The PlanetFear World Climbing Report

Welcome to planetFear’s weekly world climbing report, bringing you all the major highlights and first ascents from the global scene on rock, ice, and in the mountains.

The last week of February was a big one for world climbing. News of major new mixed lines and massive exotic walls collided with stories of exceptional sport climbing and bouldering achievements. Where do we start?

In Britain, the fiercest winter for a generation continues to produce exceptional first ascents. Last week it was news of a major new mixed line on Black Ladders in Snowdonia (Tora Bora (VIII, 8, 6, 4, 5), and this week it has been Scotland's turn to crank up the tempo.

Dave Macloed, always at the cutting edge of Scottish climbing both in summer and winter, managed to climb his summer rock route Anubis (E8 6c) on Ben Nevis in full winter conditions - fulfilling what had apparently been a long-term ambition. As with his extremely hard and serious rock route on the mountain, Echo Wall, Macloed has chosen not to give the route a winter grade as yet, instead simply pointing out that it represents "a significant step forward" for him in terms of boldness and technical difficulty. This implies that his exceptional effort on Anubis could have outclassed the current top level of Scottish winter climbing, represented by routes such as his own 2009 climb Don't Die Of Ignorance, also on Ben Nevis. You can read a fascinating personal account of the first winter ascent of Anubis on Dave Macloed's blog. (Anubis, incidentally, is the jackal-headed ancient Egyptian god of mummification and the afterlife; the name, presumably, refers to the somewhat serious climbing found on the pitch).

Over in the Cairngorms, the ever-prolific duo of Guy Robertson and Pete Macpherson climbed a new mixed line on the gigantic and remote Central Gully Wall of Creag an Dubh Loch. Naming their fearsome 8-pitch creation Super Rat (IX, 9), Robertson described the climbing as "a most intoxicating mix of tenuous ice climbing and strenuous cracks, requiring diamond-tipped crampons as well as fire in the forearms.  The fact that it only comes into condition once every two decades is just the icing on the cake; it doesn't get any better than that.” You can read a superb first hand account of the climb, illustrated by a series of excellent photographs, by Guy Robertson on UKClimbing.com.

Moving from cold climbs to hot and exotic rock, news emerged of some outstanding  big-walling achievements in Mexico and South America. In Venezuela, on the giant sandstone wall of Monte Roraima on the Guyana border, Brazilian climbers Eliseu Frechou, Marcio Bruno and Fernando Leal forced a major line back in January, proving once again that the tepuis of the Venezuelan highlands are one of the world's most compelling regions for big wall adventuring. The first ascent of Guerra de Luz e Trevas / trans. 'War of Light and Darkness' (5.11a A3, 12 pitches, 650m) featured rotten rock, a four day bivouac ordeal enforced by a huge rainstorm and accompanied by spiders and scorpians, followed by a better quarzite upper section which led to the top. What an adventure they must have had. You can read Keese Lane's informative report, illustrated by Frechou's photographs of the first ascent, on the Alpinist website.

Moving north to Mexico, and news has just emerged of another new route in the newly-discovered adventure rock climbing paradise of the La Huasteca Natural Park, near Monterrey in the north-east of the country. In January, the Italians Alessandro Baù and Matteo Della Bordella made the first ascent of Fiducia al Sentiero (500m, 5.12c/7b+ max – 5.11d/7a obl.) on the South Face of the huge, complex limestone massif of Tatewari. You can read a full trip report by the Italian pair on their new climb on the planetmountain website: their account provides some valuable detail about an area which looks set to grow swiftly in importance as an international adventure climbing region in the future.

Back in Europe, and news appeared this week that the young Czech climber Adam Ondra has just possibly outperformed himself. Again. The crimp-crushing teenager from Brno recently managed to onsight two 8c's and an 8b+ in a single day at Claret, France, beating his previous one-day onsight record of a mere two 8c's. Ondra is clearly on exceptional form at present, and you can read a fascinating interview with him here on planetmountain. Particularly interesting for many sport climbers will be Ondra's tactical revelation that he rests three or sometimes even four hours between hard onsight attempts, re-warming up again before the second one.  
 
Last but certainly not least, in a week of news that sets the tone for an astounding year in the world climbing scene, international bouldering's man-of-the-moment Daniel Woods has climbed another long-standing project, this time in Heuco Tanks in Texas. Desperanza (V15) follows hard on the heels of his first ascent of The Game (V16) in Colorado, possibly America's hardest problem (on which you can read a full report here on planetFear), and clearly shows that we can expect more stratospheric numbers from Woods over the coming months and years. There is a short video of Woods climbing Desperanza on the deadpointmag website.

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