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In an attempt to make space for the newsworthy ascents that occur with ever-increasing regularity, our weekly news roundup tries to celebrate a few outstanding climbs (or interesting events) that for one reason or another caught our attention. We hope you enjoy it. —The editors
Turns out, Canada is still waiting for its first V16
Last January, when Gabe Lawson claimed the first ascent of The Megg, at the North Wall Boulders in Squamish, BC, and proposed V16 for the climb, I wrote an article about it. During my interview with Lawson, he said he had suggested the V16 grade both because he thought the climb might deserve it, and because he hoped that it would attract other strong climbers to the line. Well, his wish has been granted. In the last nine months, The Megg has been repeated three times, first by Andy Lamb, then by Lucas Uchida, and most recently by Ethan Salvo, all three of whom used a slightly different sequence than Lawson to account for their lesser height, and all of whom say that it’s no harder than technical V14.
“It’s an interesting boulder,” Salvo told me on Zoom. “Physically it doesn’t feel that hard. But technically, it’s one of those boulders where, when you try it at first, it doesn’t feel remotely possible, but if you know how to move over granite, it can eventually feel almost easy. So it’s really hard to give it a grade. But if you can climb that boulder, you can probably climb other V14s in Squamish.”
—Steven Potter
Seb Bouin Nabs the 6th ascent of Lapsus—confirming rumors of Downgrade
First climbed by Stefano Ghisolfi in 2015, Lapsus is the 30-meter linkup of two old classics: Noia, which was Italy’s first 5.14c, and Anaconda (5.14a). The crux is the link between the routes and climbing the upper crux of Anaconda while tired. Stefano originally proposed 5.15b, making it Italy’s first route of that grade, but—though repeated by Adam Ondra and Jonathan Siegrist without knee bars—other ascensionist wearing knee pads think the grade is more like 5.15a. Seb Bouin, who made the route’s sixth ascent after a rainy week of effort, agrees: “[I] think the route [is] a bit easy for that grade, but it’s 100% my climbing style.”
Stefano congratulated Bouin, agreeing with the downgrade and adding a bit of context: “When I did the first ascent I think knee pads were not that common,” he wrote in an Instagram comment. “New beta and kneebars makes it way easier than how I climbed [it], so I think the right thing is to confirm that Lapsus is not 9b [5.15b] anymore.”
A fun kicker: Bouin was in Italy with his film crew, but they failed to get uncut footage of his send. So he did the climb again. There aren’t many people in the world who can literally run laps on a 5.15a.
—SP
Tristan Chen sends White Noise—and sorta-kinda downgrades it
I’ve written a lot about Tristan Chen in the last year—about his battle with leukemia, his comeback send of Esperanza (V14), his ropeless ascent of The Fly (V13/14/5.14d), and his zealous desire to downgrade everything—especially if it might ruffle some feathers. The downgrading trend continues (sort of) with his latest send of White Noise, a Daniel Woods problem in Wild Basin that was originally graded V14/15 but has been given the higher grade by most subsequent ascensionists. Chen spent the better part of the summer working on the climb, thinking it would go down quickly, but it “turned into a bit of a mini epic” thanks in part to the summer heat. Still, he says it’s one of the best traverses he’s ever done—at least as good as Slashface, a classic Fred Nicole V13 in Hueco Tanks. “Surprisingly good stone, fun movement, and a fairly chill approach yields one of the better hard blocs in the state,” he wrote on Instagram. Chen’s grade? V14+.
—SP
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Adam Ondra does FA of first 5.15b in Croatia
Last August Adam Ondra took a break from a family vacation to bolt two new cave lines in Vranjača, Croatia, and to make the first ascent of the easier one, “a power endurance route without super hard moves” that he called A je to! and graded 5.14d/5.15a. He also worked the harder project, immediately to A je to!’s right, but wasn’t able to send in time. Returning in September, Ondra managed to send B je to! on his second day of effort, though he says he almost dropped it from both the crux and the outro upper section. The climb’s name means “it is b,” which seems to have made Ondra somewhat nervous, since he isn’t 100% sure about the 9b (5.15b) grade. “I was a little hesitant,” he admitted on Instagram, noting that though a 5.15a/b slash grade might be a safer bet, it would also make the name nonsensical. “But considering good conditions, [a] crux that fits my style, and pretty good sensations of my body recently, I propose 9b. If it ever gets downgraded, we might have to find a different name!” And if it doesn’t? Well then Adam’s climb will go down in history as the first 5.15b in Croatia.
Having sent more quickly than anticipated, Ondra turned his attention to Slovenia, where, at a crag called Ter, he FA’d an old Jernej Jruder project called Fantazija (5.15a) and—on the same day—onsighted two 5.14bs. As usual, Adam’s film crew was present, so his ascent of B je to! will be available on his YouTube later this year.
—SP
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Amity Warme repeats Stélmexw (5.13+; 800 ft) in Squamish
Last week Amity Warme made the fourth ascent, and first female ascent, of Jesse Huey’s beautiful stem-fest Stélmexw, in Squamish’s Western Dihedrals. The five-pitch route clocks in with two pitches of tenuous 5.10, a bald 5.11d arête, the enduro 5.13c corner—which Connor Herson impressively flashed earlier this summer—and a pumpy 5.12 to cap the route.
Stélmexw (pronounced Stole-meck) roughly translates from the native Sḵwx̱wú7mesh language to mean “the pursuit of being human.”
Warme had checked Stélmexw out one day earlier this summer, but was far from having the route dialed. “It turned out to be a bit of an epic, no-falls day!” she wrote on Instagram. “I actually almost bailed after pitch one because it was so gnarly, but decided to forge ahead.”
Warme sent the crux pitch on her first go of the day, trailing a tag line and hanging draws, trying to remember her beta on the fly. “I certainly didn’t have the sequences memorized so I had to rely almost entirely on intuition, belief in my ability, and confidence in my palm smears,” she wrote. “My calves were so tired by the end that I was doing the full Elvis leg and cutting [my] feet on palm presses to shake them out!”
—Anthony Walsh
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