UKC

In this video we see South African climber Joe Möhle make the first Trad ascent of a sport route that he bolted at a sandstone sport crag, The Hole, near Cape Town.

The route, called Life Enhancement program, is F8a+ to climb on bolts, and involves a really steep and impressive bit of roof climbing - placing a cam from double toe hooks whilst hanging completely upside down.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=67023

In reply to UKC News:

One wonders whether trad climbing gets much better than this. Fantastic stuff.

In reply to UKC News: Awesome stuff!

In reply to UKC News:

Burly. Great vid.

Interesting choice of background track as well.

In reply to UKC News: Great work

In reply to UKC News: How long until a purist removes the bolts?

In reply to JimboWizbo:


Why was it bolted at all?

Immense

In reply to JimboWizbo: would not happen in cape town. There are clearly delineated sport crags and trad crags. This place, the hole, is a sport crag.

In reply to UKC News:

Ja, nee. (saffa's will geddit).

There is a whole world of adventure/trad climbing in the western cape, let alone the whole of SA, that has yet to be developed.

In reply to glennwithtwons: Cool

In reply to UKC News: A great route beautifully climbed but at this grade trying routes on sight would soon trash the sandstone with multiple falls on to small friends and nuts!remember he got to know the route well because he bolted it.
It would be very difficult to practice or pre inspect this route.Never the less it was great climbing.

In reply to UKC News: just shows the nonsense of bolting so called sports routes..How many times do you see a reasonable bit of pro near a bolt ..and yes I have climbed bolted routes..better men will always come along and better the so called norm..

In reply to silo:

Is the rock at the particular cliff soft sandstone then? Doesn't look too much like that, but if you've been there I guess you'll know!

In reply to UKC News:

He's quite good, isn't he?

One gets the impression he's done the route before all the same

In reply to Bruce Hooker: He probably has seeing as he bolted it!

In reply to victorclimber:

The Hole is a dedicated sport crag with many world class sport routes. The thing you need to realise in SA there is so much rock that bolting routes that may contain a few pieces of gear is reasonably normal. That said there are hundreds of places to go trad climbing in the region, which people do. For instance Muizenberg Buttress is literally round the corner and has multiple 3 star trad lines that people would never bolt. Furthermore in places like Table Mountain and the Cederberg there is a moratorium on bolting to protect the traditional nature of the areas. South Africa also has far stricter bolting rules than the UK. You wont hear of someone rocking up to a crag and simply bolting a route, you have to apply for permission.

I dont think its about better men. Are you trying to say trad climbers are better than sport climbers? I am sure this guy does a fair amount of sport climbing as it is his route as far as I am aware. Does that make him a lesser person when he sport climbs and more of a man when he trads?

In reply to UKC News:

Very nice. Looks far from impossible to onsight for someone operating at that level, as well.

jcm

In reply to TobyA: Even hard sand stone get damage by nuts and friends etc thats it nature.

In reply to silo:

and granite, and gritstone and limestone...etc

I guess we just bolt everything up, at whatever grade, to save the rock ; o )

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

What a bizarre thing to say Gordon. Whilst many are doing sport routes on trad gear, it does surely get much better than that.....try doing a trad route as a trad route.

I like Bisharat's take on it.

Have a read, and weep...

STARTS

There is an interesting phenomenon in climbing that involves what I am going to dub “contingent ascents.”

That is, ascents that often are not cutting edge but garner a lot of attention or interest because the ascent hinges on some kind of contingency. This category of ascents contains a degree of gradation, from the “first female ascent” (which may or may not be significant due to many factors) to something as contrived as the First Deaf Colombian ascent of Mount Everest (not that being deaf or Colombian is contrived—but these days climbing Mount Everest is).

Other contingent ascents might be: Climbing a famous route and downgrading it. Climbing a route without a chipped hold. Mixed climbing without heel spurs. Mixed climbing without leashes. Climbing a Grit headpoint without crash pads. Everest without oxygen. Everest without porters. Everest without fixed ropes. Not using kneepads.

Climbing a sport route on trad gear.

You can catch up here: http://www.rockandice.com/tnb-blog/tnb-contingent-ascents-sport-routes-on-t...

Happy Holidays,

Mick

In reply to Mick Ryan - Senior Editor - UKC: I didn't suggest that but some times bolts can be the best option. I like the way they look after the rock around the elbe area it keep the rock in pristine condition so future climbers can enjoy the climbs.

In reply to silo:


Apart from drilling a line of holes with great iron rings in them all up the cliff, that is

In reply to Bruce Hooker: I wasn't discussing the right or wrongs of bolting but keeping the rock in good nick.

In reply to silo:

Sport climbing has plenty of attributes but that certainly isn't one of them. Drilling holes in the rock is not 'keeping it in good nick'!

In reply to Mick Ryan - Senior Editor - UKC:

I was thinking exactly that. While it was a lovely piece of climbing to watch it was still a sport route. Any time he gets tired or decides he's not happy with this particular runout after all there's a bolt to clip. As trad climbing goes it's about as pointless as it gets, other than as a way of making a point about the suitability of a crag as a trad/sport venue, which I doubt he was doing.

Anyway, nice vid and the climbing looked great. I don't think we can read much more into it than that!

In reply to silo:

Just stop climbing is the answer if you really believe that.

Any popular climb, whether trad or sport, suffers from erosion of the rock.....hands, feet, falling, chalk etc

Anyway, there's no way this climber would test the placements. He had it wired....it was a headpoint, he'd already done the first ascent using the bolts as pro.

Looks great fun though.

In reply to Michael Gordon: Meh. I'm anti-bolt 99% of the time but 'they' do have a point when it comes to the rock preservation question. Heavy use of gear can and does make a mess of the rock; oft-quoted examples would be High Neb Buttress and Topsail. In those cases a bolt would in the long term have left the routes in much better condition.

Not that we should have bolted them you understand.

In reply to eugeneth: i just hate the word Sport Climbing ,cant see whats sporting about it ,its Bolted Climbing ,,,

In reply to victorclimber:

It's two words and the line is about 25 years past it use by date.

In reply to victorclimber:

Very true, only bouldering and soloing is 'real' climbing.

Feel free to contact these guys http://www.theuiaa.org/contact.html and tell them that a bunch of people from a little island in the North Atlantic has decided to rule on the nomenclature and ethics of the sport on behalf of the rest of the World.

Just let them know a chart will be forthcoming outlining what 99% of the World population is allowed to do from now on as dictated by the other 1%. They will understand as WE are always right.

In reply to victorclimber:

call it what you like......its just a name thats been given to a style of climbing. If you don't like it, don't do it!!!

In reply to Flashy:

Sprad climbing. Fr8a+H76c(UK).

In reply to Mr Lopez:

Ha! Brilliant response!