For those who don’t know James Lucas, he is one of a kind. A long staple in the North American climbing scene, James is the last standing ‘dirtbag’ (although looking at his current pedigree, he may be living indoors more than we think!). James lives in and around the Bay area for part of the year but most likely you can find him anywhere from Yosemite Valley, CA to Squamish, BC. If your really lucky, you may find him at your local Yuk Yuk’s making people laugh. James was an original contributor to Squamish Climbing Magazine and we thought it would be cool to get his take on Yosemite Valley right now.

Photo courtesy of Michael Pang.

You were in Yosemite all week. What was it like there with all the hoopla?

The Valley’s pretty empty and quiet except for El Cap meadow. The tourists buses park next to the meadow and throngs of camera toting visitors point their cameras at El Cap looking for the climbers. Most people point their cameras in the wrong direction.

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The final results are in from Canmore, AB and the Tour De Bloc. Congratulations to all the athletes and special thanks to the volunteers and everyone who made the event happen.

Women’s Open

1. Allison Vest
2. Alyssa Weber
3. Eva Thompson
4. Stacey Weldon
5. Becca Frangos
6. Regan Kennedy
7. Samantha
8. Freya Hammond-Thrasher

Men’s Open

1. Andrew Funk
2. Marc Eveleigh
3. Dmitri Karaman
4. Scott Eveleigh
5. Dan Archambault
6. Pete Woods
7. Aaron Sadlier
8. Patrick Gibeau

Check in with Squamish Climbing Magazine for a full write up on Monday.

Luke Zimmerman, a Squamish Climbing Magazine contributor, was after it today and ended up sending The Squaminator (v12) despite weird weather conditions. This problem is graded V12 but Luke is suggesting a possible downgrade to V11. Luke’s having a great winter, previously sending The Method (v12). Nice work out there Luke!

Again, Squamish Climbing Magazine recognizes those who put considerable effort into sending their projects. Let us know of any sends that should be mentioned!

The bouldering results are in for the SCBC Triple Header taking place at The Boulders in Central Saanich, BC this weekend.

Women’s Final

1. Alannah Yip
2. Tiffany Melius
3. Delano Miller

Men’s Final

1. Jesse Tapin
2. Gavin Johnson
3. Tristen Gosselin

As there is technically no FINAL for this event, these are the finishing results for the Bouldering Discipline. Congratulations everyone! Stay tuned for Speed climbing today and Difficulty tomorrow. Special thanks again to Gavin Johnson for keeping us up-to-date.

Special thanks to Bonar McCallum for getting us these results as quick as possible. Going into the finals tonight are the following:

Women’s Open

1. Stacey Weldon
2. Eva Thompson
3. Becca Frangos
4. Allison Vest
5. Alyssa Weber
6. Regan Kennedy
7. Samantha Li
8. Freya Hammond-Thrasher

Men’s Open

1. Scott Eveleigh
2. Marc Eveleigh
3. Dan Archambault
4. Andrew Funk
5. Dmitri Karaman
6. Pete Woods
7. Aaron Sadlier
8. Patrick Gibeau

These athletes will compete tonight, with isolation at 6pm and finals beginning at 7pm. We just got word that these finals will be on a live stream found here. If you are in the area, go down to cheer them on!

Multiple Sources are reporting that Kevin Jorgenson has sent pitch 15! I think a lot of people counted Kevin out but this means that the ‘team ascent’ is back on. Fantastic news for the climbing community behind Tommy and Kevin. To top it all off, Kevin reported that he also stuck the dyno on Pitch 16 (but fell at the top of the pitch)!

Picture of Kevin’s hands after todays battle.

Here are some photos of Kevin sending from the El Cap Report.

Here is Kevin’s twitter feed with his comments.

Here is the latest from the New York Times (interactive). This actually worth checking out!

Stay tuned!

This weekend is the first climbing event of many taking place at The Boulders Climbing Gym, located in Central Saanich, BC on Vancouver Island. For those of you who have never been to The Boulders (myself included), the facility touts over 13,000 square feet of space and 18 meter lead walls, making it a premier venue for training and competition climbing. With three more competitions this year, as well as playing host to an IFSC Training Camp led by Adam Ondra and Sean McColl in February, this will surely not be the last time we hear from them this year. After speaking to Paul Ledet, the Head Judge for the event this weekend, Squamish Climbing Magazine thought it would good to check in with Event Organizer Sebastian Powell to get the details for this weekend.

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