UKC

Parallel World D16 by Darek Sokołowski

© Szymon Olbrychski

Polish alpinist Darek Sokołowski has established the world's second D16 dry-tool line at the steep and imposing Capanna Bill, or 'Tomorrow's World' cave in the Italian Dolomites, with an ascent of Parallel World, an extension of his unrepeated 2017 route War Without End D15+. Sokołowski opted to climb in pure Dry-Tooling Style, avoiding the use of fig-fours in order to increase the physical difficulty.

Darek Sokołowski on Parallel World D16.  © Szymon Olbrychski
Darek Sokołowski on Parallel World D16.
© Szymon Olbrychski

Parallel World is only the third route to be given a rating of D16, after Gordon McArthur's 80 metre-long Storm Giant in British Columbia, Canada (UKC news report) and Oświecenie in Zakopane, Poland. Tom Ballard's A Line Above the Sky D15 (UKC news report), also located in the Tomorrow's World cave, was previously the world's hardest dry-tool route.

A Line Above the Sky and Parallel World.  © Darek Sokołowski
A Line Above the Sky and Parallel World.
© Darek Sokołowski

According to a report by Rock and Ice, Sokołowski spent 50 minutes climbing the 60-plus metre line, which includes 12 metres of stepped overhangs and a 50 metre near-horizontal roof. The crux is situated at the end of the route, which features long, powerful moves and no rests leading up to this point.

Tomorrow's World cave topo.  © Tom Ballard edited by Darek Sokołowski
Tomorrow's World cave topo.
© Tom Ballard edited by Darek Sokołowski

Aside from establishing War Without End D15+ and now Parallel World D16, Sokołowski has repeated many of the hardest neighbouring climbs at Tomorrow's World: Je Ne Sais Quoi D14+, Oblivion D14, A Line Above The Sky D15-, all in Dry-Tooling Style.

Read more on Rock and Ice.


This post has been read 10,104 times

Return to Latest News



13 Jan, 2019

Soko?owski opted to climb in pure Dry-Tooling Style, avoiding the use of fig-fours in order to increase the physical difficulty.

?? What does this really mean? That if he used fig-fours he could climb something even harder? That fig-fours are frowned upon?

13 Jan, 2019

I'm sorry but that route is definitely not in nick!!

13 Jan, 2019

Keeping it challenging I guess. I recall reading a while back on Will Gadd's blog that heel spurs on crampons were used for a while, then deemed unethical & went out of fashion.

13 Jan, 2019

I don't know, but I think fig 4s (and before that, heel spurs) change the difficulty so much that some people decide that going without them is a better challenge - akin in some ways to knee pads when rock climbing...

13 Jan, 2019
More Comments
Loading Notifications...
Facebook Twitter Copy Email