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Weekend Whipper: Dangling From Quickdraw, Climber Submits to the Whip

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  • Ice Climbing Competition: A Team Sport

    General News climbing
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    American Alpine ClubA
    The intense winter sun bore down on Longmont's Ice Climbing World Cup stage in Colorado on February 22-23. For the first time since 2019, the United States hosted a UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup. The USA Ice Climbing athletes showed off figure fours and nines (similar to a figure four, but the climber wraps their leg over the same arm instead of the opposite), epic dynos into hanging hoops, and celebrated wins with views of Long's Peak in the background. The warm weather led to thin ice, and an ice pick punctured a pipe, destroying one of the speed climbing walls Saturday night during the speed finals. As a result the format was changed from duel climbing to single. USA Ice climbing athletes Sam Serra and Catalina Shirley podiumed in speed despite the challenging ice conditions. Shirley took silver in speed with a time of 13.64. Serra won his first-ever UIAA Ice climbing medal at Longmont, taking the bronze with a time of 9.07. Making the podium in speed was a "soft" goal for Serra in the Longmont World Cup. "It's just been a steady progress all season," said Serra. During the France World Cup, which was held from January 29 through February 1, Serra's left hand slipped, and he stabbed his thigh with his ice tool, needing three stitches. The past three weeks leading up to Longmont he was mainly focused on recovering in time for the competition. Thanks to the Longmont Climbing Collective building a competition wall for the World Cup, the USA Ice Climbing team has been able to train all season in Longmont. Serra ran a weekly speed training night every Monday. "I think everyone saw a lot of progress, and it's really rewarding to see that pay off, and everyone is performing super well this weekend and in the past World Cups," said Serra. Donned in glitter, Sam Castro, Joann Dyer, Jessica Perez, and Alex Rudow bring their own personal style to competing. "Glitter really makes me send hard," said Jessica Perez with a laugh. This is her third season on the USA Ice Climbing Team. She saw athletes competing in the World Cup in Denver in 2019 and dove into competition ice climbing headfirst. Although doused in the same glitter, the four athletes had different goals for their seasons. "It was my first season, so honestly, my only goal was not having a false start for speed and not stabbing myself, which I was very happy about," said Sam Castro. She achieved her goals this season. "My goal is to enjoy the process and see how far I can test and push my limits and climb with confidence," said Jessica Perez. Each athlete competes individually on the wall, but the USA Ice Climbing team is so tight-knit and supportive that it's almost a team sport. "[Ice climbing competition] is so supportive, too, and it's like such a niche sport, I think. And it's growing. It's cool to be a part of a growing community and see the youth get really into it," said Joann Dyer. Alex Rudow said, "I try to be supportive. The community is already so supportive. I have mainly competed in team sports, and this is probably my first individual sport. But despite that, you spend like nine times out of ten cheering on your teammates. It's awesome to see just how supportive everyone is." This is Rudow's first season on the ice team. In the competitive world, mindset is everything. Seasoned competitor Ryan McCauley made a big mindset change this season. She went into the season wanting to be more playful and present on the wall. "I think that in the past, I've tended to be really rigid and structured with my training. I've told myself this narrative: I just want to train really hard and get really strong, and then it can be really playful during competition season. And then I get there, and I'm like, why doesn't this feel playful? It's because I've related to it for months in a militant way," said McCauley. Her main goal for the Ouray competition was to be more present, and it paid off when she podiumed and took third place. For logistical and financial reasons, McCauley decided to focus on the three competitions in North America: Ouray, Longmont, and Edmonton. At Longmont, McCauley fell early in qualifiers. She sees it as a testament to the finickiness... https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2025/4/2/ice-climbing-competition-a-team-sport
  • Fall Practice – Get Better at Taking Whippers

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    GrippedG
    Here's how to progressively get more comfortable with lead falls as we move into outdoor season in 2024 The post Fall Practice – Get Better at Taking Whippers appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/profiles/fall-practice-get-better-at-taking-whippers/
  • Guidebook XII—Rewind the Climb

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    American Alpine ClubA
    By Hannah Provost If you had to tell the story of the evolution of climbing within the history of one route, your most compelling choices might be The Nose of El Capitan or The Naked Edge in Eldorado Canyon. In this way, The Naked Edge is a time capsule containing within its memory: the much dreamed-of first ascent finally climbed by Layton Kor, Bob Culp, and Rick Horn; a period defining free ascent by Jim Erickson and Duncan Furgeson in the early 1970s; and one of the few battle- grounds for speed records in the United States. In 1962, Kor and Bob Culp were diverted attempting to aid the steep final edge, and today, climbers have speed climbed the route, bridge to bridge, in a little over 22 minutes. What is it about this climb that has allowed it to be the sketchbook for climbing legends to draw out the evolution of our sport? Anecdotes and artifacts from the American Alpine Club Library and archives provided the answer. Perhaps it was all aesthetics—the compelling imagery of a climb that could divide dark- ness and light. Or maybe it was the fact that The Edge tends to rebuff many of its suitors. But whether The Naked Edge was dishing out a good humbling, or whether, as Jim Erickson famously argued, his free ascent style “humbled the climb” instead, The Naked Edge might live so prominently in our collective climbing memory because it encapsulates one of the great questions of each climbing endeavor. Who holds the power here? The climb or the climber? At first, the route held all the cards. Layton Kor, known for his hulking height and wild, almost demonic, drive, could usually weaponize his determination and fearlessness to get through any hard climbing he might envision for himself. Yet when Layton Kor and Bob Culp attempted to aid the route in 1962, having each been turned away in 1961 on separate occasions, they still had to deviate from the original vision and finished the climb via a dihedral slightly to the left of the stunning final overhang. It wasn’t until Kor came back with Rick Horn in 1964 that The Edge, as we climb it today, was first done in its entirety. Jim Erickson, a young gun with a knowing grin, hadn’t always been a hotshot. However, by the early 1970s, he had gotten into the habit of proving a point—freeing the old obscure aid lines in Eldo put up by Robbins, Kor, Dalke, and Ament the decade before. After several failed attempts to free The Naked Edge, repeatedly retreating from the first pitch finger crack due to a strict avoidance of hangdog- ging and rehearsing, freeing The Naked Edge was his foremost ambition. By 1971, The Naked Edge had been ascended 30 or so times using direct aid. Erickson was envisioning a new phase of the route’s life. Yet his first moderately successful attempt, with prolific free climber Steve Wunsch, was yet another humbling. As he wrote for Climb!: The History of Rock Climbing in Colorado, the fourth pitch was daunting to the point of existential: “Steve dubs it impossible. I give it a disheartened try, but it is late so down we come, pondering the ultimate metaphysical questions: ‘Is there life after birth? Sex after death?’” When Erickson and Duncan Ferguson returned a week later, things went a little more smoothly. Though The Naked Edge was the last major climb that the two would ascend using pitons, it wasn’t the use of pitons that haunted Erickson and sent him off on his staunch commitment to only onsight free -climbing. Rather, when Erickson reflects on the effort and technique of pitoncraft, and the incredible added effort of free climbing on pitons, he seems almost to be creating something, tinkering. Describing nailing the crux of the first thin pitch in an interview for the Legacy Series, a project of the AAC to preserve the history of climbing, Erickson painted a picture of immense toil: “You’re in this strenuous fingertip layback, with shoes that didn’t smear very well...You had to first of all figure out which piton you were going to place, you had to set it in the crack, you were doing all of this with one hand while you were hanging on. Then you had to tap the piton once to make sure you didn’t lose it... because if you missed it and dropped it you’re back to square one, so you had to tap the pin, finally hit it in, test it to see if it was good, then you’d clip a single free carabiner, and a second free carabiner into it, and then you would clip your rope in, all while you were hanging on with one hand in a bad finger lock.” In the 1960s and 1970s, once a route was freed, it was not ... https://americanalpineclub.org/news/guidebook-xiirewind-the-climb
  • What breaks first?

    Videos climbing hownot2
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    HowNOT2H
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moobi2VKwmI
  • Is bigger better? #climbinggear #climbing

    Videos climbing hownot2
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    HowNOT2H
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N7BjfzILGs
  • 4 Tips for Waterfront Climbing

    General News accessfund climbing
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    Access FundA
    Summer. It’s a time when many climbers seek out cooler conditions on or near the water. And whether you’re climbing above the ocean, by a river, or near a lake, there are a few things to know before you go. https://www.accessfund.org/latest-news/4-tips-for-waterfront-climbing
  • 16-Year-Old Pepa Šindel Climbs His Fifth 5.14d

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    GrippedG
    It's his fourth of the grade in 2024, sending routes in Slovenia, Spain, and Germany earlier this year The post 16-Year-Old Pepa Šindel Climbs His Fifth 5.14d appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/news/16-year-old-pepa-sindel-climbs-his-fifth-5-14d/
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    ClimbingZineC
    https://climbingzine.com/to-live-and-die-in-yosemite-by-luke-mehall/