UKC

Leo Houlding - Spanish Speed Climbing

© Alastair Lee / Posing Productions
Leo Houlding speed climbing on Riglos  © Alastair Lee / Posing Productions
Leo Houlding speed climbing on Riglos
© Alastair Lee / Posing Productions
Leo Houlding and Carlos Suarez recently teamed up on the conglomerate towers of Riglos, Spain. They hoped to climb and BASE jump from both towers in under two hours, and narrowly missed their target due to poor visibility on the second jump, completing an ascent and descent of two of the 300m towers in just over two and a half hours.

The climb was a training trip for Leo's 2009 expedition to Mount Asgard, dubbed 'The Asgard Project'. You can read more about his plans in this UKC Outdoor Industry News.

Commenting after the routes in Riglos, Leo said:

"Berghaus team mate, Carlos Suarez and I teamed up to climb together for the first time. After a couple of warm up days we simul-climbed and BASE jumped the ultra classics 'Zulu Demente' on La Vizera and 'Carnivalada' on El Pizon in 2 hours 37 minutes bar to bar (or pub to pub)!

'Zulu' 7a+, 260m took 45 minutes, in 2 pitches of simul-climbing with a 20 m rope. At the top we hastily donned our BASE rigs, composed our nerve and jumped together right from the top out of the climb. We landed right at the start of Carnivalada 7a+, 300 m and simul-climbed it in 1.10 in 3 pitches with another 20 m rope."

BASE jumping from the Riglos Towers  © Alastair Lee / Posing Productions
BASE jumping from the Riglos Towers
© Alastair Lee / Posing Productions
The entire Asgard Project is being filmed by Alastair Lee of Posing Productions. You can watch a trailer, including footage of the Riglos speed-climbing on the Posing Productions Website.


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25 Mar, 2009
excellent stuff and the trailer is really good too. hope the Asgard project goes well.
25 Mar, 2009
What do they do when they get to the top, lob all their gear down onto some unsuspecting belayer; with a firm shout of BELOW!!! No, really where is the rope and iron mongery when they jump off please. I need to know, I'm an engineer.
25 Mar, 2009
The Riglos video also raises the question of how the parachute gear reaches the top of these cliffs? I am guessing that some fawning acolyte/ groupee was sent to walk around the back to drop off the parachutes in the case of the Zulu Demente cliff, but the other route they do in the video ends up on a detached summit with an F5+ multi-pitch as its easiest way up. They clearly don't wear the chutes themselves whilst climbing.
25 Mar, 2009
it does mention they had a few warm up days before hand, plenty of time to stash chutes at the top.
25 Mar, 2009
I don't understand - where was Clarkeson, and how is he going to drive up there? Chris ;-)
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