5.13d
Lorin Cupples
Amity, from Loveland, Colorado, but who lives on the road in her van with husband Connor, is no stranger to hard single-pitch trad, with sends of 5.13d Stingray in Joshua Tree, 5.13b Cosmic Debris in Yosemite, and 5.13 Optimator in Indian Creek.
The following day, she hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at the Cascade Falls picnic area, where everyone from pro climbers Babsi Zangerl, Siebe Vanhee, and Connor Herson to random tourists showed up. The next day, she hightailed it to Loveland to get an MRI done on her damaged finger.
At UKC/UKH we are all experienced internet users and as such we understand why some people want to use Ad Block to remove annoying and distracting advertising that proliferates on some web sites. We don't feel that UKC/UKH should be considered as such a site.
We have developed a site that has subtle and appropriate advertising; we don't use pop-ups, we don't force you to read adverts before you can see content, we don't plaster content with adverts, and we don't use third party ad servers dishing up totally inappropriate advertising. We have worked incredibly hard over the years to make sure that we keep a good balance between advertising and editorial content.
Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker AKA The Wideboyz have made the first repeat of another monster roof crack, Necronomicon 5.13d/14a, in their old stomping ground of White Rim in Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
The incredible roof cracks of the White Rim that the pair have spent the last eight years exploring were first developed as free climbing projects by local Rob Pizem. Over a few seasons, he established a number of 5.13 roof cracks and left some uncompleted projects. One of these was a giant arching roof crack of hand and thin-hand jams. Canadian crack wizard J-P Ouellet (Peewee) eventually made the first ascent of Necronomicon 13d/14a in 2011. Tom and Pete are currently in the Utah desert battling with their ongoing projects and this past week revisited Necronomicon to nab the second ascent.
'I was really pleased to get this line done, as me and Pete don't always end up doing that many repeats in the area as we're so obsessed with FAs. In a way, it's nice to calibrate our recent developments and remind ourselves that other people have contributed hard lines and that we should all continually cross-pollinate for difficulty and quality! Fortunately, we've been training thin hands in the last two months, so this was a perfect line at the perfect time. I opted to place extra pieces in the runout middle crux, whereas Pete did his usual "go all-in" and I'm not sure how far he'd have been off the ground if he'd blown it at the end!'
'I was pleased with our successes on this one. When one person gets it it's great, but it always feels like a job half-done, so it was good that we both did it one after the other on the same day. It felt like a little inner personal achievement to me. I'm not particularly known for my small hands, often getting comments of "Oh my God, look at the size of your hands," so this one really proved to me that I can climb the hardest cracks in all styles. We all know that size doesn't matter, it's all in the technique...'
Notable past first ascents in the White Rim by the WideBoyz include the 49 metre offwidth Century Crack 5.14a, which they climbed in 2011. In 2016, the duo established the world's biggest roof crack with Crown of Thorns 5.14a, featuring 50 metres of horizontal climbing running perpendicular to the Wideboyz' 'Crucifix' crack project, forming its 'crosspiece'. During that same trip, the pair also made the first ascents of a 90 metre roof crack, The Millennium Arch 5.14a.
Now Brian has put up a new 5.13d of his own, called Monumantle. And he found this line smack in the middle of the Trapps, on the right side of the "Mantle" Block! Brian's 8a.nu page says he did the climb back in July and that it is a "new school" trad climb, which I presume means he may have worked out all the moves on toprope before even trying to lead the sucker. Alternatively it may just mean he kept working the route over and over again until he could do it, which isn't a "new school" technique at all, but rather dates back to John Stannard in the late 1960s. In whatever way Brian worked the moves, he obviously gave this thing a lot of time and thought before the video-taped send; there are chalked-up holds all over the thing and he has each piece of gear perfectly prepared for the effort. This is not surprising, as the route looks crazy hard.
A few days ago, traditional climbing guru Sonnie Trotter made the third ascent of Gunslinger, a 5.13d R route at Murrin Park in Squamish. While solid cams protect the crux of the route, the moves to the anchor involve a difficult deadpoint and a potential for hitting the ground. Trotter employed mock leading tactics to make the ascent happen.
The first step to climbing the scary traditional route involved hiking around to the top of the cliff and setting up a toprope. Sonnie wired the moves on toprope, figuring out the difficult sequence, where he needed to rest and the best way to hold the rock.
He lowered down the route and inspected the crack for possible places for protection. Making a mental note of where and how he would place gear, he prepared for a mock lead of the route. He climbed the route on toprope with another rope attached. He placed the gear and clipped the rope into the protection, checking the rope drag, how the pro would go in and what he would hold on to while he placed the gear. He even pretended to get short roped to simulate the experience.
c80f0f1006