted me back up. Clearly, my intrepid aspirations were on a slippery slope. Miraculously finding Upper Boy Scout camp in the dark, we shivered through the night with inadequate sleeping pads as winds battered our tent. In the warmth of the morning, we set off to climb the wrong mountain. Returning to camp, we planned one final attempt before we’d miss our flights. With little sleep, we set off before dawn, reaching Iceberg Lake as Whitney’s east face prominently glowed orange. At the base of the snow-filled Mountaineer’s Route gully, we realized we were a bit over our heads. With blistered feet and tired shoulders, we descended. Over the next seven years, Devin and I summited Mt. Temple, Mt. Shasta, Mt. Baker, and Mt. Rainier together. In the years between doing Shasta and Baker, I was introduced to technical rock climbing by my close friend Ross Nueske, a serious square-jawed man who wore a mischievous plotting grin. Ross and I enjoyed climbing multi-pitch trad routes, but after a decade of rock climbing, something still felt unfinished. The memory of Whitney taunted me to return. I purchased an entry permit for the summer of 2020. While climbing at the North Shore of Minnesota that June, I received a message from Devin. He had been diagnosed with life-threatening leukemia. Complete devastation washed over everyone close to him. I recall sitting by Lake Superior, staring into the empty blue horizon, trying to process the news as waves lapped sorrowfully over the pebbled shore. Dreams of the future in jeopardy, one small dream being Whitney, the gravely worse one—losing my best friend. Life lingered in a fragile balance as we stayed in contact over Devin’s year-long struggle. Through multiple series of treatments that brought him to the brink of death, he ultimately survived, thanks to a miraculous bone-marrow transplant. In 2023, I purchased another North Fork of Lone Pine entry pass. The new plan was for Ross and me to climb the East Buttress (1,000', 11 pitches, 5.7) on Mt.Whitney. Devin invited his older brother Marcel Grdinic, a chemistry teacher from Chicago, to join him in attempting the third-class Mountaineer's Route. Two months before the trip, I ruptured my right distal biceps tendon while bouldering. Orthopedic surgery was needed, followed by six months of nonuse: no climbing, no lifting, and the struggle to use my left hand for everything. The trip still went on, albeit with a hiking-only itinerary. Clouds Rest, a famed trail in Yosemite National Park, gave everyone a magnificent view of the Valley. https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2025/5/14/guidebook-xivgrant-spotlight
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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebfCv_WvuGA
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    Sébastien Berthe has made the fourth free ascent of the Dawn Wall on El Capitan The post Sébastien Berth Has Climbed the Dawn Wall, a 32-Pitch 5.14 in Yosemite appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/news/sebastien-berth-has-climbed-the-dawn-wall-a-32-pitch-5-14-in-yosemite/
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    More #climbing gear, hot off the Bernina. A chalk bag for lead climbing, to match the bouldering one I made a while ago. I'm particularly proud of the attachment system. Two Velcro straps that loop through the back gear loops on my harness, meaning that it stays where you want it, and the Velcro is swapped on each loop so you can use it as a single loop if you need. This is an iteration of the last one I made, but with chonkier fabric. #sewing #IDidAThing
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    We look at some of the most legendary Chinese alpinists as Arc'teryx prepares to launch a new line of made-for-alpinists apparel The post The Future is Now: The Evolution of Alpine Climbing in China appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/profiles/the-future-is-now-the-evolution-of-alpine-climbing-in-china/
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    It’s prime season for climbing in the high peaks of the western United States, so we’re sharing six brand-new mountain routes from six states around the West. AAC Members: Get a Sneak Preview of the AAJ right now! AAC members can now download a PDF of the complete 2024 AAJ. Log in at your member profile and click the Publications tab to download your sneak preview. Physical copies of the 2024 AAJ will start going into the mail next month. Nathan Hadley and friends spent more than 25 days establishing and free climbing Bluebell (2,000’, 5.13-), the first free route up the North Norwegian Buttress of Mt. Index. About one-third of the bolt-protected route’s 21pitches are overhanging. Hadley believes it’s one of the steepest long free climbs in North America (“Imagine two of Yosemite’s Leaning Towers, with sections of slab before, in between, and after.”) Hadley’s AAJ report describes the arduous effort to establish the climb and also offers a touching tribute to one of his partners on the route: Michal Rynkiewicz, who died in a rappelling accident soon after this climb was completed. The East Buttress of Aiguille Extra, a 14,048-foot satellite of Mt. Whitney, was first climbed in 1978 with a bit of aid. Forty-five years later, James Holland and Cam Smith freed the 10-pitch route at 5.10+, adding a three-pitch direct start. In AAJ 2024, Smith writes, “James and I hope the free version of the East Buttress (1,230’, IV 5.10+) will encourage others to check out [Aiguille Extra], an unsung gem of the Eastern Sierra.” A rare new route up the beautiful Elephant’s Perch was completed in September by Greg Rickenbacker and Benj Wollant. Takin’ ’Er By the Tusks (625’, 5.12a R A3) combines challenging aid and stout free climbing on the southeast face of the granite formation. A bolting ban in Sawtooth National Forest ensured plenty of exciting climbing. Wollant, who grew up in the nearby town of Stanley, wrote in his AAJ report that establishing a route on the Elephant’s Perch was “a longtime dream come true.” “Given that I’d never stepped foot into Glacier Gorge [in Rocky Mountain National Park], you might say my plan to rope-solo a new line up the 1,500’ northeast face of Chiefs Head (13,577’) was ambitious,” writes Nathan Brown in AAJ 2024. But that’s what he did. Brown, a prolific new-router who earned his ground-up chops in North Carolina before moving to Colorado, spent two summers establishing Spirit Animal (10 pitches, 5.11), all alone, on the remote and steep Chiefs Head wall. Brown finished work on the route last September, but had not yet redpointed the full route in a continuous ascent. Just this month, he made the trek into Glacier Gorge yet again and rope-soloed the route completely free, with a bivouac in the middle. Tetons guide Michael Abbey had long imagined a more direct route up the north ridge of Mt. Owen, hewing closer to the ridgeline than the original North Ridge Route (Clayton-Emerson, 1951), which slants in from the left. It took a couple of attempts, but in 2023 he and Karen Kovaka completed Directissima (V 5.10) over two days in August. In his AAJ report, Abbey notes that another North Ridge Direct was climbed in 2001, but the key pitches of the new line were most likely unclimbed before last summer. Until 2023, the Bear’s Face had only one known full-length route: Ursus Horribilis, established in 1998 by Andrew McLean and the late Alex Lowe. Last summer, Chantel Astorga, Matt Cornell, and Jackson Marvell, along with photographer Austin Schmitz who was shooting images of The North Face team members, completed a line started by Cornell, Marvell, and Justin Willis three years earlier. Ménage Trout has 13 pitches and went at 5.10+ R A2+. Astorga wrote in https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2024/7/18/the-line-july-2024
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    Adam Ondra, Dohyun Lee, and others secured their Olympic tickets in the semi-finals. Not so for Team France, who had to battle it out in a heart-wrenching final. The post Teammates Forced to Become Rivals in Men’s Olympic Qualifier Series Final appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/indoor-climbing/teammates-forced-to-become-rivals-in-mens-olympic-qualifier-series-final/
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    https://www.climbing.com/skills/training/climbing-coach-review-neil-gresham-training-program/