In this week's Ticklist, we've got hard ascents in the Alps and big ticks from Will Bosi, Brooke Raboutou, and Adam Ondra...

No Siesta repeat by Tom Livingstone and Christophe Dumarest

Tom Livingstone and Christophe Dumarest have made a winter repeat of No Siesta on the the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses, one of the most demanding mixed routes in the Alps, first climbed by Jan Porvaznik and Stan Glejdura in July 1986. Tom told Mountain Equipment:

'I can confirm there were limited opportunities for siestas on this route; but we did have a bit of a fiesta on the brèche in the sunshine... As a free climb, it's a modern mixed climbing challenge. Christophe Dumarest and I were motivated to climb together and I ambitiously suggested this route as a first adventure. We climbed it over two days but because we approached and then started climbing on the same day, we had two bivies. We used string hammocks to make the bivies better - they were very helpful!
Other than a short pendulum where we were off route, we freed every pitch and onsighted the whole route.'

Article from Tom to follow.

First Winter repeat of the John Harlin Direct Route on Eiger North Face by GMHM Team

Cpl Léo Billon, Sébastien Ratel and Benjamin Védrines have made the first winter repeat of the John Harlin route on the Eiger's North Face, from January 12-16, in alpine style. The line was first climbed in 1966 by a team of German climbers and Dougal Haston, who named the route after American mountaineer and US Air Force pilot John Harlin, who was killed while making an attempt at a direct line up the face earlier that year when he fell 2000ft from the summit and his rope broke. 

Hard Sit Start for Will Bosi

Will Bosi has repeated Dave MacLeod's Zero (f8B) Rooftown, near Inverness. He then went on to climb a low start, calling it Below Zero (f8B+) and grading it Font 8B+. Dave had tried the project intermittently over two winters where lockdowns slowed him down. You can watch a video of Dave's first ascent below, along with Will's new problem:

Brooke Raboutou on form in Switzerland

American climber Brooke Raboutou has had a good start to her trip in Switzerland where she made the first female ascent of Fred Nicole's La proue (8a+) in Cresciano, Ticino. The 20-year-old also climbed Dave Graham's Kings of Sonlerto (f8A+), a stunning Font 8A+ in Val Bavona that used to be graded 8B+.

Raboutou came 5th overall in the Tokyo Olympic Games last summer and her ticklist on rock is growing exponentially; she has already climbed the likes of Jade (Font 8B+) in Rocky Mountain National Park and flashed Euro Trash (Font 8A+) in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah.

Ondra Update

Adam Ondra has been as busy as always. In Slovakia, he climbed a project that was bolted in 1994 by Tomáš Pilka. He first looked at the climb last June and was 'blown away by the beauty' but was unsuccessful. He's now made the first ascent and named it Absolutorium and graded it 9a.

In Siurana, Spain, he repeated Will Bosi's Furia de Jabali. Will gave the climb 9b and it has now seen ascents from many of the world's top sport climbers: Alex Megos, Jakob Schubert, and now Ondra. He commented on his 8a.nu scorecard:

'Checked the moves once in the end of the day, next day (after trying King Capella first) rechecked the crux move again and sent on my second go. Done with Wil's method, for the traverse completely different method and probably easier. Low-end 9a+ with my height and method, for shorter climbers can be tiny bit harder, but not 9b.'