The wild Choss Monkeys of Montana revisit Pine Creek’s Succubus (M7+). Originally established by Tom Kalakay and Chuck Swenson, Pete Tapley was the first to free the line in 1998, sandbagging the grade along the way. Since then, the route has morphed seasonally, with a few of the bolts ending up in the talus below, while the grade steadily increases. It remains a local test piece.
Aaron Mulkey was feeling the summer heat, and lack of ice. Luckily, this ice climber wasn’t going to let the high temps or lack of ice get him down. We believe this is the first ever video of Deep Water Dry Tooling (Wet Tooling)!
Two years ago Eliseu Frechou, Marcio Bruno and Fernando Leal climbed a new route on Mt. Roraima. The video below details their experience above the jungle. For a written account of their climb check out Alpinist 33.
When asked about the creation of this film Cheyne told Alpinist, “I wanted to do the video because I was getting sick of doing the whole, ‘Here’s some climbing I went to do in Patagonia, or whatever.’ This video is a breath of fresh air to me. It’s something different that I’ve never done before, and I didn’t have very much time so I edited the video on the fly and I was going with what I felt looked good. My first instinct of which clip should go where just flowed together and it just ended up working out.”
In 2011 David Burdick, John Frieh and Zac West climbed a new route on the Burkett Needle (~8,500 ft.), a tower on the Stikine Icecap of Southeast Alaska. The route, Repeat Offender (IV 5.9 AI3 M5), was done in three days, Seattle to Seattle. Below, Burdick describes the style of “Smash and Grab” climbing and the preparation that makes such climbs possible.
On September 30, 2011, Italian climbers Marco and Herve Barmasse, a father and son from Northern Italy, established a new route on the southeast face of Signalkuppe (4554m), a peak in the Monte Rosa massif. The 800-m route (ED) signifies the end of Herve Barmasse’s “Exploring the Alps” project, in which he put up new routes on three of the range’s most prominent peaks—the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc and finally Monte Rosa.
On March 8, 2011, Herve Barmasse began the first installment of his project–a new, solo route up the south face of Picco Muzio, a subpeak on the Furggen Ridge of the Matterhorn. His chosen line, a 700-meter overhanging pillar, had never been explored before, though many other routes cover the face. After two days of poor weather and lots of rockfall, Barmasse abandoned his attempt. For one month he continued to think about the potential on the Matterhorn, and on April 6 he tried again. Four days and three bivvies later, Barmasse reached the summit. His father was waiting for him there, and the two descended the Matterhorn together.
The second ascent of Barmasse’s project was a new route on Mont Blanc, established with Basque brothers Iker and Eneko Pou, with which Barmasse wanted to “point out the great value of a roped party and the pleasure of sharing mountaineering with friends.”
My main climbing partners were John Bragg, John Bouchard and Henry Barber…” Rick Wilcox narrates the ice climbing revolution of the Northeast in the 1960s and 1970s. Created by Sarah Garlick and Jim Surette.
In late January the Vermont ice climbing community gathers for its social event of the year, the Smugglers’ Notch Ice Bash, organized by Sunrise Adventure Sports. The Alpinist staff teamed up with our neighbors at Climberism to put together this video of the 2012 Smuggs’ Ice Bash. (Props to Ray Kania for editing this on short notice.) Between two nights of free beer, a dry tooling competition, one day of climbing hard and another day spent sharing the joy of ice with new friends who had never climbed before, we had an absolutely stellar time. See you next January at the Smuggs’ Ice Bash!
