USA

Over in the States, and in contrast to here in the UK, there's a plethora of new kids on the block(s) ‘doing’ sport climbing and with typical energy they are ripping the place apart. All have yet to reach their 21st birthdays, but like Sharma in the nineties, they’ve already had a massive impact on the scene. Jared Roth grabbed the headlines by doing the 2nd ascent of Boone Speed's I Scream (8c+). Plenty of other hot-shots had previously tried to repeat Speed's 1997 desperado but all had been sent packing. Farther east there’s a new hot-spot called Rumney, New Hampshire and it’s here that four of the US’s young rods have left their marks; Dave Graham, Joe Kinder, Adam Osterhoff and Luke Parady. All are cranking 8b+/8c or harder, but it’s Graham who seems to have the edge having added The Fly (9a), the second route in the States to be given this grade after Kryptonite, Tommy Caldwell’s 1999 effort. Finally from the US, we hear of the latest prodigy, 16 year old Chris Lindner whose already redpointed 8c+. Its been barely two years since ex-pat Brit Dave Pegg wrote in the US climbing press expressing the view that US climbers couldn’t cut the mustard. Now that a total of six men have repointed 8c+ or harder, sport climbing in the States seems to have turned the corner. Wonder how Dave’s getting on eating his hat?

Elsewhere in the USA, the French travelling road show hit town, or rather Mt Charleston, Nevada to be precise. Francois Legrand beat the opposition (Jason Campbell) to the first ascent of the hardest route in the area, Ghetto Booty (8c+/9a). Liv Sansoz, travelling with Legrand, did a bit of on-sighting and then ticked a few 8a+/8b’s to really get warmed up then proceeded to crank Hasta La Vista (8c/8c+), a power endurance route in Compton Cave, at Mount Charleston. Sadly for her, she was just pipped to the post by the aforementioned Josune Bereziartu for the first 8c+ by a women. Agh well, there’s always 9a!

The Rest of the World

Downunder, top Oz sport climber, Garth Miller, returned to the scene of his 1999 8c mega-route at Diamond Falls in the Blue Mountains on New South Wales to try the direct finish which he had previously been unable to touch. Things change in a year though and he sent the new finish, the crux of which he reckons to be worth Font 8a in itself, so ‘easily’ that he kept the grade at 8c. Miller named his and Os’s hardest route to date, Grey Area, perhaps giving us the nod that it might be harder than his 8c grade.