Europe

Farther afield however, hard redpointing still enjoys a sexy image and plenty of folks are up for the action. There’s plenty of hot news from Euro Sport Land of which perhaps the most impressive is Eric Talmadge new route, Im Reich des Shogun (9a) at Tufleten, Switzerland and Iker Pou’s third ascent of Action Direct in the Frankenjura, Germany. And whilst on the subject of Action Direct, the late Wolfgang Gullich's route seems to be gaining status as the world's first 9a, if not a benchmark 9a at that, despite Gullich's own grade of 8c+ and Moon's belief that 8c+ was tough but fair. Time and further repeats will no doubt tell the tale, but it is worth noting that nobody has succeeded on this route without undertaking, like the first ascentionist, a structured training programme tailored to meet the specific demands of the route.

The Bindhammer Brothers, Christian and Andrea, are increasingly making their presence felt on the outdoor scene with hard new routes and repeats of other peoples desperates. Italian, Christian Brenna, has earned serious respect by notching up a number of impressive repeats; his blistering 2-day ascent of Christian Bindhammer’s Alien Carnage (8c+) at Castillion, France perhaps being his best effort in 2000. And with his total bag of 8c/8c+ now approaching double figures he’s clearly no slouch.

But European climbers aren’t having it all their own way even on their own patch. Japan continues to produce/export world class climbers and they romp around Europe in ever increasing numbers. Yuji Hirayama might have been the first but it appears that he ain’t gonna be the last. This year Dai Koyamada has been on a road-trip around Europe during which time he’s been concentrating on all things hard. He’s given the Bindhammer brothers’ routes a bit of a battering having repeated both Christian’s Alien Carnage (8c+) and Andrea’s Vitamania (8c+) at Annot, France. And just for the record both Dai and Yuji have both repeated Archipel (8c+), which is the first repeat of a ‘hard’ Fred Rouhling route. Finally, Dai was last seen in November working a 9a open project at Sugiton (Grotte de l’Ours) in the Calanques and looking pretty damned good too! News hasn’t yet filtered through as to whether or not he was successful.

Meanwhile the on-sight handle continues to be cranked ever higher, driven no doubt by ‘comp. training’ regimes. Yuji headlined in 1999 when he on-sighted Axle Franco’s Mortal Kombat (8c) at Castillion in France, though sadly after his ascent he felt that it was probably more like 8b+. Continuing the quest into 2000, this year he’s on-sighted Follia Esplosiva at Tene, Italy although he’s not managed to go one better and get to 8c – yet! One paper he’s without a doubt one of the most successful on-sight climbers in the world, his tally of 8b+’s now standing at two, the same as Ellie Chevieux’s. Flying the home flag, Steve McClure on-sighted Radicals Libras (8b) at Forada on the Costa Blanca in Spain. Typically, Steve had previously discounted his earlier flash of another 8b in Spain, this on the basis of seeing somebody on it several years earlier. However, Steve’s on-sight of Radicals Libras was the first 8b to be done by a Brit. and it brings Steve within an ace of the foreign competition. Had he had a bit more luck on JB Tribout’s To Bolt or Not to Be (8b+) at Smiths Rock in the States (which he narrowly failed to on-sight) he might have ended the year with a real bang.

The big news from Spain for 2000 was generated by the comparative unknown Spaniard, Josune Bereziartu, when she became the first woman to redpoint 8c+ having sent Honky Mix, a 65 move monster in deepest Basque country in June. Bereziartu’s redpoint of Honky Mix at 8c+ was two grades harder than any other woman had done at that time.