Packs, Stoves + Rain Jackets

Squamish
Legend
Jim Sandford

Yosemite
Crusher
Emily ¸
Harrington
Climbing
in Cuba
Ontario Rock Climbing
The Smoke Bluffs
New
Changing Route Names Rockies
Ice
 contents

February/March 2021
Jim Sandford on Eurasian Eyes 5.13b in 1991
Photo Kevin McLane

Features
18 Konstantin Stoletov Climbs Cuba by Anthony Walsh
24 The Climbing Life of Jim Sandford by Dave Smart
30 Offensive Route Names by Michelle LeBlanc
34 Emily Harrington’s Golden Gate Challenge by Anthony Walsh

Departments
02 Editorial The Stoke is High 44 The Rack
03 Booty 44 Packs
46 Rain Jackets
04 10 Questions 48 Stoves
Joe Skopec, Top Ontario Climber
06 News 50 Northern Exposures
11 Obituary Doug Scott 54 Reviews
Dolomiti New Age,
12 Off the Wall Dolomites Without Borders
Does Climbing Need
More Rules? by Jon Heshka 56 Notes from the Top
Canada’s High Alpine Hut Heritage by Lynn Martel
14 Native Stones
The Smoke Bluffs, Squamish

Cover: Emily Harrington freeing El Capitan’s Golden Gate 5.13 in a day. Photo Jon Glassberg/Louder Than 11

gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

01
editorial
The Stoke is High
As we transition from winter to spring and head into a new
year, we have a lot to look forward to in the world of climbing
and beyond. Last year was a challenge for everyone, including
for climbing athletes who lost comp seasons, brands for losing
sales and events for not taking place. We missed seeing you at the
trade shows, film festivals and climbing academies. Climbing was
booming, it was going to a place none of us could have imagined:
from its debut in the Olympics to expeditions up unclimbed
mountains to the opening of countless gyms. Climbing was
on fire.
The sport of climbing has been there for people through many
historical events, from wars and disasters to pandemics and social
change. Climbing is a place people can go mentally and physically
to escape the weight of real life. It offers ridiculous controversies,
record ascents, personal challenges and a community like no other
sport. Going into 2021, the stoke is high.
Why is the stoke so high? Sport climbing will be debuting this
summer at the Tokyo Olympics, and it’s been announced that
climbing is included in the Paris 2024 Olympics with more medals.
No matter what happens with lockdowns and travel restrictions,
climbers will find a way to climb, whether it’s at a local crag or on
the home wall in the basement. Climbers will continue to share
dreams of travelling to far-off places, will continue to train their
finger strength and will wait patiently to return to exploring new
gyms and international crags.
Editor Brandon Pullan brandon@gripped.com
Publisher Sam Cohen sam@gripped.com
Editorial Director David Smart dave@gripped.com
Photo Editor Matt Stetson matt.stetson@gripped.com
News Editor Andre Cheuk andre@gripped.com
Gripped Indoors Editor Noah Walker noah@gripped.com
Copy Editor Amy Stupavsky
Art Director Warren Wheeler layout@gripped.com [roseandermain.com]
Advertising and Sales Andre Cheuk andre@gripped.com
Account Manager Joel Vosburg joel@gripped.com
Account Manager Lorena Jones lorena@gripped.com
Circulation Sam Cohen sam@gripped.com
Production Artist Warren Hardy
Social Media Nikita van Dijk nikita@gripped.com
Digital Operations Dmitry Beniaminov
02 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
My stoke is especially high because the chaos of 2020 will lead
to a better climbing industry and community. The shift toward
greater inclusivity has taken big leaps, although there is still a long
way to go and a lot of work to do. The support climbers showed
to their local gyms is what allowed the gyms to survive months
without doing business. From continuing memberships to buy-
ing merch and gift cards, climbers rallied during an economic
downturn so their local community centres would be there when
things re-opened.
I’m inspired by the shift in filmmaking, from the old-school
way of only following the most cutting-edge sends to the future:
documenting what’s happening in small, diverse and unknown
climbing communities around the world. I hope that we can once
again celebrate brilliant filmmaking and book writing at festivals
like Banff and Vancouver sooner rather than later.
I’m most stoked for what will go down in the Canadian climb-
ing circle this year. With more strong sport climbers and boulder-
ers than ever, I have no doubt we’ll see more Canadians tick their
first 5.14 or V14 and maybe even 5.15 and V15. Dozens of young
climbers have been quietly gaining experience in the alpine,
which we’ll begin to see on grade-six mountain walls as soon as
this summer.
Support your local access group, play safe in the mountains and
be stoked – you’re a climber, after all.
Brandon Pullan
Manuscripts, photographs and other correspondence welcome.
Please contact Gripped for contributor guidelines, or see them online
at gripped.com. Unsolicited material should be accompanied by return
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Warning: The activities described in this magazine carry a significant risk to the participants of injury or death. Climbing
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publishers, owners, shareholders and management of Gripped recommend that no one participate in these outdoor
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express consent of the publisher. The views included herein are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the
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of interest to our readers.
 booty

Arc’teryx Castlegar Striped Toque

$45
A one-size-fits-all toque that offers the
durability of acrylic fabric with the
warmth of wool. It’s perfect for chilly
sessions at the boulders or commutes to
the crag. The earband is a comfortable
polyester f leece. Plus, it’s stylish.

The North Face Women’s

Recon Backpack
$120
Made for the active person on the go
from class to work to the gym. The
30-litre, women-specific pack has great
features, solid suspension and is built
to last. With 360 degrees of ref lectivity,
you can commute at night with peace
of mind. An all-round top choice for
urban life.

Metolius Ascender Set

$100
The Metolius Ascender has long been aid climber’s, route developer’s and big wall
climber’s go-to for jugging fixed ropes and hauling bags. It has a comfortable moulded
handle that is easy to connect and disconnect from ropes 9 to 12 mm.

Edelrid Slash
$25
A great workhorse
quickdraw for
projects or as your
first set. They’re
burly at 100 grams
for the 10 cm, with
a great sling for
grabbing. The
anti-twist gasket
on the lower
Petzl Actik Core carabiner
$90 survives lots of
The Actik Core is a powerhouse of a headlamp that will give you multiple day’s worth abuse.—Gripped
of illumination in the backcountry. The battery pack is easy to charge and the light
pumps out 450 lumens. Great for early-morning approaches to climbs, bouldering
sessions or commutes to the gym.

gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

03
 Joe Skopec
Top Ontario Climber
Joe Skopec has been at the cutting-edge of hard which saves energy and skin for my next attempts.
Ontario climbing for the past few years. He’s climbed The stick clip is for aiding skipping hard moves if I
nearly every route on the Niagara Escarpment and don’t know what to do. Next, I video each attempt
has added his own 5.14+ sport climbs. He’s been one to see where I can improve and to see if I missed any
of the few rock climbers to showcase the world-class beta. Then I fall, like 100-plus times. Finally, I send.
potential in the province and to bring international After I finish a project, I start thinking of the next
attention to his new, difficult lines. Throughout the project, almost immediately after.
winter, he’s been training for a what might be his
most difficult new Ontario route to date. Are there still undiscovered crags in Ontario
with 5.14 or harder potential?
What’s your favourite crag in Ontario and why? Yes, but you might not find that next best cliff on
Rockwood would be my favourite crag if it were your first or second hike. I was lucky enough that
open, but Lion’s Head for sure, it has it all. The adven- my friend Zach Treanor showed me a few cliffs that
turous approaches are fun, from rappelling in to boat- are next level. At one of the cliffs, we had to build a
ing in to a long hike in. There are 40-metre routes, f loating dock to belay from. So far, that wall has a 5.7,
a range of grades and a view everyone on Instagram two 5.12s, a 5.13, and six 5.14s.
wants to see.
You have a few hard projects you’re training
Few climbers make a climbing career purely for in 2021. Will one be Ontario’s new
rooted in Ontario. Do you think it’s always been hardest route?
possible or is it a new opportunity thanks to The few projects I’m training for are around 5.14d,
the many new hard routes? but there is a 5.15 at one of the cliffs. However, I can’t
This question is tough to answer, because I have no see myself doing that one for a few years.
idea of that world. I’ve always supported my climbing
addiction by working as a nurse. But, if you mean just You often climb with your dad, Karel. What’s
solely climbing in Ontario and not travelling, then been one of your best days out with him?
100 per cent. We have it all here, from 5.4 to 5.14d, My best day with my dad is every session we’ve ever
and for sure a few 5.15s, V14 and, if you cross the bor- had. It doesn’t matter what we do, there will be an
der to Quebec, then you can try some 5.14 trad. We adventure that day. My dad is not the best belayer,
have rock and lots of it, it’s just spread out. he always forgets his own food and water, and might
take me off belay while I’m resting on a jug, but he’s
What was your first 5.14 and how many have always there for me when I need a partner.
you climbed since?
My first 5.14 was a route by Jeremy Smith called RP, You’ve climbed nearly every route on the
which was the first 5.14 in Ontario. I’ve done around Niagara Escarpment. How many have you
20 5.14s since then. climbed and what’s the best 5.8, 5.9, 5.10,
5.11, 5.12, 5.13 and 5.14?
Access is always an issue, so what do you I’ve climbed every route in the Southern Ontario
think climbers should know when travelling to volume one sport guide! I forget how many climbs
Ontario crags? there are, but hundreds. Now I have 51 climbs left out
Crag access is our biggest problem in Ontario. Most of 713 for the northern escarpment volume. My favou-
of our crags are closed, may be closed, on the verge rites: Queue De Lion 5.8 at Lion’s Head; Insatiable
of closing or open for now, which is why everyone Mandingo 5.9 at Cape Croker; Secret Garden 5.10 at
should follow the gym-to-crag guidelines posted on Cape Croker; Blue Nun 5.11 at Crag X; The Mission
the Ontario Alliance of Climbers website. On that 5.12 at Lion’s Head; Maxi Pista 5.13 at Lion’s Head and
note, it’s always a good idea to become a lifetime Lion’s Head Express 5.14 at Lion’s Head.
member for only five dollars.
What’s your go-to rope, draws, shoes and helmet?
What’s your projecting process like? My go-to rope is the Petzl Arial 9.5 mm, for quick-
Photo Tyler Palubiski

I love projecting. First, I find a project, then I go bolt draws I use the Petzl Spirit, for shoes I use La Sportiva
Opposite: Joe
Scopec in the to bolt with a stick clip on my harness. I’m going bolt Solutions or Testarossas and for a helmet I stick with
Niagara Glen to bolt so I can brush/tick holds, find the best beta, the Petzl Sirocco.—Gripped

04 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

Photo tk 10 questions

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05
 Rockies Ice Report
The Canadian Rockies had a lot of early season ice form
in the fall. The result was one of the busiest new-routing
bursts on record. The following is brief summary.

Katana
Above Lake Margaret, which is next to Hector Lake below Pulpit
Peak, Sebastian Taborszky, Stas Beskin and Dylan Cunningham
climbed a new serious 245-metre five-pitch mega ice line they
called Katana WI6+X. It’s one of the most serious pure ice lines
ever climbed in Canada. The east-facing route goes at WI3 60 m,
WI6R 45 m, WI5+ 55 m, WI6+X 40 m and finally WI6R 45 m.
About the fourth-pitch: “Climb the improbable free-standing pil-
lar with the first screw at 30 metres above the belay. Pillar had a
three-inch unhealed crack half-way up.”

High Hanging Fruit

Rory O’Donnell and Ryan Daniel Patteson climbed a new 305-
metre M6+R WI4 in Protection Valley behind Castle Mountain
called High Hanging Fruit. Pitch six gets the M6R WI4 grade
for 50 metres of “wild and improbable” climbing. The breakdown
goes: “Climb a steep crack on the right wall to a fixed nut. At this
point start a rising traverse rightward on the steep and compact
slab, aiming for the thin vein of ice. About midway a critical
nut is welded into place. Continue up and right on small edges.
Just before the ice a small rock horn can be slung to keep things
reasonable. Make a committing move rightward to gain the ice.
Gently tap upwards, ice gets progressively thicker as height is
Photo Courtesy of Stas Beskin

gained.”

Red Beard
Kevin Rohn, John Price and Dylan Cunningham made the first
ascent of the third gully on the Boom Mountain’s east face and
called it Red Beard, a 420-metre M5 WI5.

06 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

 Opposite: Katana
news
Left: Fancy Feast
Bottom: The
Hand of God

Storm Creek Headwall

The wall, north of Stanley Headwall, has became a busy early-
season destination after we published the first-ever topo to the
wall in 2020. Niall Hamill and Patrick Maguire climbed a new
130-metre M4 WI6 they called Fancy Feast. “My tools hit rock
many times while navigating thin and crummy sections of ice
plastered over water worn slabs,” said Hamill. Ichinen WI5+R
M4 was added to the area by Takeshi Tani and Toshiyuki Yamada.
Seb Taborszky, James Walter and Jacob Dans made the first ascent
of Sleight of Hand, a 95-metre WI4+R, between Fleshlumpeater
and Shocking Alternative. Taborszky and Hamill made the first
ascent of Smith & Wesson, a 125-metre WI6 A0. It’s one of the
most stunning looking new routes climbed this year. Hamill said,
“It’s one of the best drips of ice I’ve had the pleasure of climbing,
and challenging too, with two separate pillars up top, super 3d,
chandeliered and steep.”

Goat Face Ice Line

Alik Berg, Peter Hoang and Dylan Cunningham made the first
ascent of the 410-metre, seven-pitch Goat Face Ice Line M5+ WI4
on Goat Mountain east of Canmore in the fall. The rarely formed
piece of ice includes 120 metres of sustained and “generally well-
protected mixed climbing,” said Hoang. It leads to a mellow pitch
then a mixed section for 200 metres. “Berg ran out of climbable
ice within a few body lengths of the top, and Cunningham took a
20-footer on the first pitch,” said Hoang, “so it’s still waiting on a
free and complete ascent.”

Mount Murchison
In December, Juan Henriquez and Raphael
Slawinski climbed their new The Hand of
God M7 WI5 135 m. It climbs the obvious
dagger left of Cosmic Messenger. Slawinski
said: “It’s been suggested that it might’ve
been climbed in the nineties by Serge
Angelucci, but we didn’t find any evi-
dence of previous traffic. If it were indeed
climbed back then, it’d be an impressive
and futuristic ascent, before M-climbing
and power drills.” Rob Owens, Mike
Stuart and Jacob Dans climbed a new route
left of Murchison Falls. Five pitches start-
ing with Aboriginal Genocide, followed
by new M5 pitches to the rim. Sebastian
Taborszky and James Walter completed a
new 160-metre M6 WI3+ in the Cosmic
Messenger drainage called Ferrethawk. On
a previous attempt, Jas Fauteux took a
Photo Uncredited, Raphael Slawinski

20-metre whipper onto a cam. “The small-

est black Totem cam held the fall,” said
Taborszkey, “breaking the six-inch-wide
wedged block sitting in the crack. Two
more bolts were added after that to keep
things sane, and the broken block fell out
on the first hand-pull.”

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07
news

Angela Eiter Sends New 5.15b Mount Everest Height Change

Angela Eiter made the first ascent of Madame Ching in Tirol, China and Nepal agreed on how tall Mount Everest is after
Austria, which was bolted in 2018 by her husband, Bernie Ruech, years of dispute. They presented a new official figure of 8,848.86
in mid-December. In 2017, she became the first woman in history metres (29,031 feet) above sea level. The new height is 0.86 metres
to climb a 5.15b with La Planta de Shiva at Villanueva del Rosario, (two feet) above the higher of the countries’ two previous fig-
Spain. The 34-year-old crusher, who’s won four World Cup titles, ures. Everest (Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet)
four World Championship golds and one European Championship sits at Nepal’s border with Tibet in the Himalayas. Over the
gold, said her new 5.15b is similar to La Planta de Shiva. Madame years, Nepal and Tibet, plus other governments around the world,
Ching, which is named after a famous Chinese pirate, has over 100 have suggested differing estimates of the hieght of the world’s
moves. Eiter began to project it earlier this year and worked it on tallest mountain. Susheel Dangol, Deputy Director General at
and off in 2020. Nepal’s Department of Survey, said that the project was a matter
of national pride for Nepal and a prestigious undertaking for the
government: “I feel very proud that we were able to complete it
Akira Repeated After 25 Years successfully. Nepal and China jointly processed the surveyed data
In 1995, top climber Fred Rouhling made the first ascent of and came up with the result.” After a 7.8-magnitude earthquake
Akira at Le Périgord in France and graded it 5.15b. At the time, hit Nepal in 2015, experts suggested the height of Everest might
there were no routes graded 5.15, but in 1996 Alex Huber climbed have changed. Two years later, the Nepali government began a
Open Air 5.14d, which was later upgraded to 5.15a as the first of project to determine the “new” height.
the grade. Sébastien Bouin and Lucien Martinez finally repeated
Akira before winter and both suggested it’s 5.14d. It climbs a
12-metre roof and heads into an eight-metre face. The route was Separate Medals for Climbing
clouded by controversy when first climb due to the 5.15b sugges-
tion. “Any way this route is hard” commented Bouin “and quite
at Paris Olympics
unbelievable for the 1990s.” Rouhling said after the repeat: “I was The International Olympic Committee (ioc) announced that
very happy that they climbed it. For me, Akira was another level.” Sport Climbing has been included on the sports program of the
Olympic Games Paris 2024. Canadians Alannah Yip and Sean
McColl are the two Canadians heading to Tokyo next summer for
Jonathan Siegrist’s New 5.15 the Olympics. Many Canadian climbers have shown interest in the
In fall 2020, ace climber Jonathan Siegrist made the first ascent Paris Olympics, including Becca Frangos and Paige Boklaschuk.
New River Gorge’s old project Full Metal Brisket 5.15a. Siegrist The ioc agreed to add boulder, lead and speed events, which
told Gripped about the hard new route: “You do the first two brings the total number of medal events up to four. The number
cruxes on Pod, before you get a really good rest. Then it’s pretty of participating athletes will grow to 68 for Paris 2024, an increase
much hard. No real resting when you get on the Brisket. There’s a from the 40 at Tokyo 2020 this August.
really big move, right away off of Pod, that’s super fun. It’s kind of
a blind big move over a bulge to an edge just big enough for your
hand, it’s awesome. Then you clip a bolt, and from there to the First 5.13 on Baffin Island
top, which is maybe 15 or 20 hand movements, it’s on. Each little Jacob Cook, Bronwyn Hodgins, Thor Stewart and Zack
mini-section gets progressively harder. After a few tries, I would Goldberg Poch put up a number of new routes on Canada’s remote
climb into what I would call ‘the final boulder problem. Then it Baffin Island last year, including new lines on Mount Asgard and a
was just this process of making it perfect. I can distinctly remem- 400-metre 5.13 on an unnamed tower they called The Niv Mizzet
ber the first day I climbed up into the two pinches, an under-cling Line. “It’s named after my favourite dragon from my favourite
pinch and a fat pinch that you take up at the top. It is probably six nerdy card game Magic the Gathering. We rapped the route; the
or so movements from the finish, but I had this sensation that I second day was a long 20-hour push back to camp,” Cook said.
was completely red-lining. I completely blew out, knowing that Hodgins and Cook also made the first ascent of Never Laugh at
the hardest moves were above me. I needed to work to make it Live Dragons 5.10+ 600 m on the South Face of the South Tower
way more efficient. Every day I would get a move or a half a move of Asgard. Stewart and Poch climbed Polar Thievery 5.11a 400 m
higher. Over the course of two weeks, I think I had eight climbing on the North Tower of Asgard. Cook and Hodgins repeated The
days on it. I was able to give it three tries a day, which is unusual Scott/Henneck via a new three-pitch free variation at the top,
for me. Normally I can only try a project twice, but I think I had 5.11+ 900 m on the North Tower of Asgard. Stewart and Poch
The Pod section so wired that I was able to get through that with made the first recorded ascent of Ulu Peak via their new route The
minimal damage and do the top. Each day I would get a half move Beached Whale 5.10+ A1 600 m.
further. The final crux is really bizarre. Your do really tight hand
movements and foot movements to get set up in this one position.
You do all these crazy moves to get set up in this one position, you
take an impossibly bad left-handed, three-finger edge, and your
whole body is facing toward the left.”

08 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

news
News
Julia Chanourdie Climbs 5.15b
French crusher Julia Chanourdie sent Eagle 4 5.15b at Saint Léger, France, becom-
ing the third woman to climb the grade. Her redpoint is only the third ascent of Eagle
Flash
4, the second was by Hugo Parmentier last spring. Earlier this year, she became the
fourth woman to climb 5.15a with Supercrackinette at the same crag. Eagle 4 is one of Golden Gate in a Day
France’s three 5.15b sport routes, the others being Akira and c.r.s. Emily Harrington and Jordan Cannon both
climbed El Capitan via Golden Gate in a
day in separate ascents. The first climber to
Titan Sends free El Cap in a day was Lynn Hill in 1993
Titan, one of Canada’s most classic 5.14 sport routes located at Lion’s Head saw a hand- via The Nose 5.14. See p.34 for more.
ful of ascents last year. Nicholas Carroll, 27, sent it for his first of the grade. The test-
piece limestone sport route took the Guelph climber about two and a half months to K2 Climbed in Winter
redpoint. “I was living in Lion’s Head for all of August and only seriously committed At the time of print, K2 was climbed in win-
to trying the last two weeks of my trip,” said Caroll, who’s been climbing for about ter for the first time by 10 Nepalese moun-
five years. “The hardest move for me was a dead point to a sloppey crimp. But the red taineers. The all-Sherpa team included:
point crux ended up being at the very top. It was so reachy for me that I had drop my Nirmal Purja, Gelje Sherpa, Mingma
right pinkie on a crimp just to make the span and couldn’t even full crimp the hold.” David Sherpa, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa,
Toronto climber Lucas Uchida also sent the vertical line. Sona Sherpa, Mingma Tenzi Sherpa, Pem
Chhiri Sherpa, Dawa Temba Sherpa, Kili
Pemba Sherpa and Dawa Tenjing Sherpa.
Alex Honnold Speed Record
Alex Honnold climbed Epinephrine, a classic 13-pitch 5.9 in Red Rock, in 34 New B.C. V10
minutes and 51 seconds, beating the late Brad Gobright’s record of 38 minutes and 15 Allen James Rollin made the first ascent
seconds. After his send, Honnold said: “I’ve been thinking about Brad Gobright a lot of Warhammer V10 at Arrowlakes near
lately – something about hiking briskly in fall temps always reminds me of him. After Castlegar. He said, “A sick compression line.
he died, I thought maybe he should just keep the record indefinitely as a nice tribute. Lots in intricate beta required and fully
But as the season has changed this year I haven’t been able to resist taking a few laps up sustained. A new classic on the incredible
the route, just to see. Today I did 34:51, and I feel an urge to thank Brad for the con- Moria Boulder.”
tinuing motivation. I appreciate him getting me up early one more time to go outside
and try my hardest on something big.” Empath 5.15
Carlo Traversi sent a new granite 5.15a
he called Empath in Tahoe, Calif. It was
Climbing Gym News repeated by Daniel Woods, Nathaniel
Climbing gyms have had a rough year, but it hasn’t stopped a number of new gyms Coleman and Jimmy Webb.
from opening. In Canmore, Sonnie Trotter teamed up with Nick Rochacewich, Bart
Urbanski and a few other local climbers to open the Canmore Climbing Gym. The Nova Scotia V10/11
new facility is close to Vertical Addiction, Canmore’s climb and ski shop. Look for it In Nova Scotia, Jen Wright sent Horizontal
to open early 2021. Also in Alberta, Josh Muller, owner of Bolder Climbing in Calgary Transformer V10 last fall and repeated
and Wip on Vancouver Island, opened a second Wip location in Okotoks. It’s been Carbosauraus V10/11 at Land of Confusion.
announced that Castlegar, B.C., is getting its first bouldering gym sometime this year. Carbosauraus was first climbed by Scott
If your local climbing gym is experiencing a closure due to a lockdown, be sure to Richardson in 2012 at V11 and had been
support them any way you can. repeated a handful of times over the years.
After Louis Parkinson f lashed it, locals gave
it a downgrade to V10 or V10/11.
The Vancouver Climbers’ Association
The Vancouver Climbers’ Association (vca) was established to advocate for the Canadians New Mexico Route
sport of climbing and to resolve access issues. The new association is a “community East Coast climbers Ian Lingley and Mandie
of climbing advocates who love our climbing landscapes and the experiences they Walls established a new five-pitch bolted
offer. We are willing and committed to fight for them – not just for access, but also route at El Potrero Chico they called
for the integrity of these amazing places.” The president and founder of the group is Canadian Controversy 5.11+. Lingley said,
Vancouver-based Brent Nixon, who’s been climbing for over 30 years. He recently “The route climbs some really good quality
acted as the vice president of the Climbers Access Society of BC. Len Chong is the limestone, and the crux third pitch follows
new vice president of vca and Lisa Newhook is the director. About heading to the a spectacular 20-metre corner then pulls
Vancouver are to climb, Nixon said, “Be respectful of parking limitations and be mind- around a roof.”—Gripped
ful of towing zones. Towing is real and it’s a terrible way to end a good day of climb-
ing when your car gets towed. Climbing is still not a recognized activity and access to
almost all climbing areas is sensitive. Please practise leave no trace and be respectful of
all local park bylaws.”—Gripped

10 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

 obituary

Doug Scott Bottom: Rob Wood, Andrew Brash and Doug Below: Scott in 1975
1941–2020 Scott at the Banff Centre

Doug Scott, one of the world’s most legendary mountaineers,

died in December at age 79. He started climbing at the age of
13 after his interest was sparked during trips to the Peak District.
Scott was a past president of the Alpine Club and received the
Piolets d’Or lifetime achievement award. With Dougal Haston,
he was the first British climber to summit Mount Everest in 1975.
Two years after Everest, Scott broke both his legs while descend-
ing Baintha Brakk, the 7,285-metre Karakorum peak known as
The Ogre, an infamous Himalayan peak. It required very serious
technical climbing at high altitude. Scott managed to reach the
summit, but during the descent, he slipped on the ice, swung
like a pendulum on his rope and smashed both legs. His climbing
partner, Chris Bonington, was also injured. Bonington was able to
help Doug down initially, but he too had a fall on the descent that
broke some ribs, and he developed pulmonary edema. Scott spent
nine days crawling down The Ogre without food or painkillers,
before a group of comrades managed to rescue the two men. The
story didn’t emerge at the time, partly because Scott was ashamed
about what happened. Apart from his first ascent of the southwest
face of Everest with Haston, all his other Himalayan climbs were Scott’s Big Climbs
achieved in lightweight or pure alpine style. He pioneered big 1965: Tarso Tiroko, Tibesti mountains of Chad with Ray
wall climbing on Mount Asgard on Baffin Island; El Capitan in Gillies, Clive Davies and Pete Warrington
Yosemite; Denali in Alaska; Changabang, Nuptse, Kangchenjunga, 1967: South face of Koh-i-Bandaka, Hindu Kush with
Shishapangma and Shivling in the Himalayas. Scott made over 40 Ray Gillies
first ascents in the Greater Ranges around the world. On Everest 1970: Salathe Wall of El Capitan with Peter Habeler
he bivied with Haston in a small snow cave without oxygen, 100 1972: Mount Asgard, Baffin Island with Dennis Hennek, Paul
metres below the summit. In January 1985, Scott, Greg Child Nunn and Paul Braithwaite
and Rob Wood made the second winter ascent of Grand Central 1974: Changabang, first ascent with Bonington, Haston, et al.
Couloir on Colonel Foster on Vancouver Island. 1974: Pic Lenin, Pamirs, with Clive Rowland, Guy Lee,
Braithwaite
1975: Southwest face of Everest, with Haston
1976: South face Denali, Alaska, with Haston
1977: Baintha Brakk (more commonly known as The Ogre),
Karakoram, with Bonington, and descent with both legs
broken at the ankle with the self less help of Mo Anthoine
and Clive Rowland
1978: Mount Waddington, Canada, with Rob Wood
1979: North ridge of Kangchenjunga, with Pete Boardman
and Jo Tasker.
1979: Nuptse, North face, Nepal, with Georges Bettembourg,
Brian Hall and Alan Rouse
1981: Shivling, India, with Bettemboug, Greg Child and
Rick White
1982: Shishapangma, Tibet, south face, with Alex MacIntyre
and Roger Baxter-Jones
1983: Lobsang Spire, Karakoram, with Child and Peter Thexton
Photo Brandon Pullan, Chris Bonington

1984: Chamlang, East ridge, Nepal, with Michael Scott, Jean

Afanassieff and Ang Phurba
1988: Jitchu Drake, Bhutan, with Prabhu and Victor Saunders
1992: Nanga Parbat, Central Mazeno peaks, with Sergey
Efimov, Alan Hinkes, Ang Phurba and Nga Temba.
1998: Drohmo, South pillar, Nepal, with Roger Mear
2000: Targo Ri, Central Tibet, with Julian Freeman-Attwood
and Richard Cowper

gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

11
off the wall
and Barry Blanchard, who were leading the
way. Peaks were many and climbers were
few. Environmental impact and conf lict
were minimal.
What’s different now, though, is that the
hills aren’t alive with the sound of music

Does Climbing
but of drills, crowded crags, lineups on
popular routes, more accidents requiring
more rescues and increased environmental
degradation.

Need More Rules?

A rational approach
Story by Jon Heshka
Opposite: Noel Gingrich
climbing Surf’s Up 5.9 in
Bugaboo Provincial Park,
an area that only allows
hand-drilling bolts
The subject of regulating climbing
is anathema to most every climber.
Suggesting anything that takes away the
perceived freedom is almost enough to
incite climbers to grab their stick clips
and storm the gates. Reasons why land
managers and park planners should take
a more active role in regulating climbing
have recently been raised which include
the increase in rescues and concern over
covid-19 at crowded crags.
To this list, we can also add the lack of
regulatory oversight and management of
climbing in national parks. Sport climbs,
both single- and multi-pitch, continue
to be put up in increasing numbers. The
most recent additions in late 2020 were two
routes on Mount Rundle.
This isn’t about me being anti-bolt and a
return to the bolt wars of the last century.
I’m actually a big fan. However, the bolt-
ing of climbing routes is technically illegal
under the Canada National Parks Act and
no climbing management plan exists for
Banff National Park (bnp). Other concerns
which arise from new route development
are the environmental harm caused by
trails being cut, trail erosion, impacts on
vegetation, human waste, litter, parking,
fire hazards and human-wildlife conf lict.
This isn’t about stopping climbers
from putting up new routes. Canada was
shaped by a Company of Adventurers (the
Hudson’s Bay Company). Adventure and
exploration are in our dna.
The first adventurers in Banff were
from Stoney Nakoda First Nations. After
the national park was created in 1885,
the Canadian Pacific Railway hired Swiss
guides like Edward Feuz and the Alpine
Club of Canada hired Conrad Kain to take
people up mountains. Later it was guides
like Walter Perren and Hans Gmoser and
iconoclastic climbers like Brian Greenwood
Will this increased activity compel park
planners and the climbing community to
cross the Rubicon and change the ways
route development and climbing is regu-
lated in national parks?
Before everyone gets their knickers in a
knot acclaiming their unfettered right to
climb, just know that Banff has never been
an unregulated playground where climb-
ers were free to do whatever they wanted.
Ever since the park was created, there were
laws on the books, mostly unenforced, to
safeguard and protect the environment.
Equally important is that it’s almost as if
there was a code among the climbing com-
munity to respect the land and one another
while the boundaries were pushed of what
people thought was possible.
Climbing’s popularity has exploded with
it having moved from the lunatic fringe
to the mainstream. Climbers and planners
can maintain the status quo and try to hold
onto the halcyon days and wonder years
of the past, but that approach is about as
effective of trying to hold back the tide.
With the ties that historically bound the
climbing community being frayed due to
it becoming fashionable, bnp needs to step
up and actually manage it. The Canada
National Parks Act gives parks the author-
ity to manage climbing.
This isn’t to suggest that reprobate climb-
ers be arrested and charged with breaches
under the act for placing a bolt but to
instead offer guidance on how routes and
their accompanying trails should be devel-
oped. It’s less about enforcement than edu-
cation and compliance.
This makes some people uncomfortable.
Some climbers will complain that their
freedom is being taken away. Yosemite
National Park, the birthplace of American
climbing, quotes the inf luential Royal
Robbins in the introduction to its regula-
tions. Robbins wrote: “Most climbers are
individuals who love freedom – they climb
because it makes them feel free. We may
expect then, that having others suggest
how they ought to climb will rub wrong.”
He wrote that in 1977. Those words ring as
true today as they did 43 years ago.
Others will be grateful for the clarity and

12 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

 certainty that a regulatory regime would
offer instead of not knowing if what they’re
doing is right. bnp staff will say that it’s
unrealistic. Notwithstanding that bolting
is technically illegal, change is inevitable
and it’s preferable that bnp and the climbing
community stay ahead of the curve rather
than being behind the eight-ball.
Bnp planners and wardens are strain-
ing under the weight of being under-
resourced and are busy dealing with other
urgent matters. These include accounting
for the park sitting in the Treaty 6, 7
and 8 territories and the Métis Nation of
Alberta. They ref lect Indigenous histo-
ries, languages, cultures and perspectives
throughout the park, manage bear-human
conf lict and a decimated wolf population,
and manage growth at Sunshine Village
Photo Brandon Pullan
ski resort. The reality is that this makes
the feasibility of advancing a climbing
management plan like pushing a rope
uphill, but it can be done.
An alternative approach would be for
bnp to appreciate that they can’t hold back
the tide of change and that other jurisdic-
tions, including Alberta Parks and BC
Parks, have already begun to go down the
path of partnerships between land man-
agers and the outdoor community. bnp
could bring in climbers from the cold and
together build a climbing stewardship pro-
gram. They could divorce themselves from
hundred-year-old legislation, or redefine
the relationship through regulation, and
reimagine how climbing is managed in the
21st century.
I think it’s possible to find the right bal-
ance between a billion bolted routes and
its resultant environmental damage, such
as Yosemite’s practice of only allowing
hand drilling bolts. Even more forebod-
ing is what’s happening in North Cascades
National Park, where there’s a moratorium
on bolting, which, in 2012, led to rangers
chopping hand-drilled bolt anchors on a
descent route on Forbidden Peak, which
likely contributed two years later to the
death of a climber who couldn’t then take
the more solid and safer descent route.
Admittedly, adding more routes spreads
climbers out, reduces overcrowding and
dilutes the environmental damage caused
by climbers concentrated around popular
routes. That’s not the point, though. It’s
about moving away from the days of the
wild west where anything goes and toward
a rational rather than haphazard approach
to route development.
Better to be the hammer rather than
the nail, I say, and be part of the solution
rather than the problem. The intent of
this piece isn’t to advance specific rules,
but to promote a conversation. William L.
Watkinson once said, “It’s better to light a
candle than curse the darkness.” Let’s turn
on our headlamps and talk about this.
Jon Heshka is a professor in adventure studies
and law at Thomson Rivers University.
gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
13
native stones
01 Easter Island 5.8
A 15-metre crack at the Easter Island crag
first climbed in 1981 by Peter Croft and

The
friends. You start is a boxy corner with
good holds and climb through bulges and
splitter cam-eating cracks to the upper
crux. The intimidating, but small, roof is
easily passed with good technique. Bring
gear to three inches and protect the roof

Smoke
move.

02 Mosquito 5.8
A 25-metre 5.8 found close to the trail and
first climbed in 1980 by Jim Campbell
and Alan Hughes. It starts off with a few

Bluffs
cruxy jams that lead to an uncomfortable
layback crux to a good ledge. It’s one of
the best and hardest pitches at the grade at
the Bluffs and the first pitch of The Smoke
Bluff Connection. Bring a healthy rack up
to three inches.
And 10 must-climb Squamish
03 Neat and Cool 5.10a
crag trad routes A 20-metre 5.10a zig-zagging crack that
heads up a steep wall first climbed by Dave
Lane and Perry Beckham in 1979. This
has been many climbers’ first whip-onto-
The Smoke Bluffs is a 27-hectare municipal park near downtown Squamish. trad-gear route. Not to be taken lightly,
The park was established in 2003 after lobbying by many outdoor activity the pumpy and slick first-half will test
groups. Squamish residents have been hiking there for over 100 years and the your grip strength and gear-placing skills.
climbing dates back over 60 years. The Climbers Access Society of B.C. have Traverse up and right on big holds and
been focused on maintaining access to the area since 1972. The Squamish to a nice undercling that leads to a short
Access Society, which was formed in 1982, is also involved in access issues. In hand crack. Bring a few medium nuts and
2005, the Smoke Bluffs Advisory Group was launched. finger-sized cams for the start; and hand-
In the mid-1980s, Jim Rutter, manager of the Federation of Mountain Clubs and fist-sized cams for the rest. Walk off
of B.C. (fmcbc), discovered that the Smoke Bluffs (the base of the bluffs at the the back.
Mamquam Blind Channel) were to be bought by a property developer and
closed to the public for good. The fmcbc didn’t have the money to purchase 04 Kangaroo Corner 5.11a
the bluffs, but local climber John Randall made an offer of $70,000, which was A 15-metre, short-but-stout classic, first
accepted. Rutter’s secured a loan from Mountain Equipment Co-op and the climbed in 1978 by Peter Croft and Tami
fmcbc took ownership. Knight. The short climb has five metres of
Nowadays, the Smoke Bluffs is one of Canada’s most popular climbing areas. burly 5.11 climbing off the deck followed
There are over 25 crags and hundreds of routes. On a busy summer weekend, by some mellow 5.8. The crux is sustained
there’ll be countless climbers and a full parking lot. In mid-winter on sunny and, in your face, involving hard laybacks
days, it’s common to see climbers on exposed south-facing walls above the and slick stems with a thin crack. A good
tree-tops. There’s a loop trail that takes you to most of the crags, which sits in first 5.11 gear lead as long as the leader is
a semi-residential area. Most of the climbs are single-pitch, but you can link good at placing bomber gear. Bring a few
them as the bluffs are stacked tiers where the top of one route leads into the small finger-tip-sized nuts and a small cam
bottom of another. The most popular four-pitch climb is The Smoke Bluffs or two for the crux. A few medium nuts
Connection 5.10b. The high-quality solid granite offers splitter cracks for trad take you to the top of this trail-side laser.
gear, a few nice edges and features, and crystal-smearing slabs. There are a few
overhangs, but most of the rock is vertical or slab. 05 Crime of the Century 5.11c
Over the past few years, a lot of development has taken place on the outskirts A 20-metre 5.11c classic first climbed in
of the park. If climbs go unclimbed for a few seasons, moss and plants will 1978 by Tami Knight and Peter Croft. It
quickly consume the slabs and cracks. Recleaning is a constant job, so be sure has a smooth, slab bouldery start that chal-
to bring a few brushes. lenges you to get from one finger lock
There are some access issues, mostly related to parking near homes. There to the next. It that leads into a test-piece
is a big parking lot available, so take advantage of it. If the lot is full then just smear-fest with a finger-eating crack. To
walk from town, it’s like 10 minutes. Good stewardship by all will contribute to reach the anchor you pass a big sloper that
the future success of the park. The following 10 routes are must-climb classics requires some balance. Bring finger-sized
at The Smoke Bluffs. cams and small to medium nuts.

14 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

 01

02 03
Left top: Left bottom: Above: Neat
Easter Kangaroo and Cool
Island 5.8 Corner 5.11 5.10
Left centre: Left: Crime of
Mosquito 5.8 the Century
5.11

+ 5.13+ SLAB
In 2017, Jacob Cook made the first ascent of
The Magician 5.13d at Easter Island. Bolted
by the late Marc-Andre Leclerc, Cook said
the route was “the craziest slab I’ve ever
climbed, requiring dynamic movement, tim-
ing and poise to flow upward… It’s almost
impossible to grade routes like this because
Photoa Brandon Pullan

they feel magically easy when they go and

impossible every other time. It’s definitely a
notch harder than Smashing Windows 5.13c

04 05 up the hill, which is why I went for 5.13d.”

gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

15
native stones

06 07
06 Penny Lane 5.9
The title route of the crag is a 35-metre
vertical 5.9 face crack that starts in a corner.
It was first climbed by aid in 1975 by Keith
Rajala and C. McCafferty and freed in
1978 by Anders Ourom and John Arts. The
tall climb starts with a few tricky boulder
moves to get off the ground and then
moves into a shallow corner that requires
some stems and solid jams. The difficulty
eases toward the top. Bring a single rack to
two inches, doubles of 0.5 to #1 are useful.

07 Joes’ Crack 5.9

An 18-metre upward traversing 5.9 first
climbed by Joe Buzsowski and Simon
Tooley in 1979 at Pixie Corner. It’s one of
the most awkward climbs at the grade with
technical moves and a mantel finish. Bring
Top left: Penny cams to two inches and be prepared for a
Lane 5.9
5.10-feeling trad route.
Top right: Joe’s
Crack 5.9 08 Pixie Corner 5.8
Right: Pixie A 15-metre straightforward twin-crack cor-
Corner 5.8 ner 5.8 first climbed by Joe Buszowski and
Opposite top: P. Fodchuck in 1978. An easy starts ramps
Octopus’ Garden up to a funky roof and solid left-hand jams.
in the Shade 5.8 A good Bluffs intro with narrow finger
Opposite bottom:
Wonderland 5.9
cracks, smears and nice jams. Bring gear
to 1.5 inches. 08
16 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
 AREA DETAILS
Name: Originally known as Bughouse Heights, it became
Smoke Bluffs in 1953 when a forest fire smoldered for a
long time.
Food: Squamish has cafés, restaurants, pubs and a number of
craft breweries.
Camping: There are a number of local campgrounds.
Gym: Ground Up is a great option on rainy days.
Climbing Shop: Climb On is one of Canada’s oldest gear stores.
Guiding: There are many local guides, including Squamish
Rock Guides and Altus Mountain Guides.
Gear: A single 60-metre rope, helmets and two racks will get
you up most climbs.
Parking: Lat./Long.: 49.70609,-123.14009

+ ZOMBIE ROOF
This is the must-try 5.13 roof climb at the Bluffs. First climbed by
Peter Croft in 1982, it’s been free-soloed once by Will Stanhope.
It starts up an easy groove to a jug at the start of the roof. Climb
the crack using hands, fingers, heel-toe cams and other pro crack
techniques. Climb through the crux and turn the lip, but be pre-
pared for a sting in the tail. Bring gear to two inches.

+ HARDEST ROUTE
The hardest climb in the Bluffs is called Two Thumb Press 5.14a/b.
“The route is at the Anti-Gravity area,” said Smith. “It climbs a steep
09
wall to join a traversing crack. It’s short, but damn good with move-
ments I’ve never come across before. If you have a big reach, the
grade will drop a letter grade or two, but if you are on the short side,
I think you are out of luck.” It’s called Two Thumb Press because
the route forces you to do two opposed thumb-gastons, so you can
bring you right foot up to you right hand.

09 Octopus’ Garden 5.8

A 20-metre splitter 5.8 at the Octopus’
Garden crag first climbed by Dean Hart and
Ray Parker in 1982. Octopus’ Garden in the
Shade starts on the left side of an arrowhead-
shaped f lake. Hand jam the near-perfect
crack to the top. Gear to two inches.

10 Wonderland 5.9
A 30-metre 5.9 traversing crack line on
the upper Bluffs’ tier that looks out onto
Squamish first climbed in 1981 by Robin
Barley, Peter Shackleton and Chris Murrell.
It’s the final pitch of The Smoke Bluffs
Connection. Start by stepping off a ledge
below the corner crack White Rabbit
5.10b and at the Jabberwocky 5.10b anchor.
Photoa Brandon Pullan

Smear a wildly exposed wall and follow

good crack holds to a few short cruxes with
good rests. Pull a bulge and continue left
on fun f lakes. Continue the traverse to a
wide section while taking in the view.—BP 10
gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
17
feature

FROM SOVIET
SPELUNKING
TO CUBAN
CLIMBING
KONSTANTIN STOLETOV
FINDS HIS WAY
Photo Vincent Myoraz

18 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

Story by Anthony Walsh
K onstantin Stoletov is accustomed to suffering. He’s
developed 400-metre limestone walls during an hon-
est November blizzard, completed the first winter ascent of
California’s massive Evolution Traverse VI 5.9 and grew up
under the Soviet regime in the 1980s. The now 46-year-old
grew up in Malougrenevo, population 1,000, where frequent
missile testing sparked his imagination and fear. Looking back,
it seems unlikely that Stoletov would end up where he is now;
an accomplished rock climber and route developer with a strong
connection to an old Soviet ally; Cuba.
Climbing in Stoletov’s village was considered pointless: a
fruitless activity to squander precious calories and hours of
daylight. “They see going climbing as a waste of your energy.
You could be building a house or getting married with that
energy,” he says. He concedes that this outlook is difficult for
Canadians to grasp. We are privileged to afford hobbies that
aren’t constructive to a greater material purpose. Instead, his
family ate apples in the summer, carrots in winter and one
type of f lavourless bread all year round. Creature comforts
were often absent – Stoletov remembers a frantic week when
toilet paper was nowhere to be found. Life was difficult and
filled with repetition. The school system forced Russian
children into team sports and a militarized sense of group
camaraderie. “We were brainwashed,” he says. Insulated and
oblivious to individualism, his life revolved around conform-
ing and being a cog in the Soviet machine. This coercion
eventually pushed Stoletov away from his compatriots and
deep underground.
Stoletov on Flying Hyena
gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
19
feature
In 1990, just one year before the collapse of the Soviet Union,
Stoletov moved to Novosibirsk, a large city where people had an
open mind toward frivolous pursuits. He wanted nothing to do
with team sports but decided caving was suitably individualistic.
The underground realm entranced him. “It’s like mountaineer-
ing upside down,” he says. The caving club spent days at a time
descending – unsure of what lay around the next corner but
certain that the adventure was better than life above ground.
Long periods of sustained effort invited lucid hallucinations, but
Stoletov welcomed the futile challenge. “[In Malougrenevo,] if
you were climbing and older than 25, people thought there was
something wrong with you,” he explains. Stoletov felt no such
disdain underground. He relished in the freedoms that caving and
non-conformity gifted him.
“We would almost always puke,” he remembers.
Caving equipment at the time was a composite of dumpster div-
ing and hand-me-down ingenuity; limitations began where your
imagination stopped. Stoletov’s first harness came from a repur-
posed fire hose, his second from a stolen seatbelt; thick ropes were
taken from fishing boats; helmets were sourced from motorcycle
owners.
Halfway around the world, caving was taking off in another
communist area; Viñales, Cuba. Viñales Valley is a rock-rich jun-
gle ripe for steep climbing. Conical tufas drip from caves and turn
to stone. Sculpted jugs, huecos and razor crimps dot the valley’s
soaring walls with astonishing frequency. In the 1990s, however,
climbing media was virtually non-existent in Cuba and caving
was de rigueur. Cavers saw climbing as a training tool for the main
20 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
Below: Jorge “Tito” Pimentel Morales Techo Opposite: Stoletov at
Del Mundo Area 11d Little Russia
event and often rappelled from the tops of thickly vegetated cliffs
to top rope through their small supply of button head caving bolts.
The Cuban government prevented – and still prevents – parcel
delivery from entering the country. With no manufacturers based
in Cuba, equipment for caving or climbing was next to impossible
to find. Back then, cavers made sure to retrieve their precious nuts
and hangers to reuse on their next climb.
Stoletov moved closer to Cuba when he arrived in New York
City in 1998 to start a PhD in biochemistry. Although he short-
ened the geographical distance by several thousand kilometres,
most importantly, he now lived in a country with an open market.
Stoletov revelled in the freedom, from the seemingly unlimited
supply of harnesses to the overf lowing shelves of his neighbour-
hood’s Italian grocery stores. Magazine photos of Lynn Hill
suspended through impossibly steep roofs in Viñales constantly
occupied his mind. He lived as cheaply as he could while fun-
nelling each pay cheque toward modern climbing equipment. To
this day his favourite meal remains Top Ramen and hotdogs; a
memento of that liberating time of his life. But Stoletov found
the caving venues around New York City underwhelming, like
a 5.12 climber forced to scramble for the rest of his life. Instead,
he climbed in the Gunks on weekends while saving up to travel
abroad. “I was discovering a whole new world, telling my profes-
sors I would go to Peru or Thailand for a week to go climbing,”
he says. Drunk on independence, Stoletov knew there was more
freedom in the American west and moved to its highest alpine rock
climbing venue, the Sierra Nevada. The self-inf licted hardships of
alpine climbing were laughable when contrasted to his upbring-
ing. With modern equipment and high-fat energy bars Stoletov
joined the Pullharder cohort, a boisterous group of Californian
rock climbers, for weekend blitzes from sea level to almost 4,000 m.
Stoletov had his closest interaction with Cuban culture years
later, en route to Planet X in Canmore. Laura Castro had found
her limit on a sport climb and, hanging from her harness, she
contemplated bailing off of her quickdraws to the riverbed below.
Stoletov, watching from a distance, introduced himself and offered
to retrieve her gear. He soon realized they shared a remarkably
similar upbringing despite having grown up on opposite sides of
the world. “[Laura] is a very simple person,” Stoletov says. “[She]
doesn’t want to spend extra money on shoes or dinner… It was
clear she came from a poor country.” Stoletov had been immersed
in the lore of Cuban culture since his days of forced team sports
and communist education. His school teachers painted Cuba as the
epitome of successful communism and he had wanted to visit ever
since. But when he finally met Castro, he realized their cultures
weren’t just similar; they were indistinguishable. “I realized it was
like dating a Russian who speaks Spanish,” he says. They married
atop the second pitch of Shades of Beauty, a 120-metre WI4 near
Jasper, one year later.
Stoletov finally completed the communist’s pilgrimage to Cuba
in 2017. Seeing Castro’s family’s 40-year-old Soviet-era car stuck
together with scotch tape was the realization of a childhood dream.
Photo Stoletov
It was a car his family could never afford. And just like back home,
locals were always imaginative with their resources. Cubans
never missed an opportunity to run outside during a rainstorm to
Photo Anthony Walsh

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21
 Resources for visiting climbers
Best time to visit: December to March
Where to drop off equipment
donations: At Armando Menocal’s house:
Salvador Cisneros No. 218, Viñales.
There is a doorbell on his gate post.
More information on Cuban climbing:
cubaclimbing.com
Bolt donation page:
fundly.com/bolts-for-cuba-climbing-1

action the brand’s name was illegible. He

contemplated ripping the dog bones in half
with his bare hands. This is the equipment
often available to Cubans and there are
no complaints when a donation arrives.
Stoletov remembers watching Jorge “Tito”
Pimentel Morales, a contemporary fixture
in the Viñales climbing community, con-
fidently dispatch 5.13 wearing oversized,
blown out shoes in sweltering +30 C heat.
Cubans certainly appear to climb por el amor
(for the love of it).
As climbing increases in popularity, so
have the ways visiting climbers can help
this limestone paradise. It is common for
visiting foreigners to arrive with a duffel
bag of sport climbing equipment and leave
it in Viñales to support the local commu-
nity. As visitors, Stoletov and Castro follow
Local Farmer the established tradition of bringing gently
used ropes, quickdraws, shoes and harnesses
each time they visit. Donations are best left
shampoo their hair with free water. “It was so cool to do the same things I was doing at Menocal’s home to ensure they find
back in my town, but with a completely different culture,” Stoletov says. their way into the grateful hands of local
But he was most blown away by its climbing and history. Cuba shared a distinct parallel climbers. The Bolts4Cuba online dona-
with his own entry into climbing; sporting janky caving gear and as much imagination tion page is also a reliable way to help the
as you could muster. Two decades ago, Aníbal Fernández, one of Cuba’s most celebrated local community. Route developers realize
and prominent climbers, gathered a group of cavers in Viñales who taught themselves that Cuba’s salty, oceanic climate quickly
to climb. Armed with the seat belts Fernández cut from his father’s Russian Lada and a erodes expansion bolts and each donation
precious Petzl catalogue to inform him of the climbing world, he began top roping with is invested toward retrofitting classics with
a meagre supply of small caving bolts. The enlivened group established many first ascents titanium glue-in bolts. Menocal says these
until some of the first foreigners arrived in 1999 with modern gear, stoke and healthier- systems of donations have created a unique
sized bolts. Route development followed the boom-bust cycle of these visitors; locals situation. Cuba is one of the few climb-
were always a part of the process but relied heavily on equipment not available to them in ing destinations in the developing world
an embargoed country. The co-author of Cuba’s climbing guidebook, Armando Menocal, where locals are its primary developers. By
says this is the main factor stunting the area’s growth as a climbing mecca. “One bolt empowering the local community with
and hanger, even if available for purchase, which they are not, would cost only slightly equipment and bolt donations, Menocal
less than a month’s salary for a Cuban; an entire route, a year’s pay,” he wrote in Gripped. hopes this outlier will continue to grow.
Cuba is welcoming of visiting foreign climbers, even if the sport is technically not autho- Estimates of how many climbers currently
rized. “[The authorities] told me I shouldn’t be doing it, but avoided saying that it was live in Cuba are ambiguous at best; Morales
illegal,” Menocal says. He explains that this was a common line that the authorities used believes there are around 80 climbers in
– when a government is so accustomed to being in control of their country, Menocal says the country, Menocal says it’s closer to 200.
they are hesitant to authorize anything they do not fully understand. Regardless of the real number of climbers,
Along with a lack of bolts, soft goods are in short order. Local climbers are slow to Cuba’s vast jungle, unexplored rock and
retire a harness once the belay loop is frayed or a rope becomes soft. When equipment welcoming culture leave room for many,
Photos Stoletov

is donated to the community it becomes a perennial fixture. Stoletov recalls losing his many more.
climbing bag en route to visit Castro’s family. A generous local offered him a harness Anthony Walsh is a writer
and quickdraws to borrow for the week. The harness was in tatters, having seen so much and climber based in B.C.

22 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

Vincent Mayoraz on
feature
Captain Hook 12b

gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

23
Free
The Amazing Climbing life of Jim Sandford

Will
Photo Rich Wheater

24 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

Opposite: Jim
Sandford on
Permanent Waves
In 1994,
Jim Sandford clipped the
chains on Division Bell in
Cheakamus Canyon. The
route’s 25 severely overhanging metres clocked in at 5.13d. It was
just the second route on the Big Show Wall, which is more of a
relentless, planar 45-degree roof than a wall. In 1993, Keith Read
had climbed Gom Jabbar, 5.13b, a tour de force of its own. The
year after Division Bell, Jim was back on the Big Show Wall
to send Pulse, the first 5.14a in Canada. His wife, Jola, showed
that she was the strongest woman climber in Canada by adding
Freewill, a direct finish to Keith Read’s Gom Jabbar.
There were no other climbs in Canada like these, and Jim and
Jola just kept climbing harder and harder routes at the Big Show
Wall. Pet Wall in Squamish and many others in B.C. Photos of
Jim working the routes explained his nickname “the Saran Wrap
man,” which he earned because of his lack of body fat and the skin
stretched tight over muscles honed by decades of training. “I’m
an ectomorph,” Jim says, which is of course true, except for the
muscles. Jola looked equally fit. These were no ordinary climbers.
And yet, these consummate acts of rock athleticism were con-
nected to music that usually brought to mind dark basements
clouded with pot smoke and Dark Side of the Moon playing at
eleven on a bad stereo, rather than proud and relentless rock lines.
Division Bell was the name of Pink Floyd’s 1994, 14th album. Pulse
was named after Pink Floyd’s fifteenth album, released in 1995.
The boxset had a CD case with a f lashing red led.
‘Freewill’ was the name of a song from Rush’s 1990 album,
Permanent Waves. Whatever you think about Rush, it’s a complex
piece of music with five different time signatures, and what the
lead guitarist, Alex Lifeson, said was the hardest he ever played.
The chorus, written by drummer and the band’s resident phi-
losopher, Neil Peart, ran: “You can choose from phantom fears /
And kindness that can kill / I will choose a path that’s clear /
I will choose free will.”
Rock and Rush. It’s an unlikely combination at first glance,
but when you look at Sandford’s life and extraordinary climbing
record, it all makes sense.
11-year-old Jim Sandford was a keen Boy Scout. At home he
had heard stories of his father and his grandparents in the Raj. His
great grandfather had served with the government forces at the
Northwest Rebellion in Manitoba in 1886. His father had been a
marksman in the British army and served with the Ghurkhas in
India. If there was a theme to the household outdoor culture it
was duty and tradition. Baden-Powell’s uniformed corps was an
obvious outlet for Jim’s desire for adventure.
At Boy Scouts, however, Jim’s values and philosophies took a
fateful detour unanticipated by Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys.
“My friend in scouts, when I was maybe 13, said ‘Dude, you gotta
come over, I’ve got this cool album,’” says Jim. “I ride my bike
over to his place after Scouts, and he has the album 2112 by Rush.
There was a long song about a dystopian totalitarian future where
a guy finds a guitar and music but when he takes it to the high
priests, they crush him. I guess there was something that just really
appealed in the complex story, the complicated time signatures.
And the band was just doing their thing. The recording companies
didn’t even want put out 2112, but the band insisted and it was
great. I went, ‘I can kind of relate.’”
Two years later, at 15, when Jim was going through the usual
feature
adolescent tensions with his parents, Rush released Permanent
Waves. “The song ‘Entre Nous’ [about how complementary objects
often exist apart from one another] really helped me get through
that period.” He would go on to see the band live seven times, to
meet them personally and to be deeply affected by their music.
Jim’s climbing partner, friend, business associate, and fellow
Rush fan Chip Miller from Metolius Climbing in Oregon puts it
this way: “Rush is a band that appeals to those who don’t fit into
mainstream molds, philosophically, politically. Climbing used to
be a home for misfits too.”
“A year later,” says Jim, “when I was 16, I discovered climbing
and my world changed forever.” Two weeks after his sixteenth
birthday, Jim had a driver’s licence. The mountaineering course at
the ymca had imparted a bit crampon and ice axe technique and
some rock climbing. Rappelling terrified Jim at first, but he made
a harness from webbing he had bought from rei in Seattle and
purchased a locking carabiner to go with it. He started bouldering
outdoors at Fleming beach, did alpine climbing in Strathcona park,
top-roped, honed his skills, lost some of his fear and discovered a
talent he hadn’t known existed.
Jim fell in with a group of climbers from the University of
Victoria and made his first trip to Squamish. “We did Slab
Alley and Diedre on the Apron,” he recalls, “placing rigid stems
friends, hexes and stoppers. From then on, I took any opportu-
nity to climb.”
In 1986, Jim was a 24-year-old hopeful with eight seasons
already under his belt. The Squamish climbing scene was grow-
ing, but Canmore was still the undisputed centre of Canadian
climbing. Joe Buzowksi, Colin Zacharias, Rob Rohn and other
hard rock climbers inspired Jim to climb harder on the quartzite
at Back of the Lake and the dozens of sport climbing crags just
getting developed. “They were super driven and psyched,” says
Jim, “and I started pushing hard.” To follow his calling, he moved
to Canmore.
Mountaineering and ice climbing were also major draws for the
move, since Canmore was the epicentre of world ice climbing at
the time. Jim lived with alpinist Dwayne Congdon and did it all:
limestone sport and trad, north faces, ice, Bugaboos alpine rock.
He also became an acmg rock guide and an assistant alpine guide,
took outdoor rec courses at college and got hired by the Yamnuska
Mountain School. It looked like he might become an eminent
alpinist, but after a few hard seasons, Jim began to wonder if that
was really where his heart was at that moment in his life. Often,
he recalls, “I definitely just kind of wanted to get off [big moun-
tain routes] after being vulnerable to objective hazards for a lot of
hours. I think that didn’t quite appeal to me. I knew that there was
so much out of my control.”
In 1987, he started going back the West Coast, not just to visit
family, but more and more often, to climb at Squamish. “It was
partly the atmosphere,” he recalls. Squamish climbers like Peter
Croft, Bruce Macdonald, Kevin McLane, Perry Beckham, Dave
Lane and Greg Foweraker were all pushing standards on the solid
rock of Squamish, from short routes on the crags to the multi-
pitch walls. “I worked a bit at mec and then I ended up moving to
Squamish, guiding and training,” says Jim.
It was an exciting and revolutionary era in climbing. Jim
climbed in Smith Rock where a small group of climbers, including
Alan Watts, Brooke Sandahl and Tom Egan, had spent the eighties
gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
25
turning an area a day’s drive from Squamish, into North America’s
first sport climbing mecca.
They used European approaches like rappelling down to place
bolts and practicing a route before leading it. New, sticky rubber
shoes, particularly the Boreal Fire from Spain, made it possible
to climb on steeper and smoother rock. In 1988, the Snowbird
International climbing competition was held in Utah, the first big
European-style competition in North America.
“It was the ’80s,” says Jim, “I went to Europe and Smith Rock.
Bolting on rappel was the thing. For a while there was this fear
that one group was going to overrun the resources of another
group, but the writing was on the wall for how I would sort of
stake my claim in climbing.” Jim went to Europe in 1988, where he
climbed at Cimai, Buoux, Frankenjura and other crags. “France
was an eye-opener,” says Jim, because of “the amount of hard
climbing and climbers.”
That same year, in October, Jim travelled to Yalta, on the other
side of the Iron Curtain, for a Soviet competition. The trip was
the idea of his climbing friend, Marc Dubé.
In the 1980s, Yalta on the Black Sea in Crimea was the main
26 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
seaside holiday resort for the citizens of the Soviet Union. The
steep limestone cliffs ringing the town had also become popular
with rock climbers, and for Soviet climbers, competitions, held
outdoors on real but heavily altered rock, were a highlight of the
climbing season.
Jim and Dubé were the only North Americans at the comp.
With his brightly-coloured 1980s climbing clothes, muscular
physique and long, curly mane, Jim must have stood out from the
average Soviet climber as young Jola Siwiec of Poland boarded the
bus to the competition.
“There was no one else to sit with,” says Jola, who sat down
beside Jim. “I couldn’t speak much English, and he couldn’t speak
Polish, so we just kind of looked at each other.”
Jola had come to the competition with a contingent of strong
climbers. They were a cohesive group that had climbed together
on rock, in the Tatras and the Dolomites and on the desperate
Photo Rich Wheater
winter mixed routes of the Tatras. Polish climbing was in a heyday,
with brilliant climbers like Voytek Kurtyka, a superb rock climber
who could also climb hard high in the Himalayas, and Jerzy
Kukuczka, whose capacity to suffer and endure risk and hardship
 Left: Jim Sandford on Right: 18-year-old
Division Bell 5.13d Jim Sandford
inspired a generation of Polish climbers. But most Polish climbers,
like everyone else in Poland, were short of money.
“I didn’t have equipment,” says Jola. “I made my own harness on
a sewing machine. I didn’t have climbing shoes, so I used running
shoes, then a soccer boot with the cleats cut off and rubber glued
on the bottom by a shoemaker.” Passes to climb in the west were,
needless to say, rare, compared to the access granted to Soviet
states, but even Soviet competitions allowed them a chance to
meet western climbers.
Jola knew enough English to invite Jim to the Polish team’s
nightly bridge and tea-drinking session. Raised in Victoria in an
English family who loved bridge and tea, Jim fell in with the Poles
right away.
“It had never happened to me before, but I just clicked with
them,” Jim says. “Like them, I had grown up with stories about
World War II, about the rise of fascism and then the war itself.”
The Polish climbers still lived behind the Iron Curtain, under
the Soviet control that had been promised to Stalin in Yalta itself
in 1945.
Just as importantly, like Jim, they grew up addicted to drink-
ing tea and playing bridge.
“We listened to Led Zeppelin and the Doors,” says Jola, “We
played cards and looked at each other. Climbers played a lot of
bridge waiting for the weather to improve in the Tatras. I was a
better player than Jim, but he was really nice and sent me f lowers.”
Neither Jola nor Jim won the competition, but neither of them
would remember the climbing as the most important thing that
happened in Yalta.
They corresponded over the winter of 1988, and Jim visited Jola
in Bielsko Biała near Krakow in the spring of 1989. In the spring
and summer of that year, there had been peaceful protests against
the Polish socialist government in throughout Poland and in Jola’s
town, followed by the famous strikes in the Lenin Shipyards that
spread throughout Poland and became the Solidarity movement.
While a June election was promised, no one knew whether it
would herald a new era of Polish democracy or see the country
back in the hands of the communists.
Jim went back to Canada and returned in the fall.
“We planned that I would sponsor Jola to come out to Canada as
my fiancée,” says Jim. “Poland was still behind curtain, just start-
ing to open up, so there were challenges.” He went from office to
office to fill out the papers, which must have been epic, since in
his words, he had “learned very little Polish and there are seven
forms of nouns. Grammar is epic.” Luckily, most of the adminis-
tration was at the Canadian Embassy.
Before they left Poland, the Berlin Wall came down.
“Once I arrived in Canada in December ’89, in order for me to
obtain landed immigrant status, we had to get married within 90
days,” says Jola. “I knew that I had to get married and not go back.
But I wanted to be with Jim.”
British Columbia, with its vast forests, the modest town of
Squamish with its pulp mill and the rain all took some adjusting
Photo Courtesy Jim Sandford
for Jola, and for a while they couch surfed at family and friends.
Jola had come from a strong community in Poland which she
naturally missed.
Adjusting to a new country is more difficult than many
Canadians assume. She says, “Growing was a good life actually,
a simple life, so you didn’t have to make a lot of choices. Apples
feature
in winter, cherries, plum in September, when pears come, you
eat those, I thought it was very wholesome. I went to my grand-
mother’s for summer holidays. Everybody had to work. We didn’t
have much money, but we all had something to do.”
The Yalta comp had another, less spectacular benefit for Jim.
Even with a single competition under his belt, he was one of the
more experienced comp climbers in Canada. Jim won a climb-
ing competition in Canmore in which American sport climbing
ace Tony Yaniro was one of the competitors. “’Here’s your prize,’
they said and put a Hilti drill in my hands,” says Jim. It wasn’t
long before Squamish’s incredible rock scape provided Jim with
the inspiration to use his new drill. In 1988, he spied the stunning
overhanging arete on the left side of the Bulletheads formation
that would become Eurasian Eyes, 5.13b and never turned back.
The energetic rock-climbing scene in BC provided Jim and Jola
with more than enough rewarding projects. In 1990, Squamish
climbing was just beginning to claim its rightful place as a granite
climbing era second only to Yosemite. Long hard trad routes, to
short crag moderates and everything in between proliferated, but
that winter, “everything was wet,” says Jola, “so all we could do
was look at things,” and, at first, she didn’t like Rush.
Spring came, 1990 came, and with it, exciting developments era
in climbing. The Edge, the first climbing gym in B.C., opened
and introduced many new climbers from Vancouver to the world
of sport climbing. Bolting on rappel was becoming more accepted,
although there were still opponents. Jim’s climbing partner, Josh
Korman, ironically pasted a “hangdogging is a disease” bumper
sticker on his vehicle, while he threw himself at a number of
vicious sport climbing projects. Along with Dave Lane, John
Howe, Perry Beckham, Mike Orr, Kevin McLane and others, Jim
and Jola contributed to the sport climbing development of cliffs
like Petrifying Wall and then the overhanging limestone of Horne
Lake on Vancouver Island and dozens of other cliffs. Bouldering
in the forest beneath the Grand Wall became a major activity in
its own right.
Jim’s reputation grew, but his motivations remained largely per-
sonal. “I just wanted to climb harder and better, and that’s what
drove me,” says Jim, “I didn’t know where I was going with the
whole thing, I was just pushing to do what I wanted to do.”
Perry Beckham, a long-time Squamish climber, met Jim in
gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
27
feature Left: Jim, Jola and Oscar Sandford Bottom:
in 2016 on the summit of Alpha Jim and
Mountain, Tantalus Range, B.C. Jola

Jim got their harnesses into some stores,

they would sponsor him. “Motivated to
get sponsored,” says Jim, “I got a box of
sales samples, took them to shops, and the
stores bought the gear.” He is still a rep for
Metolius to this day.
In 2000, Jim and Jola’s son, Oscar, was
born. “We didn’t want to be 85 years old
saying ‘God, we I should have had at least
one kid.’ The window was starting to close.”
Jola stayed home to look after Oscar, and
they both switched off climbing duties to
keep climbing hard. “You bring a child
into play and it’s definitely not all easy
to stay together,” says Jim. “A lot of my
friends are not together. People change and
grow. [ Jola and I] were fortunate in that
we were raised in a time when things were
more traditional. In today’s society that’s
not so much the norm, both people work,
two workers creates stress. Probably the
secret was continuing to climb. Jola is my
best friend. What has kept us together? The
outdoors, hardship and adventure, climb-
ing has been a bond. Life is so incredibly
rich with a son. Nothing compares to it. I
spent a lot of time with him. He’s me and
Jola’s best friend.”

Jim is possessed of a Now Oscar is 20 years old and in his

third year in computer science at the
University of Victoria.
timeless energy and stoke. Jim trained hard at the Edge in Vancouver.
Then he injured his rotator cuff and was

1985. Together, they formed Pacific High Mountain Guides and

spent their spare time developing the early sport climbing scene
at Squamish. Beckham, whose reputation for hard climbing of all
styles at Squamish is legendary, says “from the get-go, Jim was
a stronger climber than me. Pet Wall was where sport climbing
[at Squamish] started,” says Beckham. “We were balancing out
rap bolting with the traditional ethics we got from English rock
climbing and Yosemite. If we had a bolt, we’d follow it up with
a runout or a nut. Jim showed us the complete sport climbing
approach and carried the legacies of Weinstein and Croft into sport
climbing. If I was to choose one word to describe Jim, in every
aspect of his life,” says Beckham, it’s disciplined.” That discipline
was soon to meet its greatest challenge yet, not at Squamish, but
on the Big Show Wall of Cheakamus.
The Efforts of Keith Read, Jim and Jola made it a hotbed of
sport climbing. “It’s an amazing wall,” says Jim, “and it was a big
part of a couple years of my life. That was the period when holds
were manufactured. It was brief, has stopped as far as I know, I
Photos Courtesy Jim Sandford

don’t regret shit, it was the zeitgeist.”

Some of the new energy in climbing emanated from Smith
Rocks in Oregon, where Alan Watts had introduced European
style sport climbing. 1992, Jim had written a letter to Metolius
to see about getting sponsored with a climbing harness. They
didn’t sell harnesses in Canada so they weren’t keen, but, said if

28 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

 Right: Jola and Oscar on
the summit of eastpost spire,
Bugaboos in 2013
shut down by Silent Menace, a sport climb-
ing project in the Cacodemon Boulders
below the Chief. In 2001, Sonnie Trotter
made the first ascent and graded it 5.14a.
Jola also slowed down for a while.
In September, 2002, Jim went to Rush’s
Vapor Trails concert in Vancouver. The
band had been inactive since 1997, when
drummer Neil Peart’s daughter had died,
followed by his wife the next year. Singer
Geddy Lee commented that the album was
partly made to help those who had suffered
personal losses or suffered from psychologi-
cal set-backs. It was an early CD record-
ing and many fans, and the band, were
critical of the sound, but the album came
at a crucial time for Jim, who attended the
Vancouver concert.
“I was second row, centre stage,” says Jim.
“It was incredible to see the musicians up close. So much skill,
energy and enthusiasm pursuing their passion.”
In what Jim describes as a “sweet miracle,” his friends Ben
and Paul had given him passes to meet the band backstage after
the concert. “Ged doesn’t say much at end of concert,” says Jim,
“maybe because of how his throat feels after all that singing,” but
also, perhaps, because it was the 26th show on a 67-date tour.
“Alex [Lifeson, the guitarist] is a big dude. He’s hilarious.”
A reviewer in the Province the next day said that Rush had
“played like demons,” but joked that the long-distance runners of
the Canadian rock scene might possibly be on an “interminably
long spin cycle.” For Jim, however, their determination to con-
tinue their careers in the face of the ravages of time and changing
taste was a model of discipline and commitment. The album was
also a bittersweet gift in the year that his father died.
“My father passed away from lung cancer in a period of three
weeks,” Jim says. I watched as his body shut down.” He quotes the
song ‘Vapor Trails’ when he remembers that time: “All the stars
fade from the night / The oceans drain away.” Jim attended his
father as he died. Afterwards, to come to terms with his loss, he
became curious about two of his father’s pursuits. As a young man,
his father had raced motorcycles and sidecars, in the army, he had
been a marksman, but he never shared these skills with his son.
“Maybe if I tried those things,” said Jim, “I would somehow have
a spiritual connection by experiencing what he wouldn’t teach
me, maybe because he was afraid these activities were dangerous.”
Jim got a motorcycle and enrolled in shooting courses. He has
an affinity with weapons that may be partly accounted for by his
genealogy, that shows that he is descended from the Viking Rollo
Ragnvaldsson (The Ganger), 1st Duke of Normandy, who is
depicted in the Vikings series on television. Soon, he was competing
in speed and accuracy events. “Shooting isn’t the most popular pur-
suit,” says Jim. “It’s got bad press, but that’s too bad, because it’s fun.”
In 2006, Jim returned to the alpine to run. “Your climbing per-
formance slows down; you can slow it down but you can’t stop it,
but your endurance is still there,” he says. He won some races, fig-
ured out his lactate threshold, training zones and won some trail
races. Soon, however, he decided to take his fitness to the hills. “I
got into scrambling, took endurance to the mountains onto class 3
and 4 terrain,” says Jim. “I had no particular goals, but it was really
cool to move fast and light.’ On Mount Sir Donald, he scrambled
past roped parties on a route he himself had climbed when he was
19 years-old with a pack and rope.
Then, in the spring of 2019, on Alpha Mountain near Squamish,
he fell. He had been scrambling the East Ridge with Jola, when
a block he was standing on slid out form underneath him. “I rag
doll-tomahawked 30 metres down a gully and stopped on patch
of snow where I clawed into it like a cat,” says Jim, “I continued
a down a bit, then I realized I wasn’t just scraped up but I remem-
bered a nurse telling me that you have 60 minutes of natural drugs,
[after a serious accident], then you crash. I started feeling shitty
and we called for a rescue.” The helicopter whisked him to the
hospital where he got stitches in six places and found out he had
edema in his knee.
“It was a wake-up call after 40 years of climbing,” says Jim. “I’ve
gotten over it. I did some more soloing, but the accident made me
much more aware that things can be dangerous because they’re
easy.” Jim still climbs at a level few climbers will ever achieve and
runs in the mountains with Jola, but part of his enjoyment now
comes just from the process of getting outside and keeping fit. He’s
also happy to go down to the shooting range with his old friend
Perry Beckham.
Chip Miller says that Jim is possessed of a timeless energy and
stoke. After a fast send of the Grand Wall, Miller was ready to
decompress on a leisurely hike down, but Jim was quickly coil-
ing the rope for a brisk downhill run back to the car. “Often,
after spending all day doing clinics with our products in gyms,”
says Miller, “It’s nice not to go out and rage all night. Jim
wants to climb until the gym shuts down…he’s operated at a
high level and is still capable of physically executing at a high
level in the sport.”
Looking back on his extraordinary life in climbing, Jim says,
“I found this thing and really got into it. I don’t know why. My
parents didn’t do athletics. Sometimes adventure skips a genera-
tion maybe. My grandfather hunted tigers in India. Climbing is
freedom of movement on the mountain. That’s the be all and end
all. There are no rules, just making your own decisions; freedom,
for those who like it.”—DS
gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
29
 Story by Michelle LeBlanc
Over the last year or so, I have been qui-
etly reading the heated dialogue on social
media related to offensive and inappropri-
Offensive
ate route names in the climbing sphere.
If someone had asked me whether climb-
ing route names can be harmful to a per-
son’s sense of self-worth even just a few
years ago, I would have said: “words don’t
carry a significant weight or meaning, no
biggie. What really matters is the choice a
person gives to the meaning behind those
words, terminology, slang, etc.” After all, I
have been living with my own semi-com-
Route
fortable level of openness as a lesbian/bisex-
ual woman. I can’t even quite identify with
one exact term because I have previously
dated men. Would I date another man in
the future? Who knows. Technically, that
would make me bisexual, but I have mostly
been in longer relationships with women.
And I have also never been in love with
a guy. Where does that put me as a label
then? It gets confusing, I know.
Despite the confusion of these “labels,”
Names
I had never previously considered the
individual weight I had placed on my own
sexuality and how that had affected my
own self-worth, confidence and, ultimately,
my mental health.
The main argument when it comes to
keeping offensive route names has been
(mostly) argued by white, heterosexual
men who probably have spent many hours
cleaning, developing and seeking out these
first ascents. While I have never person-
ally developed routes or boulder problems,
And how I have many friends who have, and I can
appreciate the hard work, grind and dedi-
cation required. What I noticed within the
language conversation though, was that very few
(self-identified) minorities had spoken up
on the topic – or the ones who had ended
in climbing up being attacked or told that they were too
“sensitive” – that if a route name is offensive,
then don’t go climb it, don’t take offense to
culture can the route name since it’s an inside joke, etc.
What does this say about today’s rock
climbing culture?
be hurtful Since 2007 or 2008, rock climbing has
been a pretty integral part of my life. It
has given me a sense of identity as part of
a community of socially outcast misfits,
adventurers, dreamers and liberal-minded
athletes. It has made my body strong, but
my mind stronger. It pushed me to travel
to exciting destinations, to seek adventure
and I have met some of my best friends
through the climbing community. For all
Opposite: of these things, I am forever grateful and I
Michelle
LeBlanc know that climbing will continue being a
30 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
super important part of my life in one way
or another even as I get older.
In 2015, I wrote and published an article
about being a gay climber for Gripped
magazine.
It was light-hearted – I shared the per-
sonal story of a short-lived climbing trip
romance, and I spoke about rock climbers
as being an inclusive community that I felt
proud to be a part of. This hasn’t changed.
But I now recognize that I was pushing my
sexuality as something that doesn’t totally
matter to my identity in my first article.
Offensive words or terms, even if used in
a light-hearted and harmless context, can
have a profound effect on an individual’s
own perception and that is what I want to
communicate with this article.
When I came out to my family and a
couple of close friends at age 20, it was
in the early 2000s. I wasn’t living in a
bustling metropolitan city – I grew up in
Fredericton, N.B. At the time, there were
hardly any openly gay people at my uni-
versity, in the community, stars in movies,
on TV or especially in professional sports.
What I do remember, though, was that it
was an extremely uncomfortable period of
my life that lasted almost a decade. I didn’t
belong to a gay community and I often
used many homophobic slurs in university,
where I played varsity hockey. This was a
tactic to protect myself in a way; I did not
want anyone to know that I was secretly
dating a woman at university. In fact, my
entire team used these terms often, and in
such a casual, matter-of-fact way. Negative
connotations, gossip, jokes and slurs were
shared much like a post-game beer: “Gross,
what a dyke,” “I am never showering
with , did you see her checking
out after the game?,” “I heard
that is a rug muncher. Look at how
butch she is,” etc.
The level of discomfort that I felt with
those words at the time was so visceral
that I would spend much of my weekends
partying and binge drinking until I blacked
out. I would make out with guys at the bar
in front of my teammates. The last thing
that I wanted at the time was to feel iso-
lated from my own team. I had worked my
ass off training to play varsity hockey, but I
never felt strong enough to be comfortable
in my own skin.
The blackout drinking eventually turned
Photo Jake Scharfman
to many moments of regret and subse-
quently a strong sense of self-hate and
disgust. I just wanted to be normal, and
“normal” in New Brunswick means that
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feature

you will: get married, buy a house, have two kids and
a dog/cat. “Not every minority (visible
From my experience, I recognize that this pull toward
normalcy can be so harmful when you are surrounded by or invisible) has the luxury
words or terms that you don’t want to identify with because
of their negative connotations and the subsequent likelihood of growing up in an open-
of feeling isolated. On many occasions during my 20s, I did
not correct people when they assumed that my “partner” was minded community with
male. I was rarely upfront about being in relationships with
women and distinctly remember f lat-out lying about it on visibility and representation
many occasions up until a few years ago.
When I think about all of this now, it is no wonder that I for their identity.”
so often felt such a strong sense of loneliness, isolation, hatred
toward my own self and the actions that I took to “fit in” for
almost a whole decade. These feelings created really shitty
waves of internalized self-hate that I honestly wish no one had
to ever go through. But that isn’t the reality, even in today’s
landscape.
With so much overwhelming push for equality, inclusiv-
ity and sensitivity in the climbing community, the outdoor “While many (offensive)
recreation community, and the world at large, please consider
my personal backstory as a subtle reminder that words can climbing route names are
actually cause individual emotional and physical harm. Not
every minority (visible or invisible) has the luxury of growing likely the end result of a
up in an open-minded community with visibility and repre-
sentation for their identity. funny story, inside joke or
Each personal experience or struggle has its own set of
background values that may help or hinder identity and the harmless banter between
label we attach to it.
Without sounding too hyper-sensitive, I think that indi- friends, I would ask you to
vidual comfort is a subjective term that is defined by the
ability to be authentic in who you really are while having consider how isolating
the opportunity to do so. If you are constantly fighting back
against terms that you hate – that hate can be internalized and or shitty it can make
cause damage to your own self-worth.
So, while many (offensive) climbing route names are likely someone else feel.”
the end result of a funny story, inside joke or harmless banter
between friends, I would ask you to consider how isolating or
shitty it can make someone else feel. Currently (and luckily),
I am much more comfortable with who I am, and I don’t per-
sonally take offense to climbing route names very often. Aside
from being a climber, I have become an avid trail runner, a
moderate skier, a nerdy academic/researcher, a decent cook, a
so-so guitar player and a coffee enthusiast, among many other
things. But, among all those things, I am (primarily) a lesbian.
I have previously hated myself for many years and I wish that
the weight of my sexuality had not impacted my life as it had
in the past, and for such a long period of time.
If any insight can be shed by sharing my own experience
so that people understand why words or terms can be harm-
ful to minority groups, then I will consider this a tough but
well-fought victory.
Photo Jake Scharfman

Michelle LeBlanc is a climber based in Squamish. Michelle LeBlanc

32 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

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33
feature

The Road to
Golden Gate
Emily Harrington’s
Biggest Challenge Yet
Story by Anthony Walsh
Emily Harrington presses the tips of her toes onto the smooth
granite f lanks of El Capitan and stabs her right hand to a sloper.
She pauses for just a moment to readjust her grip then stabs again,
summoning all of her endurance for a powerful traverse almost a
vertical kilometre into the sky. The staggering exposure does not
register in her mind; she has never wanted something so deeply
before. Harrington was about to become the fourth person and
first woman to free climb Golden Gate VI 5.13-, 41 pitches, in
a day and she had overcome far more than difficult climbing to
get there.
Climbers will romanticize these images of Harrington on El
Capitan. They will remember the look of confidence on her face
while firing the A5 Traverse 5.13a and her dogged determination
launching up the Monster Offwidth 5.11a. But Harrington’s ascent
is more than a noteworthy tick. In 2012, Harrington, a national
sport and mixed climbing champion, decided that being at the top
of her field was no longer fulfilling. She wanted to be a beginner
again; to feel completely out of her element. “I think as really
good rock climbers we aren’t willing to step outside our speciality
Photo Jon Glassberg/Louder Than 11

because it’s hard to not be good,” she explains. And so despite her
long standing perch atop several climbing disciplines, Harrington
stepped down and looked up; eyeing trad climbing, big walls and
a world of uncertainty.
Harrington began trad climbing on California’s rough, crystal-
line granite. Her learning curve was scary, sharp and short-lived,
as is often the case for champion competition climbers discovering
the medium. But she was inspired by the do-anything climbers,

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36 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

 the ones who, upon finding any inspiring objective, could intui-
tively sense that they had the résumé to get it done. “It became
important to understand all of the different climbing experiences,”
she says. Harrington progressed quickly; learning the nuances
Photos Jon Glassberg/Louder Than 11
between when to layback and when to fist jam, which 50-year-old
Warren Harding bolts could withstand at least one more whip-
per and how ineffectual 5.14 fitness could be when faced with
a 5.8 offwidth. But only three years after learning to trad climb,
Harrington set her sights on a free ascent of El Capitan via Golden
Gate – a lifetime achievement for any climber.
Harrington is refreshingly human while recounting her first
brushes with exposure. She doesn’t pause to point out that she
burst into tears the first seven times rappelling into El Capitan in
2015. She felt acutely vulnerable some 900 metres above the valley
f loor; mortified to take whippers and struggling to understand
the root of her big wall impulses. Harrington spent many days
refining her beta and learning to live on the wall that season. And
while she went on to send Golden Gate in a six-day push that
May, Harrington felt only a f leeting satisfaction. “I just barely sent
that route,” she says. “It was scrappy.” Indeed, technical cruxes
were punches she could brace for, but it was the miles of moder-
ate terrain and an unassuming moderate offwidth, The Monster,
which delivered many unanticipated blows. Harrington had found
a space for herself on El Capitan, but knew there was room for
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Photo Jon Glassberg/Louder Than 11

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 improvement. She didn’t dare voice that she thought a free-in-
a-day attempt might be possible, but the six-day battle became
a thorn in her side. She knew she could be prouder of a Golden
Gate ascent.
The progression of whittling a six-day ascent down to one has
many layers. Not only do you need the power and endurance
to encounter 5.13 just a few pitches from the top, but there is
immense risk when climbing 900 metres of technical ground in a
day. “There’s a lot of situations up there where, if you do fall, it’s
not going to be OK,” she admits. Harrington refined her crack
climbing skills in the years following her ascent and felt ready
for a free-in-a-day attempt in November 2019. Unlike in 2015,
Harrington says she felt quite comfortable up high; she could move
quickly over moderate terrain and run it out with confidence. She
chose to simul-climb the lower portions of the wall including the
Freeblast slabs 5.11, 10 pitches, with Alex Honnold and, on her first
attempts, motored through the delicate climbing in only one and a
half hours. As the 2019 season in Yosemite progressed, Harrington
recognized that she had become more comfortable on the wall and
was willing to take greater risks to ensure her success: “I became
consumed with the idea that I wouldn’t succeed unless I cut all of
the corners. And as with anything, you can take it a step too far.”
On her second attempt that season, Harrington stepped onto
Photo Jess Talley/Louder Than 11
Golden Gate’s freezing granite before dawn on Nov. 24. She knew
the terrain well and wasted no time in placing gear – they planned
on climbing the Freeblast in four pitches rather than the usual 10.
Harrington noticed her numb feet while lacing up her shoes, but
a sense of urgency brushed away any hesitation. She was only
30 metres above the ground when she fell. With so little gear hold-
ing the rope close to the rock, massive pools of slack surrounded
her midair and wrapped around her neck. After 15 metres of
freefall she slammed into a ledge and f lipped upside down. Later
that day, anxious friends sighed with relief when they learned she
had avoided a serious spinal injury. Though the gashes around her
neck, forehead and arms could have been the macabre result of a
mauling, Harrington sustained largely superficial injuries. Just the
same, her season was over.
Harrington took a break from El Capitan in the months that fol-
lowed. She went ski-mountaineering with her father in Ecuador,
then had plenty of forced self-ref lection during the first covid-19
lockdown. She decided there was no reason to let the fear of her
fall affect a future Golden Gate attempt, but “I didn’t undermine
the emotional toll that my big fall would take on me, so I was
prepared to be more compassionate with myself,” Harrington says.
She climbed on the granite crags close to her Lake Tahoe home
when the lockdown lifted and reacquainted herself with placing
gear and dealing with runouts. By the time she made it back to
Yosemite in October 2020, her years of experience on El Capitan
had unearthed a new confidence. “I was more ready than I ever
have been,” she says. “I was really comfortable trying hard up
high.” Harrington attributes some of this comfort to the 50-odd
days she’s spent on its walls. This volume gave her the space to
learn invaluable logistical shortcuts, including a few tricks for her
old nemesis on the route; The Monster Offwidth. “[Off-width]
climbing is the complete opposite of what I enjoy about rock
climbing,” she says. Rather than feeling the cadence of a steep
limestone sport climb, or the grace needed for a blank slab, the 60
metre offwidth felt “burly and ugly.”
Part of this inelegance, however, came from Harrington’s size.
At 5'2" with size 5 feet, her shoes were much too small to heel-toe
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39
cam like many of the men she climbed it with. In 2015 Harrington
resorted to offwidth campusing; using her upper body exclusively
for progress as her feet swam helplessly below. The technique
wore a hole in her left elbow and grated most of the skin off of her
shoulder. With more experience, Harrington knew she needed to
make her feet bigger. Approach shoes worked with some success,
but the soft platform made her feet weary. During a brainstorm-
ing session with Honnold they realized his size 9 shoes were a
perfect match for the Monster. By giving Harrington his shoes to
wear over top of her own, she would have a stiff and sizable pair
of Russian nesting doll feet. Harrington harnessed her years of
wide crack experience and climbed confidently through the slot –
two hours faster than her 2015 ascent. She paused below the exit
40 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
and carefully removed Honnold’s right shoe while wedged in the
offwidth, and then danced up the delicate and unprotectable slab
with lopsided feet.
Harrington climbed until the Tower to the People bivy ledge,
with a mere two crux pitches to go, and switched partners from
Honnold to her fiancé, Adrian Ballinger, who had rappelled in
from the summit. While Honnold is likely the best person to
simul climb the Freeblast with, she says, it was important to be
with Ballinger when she began the multiple crux pitches of the
route. He had supported her during the 2015 ascent and knew how
to motivate her once they entered her second sleepless night on
the wall.
Harrington reached the second to last crux pitch, the Golden
Desert 5.13a, filled with a certain buoy-
ancy. She felt strong and, in her element,
finding a f low that had eluded her five
years ago on the wall. Though she had
never fallen on the insecure layback before,
Harrington slipped off the glassy footholds
while pausing to chalk up and ripped a
piece below her. She rested at the belay for
30 minutes and tried again. This time, she
grasped the f laring tips crack with inten-
tion and climbed above her high point.
The Golden Desert arched left into an
undercling traverse; a particularly powerful
sequence 30-some pitches into her day. Her
Photos Jon Glassberg/Louder Than 11
foot slipped again and she was airborne;
swinging headfirst into the wall before
her vision turned black. Harrington says
the fall was an eerie déjà vu to the year
before. Her forehead struck a sharp granite
crystal and burst open – painting the wall
with a dramatic stroke of blood. Ballinger
stifled the bleeding and found no signs of a
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feature
concussion. “He told me I owed it to myself to give it one more
go,” she says. Harrington rested again and fired the pitch.
Harrington reached the final crux, the A5 Traverse, with a
determination that is rarely found in everyday life. “I went into
that place you go into when you want something so badly and
so deeply,” she says. When nothing else matters, there is little
thought of failure. Harrington f loated through the powerful slop-
ing traverse and arrived at the belay in tears. They were several
pitches below the summit, but Harrington knew what she had
just achieved.
Climbing Golden Gate as your first free route up El Capitan is
a rude introduction to the Big Stone. Freerider VI 5.12d/5.13a is
an easier alternative to get to the top, and much less sustained. But
for Harrington it was never about the easiest tick. “People told
me that I was cutting corners in my progression, that I should do
Freerider first,” she says. But the unsolicited advice just stoked
Harrington’s fire; she became determined to climb “out of order.”
Harrington says part of this confidence stems from the strong
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women who came before her in climbing – women like Lynn
Hill, who became the first person to free climb El Capitan via The
Nose VI, 5.14a in 1993.
Hill returned a year later to free the same route again in a day.
But Hill’s extraordinary goals were developed with a greater pur-
pose in mind – providing women with more inspiration to get
on the wall. “Our sport back then was directed by a fraternity of
men, and there was little encouragement or, frankly, inclination
for women to participate. Yet women climbers were out there,”
she wrote in her memoir Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World.
Despite the few prominent women climbers in Yosemite at the
Photo Jess Talley/Louder Than 11
time, Hill is adamant that their definitive features were more than
gender: “We were climbers. The fact that we were women, that
was a bonus for the men around us.” Harrington says that her road
to Golden Gate was in some ways paved by Hill. “I always grew
up understanding that climbing was a space for women because of
what she did. Where women could achieve just as much as men.”
Anthony Walsh is a writer and climber based in B.C.
 Photos Jon Glassberg/Louder Than 11, Jess Talley/Louder Than 11

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 Packs

Deuter Guide Lite 24 Mountain Hardwear UL 20

Osprey
Porter Travel Carry-On 30 $200
Many climbers haven’t thought about f lying to a climbing destina-
Arc’teryx Aerios tion for nearly a year, but with this year being different than 2020,
we’re hoping that we’ll all need new carry-ons this season. The
Osprey Porter combines comfort with a simple design and storage
similar to a duffel. It has padded sidewalls, compression straps and
you can tuck the back-pack straps away to hand carry it. Features
include: zippered top pockets and a U-zip full panel zip. Perfect
for those much-needed f lights this spring.

Arc’teryx
Aerios $150 to $290
A new line of hiking packs from Arc’teryx that come in 15, 30 and
45 litres for day, overnight and multi-day hikes. It’s lightweight
Wild Country
and built to withstand the elements while maintaining comfort.
Stamina Gear Bag The breathable shoulder strap system has two zippered pockets
that accommodate soft f lasks for drinking on the go. The main
compartment accommodates a hydration bladder. Other features:
sternum strap, two side pockets with fast closure system for easy
access and two trekking pole attachment points. Built for back-
country adventurers moving over unstable terrain for days on end.

The North Face

Basecamp Duffel Small to XXL $120 to $210
The Basecamp Duffel lineup of packs includes six litre sizes: 31, 50,
71, 95, 132 and 150. From weekend travel to the crag to expeditions,
this is the leading collection of duffels for any adventures. It func-
tions as well in the backcountry as it does in a hut, with features
and durability that will satisfies all of your pack needs. The work-
horse duffel comes in a number of f lashy colours and is made of a
durable laminate material that can take a beating. Recommended
for any climber journeying around in 2021.
The North Face
Basecamp Duffel

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Whether you’re flying somewhere this season, heading out on an expedition or simply
travelling to the crag or gym after work, this list of packs will have you covered.
Petzl Bug Patagonia Linked Pack 28
Deuter
Guide Lite 24 $170
The new Guide Lite 24 is an alpine climber’s dream pack with
simple features and a sleek lightweight design. The pack sits
close to the body which allows you to move with ease on steep
pitches or in narrow chimneys. It features a removeable waistbelt,
adjustable sternum belts, ice axe attachment, compatible 3.0 litre
drinking system, elasticated inside and is pfc free. It comes in at
650 grams and measures 56 cm by 27 cm by 19 cm. A top pick for
multi-pitch rock routes.
Patagonia
Linked Pack 28 $160
The Linked is Patagonia’s biggest on-the-wall pack for serious rock
climbs. It’s built with tough material that can take the abuse of
being hauled up gritty rock. It fits nicely above your harness and
chalk bag. We love the double clip-in points on the top of the pack
that make it easy to clip to an anchor. It closes with a drawstring
and cinch, so it’s ideal for dry conditions. The haul handles are
nice to move the pack at belay ledges. One of the most versatile
all-day rock climbing packs on the market.
Mountain Hardwear
UL 20 $90
The UL 20 is designed for one-day, multi-pitch rock adventures. It
packs down and stows in a pocket, so you can pack it in a large bag
for the approach and then fill it for the day’s objective. The centre
strap locks down to keep weather out. It has breathable air mesh
shoulder straps, a secure zip front stash pocket, a tool loop and cord
keepers that allow quick lashing of trekking poles or an ice axe,
a sternum strap with a safety whistle, front and rear grab handles,
quickdraw opening main compartment and can fit a water bottle,
layer and some snacks. Highly recommended for rock warriors.
the rack
Osprey Porter Travel Carry-On 30 Gregory Targhee FastTrack 35
Gregory
Targhee FastTrack 35 $280
Gregory continues its tradition of making near-perfect packs for
big mountain environments with the Targhee FastTrack 35. With
a few months left of winter in the alpine, having a good pack that
can handle your gear can help with your objective. It’s lightweight,
sturdy, and the ski-carry system lets you stow your skis on the
move. Features include: front quick-access avalanche tool pocket
with secure probe and handle sleeves and aluminum toggles for ice
tools. Ideal for ski approach ice climbs and alpine routes.
Wild Country
Stamina Gear Bag $140
Wild Country is known for being a leading manufacturer of
top-of-the-line hardware, like cams and biners, but its Stamina
Gear bag is outstanding. With a roll-top closure, volume-adjust
compression straps, abrasion-resistant ripstop fabric, full zipper
opening for easy access, detachable rope tarp, external pocket for
valuables, reinforced grab handles, rope-carrier with aluminium
buckle, big pocks, comfy shoulder straps and more, this is one of
the top crag packs of the year.
Petzl
Bug $65
The Petzl Bug is a tough and comfortable pack that’s easy to pack
for its volume and is easy to lash a rope to. The base is sewn of
sturdy material the compression straps are unlike any other packs
and easy to use with gloves on. It’s ergonomic with extra padding
for comfort on the back. The 18-litre rectangular shape makes
packing easy. The large front pocket is one of the biggest and best
of any similar pack. The mesh interior stash pocket is easy to access
with a full pack. It’s not designed to haul but does have haul loops
that can be backed up to the daisy chin. It’s easy to climb steep
routes and though narrow pitches thanks to its lean build. Ideal for
your full- or half-day multi-pitch rock climb.—Gripped
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Rain
Jackets Late winter and early spring offer some excellent early-season rock climbing at
south-facing exposed crags. You’ll want to pack a few layers, including a rain
jacket. Here are some of the top choices for 2021.

Mountain Hardwear Arc’teryx The North Face

Ozonic $250
Whether you’re hiking, backpacking,
approaching a climb or high on a route,
the Ozonic will keep you covered. Rugged
and light, it gives great stretch on difficult
dynamic movements. It uses abrasion-resis-
tant fabric, has big pit vents, an easy-to-use
hood cinch system, two hand and one chest
pocket (where it can pack into) and comes
in at around 315 grams. A great option for
spring afternoons at the local crag or multi-
pitch rock climbs this summer.
Beta LT $600
The Beta LT is Arc’teryx’s newest light-
weight all-mountain shell constructed with
breathable Gore-Tex and built to last. It’s
very minimal, which will make many
climbers happy when try it. The zippers
are watertight, and it has pit zips, adjust-
able cuffs, a hem adjuster and solid hood.
Recommended for multi-pitch rock climb-
ers, warm alpine days and crag sessions if
the weather looks iffy.
Men’s Dryzzle Futurelight Jacket $280
Futurelight has become one of the top lines
for climbers serious about going hard. The
Dryzzle is the must-have rain jacket in the
Futurelight series. It’s durable, has sturdy
zippers, is made with a new nano technol-
ogy that makes it super breathable and is
extremely comfortable. The ultra thin layer
will keep you dry in light rain and warm
on windy summer days. We loved the nice
sized chest pocket and big hood. It comes
in five colours. Recommended for crag
climbers and urban commuters this spring.

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Patagonia
Women’s Rainshadow $250
The Rainshadow is a must-have, warm-day
jacket that will keep you dry and protect
you from windy conditions. The light-
weight layer is stretchy for unrestricted
mobility and can endure full days in wet
weather without giving into the elements.
It packs down, will fit over a light insulated
coat and looks great when going from work
to the gym. It comes in four eye-catching
colours. A top choice for the rain jacket that
you bring everywhere.
Mammut
Convey Tour Jacket $280
As a high-quality backcountry jacket, the
Convey Tour offers good protection against
heavy weather. It’s waterproof, windproof
and very breathable. The material gives
that hard shell durability but makes it feel
quite light and packable. It’s easy to pair
it with other, heavier layers thanks to the
slightly baggy build. The seams and stitch-
ing are top-notch. The fabric feels very
smooth on the skin. It comes in five stylish
colours. A top option for long approaches
into multi-day climbs or rest-day scrambles.
the rack
RAB
Women’s Downpour Plus $200
This outstanding rab rain jacket is made
with extreme comfort and practicality in
mind for the active climber. It has a hel-
met-compatible hood, f leece-lined chin
guard, Velcro-adjustable cuffs and a hem
drawcord that keeps a secure and comfort-
able fit. The left pocket doubles as a stuff
sack, so it’s easy to pack and keep in the
bottom of your bag. Crafted to keep you
dry in those light showers that creep in
and leave quickly. Recommended for crag
climbers, boulderers and scramblers head-
ing out for the day.—Gripped
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the rack

Jetboil
Micromo $160
Jetboil is famous for its integrated cooking
cup/stove systems paired with a f lux ring
and their own, efficient fuel cartridges.
The Micromo comes with a burner with

Stoves
Having a good stove can make the difference between a hot meal
cooked when you need it or a frustrating night with an empty belly.
Below are the best stoves for remote climbing objectives this season.
a sparking, integrated lighter, the 0.8 litre
cooking pot/f lux ring/cosy, the lid with
straining holes a cup that clips on the bot-
tom of the cooking cup and a folding plastic
tripod stand to go on the bottom of the fuel
canister to stabilize the stove. A stable set-
up that works great once you dial it in. The
automatic electric lighter worked every
time. Highly recommended for backcoun-
try climbs this year.

Primus
Firestick $90
The second-lightest stove on this list is by Swedish outdoor company Primus.
The Firestick is simple, compact and has an ingenious construction. When the
cap is removed, the pot supports spring into place and offer some wind protec-
tion for the f lame. A small, separate, compact piezo lighter is included. Both
the stove and lighter come in an insulated wool bag. It lights with a couple of
clicks. The burner control was very good, and simmering was no problem. The
stove supports, although stable enough for most pots, were a little narrow for
maximum stability. This is a compact, light stove for multi-day climbing trips.

Primus Firestick

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 GSI
Pinnacle 4 Season $112
This is designed for four-season use and
the canister attaches to the stove with a
tube, which allows you to turn the canis-
ter upside down when it’s low, or at higher
altitudes, to improve the pressure. It also
allows for a lower and potentially more
stable stove, aids in simmering and makes
it possible to use a windscreen around the
stove (but not the canister). It also makes
the stove burn much hotter because the
fuel comes up the tube in liquid form and
GSI Pinnacle 4 Season is only vaporized just before it is burned.
The vaporizer tube’s principal function
is to keep the fuel warm in cold tem-
peratures. A litre of water boiled in about
2:55 with the canister in this orientation.
It’s a rugged and compact unit for cold
Jetboil Micromo climbing missions.

Primus
Omni Lite T1 $250
The only stove in this review that also
burns liquid gas comes from Primus. It
comes with a titanium-bodied version of
their multi-fuel OmniFuel II Stove, with
the Silencer burner, the ErgoPump, a
multi-tool with a cleaning needle, a fold-
able windscreen, a heat ref lector, a 0.35
litre fuel bottle and two spare jet nipples
stamped with their size. There is no built-in piezo electric igniter,
a device rarely seen on liquid fuel stoves, so you’ll need to pack
a lighter. The stove roars when it’s on full blast, and an interest-
ing option for those who prefer silence while they are cooking is
to unscrew the regular burner and exchange it with the Silencer
burner. A great stove for those who can’t predict which fuel will
be available at their destination, winter campers and alpinists who
need to melt snow. It’s versatile, rugged and highly featured.

Primus Omni Lite T1

MSR
Pocket Rocket Deluxe $85
The original msr Pocket Rocket remains popular and is a very
light and reliable stove. The Pocket Rocket Deluxe includes some
of the best design features of the Pocket Rocket, like the sturdy,
folding pot supports, and at only about 10 more grams, has some
extra features. The piezo electric spark igniter works after just a
couple of sparks. The burner cup is wider than the Pocket Rocket,
which burns fuel and cooks faster. Our model beat the manufac-
turer’s suggested boil time of 3:30 minutes for a litre of water by 30
seconds. Its main innovation is the inclusion of a pressure regula-
tor. The regulator, which msr first used on its Reactor integrated
stove system helps to maintain even pressure in the gas f low, even
in cold weather. This is a hot, light, compact and versatile stove
recommended for anyone who needs a reliable canister stove for MSR Pocket
remote climbs.—Gripped Rocket Deluxe

gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

49
northern exposures

Sasha DiGiullian at Grassi Lakes in Canmore Photo Tim Banfield

50 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

Brandon Pullan on Guinness Gully WI4 in Field, B.C. Photo Will Meinen

gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

51
northern exposures

Dexter Bateman on The Shining 5.13+ on Mount Louis, Banff National Park Photo Tim Banfield

52 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021

gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
53
reviews
Dolomiti New Age
by Alessio Conz
Dolomites Without Borders
by Daniel Rogger
Editions Versant Sud, 2020
When the mid-century mathematician, Martin Gardner, reviewed
the now classic Gödel, Escher, Bach, he described the book as work
of philosophy disguised as a work of education. Similarly, Dolomiti
New Age isn’t so much a guidebook to modern, well-bolted routes
in the Dolomites as it is emblematic of an entire approach to
climbing the big faces of this storied range. Heroics, so much a
part of the history of the mountains that form the south eastern
extent of the Alps, are suppressed in favour of being able to climb
10 pitches on compact limestone high above long-settled valleys
with a full rack of quick-draws and little else. The idea that you
can approach such stunning objectives from a sport (or even gym)
climbing background should be viewed as transformative in a way
that free climbing El Capitan is not or all but a few of us.
Legendary mountain groups such as the Marmolada and the
Sella (among others) now have routes on them that have been
established in the past decade that are safe, accessed easily, and
provide for descents that get you back in time for an Alto Adige/
Südtirol dinner. The routes themselves look nothing short of
amazing considering their entirely accessible grades (no harder
than 5.11). Guidebook editor Alessio Conz is local to the area as is
the publisher whose credo is firmly placed in the notion that local
authors promote and respect their area, and that they meaningfully
interact with local actors. The adoption of modern route creation
to stunning mountain features is as impactful as the adoption of
free climbing itself. Given the favourable weather and the prox-
imity of f light connections to Canada, you could also call it: no
excuses alpine rock climbing.
Much in the same spirit, Dolomites Without Borders offers moun-
tain travellers the opportunity to do a nine-day high mountain tour
linking huts with alpine trails and via ferratas. These take you across
some of the most iconic mountain passages without anything more
than a daypack, some alpine clothing, a harness, and umbilical cords.
This guidebook invites you to undertake this experience with
inspiring photos along with detailed descriptions of the route and
what to bring and where to stay. Activist-practitioners created this
tour to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of hostilities between
Austria-Hungary and Italy in World War I along a front that saw the
local mountains become vertical battlegrounds. A shorter, three-day
variation is suitable for novices or families making their first multi-
day outing in the Alps.—Tom Valis
54 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
Notes From The Top
Continued
At the pass, they found all the stones
they needed to build the walls strewn
all over the ground. With the help of a
skilled stonemason, the guides gathered
up enough rocks in the right sizes and
shapes. The structure was then fastened to
the bedrock with cables. Naturally, their
work efforts were interrupted from time
to time by howling storms. Abbot Pass
Hut opened its doors to guests early in the
summer of 1923.
While inconsiderate partiers trashed the
place in the 1960s, mountaineers who
cared salvaged the hut and in 1992 it was
designated as a National Historic Site of
Canada. It’s been maintained and operated
by the Alpine Club of Canada since 1985,
and booked solid through the summers
by strong hikers, mountaineers and guides
aiming to climb two of the Rockies great
classic routes – the West Face of Mount
Lefroy and Mount Victoria’s Southeast
Ridge. At 2,926 metres elevation, Abbot
Pass Hut was the highest permanent
structure in Canada until the acc’s Neil
Colgan Hut was built in 1983 above nearby
Moraine Lake. And with the Continental
Divide running down the middle of the
f loor – cook dinner in Alberta, eat it in
B.C. – snow melting from its peaked roof
f lows to two different oceans.
One thing the Swiss guides never antici-
pated though, is how ice that has for mil-
lennia glued together the rocks and clay
the hut sits on like cement has melted,
causing the ground under the building
to erode. Throughout western Canada’s
high mountains, glaciers and permafrost
are melting. Abbot Pass Hut has been
closed to visitors since 2018, but only
temporarily, while Parks Canada experts
drill rock anchors into the bedrock below
it. Fortunately, that bedrock is solid. But
after all, those Swiss guides really did
know what they were doing.
Lynn Martel is a mountain writer and climber
who has called the Canadian Rockies home
for more than 30 years. Read more, including
how some Swiss guides survived being buried
in an avalanche while ascending the ‘death trap’
to deliver firewood to the hut in her new book,
Stories of Ice: Adventure, Commerce and
Creativity on Canada’s Glaciers.
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55
notes from the top
Canada’s
High Alpine
Hut Heritage
The Unforgettable History
of Our Mountain Shelters
Story by Lynn Martel
For plenty of high-school students, learning that the Canadian
Pacific Railway (cpr) was completed in 1885 was a lesson to snooze
through, but for climbers, it was a big event. The steel line didn’t
just link Canada’s east and west coasts, it opened the entire country
to the new sport of mountain climbing, as the track ran – and still
does – right below the rocky, glacier-draped peaks of the Lake
Louise area. With an expensive railway to pay for, the cpr built
hotels beside their tracks in Field, and Rogers Pass, B.C. – home
of big glaciers and stunning quartzite peaks – and in Lake Louise
(then called Laggan). For the next few decades, that was the hot
spot for climbing in Canada.
Unfortunately, some early climbers learned the hard way that
many Rockies summits were more challenging than they’d
anticipated, and when American Philip Stanley Abbot fell while
climbing Mount Lefroy in 1896, he became North America’s first
climbing fatality. Fortunately, his friends returned the following
summer with a professional mountain guide from Switzerland
named Peter Sarbach. Good move, as Sarbach led his clients safely
to Lefroy’s summit and the precedent was set. Within a couple of
seasons, the cpr had jumped on board and launched a long and
lucrative – for the company – tradition of employing professional
Swiss guides to lead their hotel guests safely to nearby summits
and back down to dinner at the hotel and a well-earned whisky.
It’s impossible to count all the benefits the Swiss brought with
them. They built many of the trails we all enjoy today, whether for
hiking or as approach routes to popular climbs. The high standards
they set for client care and technical skills created the foundation
for Canada’s world-class mountain guiding and mountain rescue
professions. And a big bonus is that they introduced the tradition
of cozy, high alpine huts to western Canada’s mountains. Better
still, they built the first of these, too.
The location was a logical choice. Abbot Pass is a narrow rock-
strewn notch well into the cloud zone linking Mounts Victoria
56 gripped.com V23.01 02/03 2021
The Abbot Hut
and Lefroy high above postcard-perfect Lake Louise. Not quite
f lat for less than the width of a single-lane road, the pass drops
steeply on the south side, where hikers choose a careful line to
avoid tumbling boulders as they ascend a treadmill scree slope
from Lake Oesa. Helmets are essential. The north side slithers
down a narrow gorge pinched between steep rock walls via a
long, slender glaciated arm that reaches down valley for about
three kilometres. There it peters out into a wide field of moraine
rubble below the Plain of Six Glaciers teahouse, which was built
in 1924 by the railway as a rest stop for guests – and run by the
Swiss guides’ wives. From the glacier’s toe, six kilometres of well-
travelled trail leads back to the hotel, right past the world-class
Back of the Lake rock climbing cliffs.
Construction began in summer 1922. The logistics were stupen-
dous. Two tons of cement, lime, timbers, windows and tools, plus a
stove, beds, mattresses, bedding, cooking pots and pans, right down
to the cutlery, had to be ferried up to the site. Food, too, to fuel the
guides. It was all loaded onto a raft and paddled from the hotel to
the southwest end of the lake. Then every piece was unloaded and
carefully packed onto horses led by a wrangler who coaxed them
onto the glacier – which then extended some two kilometres lower
than it does today – carefully guiding them around one crevasse and
then the next. The steeds plodded upward on the bare summer ice
until they reached a large gaping crevasse that stopped them in their
tracks. From there the guides took over the Sisyphean job of man-
hauling everything up the steep slope by rigging the jumbled icefall
with a series of ladders and winches to facilitate carrying loads on
a sled, each parcel weighing up to 35 kilograms. Anything that
couldn’t be loaded onto the sled was carried on the guides’ backs
Photo Matt Brooks
up the Death Trap – as they named the steep upper reaches of the
glacier in apt reference to the unpredictable blocks and chunks that
crash down from the unstable ice cliffs above.
Continued on p.54…
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