Two 8c+'s in a day for David Graham

Dougald MacDonald

14th March, 2007

This has been read 2,963 times

Dougald MacDonald reports:

Despite a lingering finger injury, the American climber David Graham is firing on all cylinders in Spain. Last month, he redpointed two 8c+ routes in a single day at the Spanish crag Terradets, and then, two weeks later, redpointed a 9a.

David Graham waxed: “I felt lazy and weak, and what's crazy is, I climbed the first 8c+, La Leccion 8, first try! I was so psyched because I was pumped stupid, and just battled through it with cold hands, and really surprised myself — it did not feel like the day. I said I would chill for the rest of the day, and then immediately said forget it, I'll try the other 8c+, I feel better. The Essencia de la Resistencia is less bouldery and more pure power endurance, thus the name, and normally it felt way harder then the other route (which is more bouldery). So I tied in and climbed it really well, just climbed like a resistance climber, and crushed. I was so psyched because this is not my style. I get pumped, I get REALLY pumped.”

Read the full report and David Graham's blog at Climbing.com

This post has been read 2,963 times

Return to Latest News

UKC Advertising

Comments

RupertD

14 Mar, 2007

I found this a bit confusing, and this is in no way a dig at you Mick as Dave himself described it as such. It's not even a dig at Dave, more a confusion over wording. I was well chuffed when I did my first "8b in a day", by which I meant that I first went on the route, worked it, and redpointed it, all in the space of a day. I was chuffed becuase doing a hard route "in a day" shows you can work out the sequences fast, practice them, remember them, and still have enough gas in the tank to do the final redpoint after a rest. I know a lot of other people who mean this in relation to redpointed routes done "in a day". So when Dave did 2 8c+s "in a day" I assumed that he meant this too - very impressive. But in fact Dave had tried both routes on previous days so in fact it was only the final redpoint of each roue that was on the same day. Still impressive, but much less so than if he'd never tried the routes before.

Alun

14 Mar, 2007

Confusion arises due to the difference between: a) Climbing a route in a day i.e. from first touch to succesful redpoint in one day and b) redpointing two different routes on the same day, regardless of whether he's been on them before.

Paul B

14 Mar, 2007

Yeah I read the news item the same and was amazed! Still a mighty good effort, but I do feel the news piece needs some clarification.

RupertD

14 Mar, 2007

Thanks for that.

stp

15 Mar, 2007

I agree with RupertD and take done in a day to mean a). Option b) is not necessarily impressive at all. For instance if you get route 1 on the first try after warm ups then you're still going to have plenty of energy left to try route 2. Also is anyone else suspicious about these spanish 8c+s. Dave Graham has previously suggested that many hard routes may be overgraded. And I just read this comment by Dave Macleod on Planet Mountain comparing a Siuruna 8c+, L'Odi Social, to Rhapsody: Rhapsody is still a much harder route even if it was bolted. The crux of Rhapsody is maybe V11 and that's right at the end of a long route. On L'odi the crux is halfway and maybe V8. Now erm, isn't V11 simply shedloads harder than V8?? Doesn't this description give the impression that these two routes are vastly different in difficulty even imagining Rhapsody is bolted?

More Comments

Add Comment