UKC

Red Bull White Cliffs Drytooling Event

© Jon Griffith/RedBull Content Pool

On 18th and 19th October Red Bull hosted the 'White Cliffs' drytooling event on the chalk cliffs of the Isle of Wight. Ten of the world's best winter, ice and alpine climbers speed-climbed their way to the top of the 400ft cliff.

The line-up included Brits Greg Boswell and Calum Muskett, climbing alongside seven other international climbers. A route was carved out by the team of athletes and practiced before timing their attempts. Alexei Tomilov of Russia - currently ranked 3rd in the UIAA Ice World Cup - had the fastest time of 16 minutes 46 seconds, followed by France's Jeff Mercier and American Will Mayo.

Emerging from the cave at the White Cliffs event  © Jon Griffith/RedBull Content Pool
Emerging from the cave at the White Cliffs event
© Jon Griffith/RedBull Content Pool

Calum commented on the route in his blog: "Our first glimpse of the cliffs really showed us just how impressive they were and the rigging teams had put in a huge amount of work to even make this event possible. The cliff we would be climbing was at Alum Bay, just beside the famous Needles of the Isle of Wight. It was over 100m tall with slightly overhanging to vertical climbing the entire length."

Greg described the format of the event in his blog: "Following a second day of route excavating and practice on Saturday, we were all ready for the main event the following day. After a group meeting that night, we all agreed that we would have one go each on the main and hardest line we had constructed and that there would be no falls allowed. The fastest time up the grossly overhanging 120m route would be the winner. Game on!"

Leading the safety team for the event was mountain guide Sandy Allan. Due to the potential dangers of climbing on the chalk cliffs, Sandy explained that the safety of the climbers and those involved was taken very seriously by all involved: "It was very safe, although the chalk cliffs have a few inherent issues which we manged to deal with very well and Red Bull were very keen and supportive. They truly bought into the adventure and ethical considerations with 100% commitment. The athletes loved that too and the enthuastic attitude and team work of the climbers and of course our own safety team made it into a spectacular event."

photo
Greg Boswell on the 400ft speed route
© Jon Griffith/RedBull Content Pool

 

Read more about the event on Calum's blog and Greg's blog.

 

 

 


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24 Oct, 2014
24 Oct, 2014
Will the next round be held at Millstone ... Nice to see such a healthy product as Redbull spanking their vast marketing budget on such a responsible climbing event.
24 Oct, 2014
It's chalk?
24 Oct, 2014
Is that a question?
24 Oct, 2014
It's OK, they bought into the ethical issues with 100% commitment, apparently. jcm
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