The News Roundup: A Free Soloist Survives Fall on First Flatiron

In an attempt to make space for the newsworthy ascents that occur with ever-increasing regularity, our weekly news roundup tries to celebrate a few outstanding climbs (or interesting events) that for one reason or another caught our attention. We hope you enjoy it. —The editors

Stemming Testpiece Tainted Love (5.13d R) in Squamish Repeated

Brent Barghahn and Connor Herson recently made fast ascents of the stunning Tainted Love (5.13d R) corner at the top of the Stawamus Chief in Squamish, BC. Barghahn and Herson sussed the 80-foot dihedral out on top rope for one session before successfully leading it the following day.

“One of the coolest corners I’ve climbed!” Barghahn wrote on his Youtube channel. “The corner is fully trad protected with small wires for the first half, and then a runout above good cams for the slightly easier second half. It involves wide stemming up a steep corner with only a crimp edge in the seam, tiny smears, and no down pulling holds.”

Tainted Love was first freed by Hazel Findlay on a smokey summer day in 2017. In an interview with Alpinist, she noted that although the individual moves of Tainted Love are challenging, the real difficulty lies in remembering the subtle beta throughout the pitch: “We would do moves, fall off and then completely forget what we’d done. Sometimes you would entirely forget which bit of the corner you were even at because there are almost no markers,” she said.

Tainted Love is just one of many spectacular “sky cragging” pitches found at the top of the Chief; an airy, exposed zone with markedly better summer-climbing conditions than anywhere else in Squamish. In fact, the climbing legend Didier Berthod recently sent a long-standing open project right next door. —Anthony Walsh

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Jonathan Siegrist Puts Down a Nemesis

One thing I’ve had to constantly re-learn during the course of my climbing life: Grades are very rough barometers of experience. When you’re told that a climb is 5.11a, you know that it’s going to give you a different climbing experience than its neighboring 5.13b; but take any two climbs of the same grade and you’ll often find that they feel wildly different from each other—particularly if that climb is near your physical limit. Jonathan Siegrist, one of America’s all-time best sport climbers, recently got a friendly reminder of this in Ceuse, France, on an “absolute nemesis of a route” called Jungle Boogie. Admittedly, Jungle Boogie is graded 5.15a, which even Adam Ondra considers pretty hard. But for Siegrist, who had previously ticked—wait for it—26 climbs of that grade and harder, 5.15a’s don’t always take weeks of effort over multiple seasons. This one did. “No matter how much I think I understand a certain grade or climbing style,” Siegrist wrote on Instagram, “I’m soon reminded that there is always more to learn.” For me, Siegrist’s experience is a good reminder that our hardest numbers aren’t always our proudest ascents, and that the emotional effort we invest into each project, regardless of grade, is directly proportional to the satisfaction we carry with us when the process is over. —Steven Potter

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A Free Soloist Survives 100-Foot Fall on First Flatiron

Tough news out of Boulder: Yesterday (Monday, July 10) a 22-year-old Boulder resident fell while soloing the Direct East Face (5.6 R) on the First Flatiron. The route, which was first climbed by Pat Ament and Larry Dalke in 1960, tackles a left-leaning line up the First’s full 1,000-foot face. According to Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, the climber fell near the top of the route and slid down 100 feet of slab before coming to a lucky halt on a ledge. But they sustained serious injuries in the process and were reportedly unable to move. While the climber’s partner moved on to the top of the route and called for a rescue, two other climbers reached the fallen soloist and began providing first aid. Members of the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group rappelled to the climber’s location, placed them in a full-body vacuum splint, and then lowered them via litter to the base of the cliff. The injured climber was evacuated by foot to the trailhead and by ambulance to the hospital. At this point, the climber’s name and experience level has not yet been released. We’ve written before about how the Flatirons, with their seemingly benign angles and easy proximity to Boulder, are perhaps the global epicenter for unprepared soloists and have consequently been the scene of numerous injuries, rescues, and fatalities over the years. We’ve also written frequently about how accidents happen even to experienced soloists, and how even experienced climbers get into trouble when they remove the rope. Case and point: One of our other articles today concerns a 5.13 climber who fell and died while soloing an alpine 5.4 in Rocky Mountain National Park over the weekend. Be careful out there. —SP

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Shauna Coxsey Sends Second V13 in Two Months

Just seven months after double knee surgery, former Olympian Shauna Coxsey has put down two V13s—Flip Flopera at The Bowderstone in the Lake District, and Hydro, at Ogmore Bouldering. Coxsey managed both climbs while traveling across the UK for her new YouTube series, which features her search for the fifty best 7th-grade (V6 to V10) boulders in the country. The 30-year-old has thus far traveled from the Highlands of Scotland to the coastal bouldering areas of the South West. In the autumn, the gritstone season begins! 

In an interview with UK Climbing, Coxsey described how the series has helped her to reconnect with climbing and better balance the new family life. Coxsey’s daughter, Frankie is now just over one. —Delaney Miller

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