With the rain falling in the Northwest like crazy, it seems as though the sunshine gods have focused their efforts on Yosemite Valley, along with an asortment of talented climbers, not to mention Adam Ondra. When Adam Ondra first mentioned trying The Dawn Wall, we were all skeptical. Why would a sport climber (of large calibre) think he could roll up to El Capitan and take down one of the greatest routes in modern climbing history. Well, it is week two and he is putting the doubters to shame. We were trying our best not to jump on the Dawn Wall update train but it seems to be leaving the station and we don’t want to be left out! Here are the latest instragrams from Adam Ondra and Black Diamond.

Update: Two Busy Days for Ondra on the Dawn Wall⠀ ⠀ “We had two busy days on the wall, but extremely important, motivating ones! At first, I tried pitch 14 [5.14d], where I still had no idea what to do on the last boulder problem. After a little session, I could finally do the moves and soon after I gave it a go, but realized that my beta for the intro-moves on the last boulder problem didn’t work. It took me a lot of time, skin, frustration and swearing to finally find a satisfying sequence, but I was exhausted and my skin thrashed. I still gave it another go that night, slipped on the first boulder problem, but then continued to the anchor, which gave me a lot of confidence that next time it should work out.⠀ ⠀ “The second day, I was incredibly lucky to get an overcast day, so I could make a lot of work. At first, we took some pics with Heinz Zak on pitch 14, then went down and sent pitch 8 (5.13d) and toproped pitch 7 (5.14a). After lunch, I went for pitch 11 (5.13c) and linked the whole crux sequence, then linked the whole crux on pitch 12 (5.14b). Then we went down for a toprope session on pitch 10 (5.14a), which is always desperately wet in the dark, but I still made it with one hang on toprope. To finish the day, I just rechecked the moves on pitch 9 (5.13c).⠀ ⠀ “It seems like I need to work a bit more on pitches 10, 12 and 13 (5.13b) and then pitches 1-6 (only 5.12b to 5.13c range) and I will be ready to go for the push. Can't wait!!!”⠀ ⠀ –BD Ambassador @Adam.Ondra, November 7, 2016.⠀ ⠀ #liveclimbrepeat Photo: @pavelblazek ⠀

A photo posted by Black Diamond Equipment (@blackdiamond) on Nov 7, 2016 at 9:56pm PST

Continue reading »

Pretty impressive! 4-Year-Old Laura Rogora Becomes Second Youngest To Climb 9a!

Another little flick from Stu Smith, this time featuring Kelowna, BC.

The Climber’s Access Society of BC (CASBC) will be having their Annual General Meeting on Wednesday November 9th, 2016 at the Mountain Equipment Co-op Head Office starting at 7pm. This is a very important time for all British Columbian climbers to come together and show support for our primary organization that ensures access to our climbing areas. Be sure to come out and become a member if you are not!

Continue reading »

This summer, Read Macadam and Tim Emmett made it their business to finish Sonnie Trotter’s route The Path (5.14r) at the Back of the Lake in Lake Louise, AB. Sending on the same day (Read’s birthday!), both Read and Tim saw the end to the project that they dedicated themselves to for the summer, making the 7th and 8th ascent respectively of this epic route. This is the video of those efforts.

Here are the words of Read Macadam to put this experience into perspective.

Continue reading »

Tour De Bloc 14 kicked off this weekend with it’s first stop in the west and it did not disappoint!

Here are the final results.

Women’s Open:

1. WEBER Alyssa 4 T 4 / 4 B 4
2. LI Samantha 2 T 3 / 3 B 3
3. VAN DE PANNE, Lisa 2 T 3 / 3 B 3
4. IRWIN Remington 0 T 0 / 2 B 3
5. FRAYNE Ashleigh 0 T 0 / 2 B 4

Men’s Open:

1. HOLOWACH Jason 3 T 6 / 4 B 5 2
2. FRICKER Alex 1 T 2 / 3 B 6
3. EVELEIGH Scott 1 T 3 / 4 B 10
4. DERKSEN Mark 1 T 3 / 2 B 6
5. HENDSBEE Matt 0 T 0 / 4 B 6
6. BOKENFOHR Dylan 0 T 0 / 1 B 2

Awesome video featuring Keith Allen Peters on a new look in Squamish Bouldering. Keith Allen Peters (also known as Emma) has spent a ton of time over the years in Squamish and here he captures the beauty along with some pretty sick footage of a few hard classics.

Chris Sharma just released this rad video of him working on his epic project “Perfecto Mundo” a possible 9b+ in Margalef Spain. Check it out!

Nice feature out of Epic tv showcasing adam Ondra on the route Robin Ud (9b).