LA ESFINGE The riddle of The Sphinx, Dani Moreno and Edu Marin crack the code | TUDO BEM! say Kevin Jorgeson and Ben Rueck on their boulder trip round Brazil | THE slAck-B-C “No rest for the legends” – Lukas Irmler at the new slack hotspot in Brazil | ALPINE TRILOGY Boulder Queen Barbara Zangerl goes alpine for real | HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the legend Reinhold Messner | PATAGONIA Three views, one fascination. The scream of stone is silent but strong.
outdoor
ts spring | summer 2014
adidas outdoor magazine & product highligh
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Dani Moreno and Eduard Marin Garcia on the last few metres to the summit of the 5,325-metre high La Esfinge, Peru.
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unlock your terrain
TEXT: MIKE MANDL
We love being out there in nature, surrounded by wind, snow, cold. We love the seasons, and how they change. We love to move through these natural environments by feeling the physical sensations of our pulses beating to the max, our lungs breathing hard, and all our senses alert and alive. It’s all about creating these deep experiences and true adventures. Experiences like these can lead to some of the most enlightening moments in our lives, especially when we discover a new door within nature’s playground that we never knew was there. This door only becomes real through our perspective; it never existed until we sketched it out in our minds first. Then, by taking a real-life action and seeking those meaningful experiences, we finally get to walk through it. This door comes in many shapes and forms, passions and tastes, and all are as diverse as our various approaches towards being outdoors. Yet the core experience remains the same. And once we pass through one of these doors, we finally set our feet on new ground, on new terrain. This ground becomes your terrain simply because it’s you who unlocked and pushed open the door. In other words: you are the key. Because we can’t think of anything more gripping than this we dearly invite you to “unlock your terrain”. “Unlock your terrain” can be a trip to an unknown land, a journey where you dive into enticing landscapes and experience foreign cultures to gain new perspectives and impressions. EDITORIAL 2
“Unlock your terrain” can be a rainy late-night bike ride behind your house, a climbing route or any other project that sends chills running down your spine. Because you know that you have to leave that comfort zone behind you if you want to achieve your goal. “Unlock your terrain” has many faces. Just like the stories in this zine. Slackliner Lukas Irmler travelled to Brazil not only to fulfil one of his dreams by completing the classic on Pedra da Gávea, but also to open a spectacular highline at the Tabuleiro waterfall. The new masterpiece goes by the name of “No Rest for the Legends”. See page 16 to find out how it earned the name. Nearby, but still far away on a different type of mission, US climbers Kevin Jorgeson and Ben Rueck travelled to the land of the soccer World Cup. Their objective was to explore promising new hotspots for bouldering, but what they discovered was that the blocks of Brazil are as fascinating and full of potential as the country itself. See page 12. Two Spaniards, Dani Moreno and Eduard Marin Garcia, took a step outside their comfort zone and discovered new terrain in Peru. They pulled off a team speed ascent on 5,000metre La Esfinge, in the Cordillera Blanca. Less than two hours
to blast up 600 metres of vertical terrain! See page 4. Dreams fulfilled, new terrain discovered, a speed ascent at the limit, all comes down to one core state of mind: “Unlock your terrain!” And one sole. The Terrex Scope GTX®, Terrex Solo and Slack Cruiser - developed and used by our athletes - are built on the unbeatable grip delivered by STEALTH rubber. Because the unknown is definitely easier to conquer when you are sure on your feet. The best material is required when body and spirit venture through new terrain. However different our athletes and however different their activities, one sole produced a consistent result: one wickedly good feeling! This is a feeling that we can all experience, too. Remember, each of us has the key. We search for mental doorways to open to the terrain we’ve been dreaming of. We look for athletic challenges, sport milestones, physical adventures – these are the doors that we create ourselves, that only apply to us, and that only we can open. For behind each door is new terrain just for us, a chance to experience this unique feeling of exploration and discovery. Not everybody is cut out for a life the way somebody like Luis Soto leads it in Patagonia. He not only found his place in El Chaltén (page 38) but also his inner peace. Not everybody is as strong as Barbara Zangerl, the first woman to climb the Alpine Trilogy (page 30). Not everybody can take on the challenge of the Stikine River, like Jared Meehan, Sam Sutton and Darin McQuoid, who have kayaked its demanding yet beautiful waters (page 43). But everybody can experience this incredible feeling, of passing through a door inside of us and expanding our limits. This is YOUR terrain. Unlock it! What we can offer you is the opportunity to experience a mindblowing outdoor week, including flights and accommodation, in Brazil. As you will read in this issue, Brazil is an amazing country with a wide range of opportunities to explore fascinating and diverse landscapes. You can win this trip in our #unlockbrazil Challenge. If you can navigate through the jungle of Facebook, Instagram and friends and have an interest for outdoor activities - from climbing to trail - you will have no problem unlocking each level and perhaps ultimately end up flying to Brazil. Go to adidas.com/outdoor and download our iPad® app for more photos, more videos, more 3-D content, and more bonus information on all the stories in this magazine. And visit our Facebook page. Zero effort involved - we promise! And on that note, we wish you many days of getting out there and experiencing what it’s like to
unlock your terrain! You can begin by opening, enjoying and feeling inspired by this new edition of the adidas outdoor magazine.
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12 36
4
42
INDEX
34
3
30 40
16
20 4 la esfinge
The riddle of the Sphinx – Dani Moreno and Edu Marin crack the code in Peru
12 tudo bem!
say Kevin Jorgeson and Ben Rueck on their boulder trip round Brazil
29 reinhold messner column
Rock gymnastics without losing grip
30 alpine trilogy
Boulder Queen Barbara Zangerl goes alpine for real
42 malawi
Mélissa Le Nevé and Ben Rueck on a stunning boulder trip
43 stikine
Sucks in tree trunks, spits out matchsticks
16 the slAck-B-C
32 girls just wanna have …
… functionality combined
44 welcome
“No rest for the legends” – Lukas Irmler at the new slack hotspot
20 unbeatable grip
Meet the new STEALTH trio on the block
22 poster
Three big shots in South America
28 did you know that …
… STEALTH rubber was designed
for high-risk sports?
with their own style
Stefano Carnati
34 happy birthday
45 shortcuts
to the legend Reinhold Messner
36 patagonia
Three views, one fascination. The scream of stone is silent but strong.
40 the latest innovations
What’s new for spring/summer 2014?
Hot news from around the world
46 product overview
LA ESFINGE – PERU 4
La
e g n Esfi
the riddle of the sphinx A lost wager, a debt of honour, two Spaniards and a Sphinx in the middle of Peru - Dani Moreno and Eduard Marin Garcia together on a trip usually results in the following: loads of fun. And some impressive ascents. TEXT: FLO SCHEIMPFLUG PHOTOS: TIMELINE PRODUCTION
2-4-0
Edu Marin was sprinting up the last few metres to reach the belay when his partner, Dani Moreno, called up to him from 30 metres below. “Hey, Edu!” shouted Dani, grinning mischievously. “I have a riddle for you! If you get it, the beers are on me tonight! If you don’t, then you pay! So, what do you say?” “A riddle?” Edu shouted back, gasping for air. “You know [cough] that I love [wheeze] riddles. [Gasp] And beer!” Climbing quickly in the thin high-altitude air of La Esfinge (5,325 metres), an impressive granite mountain located in the heart of the Cordillera Blanca of Peru, Edu coughed like an old truck that will not start. “Clip into the belay, cabrón!” Dani said. “And I will tell you!” Speed climbing in the mountains follows a different set of rules than that of, say, El Capitan. At this altitude, being acclimatized is a serious matter and if you’re
not making frequent pit stops, you’re not going to make it. After stringing together over a thousand feet of pitches, Edu tied a clove hitch to the anchor, took a deep breath, breathed out, leaned back and relieved himself. “So, cariño,” said Edu. “Let’s hear the riddle.” “That’s cute, you’re calling me ‘sweetie’! But if you think that’s going to make it any easier for you, you couldn’t be further from the truth, Marino. This is serious. OK, what goes on two legs in the morning, four legs at midday and no legs in the evening?” “Ha ha, Dani, that’s easy! That’s the riddle the Sphinx asked Oedipus. I know my Greek mythology, amigo. Correct answer: a man. He crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age. Pay me my beer, por favor.” “Hombre: firstly, we are in Peru, not Greece. Secondly, you have to listen carefully.
Not four, two, three, but two, four, zero. Capiche?” “OK, then I have no idea, Dani.” “Well, it’s us two gringos, isn’t it? We hike the approach on two legs in the morning, during the day we climb like crazy on all fours, and when we finally get to the top we are so finished that we can only manage the descent on our gums.” All was quiet for a moment, neither batted an eyelid, then suddenly Edu and Dani sprang to life. They slapped each other on the shoulder, then high-fived. A quick glance at the time and then Edu started handing the gear to Dani. “Go on, the next block is yours. We’ve still got a load of climbing ahead of us. So get moving.” “OK,” said Dani, grinning widely. “But don’t forget: you owe me a beer!”
Back in the days
World Youth Championships, Rouen, France, 2001. It was here that a 13-year-old Dani Moreno from the tiny Spanish village of Daroca near Zaragoza – first met a 16-year-old Eduard Marin Garcia, from Barcelona. They discovered that they were on the
same wavelength and instantly became friends. However, because they lived so far apart and neither had a driving licence, they rarely managed to climb together. When their schedules did coincide, they absolutely ripped up some rock together. The chemistry simply worked through this shared climbing passion. Having fun on these trips was just as important as sending hard routes to Dani and Edu. A dynamic duo? Without a doubt. And a crazy one, too. And though they often found themselves separated for a long time, when they did get back together, it was always as if nothing had changed. In recent years Edu has become completely dedicated to sport climbing. In 2006 he onsighted his first 8c, and then became the first to repeat the ultimate Spanish resistance route La Rambla (9a+) in Siurana. For Dani, climbing was also a sport and a lifestyle that demanded everything from him physically; however, he was more interested in seeking those demanding projects on big-wall adventures in the most remote regions of the world.
Ready – set – go
“Dani, the Cordillera Blanca is unbelievable. And La Esfinge, oh man. A wall of golden yellow granite like from a dream. What about the potential of Hatun Machay? Bouldering, climbing, it’s neverending. You and me, my friend, we have to go there, straightaway!” Edu had just returned from his first trip to the Cordillera Blanca
LA ESFINGE – PERU 5
and his unbridled enthusiasm oozed from every pore. Following an operation on one of his fingers in the spring, he prescribed himself a month’s climbing in Peru to convalesce. There, he discovered a playground of unlimited possibilities. With his new buddy Chuki, who runs a mountaineering agency, he spent days climbing innumerable mountains and returned to happy villages to partake in a chill party scene. In Hatun Machay, Peru’s sport climbing and bouldering centre, he found a load of new friends, sent a bunch of new routes and, despite a still-recovering of his finger, he managed to climb Peru’s most difficult route: Karma (8c+). To Dani, Edu’s stories simply sounded too good to be true. But even more than the climbing, Dani knew he couldn’t say no to the opportunity to climb with his old friend Edu. “OK! When do we go?”
Into thin air – Lima, Huaraz and Hatun Machay
The Lima airport was busier than an anthill after a period of rain as a mass of people zipped by in frantic, confusing directions. Dani and Edu had just landed and were waiting for their luggage when Dani suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to face a man he had never before seen. The man offered him his hand. “You must be Dani. I am Cesar
Augusto Vicuña Pajuelo.” Dani studied him, astounded. “Cesar who?” Edu, who was a couple of paces away, bounded over. “Chuki, old pal! What’s up, amigo?” Chuki and Edu hugged each other. “Dani, this is Chuki. He is going to look after us.” The three of them got into a taxi, crawled through the evening rush hour in Lima and, as they left the city behind them, headed for Huaraz. The next morning Dani, Edu and Chuki sat in a bar, sipped instant coffee and attempted to take in their new surroundings. After all, Huaraz is located at 3,000 metres and for new arrivals coming from sea level, such a rapid change can really knock you out. “Quite nice here, isn’t it?” said Chuki, seeing a tired-looking Edu and Dani slumped in their chairs next to him. “You haven’t got used to the air here yet. Did you know that in Huaraz, you can get a taxi ride into the mountains?” Edu and Dani looked up astonished. “Look over there!” Their gaze followed Chuki’s finger and a couple of kilometres away they really could see the summit of the Cordillera Blanca illuminated by a surreal sheen. “Oh man, what awesome colours! That looks as though somebody has turned up the colour-intensity control,” murmured Edu as he surveyed the mountainous vista. “Colour-intensity control?” said Dani. “The elevation is shrinking your brain, amigo!”
“That is the air,” interrupted Chuki, “behind the Cordillera. It comes from the Amazon in thick, damp layers that break up the rays of light to produce this amazing spectrum of colour.” The Cordillera Blanca is a mountain range, 180 kilometres long, that winds its way through Peru from north to south. It features 50 mountains over 5,700 metres along the way, including Peru’s highest summit, Huascarán (6,768 metres). What is unusual about the Cordillera Blanca is not just the height of its mountains, but also its location in the southern tropics. The Cordillera is a mountain range of contrasts: it is steep and narrow, yet due to its altitude, it has more glaciers than any other range in the tropics. Here, climate zones do not merge gradually but collide abruptly with one another. Tropical plants in all their splendour often grow only a few minutes away from the austere desolation of the moraines and glaciers. Mother Nature puts on the whole show in the Cordillera without abandon. However, it is not just the local mountain scenery that makes Huaraz a place climbers can settle down in. On a hill to the southwest beyond the impoverished area of town, there are the boulders of Los Olivos. The immediate proximity of climbing and the fighting for
01// Job done? Not quite! The lads enjoy the last rays of sunlight and the exposure of the ridge on the Sphinx that brings them back to basecamp.
survival in the suburbs – corrugated metal huts huddled together, dirt roads strewn with potholes and so many stray dogs on the roam – seemed slightly unusual at first glance. However, the atmosphere changed immediately when Edu, Dani and Chuki met some local boulderers who were already enjoying what the blocks had to offer. A quick round of enthusiastic introductions crossed seamlessly into a lively bouldering session, giving the impression that these guys were old friends who had never done anything other than solve tough problems together. That is what successful integration looks like! Yet again,
01// Downtown Huaraz, where life knows no sleep.
01// Finger care takes time, even if night falls. Don’t forget to brush your teeth! 02//A vegetable seller watches his goods being unloaded in the colourful bustle of the main market of Huaraz.
01// ”Mono” the monkey tells Edu left and Dani right what he thinks ...
01// Los Olivos boulder above the gateway to the city at an elevation of 3,100 metres.
01// Takes your breath away in every respect – Hatun, top-class climbing.
LA ESFINGE – PERU
01// Huaraz, where it’s all happening on the Cordillera Blanca; most people lead very modest lives here. Few luxuries and hard work are the order of the day.
02// Chucki – Mr. “Climberland”. He looks after these guys like an older brother.
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01// Sightseeing in Laguna Parón. The turquoise water provides drinking water to the people in the valley.
02// How are we going to crawl up there? Too much choice in Hatun Machay, potential for generations.
03// ”Pollo” – no menu without chicken.
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En route back to basecamp. The last light falls on the mighty northern cliffs of the Huandoy.
02// Suckling pig burgers, vegetables, musical instruments, car tyres, cement – in Huaraz you can buy everything you need on the street.
01// Dani climbs “House of the Rising Sun” 7b in Hatun Machay.
01// The shepherds of the Pampas Chico community spend the summer living in their straw huts in Hatun Machay and watch over their sheep.
01// A forest of volcanic rock spread over several square kilometres. Hatun Machay, a dream turned to stone at 4,300 metres above sea level. 02// The guys enjoy the last rays of sunlight before the bitterly cold night sets in. 03// Dani cruises to the exit hold on the horn of the “Rino”.
N
S
The Sphinx
Their Toyota crept and wound its way around numerous bumpy hairpins on the road to Parón Valley. They passed small farmsteads through a wooden barrier, and continued up the serpentine road to Parón Lake. They parked and began their two-hour hike to La Esfinge. Finally, Dani and Edu stood at the base. “And? Have I promised you too much?” “That’s pretty big,” is all that Dani could muster. The humble respect in his voice was unmistakable. It was Dani’s first time in a mountain landscape of such monumental dimensions, and his awe was not out of place. Although the journey had only taken a few hours, the guys were now fully immersed in the high, committing world of alpine climbing. “Look, that’s where our line goes.” The duo had come to climb Via del 85 (5.11c), which was first ascended in 1985 by Antonio Gómez “Sevi” Bóhorquez and Onofre Garcia. Over 750 metres of the finest granite and right at the top of the wish list. “If there is one climb that we have to do, then it is this one,” Edu had said on more than just one occasion. They started approaching the next morning. The upper reaches of the Sphinx was bathing in the
LA ESFINGE – PERU
PERU
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we see how climbing is a passion that comes into its element when it is shared and for that very reason, climbing knows no social, geographic or material boundaries. The next afternoon, Edu, Dani and Chuki ventured to the unique rocks of Hatun Machay experience some of Chuki’s first ascents. Chuki had spent the previous year notching up a load of first ascents and exploring potential lines. An unusual thing about this rock paradise is that you can reach it by public transport using the so-called collectivos. One and a half hours after departure from Huaraz, the four debarked from the bus and stood in a beautiful green paradise at almost 4,300 metres. It was not just the altitude that took their breath away, but also the gobsmacking view. On a virtually never-ending plateau covered with yellow grass there were thousands of rock pinnacles in the most bizarre shapes with the weirdest surfaces. Chicken heads, honeycombs, typhoon-like twisters, mosaics in quartz – there was nothing you could not find in this stone garden. Apart from a couple of shepherds tending their flock who lived in self-built straw huts at the foot of the rocks, the climbing area of Hatun Machay felt deserted. “It’s like we’re on the moon,” said Dani. “Simply out of this world.” After a full day on the rock and a chilled Peruvian night in the refuge, it was clear to the Spaniards that Hatun Machay “has good vibes”. Although you could spend half a lifetime climbing in Hatun Machay and never get bored, the trio made their way back to Huaraz. Before they headed into the hills, Chuki reckoned there was something important for them to do first: “If you want to experience the full-on culture of a country, then you have to party with the locals!” Edu and Dani exchanged glances. Nothing easier than that. As dusk fell, the nightlife in Huaraz began pulsating. People flowed onto the streets, their voices filling the air. A brass band rounded a corner, playing music. Dani glanced into a small hallway where partygoers beckoned them inside. They danced, sang and drank. Dani, Edu and Chuki were made to feel as welcome as if they were part of the family. They were led onto a circuit of local bars, of which there are many. The night ended as they stumbled into the X-treme Bar at four in the morning, arm in arm with an entire town of new friends.
The next morning dawned with an unpleasant surprise: snow. The whole valley was draped in clouds and the atmosphere was damp and cold, the temperature hovering just above zero.
LA ESFINGE – PERU 8
soft pink morning light as Edu and Dani reached the start of Via. Dani took the lead and after just a few metres, all doubt had evaporated. No wonder, since the rock features come at you in rapid succession: double cracks, perfect dihedrals, tricky slabs, but a long way from a cakewalk climb. Placing protection and route-finding created the greatest puzzles on the Sphinx. The leader often found himself in a position where a fall would have severe consequences. The climbers took extreme care to not fall and to climb perfectly. By the afternoon Edu and Dani were standing on the summit, taking in the panorama. They both agreed that they had just climbed the best route of their lives.
The boys on speed
Alpine rock climbing can be compressed down to a series of first moments: the first glance up a wall. The first few metres climbed. The first smell and feel of the rock. These are moments that can never be repeated or recreated. Each time, it’s all new, even if you return to a wall to climb it again. Another set of vivid first moments, all over again. For Dani and Edu, Via del 85 was not a route they wanted to climb solely because of its beauty or stunning location. They wanted to push themselves to the limit by climbing it as fast as possible. This idea clearly pulsated in them after years of climbing competitions. Of course this approach is not easy for everyone to understand, especially the part about needing to constantly pushing oneself. Why do we take such risks? Over and over again? For Edu and Dani, life has to be a challenge. That’s imperative.
Due to the weather, the idea of making a speed ascent of Via del 85 appeared to be as likely as a bathtub full of hot water suddenly materialising in the middle of basecamp. Dani phoned in a weather report, which promised improvement, though not for a few days. No problem, as Edu and Dani are champions at making the most of their time. Over the ensuing days they had snowball fights, sculpted a busty snow woman, sang Spanish folk songs, played cards and, in general, became classic examples of men behaving badly. One evening the curtain of cloud withdrew and the sun shone through. Within a few hours the snow was history. Hope was back on the cards. The next morning was clear. Compared to a few days previously, they thinned the rack down to the bare minimum. Apart from a couple of cams and nuts, a 40-metre rope and a load of faith in the ability of themselves and their partner, Dani and Edu took nothing with them. That is exactly what speed climbing is all about: the right tactics, blind trust and an honest evaluation of the opportunities you have at your disposal. Even if you are sure you have all these capabilities in the chalk bag, climbing is still a risk. One small error, one slip or missed handhold far above the sparse protection and the consequences could be dire. There was no way they could hope to be rescued here, in such a remote location. They were on their own. OK, enough of the gloomy picture. It was time for the climbers to build up some speed! Edu and Dani got fired up, though they still found themselves struggling with the thin air. Edu dispatched the first 300 metres in a block lead. They were now halfway up the 750 metre long route. They swapped leads, and Dani took the sharp end. They simul-climbed and used every trick in the speed-climber’s book to keep moving. And after 1:45:43, Edu and Dani stood on the summit ridge together. Blood beat like a bass drum in their temples and it felt like their lungs would rip apart. No team has ever been faster on this route. There were no problems on the descent and when the boys reached basecamp the weather was still perfect. Their shapely snow woman had become an unrecognisable heap of mush. The two were pleased that there was still some time left before they had to break camp. “Edu, we still have one day,” said Dani. “Who knows when we’ll ever be here again. Let’s do something with it.” They did not have to think very long because the Sphinx still had one riddle to solve: a king line by the name of Cruz del Sur. “Oh man, I can hardly believe it. That is one of the best climbs I have ever done, Edu.” “I am happy for you, Dani, but so far you have said that at every belay.” Even the complex boulder section on the final 7a/7a+ pitch did not stop Dani and Edu’s run. Yet again they demonstrated their abilities, and after six hours and a few minutes they once again stood atop La Esfinge.
Lost wagers are debts of honour.
It is rare that folks achieve anything without having something to say about it afterwards. Summits are not usually silent places. Especially when it is two comedians like Edu and Dani. “Amigo, this is our last tour,” said Dani. “I hope you haven’t forgotten about that celebratory beer you owe me?” “And I thought that in such a significant moment you were going to say something meaningful like: ‘It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.’” “Sounds like Alex Huber?” “It’s Edmund Hillary, in fact. Let’s go, I need a beer.” “Tranquilo, you’ll get your beer. But first of all show me how to get down this mountain on your gums.” “Couldn’t be easier.” Dani lay on his stomach, lowered his head so that his nose almost touched the ground, opened his mouth and then started to crawl like a stranded walrus. “Now you try – works like a charm!” A priceless picture. Edu started to gabble away because he could not believe what his friend was doing while Dani rolled up in laughter because Edu, snorting and floundering, looked just as idiotic. After a few minutes they were both completely out of breath. They agreed that they should keep at least some of their energy for the descent. They threw their arms around each other again before heading back down.
01// Playing cards, singing along, having fun – no end of ideas for passing the time at the basecamp.
01// Nothing beats well-rehearsed teamwork.
02//
01// 01// Like these farmers, many in Callejón de Huaylas live from traditional agriculture.
02//
LA ESFINGE – PERU
What’s up with the weather? Between the seasons snow is part of the picture ...
01// Bouldering and sport climbing around basecamp are as important as breakfast and supper.
03//
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Basecamp is on the edge of a moraine; let the view sink in every day in full HD.
01// The array of colours of the Cordillera brings new surprises every day.
02//
Luis and Maximus fit into the landscape like the white peaks of the Cordillera.
01// Edu on speed in the double-crack crux of “Via del 85”.
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Dani tries mountaineering, sunrise on the 5,680-metre-high Vallunaraju and for breakfast back in Huaraz; that is how awesome it can be.
01// “ Via del 85” 5.11c, first ascent by Bóhorquez and Garcia in 1985. Edu says: “The best route I’ve ever climbed.” 02// “Cruz del Sur” 5.12b, 800 metres, first ascent by Mauro “Bubu” Bole, Silvo Karo and Boris Strmsek in 2000. Edu says again: “The best route I’ve ever climbed.”
The Andes in Peru feature the highest range of mountains on the American continent. Known as the Cordillera Blanca, it includes 50 major peaks over 5,700 metres high and extends a total of 180 kilometres.
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LA ESFINGE – PERU
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Part of this Cordillera Blanca is extremely glaciated, while another section known as Cordillera Negra is completely free of snow. Overall, the result is a varied mountain world full of contrasts, one where the likes of Spanish alpinist Dani Moreno feel at home. Whether sport climbing up to 9a, ascending classic walls in the Dolomites or speed climbs like the one on the Sphinx: Dani feels comfortable and safe in all terrains. There are many reasons for this, although there is one in particular that offers “unbeatable grip”. We are talking about the TERREX SCOPE GTX®, which handles challenging terrain with the same athleticism and agility as Dani. The sole is made from legendary STEALTH rubber to provide a fine balance between viscosity and elasticity for extremely high friction, paired with interfacing L-shaped studs that claw into the ground for reliable grip uphill and on descents. The smooth climbing zone in the toe area is ideal for rocky climbing sections and the stabilising heel facilitates descents over scree and hard surfaces. Thanks to the breathable GORE-TEX® membrane, the Scope thrives in the snowfields of the Cordillera Blanca as well as in the dry Cordillera Negra: moisture is kept out because water vapour can escape even if the legs inside the TERREX MULTI PANTS give everything they have got. These pants in lightweight and highly resistant 4-way stretch material are ideal for high intensity sports and are perfectly complemented by the TERREX WINDSTOPPER® HYBRID JACKET. Dani needs full freedom of movement while climbing and the dynamic FORMOTION® cut moves with him, enabling the highest possible performance without restricting movement during the widest imaginable range of activities. The materials used for the hybrid construction of this jacket are also wide-ranging. They work together to optimise wind protection, ventilation and flexibility, depending on the area of the body. This top performance item comes into a class of its own as the intensity level increases. That applies too in relation to the weather. The application of lightweight yet tough WINDSTOPPER® Active Shell makes it absolutely windproof with a compact stowage volume and maximum breathability. Used in combination with the TERREX 1/2 ZIP SHORT SLEEVE TEE made using merino wool and Cocona® fibres, they deliver intelligent moisture management and expand the comfort zone into the extreme sector. Ensuring the necessary outlook and overview on the summits of this planet is the TERREX PRO, which thanks to an antifog-coated Twin FilterTM and climacool® offers ventilation even in the most extreme conditions and is as athletic as Dani’s visions.
full range 01// Terrex WINDSTOPPER® Hybrid Jacket 02// Terrex 1/2 Zip Short Sleeve Tee 03// Terrex GTX® Active Shell Jacket 04// Terrex Multi Pants 05// Terrex Scope GTX® 06// Logo Beanie 07// Backpack Terrex 35 08// Socks 09// Eyewear a143 Terrex Pro
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LA ESFINGE – PERU STORY
TUDO BEM! – BRAZIL 12
Massiv e granit e blocks with some bizarr e shapes and intere sting lines.
4 January, 2010: the up-and-coming Brazilian climbing star Felipe Camargo had just sent his 3rd repeat of what was probably Brazil’s toughest boulder at that time: “O dia santo” (8b+) in the São Bento bouldering zone. The send was uploaded to the Internet, and caught the attention of his followers thanks to the video and news updates. The key message was: “O dia santo is the best boulder I have ever climbed! The 16 widely-spaced moves on good holds require a lot of stamina, which is totally my style. We need lots of climbers from other countries to come to Brazil and help us on all these projects! Consider yourselves invited.”
Tudo bem: two Brazilian-Portuguese words for all eventualities. The phrase is a way of life, a philosophy. Tudo bem is precisely the attitude you need to get the most out of an intensive bouldering trip to the country that hosts the World Soccer Championships.
Kevin Jorgeson BORN: 7 October 1984 in California WaS: a member of the US Youth Climbing Team from 2001 to 2002 LIKES: challenging climbs which are psychologically demanding HaS: done the first ascent of a must-do highball – “Ambrosia” (V12/5.14 Buttermilks/USA) ATTEMPts: at the moment one of the most difficult routes on El Cap, Yosemite
Ben rueck BORN: 13 May 1986 in Colorado WaS: an extremely versatile athlete as a child LIKES: complex climbing moves and exciting cruxes HaS: a Bachelor in history ATTEMPts: to find the right balance between devotion and discipline
Tudo Bem means something like “What’s up?” If you are in Brazil, then there is only one cool answer to this question: thumbs up and: “Tudo bem!” That is because tudo bem also means: “Everything is OK!” So it goes like this: Tudo bem? Tudo bem! Everything is OK, brother. Could not be better. Anytime, anywhere. Brazilians have an easy-going demeanour that seems simply innate. They’re always in a good mood. Sunshine radiates from the hearts of all smiling Brazilians. What if someone rams your car at full speed and totals it? Tudo bem. After all, you are lucky that nothing has happened to you. What if the whole country, despite, or perhaps, because of its rocketing economic development is still not where it could be on a global scale? Tudo bem. What if you you leave your backpack stuffed with thousands of dollars of camera equipment on the beach and suddenly a huge wave sweeps over it and carries it out to sea? Tudo bem. Wait … Tudo bem? Admittedly, there are nuances of tudo bem that tend towards: “It is what it is.” In other words, it’s not always a happy connotation but it can suggest an acceptance of life’s capricious ways. That is not what Murilo was thinking as he realised that thousands of dollars in camera gear and priceless photos might be drowning in salt water and sand. For someone who views everything in life as tudo bem, Murilo considered what sand would do to his camera lenses and seawater to his USB cards and he had a different expression: “Shit!”
Once again, tudo bem! All is well and everything will be OK … at least until you climb to the shaky top-out point ten metres off the ground. The crew met Felipe Camargo and his brother Bruno and experienced true Brazilian hospitality – welcoming, sociable, relaxed and chilled. The next day, the climbers picked up where they left off in São Bento, a place that Ben described as “the most beautiful place I have ever been climbing”. São Bento is special. Green hills, green mountains, in every possible shade of green, and even more bouldering opportunities. “You could spend weeks here,” says Ben. But then they moved on to the next spot. Kevin: “Murilo, how long will we be on the road?” Murilo: “Less than two hours.” It would actually be over four and a half hours. Tudo bem. Ubatuba is a small city on Brazil’s south coast, famous for its ten adjacent islands, 72 beaches and awesome bouldering. The Praia da Fortaleza peninsula stretches into the ocean. Despite the surf, the tides and the coastline, right on this brazen finger of land there are blocks of rock strewn around that are rated as among the best in Brazil. Well over 100 boulder problems are here for the solving. No surprise, then, that a major bouldering festival is held here every year. Nor is it surprising that a bouldering community has developed here either. Kevin, Ben and Murilo stood in Ubatuba on one of the granite blocks, waiting until the water retreated again. No climbing just yet. Were they being tudo bem about it? No! They were tense! No climbing! After their long car journey it was too late yesterday evening to start climbing. But it was still early enough to catch a glimpse of what awaited them the next day. It looked more than promising. Is that why, in an attack of over motivation, they all set their alarm clocks for 4:30 am? Possibly. What we do know is that although all the alarm clocks went off at that time, the crew did not get up until four hours later. No need to hurry things. The Brazilian way of life seemed to be taking effect. Heavy clouds hung in the sky with rain on the horizon. In these conditions, bouldering comes to a standstill. If it does not work out as planned … tudo bem. The crew got moving. They were lucky. Climbing was fun, the scenery impressive. The boulders on the narrow peninsula were right next to the ocean, and the waves crashed onto the beach. The waves got larger and larger as they were bolstered by the approaching weather until they reached monstrous proportions, forcing the three to run to a high rock for safety, abandoning Murilo’s backpack of camera equipment. As soon as the water had retreated, the pale Murilo rushed to the place he had stashed his stuff. He laughed out loud with relief. “Tudo bem!” Inside the labyrinth of the rocks the waves had miraculously broken up and somehow left the backpack high and dry. The magic of Brazil.
TUDO BEM! – BRAZIL
Tudo bem!
Tudo bem! This guiding principle is also recommended in regard to the national sense of time. It is well-known that time is relative and in Brazil it is perhaps slightly more relative than elsewhere. If an itinerary is supposed to take less than two hours, then you can expect that the journey will take at least six hours. Beware any journey officially in excess of two hours – you can easily multiply the duration that has been given you with a smile by a factor of two or three. Kevin: “How long will we be on the road?” Murilo: “About an hour.” Actual journey time: almost three and a half hours. Tudo bem? Tudo bem! Brazil is simply huge. Perhaps this geographic size explains the laid-back attitude of Brazilians. Stress is not going to get you anywhere. But tudo bem will. If you do not arrive at a climbing area until an hour before sundown, it’s better to make the best of the situation. This is something Brazilians do well. It is why this country is rapidly on its way up. As is the climbing scene, as Felipe Camargo demonstrated. Finally the Americans and Murilo arrived in São Bento. Impressive granite boulders were everywhere. Some of them were recognisable from the videos. In honour of the guests, whose tastes for tall boulders is well-known, a highball was served up on their arrival. The block was far too high to comfortably jump down to the ground, although that is often given as a defining feature of bouldering. What can you do in this kind of situation? Gradually get started? Take a break because you have just arrived? Start warming up?
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TEXT: MIKE MANDL PHOTOS: KEITH LADZINSKI
The invitation was accepted by Kevin Jorgeson and Ben Rueck, two American climbers. Kevin is definitely one of the most versatile climbers today, who feels at home on massive highball boulders as well as Yosemite big walls. Ben is also a multi-talented climber when it comes to vertical adventures. He is one of those climbing globetrotters who has already put his chalked-up hands all over the place. His first impression of Brazil: “If a country’s culture is reflected in their attitude towards climbing, then we are in for an interesting trip.” Upon arriving in Brazil, the two dove into the local culture. They met Murilo Vargas – the local aficionado, the guide, the driver, the photographer and the first point of contact for part one of this trip. Kevin and Ben were surprised to discover that, apparently, a prerequisite for obtaining a driver’s licence in Brazil appears to be multiple viewings of the film “Fast and Furious”. Murilo certainly seemed to be putting it into practice with screeching tires, overtaking cars beside scary precipices, passing oncoming vehicles, carts, people and missing donkeys by mere millimetres.
"Wh ich rule ?" "Do n´t die! "
TUDO BEM! – BRAZIL 14
Howeve r, assumi ng is not knowin g.
01// Gustavo burning the midnight light for the send. 02// Ben hoping his new beta lets him make it through the crux. 03// The crew all enjoying the stars after a hard days work. 04// Kevin racks up while Ben looks on at the upcoming adventure. 05// “Welcome to Itatiaia” – Kevin remembering the first rule... “No dying!” Tudo bem.
Time stood still. The boulder wasn't really difficult. I climbed slowly and carefully, well aware that I couldn't afford to make a mistake at the top. One last pull and I was on top.
So it was back to business, to climbing. Ben: “The rest of the day was spectacular. Kevin and I managed to crack a couple of classic highballs and a bunch of other boulders. At the end of the day our fingers were tired, but our spirits were running high.”
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The next morning they got straight back to it. This time in Itatiaia, an area so spectacular that it was declared Brazil’s first national park. Of course, Kevin had to ask: “How long will we take to get to Itatiaia?” Bruno: “A bit over two hours.” Actual time? Only five hours! Tudo bem. Bruno, the new driver, did make the journey pass more quickly though, with gripping stories about his life in Brazil. They drove through the diverse country. Mountains, valleys, dense jungle: green as far as the eye could see. The long yet interesting journey ended with excellent Brazilian food and the anticipation of this unique climbing area. Itatiaia is a Brazilian expression that means “rocks with many sharp edges”. Kevin and Ben were nervous about driving down the rocky off-road route to reach the area as they were in a normal car, not a specialised 4WD. In this situation only one thing helps: tudo bem. The road got too rough, and they traversed the last section on foot – good for both the nerves and eyes. Suddenly they’d arrived in an oasis for those thirsty for climbing. Boulders were everywhere with “never-ending potential”, as Ben described his first impression. Massive granite blocks with some bizarre shapes and interesting lines. The French climber, Enzo Oddo, had been here and established a hard but rewarding route rated 8c/+.
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Ub atu ba nic e bo uld ert rip to to Beach un d sÃo ben TUDO BEM! – BRAZIL
Kevin has the eye. He noticed something: another line, short and direct, on a perfect block with one tiny drawback: the route ended in three final moves with 20 metres of air beneath your feet. Making an error here would result in serious if not fatal consequences. What should they do? Tudo bem! It is exactly this kind of climbing on big, tall, scary lines in which Kevin thrives. Like an excited child he put on his shoes and chalked up. Then he grabbed the boulder: “Time stood still. The boulder wasn’t really difficult. I climbed slowly and carefully, well aware that I couldn’t afford to make a mistake at the top. One last pull and I was on top. I enjoyed the overwhelming view and the boulder kind of reminded me of a first ascent I did in South Africa and called ‘Welcome to Rocklands’. That is why I wanted to call this climb ‘Welcome to Itatiaia’.” Then it was Ben’s turn: “The boulder looked easy, but the mental challenge was immense. That was confirmed by a sudden pressure in my stomach.” Ben dropped out on the first attempt, but managed it on the second. However: what goes up, must come down! Ben: “How the heck did you get back down again?” Kevin: “You have to jump across to the next boulder.” Ben: “You mean the one from which you would surely die if you screw up?” Kevin: “That’s the one! But don’t forget the most important rule!” Ben: “Which rule?” Kevin: “Don’t die!” Ben jumped. Tudo bem.
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PHOTOS: MURILO VARGAS
The hunger for adrenalin, the appetite for exhilaration, seemed satisfied. It was good that Gustavo Fontes and Caio Salomão AFeto were part of the crew. It was them who had provided Lukas Irmler with excellent support during his slackline mission. They are as multi-talented as they are warm-hearted. Both are exceptional ambassadors of the Brazilian way of life: always motivated, always ready to lend a hand, always on top form.
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Kevin and Ben tried out several of their boulder problems, but after the first highball, they wanted to spend the rest of the day having fun. The day ended with a laid-back session over a panoramic view. Rope climbing was the agenda for the next day. To be precise, the ascent of Enzo Oddo’s line was waiting for them. They climbed a route that was fitted with bolts only as far as the first half. On the second half you had to fit protection yourself. Kevin wanted to lead it. Ben reckoned that even without wedges they had enough pro to make it reasonable. However, assuming is not knowing. Tudo bem can be a healthy dose of fatalism, but when the reserves reach the end then fatal wins the day. This important concept didn’t sink in for Ben until he was above the last bolt he had to acknowledge that they were not going to get through on his protection. Retreat? No. Go on? OK, tudo bem after all. With Kevin’s help, who had already climbed the tricky sections and was able to call out beta, Ben managed to gain headway though he was “mentally fried”. Did they have enough reserves for the Oddo route? Or had the supply of tudo bems run out? Dusk was knocking gently on the door and Kevin was almost there. He had the redpoint, the send, in the palm of his hands, but the sun was setting behind the horizon in a haze of red clouds. Shame. It was over. Tudo bem. Enjoy the moment instead. Hang around a bit longer. Look at the stars that gradually crystallised out of the ever-darkening atmosphere. There was now quiet. Nothingness. This, in fact, is something Brazilians seem to have a special relationship with. It was something that will remain in Kevin’s and Ben’s memories, something that can be taken back home with them. Home? Yes. Tomorrow was time to drive back to Rio. Tudo bem.
BRAZIL
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In keeping with tradition, the final evening was spent on the beach. Sand, bikinis, surfers and a crowd that happily cheered the setting sun. That is what you do here. Every evening. A shout of jubilation from the Brazilian soul, a celebration of the country‘s beauty, a celebration of the Brazilian way of life, a feeling that lives through the stark contrasts and is still authentic and life-affirming. Ben and Kevin will definitely come back. That is certain. Tudo bem.
TEXT: MIKE MANDL PHOTOS: KEITH LADZINSKI
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I w as able to ine wor ld. “N Two at tempt pl an w as to the fir st time, d back? em, ey in the sl ackl th an th e h of er ut ds th th So ar t bo w of t Bu d ou .” And on is the name Unbelievable. having checke very surroundings her the legends” ee m) That is e. Lukas ot. ere w as anot th lin sp oom out e gh ed hi lin on t gh ck es hi e full man? (S re e ng s th Th lo at ka to s a’ Lu ys: de ic sa ro er er s at Am ka w d e Lu s to return th . an e ly e al ov er re ab th Ever ybod y ha believable, . Full man, le line right st ib un in fir ss it le po ks d ab ee ke ck as w al ro w w Four tween a egendat tempt I some point. ey set it up be e to rest. “L n the second er Th b “O r tim b fo ll. u o e. fa N gh lin . g ou gh ck tin en hi ba a were -metre tion and the sap from and the exis South Amer ic w alk the 90 both the loca aditionally is p at one end tr to ro up tc eer s rm m ou bb su so su Ru at d y” ed a n an ar ec tio form d achiev for the er w helmed ditional prot Lukas. 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A is part of g quite ainly of rent Br azilian uresque pano l, I w as mov in ra consists m si ve and pict ndreds of diffe ent really wel hu w s e er ace for Th pl to . w here the flo t a ke ithout a mista e fir st brough e national park king location, w er ta Th t w . th os es at ea m sh th br al bu st es d fa danc gr ass an ch step . , the ial emotions. eds and spec eased w ith ea rant Africans tiful w ater falls de ig cr l au in m ia be im re ec its su sp by r po fo il ex Br az w hen is know n hip r right e I almost fell rticul ar. Fast things in thei d in the middl u tr ibe in pa an nt Ba Just to keep nd t -a ck lk abou d complex ba , we w ill ta movements an order, though tgh ei an g in Follow them later.
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19
q:
THE SLACK-B-C OF BRAZIL
m:
with
STEALTH RUBBER
Three different models, one key attribute – unbeatable grip. Terrex Scope GTX®, Terrex Solo, Slack Cruiser. Three shoes launched by adidas featuring STEALTH rubber, known for its unmatched performance on rock and line. Extremely high friction is created by STEALTH rubber’s fine balance of viscosity and elasticity as it flows into microscopic cavities on surfaces. Thanks to this unique rubber compound and advanced sole concepts, the three models guarantee ultimate performance on their specific terrain.
TERREX SCOPE GTX® For approaches in alpine areas with rocky and loose terrain and minor climbing sections. In addition, the interfacing L-shaped studs claw into the ground to deliver extra grip on ascents and descents.
01/ STEALTH RUBBER for unbeatable grip.
02/ GORE-TEX® Extended comfort membrane. Waterproof and breathable.
STEALTH TECHNOLOGY
03/ SPECIAL OUTSOLE featuring: A heel step for steep descent. B L-shaped studs for penetration and great grip on loose terrain. C climbing zone in toe area.
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04/ ADIPRENE® insert for comfort and shock absorption.
05/ PRO-MODERATORTM for midfoot stability.
TERREX SOLO Now, for the first time, climbers and boulderers can enjoy the lightweight approach shoe with STEALTH rubber – the unique compound that offers unbeatable grip and ultimate performance on any gradients and low-grade climbing.
01/ STEALTH RUBBER for unbeatable grip.
02/ CLIMBING ZONE in toe area.
03/ ADIPRENE® insert for comfort and shock absorption.
04/ PRO-MODERATORTM
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UNBEATABLE GRIP
for midfoot stability.
SLACK CRUISER Using STEALTH technology in its sole and a low profile for maximum surface area, the Slack Cruiser offers unbeatable grip. This means that not only can you perform tricks on the slackline but also straightforward approach climbs for highlining are no problem. The forefoot of the Slack Cruiser is very flexible and sensitive, while the midfoot offers good stability. In addition, feet are low to the ground, giving a natural feel.
01/ STEALTH RUBBER for unbeatable grip.
02/ FULL-LENGTH SOLE EDGE for precision walking and landing.
03/ TOUGH CANVAS TOE CAPS reinforced with TPU prevent abrasion as they have to withstand frequent jumps and contact with the line.
04/ PRO-MODERATORTM for midfoot stability.
brazil Itatiaia ATHLETE: Kevin Jorgeson (USA) LOCATION: ”Abrasivo Extention” V10 – Brazil, Itatiaia PHOTO: Keith Ladzinski
Brazil Pedra da Gavea ATHLETE: Caio Salomão AFeto (BRA) LOCATION: Pedra da Gávea – Brazil, Rio de Janeiro PHOTO: Keith Ladzinski
peru la esfinge ATHLETE: Dani Moreno (ESP) LOCATION: “Cruz del Sur” 5.12b, La Esfinge – Cordillera Blanca, Peru PHOTO: bøa!
… T A H T W O N K U ber WAS DESIGNED DID YLO TH rub … S TE A ? S T R O P S K IS R H IG H R O F
TEXT: ANDREW BISHARAT PHOTO: STEVEN GROSSMAN
DID YOU KNOW THAT …
Cole quickly turned his attention to inventing high-friction rubber for specialised climbing shoes. “No one had actually done any research on rubber for climbing shoes at that point,” said Cole. “With my engineering background I knew it would be fairly easy to invent a new rubber.” At the Cal Tech library he read everything he could about rubber. He devised his own theories about what would increase its stickiness. Finally he approached chemists at a rubber company about producing his formula. “My first formula was not all that great,” says Cole, “but it was good enough.” He continued experimenting. Later he got a call from one of the chemists who said he had screwed up one of Cole’s formulas, but to come check it out anyway. At first Cole wasn’t interested in seeing the chemist’s mistake. But after a second prodding, Cole went to the lab to check it out. He was blown away. The fluke formula was actually way better. “My first question was: ‘What did I do wrong?’” Cole said. “The wrong formula became the right one, and we went on researching from there. I got a little lucky.”
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In 1985 Charles Cole was living the dream in Yosemite when he found the note that would change his life. Tacked to the Camp 4 message board, the scrap of paper said: “Call home.” During those years Cole lived as a climbing bum, splitting his free time between Yosemite and Joshua Tree where he achieved many first ascents. Notably, he climbed “Jolly Roger” (VI 5.11 A5) in 1979 with Steve Grossman, on El Cap’s southwest face. And in Joshua Tree, Cole edged his way up the slippery slabs “Run For Your Life” (5.10b R, 1978) and “When Sheep Run Scared” (5.10c R, 1983). In July 1985 Cole soloed the first ascent of “Space” (VI 5.10 A4) on El Cap’s southeast face. It was after this ascent that Cole found the disturbing note to “call home.” He immediately dialled up his mother. His father, he learned, had suffered a stroke and a heart attack. “All of a sudden my family had no means of support,” said Cole. “I was 30 years old, so I knew I had to do something for my family.” Though Cole was a dirtbag climber, he was also educated, with an engineering degree from University of Southern California, and an MBA from the University of Michigan. One of Cole’s assignments in business school was to make a list of potentially profitable ventures. Right at the top of his list was: “Make new rubber for climbing shoes.” In the early 1980s, climbing shoe rubber was generic stuff with low frictional properties. It performed horribly on glacier-polished Yosemite granite. One popular model of climbing shoes used rubber from old airplane tires. Many California climbers were wearing a Polish-made tennis shoe called, appropriately, the “Scat”. It was comfortable but had a flimsy sole that climbers would attempt to replace with patches of old tire rubber, cobbling together their own makeshift Frankensteins of footwear. Approaches and descents can be some of the most dangerous parts of a climb, especially if you’re wearing slick-soled sneakers. Cole realised when he had a nearfatal slip while descending Sentinel Rock in Yosemite. “Climbing is the only sport I know of where the shoes can define whether you can do a route or not,” said Cole. “Your shoes can make you or break you.” In the wake of his father’s sickness, Cole, with the help of his mother, started Five Ten®, a name referring to a climbing grade in the Yosemite Decimal System. His original inspiration was to build a “hybrid” shoe that was technical enough for climbing, comfortable enough for walking and incorporated sticky rubber on the sole. The term “approach shoe” didn’t exist at the time, but Cole built the first one – the Five Tennie – in 1985.
STEALTH rubber had been born and with it climbing progressed forward by leaps and bounds. Clad in sticky-soled shoes, climbers were now enjoying a degree of security that they’d never known before. They could stand on footholds, and therefore climb routes once deemed impossible. Over the next six years, standards hurtled forward from 5.13+ to 5.14+, largely thanks to sticky rubber. “In dangerous sports, where people were risking their lives, people appreciated what we made,” said Cole. “It changed the way climbing was done.” STEALTH rubber garnered a reputation for being the highest-friction rubber available. In fact, STEALTH has been used by the military, NASA, the Cirque du Soleil and even Hollywood: Tom Cruise relied on STEALTH for his climbing stunts in the series of “Mission Impossible” movies. One of the keys to Cole’s success is that he invested, early on, in building his own rubber lab, 30 feet from his office, where he could easily tinker with new formulas. Cole bought most of the equipment used on eBay and from bankruptcy auctions. “Now that I have my own lab I can produce four samples a day,” he said. While working with Tom Cruise and the “Mission Impossible” team, Cole was asked to make a shoe that could climb glass and metal. He had a new formula of rubber on a pair of shoes within two weeks. Cole has always been motivated by creating products that help extreme athletes be better at what they do. Improving athletic performances is a goal that has also been central to adidas as well. In 2011, in a historic and celebrated partnership, adidas acquired Five Ten® and immediately began working with Cole on recommendations for shoes that would benefit from STEALTH rubber. It was immediately clear that the adidas Terrex Solo was a perfect match for STEALTH C4. World-renown climbers Bernd Zangerl and Alexander Huber were some of the first athletes to test the Terrex Solo, reporting amazing results. In climbing, having proper friction not only means improved performance but it can be the difference between life and death on extreme approaches and descents. Climbers are not the only athletes in need of high-friction soles. The confidence inspired by having STEALTH underfoot can now also be experienced with the adidas Terrex Scope GTX, which is a more stable alpine approach shoe based on the Terrex Solo but with a higher profile and an upper with a GORE-TEX® membrane. In addition, the team developed the adidas Slack Cruiser, a STEALTHsoled shoe specialising in slacklining and tricklining, sports in which having highfriction grip for your feet is crucial if you want to land on that thin, elusive line. This is only the beginning. Project teams in Redlands and Herzogenaurach stay in touch regularly, in person and on the phone, creating a dynamic, forward-thinking partnership that is just getting started. Many have noted that adidas founder Adi Dassler and Charles Cole have a lot in common: both are visionaries who have spent a lot of time in the lab, testing, experimenting and working on products that help make athletes better. Currently, new rubber formulas are being developed and experiments conducted. And who knows? Perhaps luck will play a role in it all once again.
S C I T S A N M Y G K C O R P I R G G N I S O L T U WITHO
“Chamois hunting is one of the most necessary and yet most difficult and dangerous pastimes of a very special kind. The hunters can make no use of dogs. The hunter often has to jump from one steep rocky pinnacle to another himself. His equipment consists of a poor-quality smock, gun, powder and shot, a bag, which contains some dry bread and meat or cheese, and a pair of boot irons, which he can fit to his boots to climb steep rocks or glaciers. His hostelries are the Alpine farms where he finds replenishment in the form of milk and dairy products. Here he can also spend the night, often simply lying on the ground. Frequently he will go out to hunt in the morning, and either never come home again, or have to be carried away in bits. He often falls such a great height over rocks and mountains that he is never found again. The animals are often driven by the hunter, or several hunters, into a corner that is hardly half a boot-width wide, a high rock wall in front and a bottomless precipice behind. When these animals see that they cannot move forward and their enemy is behind them, they suddenly start jumping in panic from one rock to another, past the hunter, who they push into the abyss. In such dangerous situations the hunter either lies flat on the ground so that the chamois can jump over him without contact, or he stands upright as close to the wall as possible so that the animal can jump past him.” It was not until the early 1900s that the first significant innovations came along as far as footwear for rock climbing was concerned. At that time the Dolomites were not only a challenge for the best climbers, but were also a centre for innovation in mountain sport. The two-man mountain guide team, Michele Bettega and Bortolo Zagonel – unmatched back then – were asked by an English woman to accompany her on the first ascent of the Marmolada south wall. The team worked well together having successfully climbed other first ascents and they were familiar with the steepest rock. They also carried new types of equipment with them: bolts and lightweight climbing boots. Beatrice Tomasson, from the home of English rock climbing, was at the time employed as governess for Edward Lisle Strutt in Innsbruck, where she joined the Alpine Association in 1894. The two of them climbed many mountain routes together. Later, E. L. Strutt was even the second leader of the British Mount Everest expedition in 1922. He climbed to an altitude of almost 7,000 metres. For Tomasson, the most important thing was experience in rock climbing. Did the well-connected lady have new boot soles from the colonies in her box of tricks? In 1898 together with Luigi Rizzi they were the second team to climb the crumbling west wall of the Laurinswand, which at the time was reckoned to be the most difficult rock climb in the Dolomites. At the top of the route her mountain guide used iron bolts that he had hammered into cracks in the rock during the first ascent. In 1900 the daring lady and Luigi Rizzi successfully climbed the south wall of Daint di Mesdi in the Sella Group and following their first ascent of Torre del Sass da Lec in the same area, she and her guide risked a reconnaissance of the Marmolada south wall. On 1 July 1901 she then undertook her greatest adventure, first ascent of the south face of Marmolada di Penia: 600 metres of smooth, almost vertical rock. But how? Her brilliant guide Luigi Rizzi from Campitello in the Fassa Valley had to give up because it was too difficult. And did not Otto Ampferer and Karl Berger – who successfully managed the first ascent of Campanile Basso in the Brenta Group – also fail in attempting to climb the Marmolada south wall? Yes, but with climbing boots with Manchon soles. These important excursions in the
The main thing was to complete the climb quickly. All three of them wore climbing boots and carried lightweight backpacks. Michele Bettega, 48 years old, does well in the melt water-formed chimneys. From the first ledge he leads the team into a large left-hand arc linking up with the second terrace. In the middle, however, the weather turns nasty. It hits the climbers on the upper section of the wall. Beatrice Tomasson is hit by falling stones. Bettega hands over the lead to Zagonel, who manages to climb the icy summit wall. In a snowstorm. Twelve hours after Tomasson, Bettega and Zagonel left Obretta Pass, they are standing on the summit, from where their support team – Dal Buos and Soppelsa – guide them across the Marmolada glacier back down into the valley. They are all wearing nailed boots, which grip well in slush and ice. So it was better climbing boots that heralded the start of the age of “modern” climbing, difficulty grade alpine climbing. Over the next century more and more equipment and techniques were developed with ever more daring routes attempted. Although this development was criticised as “careless and pointless rock gymnastics” at the 1901 German and Austrian Alpine Association General Meeting in Meran (pointless climbing sport compared to serious mountaineering), the search for better grip continued. Alpine history is never just philosophical history; it also involves aspects of a technical nature: experience, development of equipment and techniques. They determined the art of climbing from the very start. Since the beginning of the 20th century climbers have worn especially soft shoes with felt or Manchon soles, similar to today’s special climbing shoes, although these offer many times more friction. Back then, however, there were already climbing shoes available with rubber soles. “Red Indian Rubber Soles” were apparently in use by 1888. Irishman G. Scriven and the mountain guide Michele Bettega used them on Pala di San Martino, for example. Protection included open-hook bolts, quickly followed by karabiners and snap rings that allowed the rope to be clipped into the bolts. Beatrice Tomasson, who climbed many summits in the Dolomites with her favourite guide, is full of praise for Bettega: “He conquered all of these summits without making a single mistake. We never had to turn back and always managed to successfully finish everything we started. It is actually superfluous to praise a mountain guide who is capable of such ascents and I can say that I am extremely satisfied to have had the great luck of accompanying such an excellent guide again and again.” But no mention of the “Rubber Sole”. In autumn 1902 the best climbers of the day from the Wilder Kaiser, Georg and Kurt Leuchs, climbed the Marmolada south wall, bivouacked and then reached the summit directly via the final wall. Georg Leuchs said: “A small cave offered emergency refuge. Pulling together all our strength and skill, at the same time as exercising the greatest of caution, the next day we managed to slowly but surely climb the snow-covered wall. It was a deliverance from anxiousness and doubt as we finally caught sight of a black triangle shimmering through the mist to the right of us.” Today’s climbing shoes offer a completely different dimension in friction efficiency compared to those worn by Bettega, even though their shape and design are not dissimilar to the cut used at the time. Rugged mountaineering boots, like the ones we wore in my childhood – on extreme rock as well as on the north face of the Matterhorn – are out, as are hobnailed boots too.
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Every important piece of equipment – from hobnailed boots to crampons and bergstocks – was adopted by the first mountaineers from mountain farmers and chamois hunters in the Alps, as the “Travel diaries”, Berlin 1768, explain:
Dolomites in 1901 – Beatrice Tomasson with mountain guides Michele Bettega and Bortolo Zagonel – were not only organised by a woman, as the initiator of this first ascent Beatrice Tomasson was also responsible for the right guides and the best equipment. Bettega is most creative at finding the right line, while Zagonel, 15 years younger, is the ideal climber if the weather takes a downturn. But neither of them are capable of miracles. Tomasson, Bettega and Zagonel left behind two other guides – their support team – after spending the night at the Ombretta Alm. The support team carried the nailed boots and warm clothing to the summit of Marmolada di Penia. To the east of the Ombretta Pass, Bettega started climbing the system of chimneys that rises up to the right below the first ledge. The team were equipped with everything that was available at the time, including some important new kit. Bettega had mastered the rope traverse, he had rubber soles on his climbing boots, he was fine-tuning a method of rappelling, and he used bolts as protection mid-pitch. All that at the end of the 19th century!
REINHOLD MESSNER COLUMN
REINHOLD MESSNER
Queen of the
lpine
“Silbergeier” on the 4th Kirchlispitze in Rätikon (CH).
What do you do if you have planned a nice big project, done it, and then find out to your surprise that there are still plenty of good climbing days left in the year? Take time to chill? Not if your name is Barbara Zangerl. Then you take a week off to gather your thoughts before setting off to a new destination. Originally, completing the Alpine Trilogy was not on her list, she even surprised herself with that one, she says. Now she is the first woman to have repeated all the Trilogy routes. Three routes that still count as the most difficult in the Alps. Three routes that up until 1994 only four men were able to write in their diaries. It is therefore quite right that the climbing scene is full of admiration for “one of the strongest women climbers in the world”. The first ascenders are particularly impressed. “The Boulder Queen has rediscovered herself,” says Beat Kammerlander, “she has extreme climbing ability.” Thomas Huber agrees: “Babs is one of the greatest in the Alps. Just imagine switching from two-metre blocks to 200-metre walls in such a short time.” Stefan Glowacz goes even further, speculating that she is the protagonist in a new era: “Women are daring to show what they can do. There has been nobody like this since Lynn Hill.”
thomas huber
stefan glowacz
beat kammerlander
Trilogy
ALPINE TRILOGY
“Des Kaisers neue Kleider” (“The Emperor’s New Clothes”) on Fleischbankpfeiler in the Wilder Kaiser (AUT).
“The End of Silence” on Feuerhorn in the Berchtesgaden Alps (GER).
The meanest handhold?
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“This one-finger pocket grip on the 5th pitch. Because I am relatively small, I had to overstretch on this one and then, from this position, move my foot up to almost shoulder height.”
“A tiny undercling at the crux on the 5th pitch, which was always damp. You have to stick your fingers right in and then immediately grab the next move with a slimy hand. No time to rechalk.”
“A small, vertical crack that you have to finger-jam at shoulder height before reaching over to the next hold on the right. It is difficult to exert downward pressure on your feet in this position. Repeat climbers have found an alternative parallel route that is safer to climb.”
The toughest pitch? “All the pitches on ‘Silbergeier’ are tough, but the 5th is especially challenging because you have to maintain the pressure for a very long time.”
“The 8th is the most difficult technically. There is a foothold, which your feet just do not want to stick to. I needed many attempts before I could finally climb that section.”
“The area around the crack on the 8th pitch is the crux of the route. You can redpoint up to this point relatively easily and then come two, very tricky, metres. By then you have used up quite some energy after eight pitches. I have even dreamt in my sleep about these two metres.”
How did the idea for this route evolve? “It was an open project by Martin Scheel from 1986, he only managed to climb the first 15 metres; time was not right yet. I managed to climb that section straightaway in 1993 and then kept on going. It was a no-brainer since I come from that area. I had already done a number of first ascents, like ‘Unendliche Geschichte’ (‘Never Ending Story’) in 1991, the first alpine route in the upper 10th grade. ‘Silbergeier’ became my milestone, the most beautiful route I have opened up.”
“Climbing the central section of the Fleischbankpfeiler was Wolfang Müller’s idea. He used to belay me there with immense patience when I was training for competitions. In return, I had to promise that I would be with him to do the ‘Emperor’ at least once. It was a real eye-opener: I was so impressed that we spent the whole of summer ´92 there to set up the route. Unfortunately Wolfgang was not able to be there for the redpoint in 1994 due to an injury.”
“As a young climber I had a summer job at the Traunsteiner hut. I had already been climbing and dreamt of doing the first ascent of exactly this route. ‘The End of Silence’ was a childhood dream and in the end a very important project. From the first point of contact to redpoint it took me more than eight years. I had other objectives meanwhile, but always came back to Feuerhorn.”
What does the name of the route mean? “That is what Martin Scheel called the route and he was pleased that I kept the name. It refers to the light-grey, silver shimmer of the rock surface.”
“‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ is intended to indicate something novel about the ‘Emperor’ – a new dimension in performance, new rules to the game, a new grade of difficulty. We were pioneers back then.”
“I was virtually a prisoner on this shady wall for hours, days, months at a time. Often I was also alone here and it was a very intensive but also silent time. When I finally nailed it, I had conquered a new world and won back my freedom. It was also the end of the silence.”
What were you most frightened of? “The never-ending runout on the last pitch was certainly scary. Especially because I had already bailed there once and had heavy rock contact during the flight. Still, I didn’t want to place a runner as mid-way protection. It was about crossing a psychological barrier.”
“The landlord at the Stripsenjoch mountain hut. We were friends and he often used to let us ride up the mountain on the goods cableway. It was an extremely wobbly affair to start with, but he used to have a laugh by switching the cable car off when it reached its highest point. Once, when the gondola started slowly jolting backwards, we were 150 metres above the ground with our nerves in shreds.”
“The beautiful summer in 1994. It was simply too hot to be able to grip the handholds. At the end of August it finally cooled down.”
What should repeat climbers bring with them? “Courage or a 200-metre rope.”
“Good calluses on your fingers and an understanding for some old-school climbing.”
“A couple of Camalots and nuts maybe. People say that we have skimped on bolts on the easier pitches.”
“ The Boulder Queen has rediscovered herself. ” “Because I am so stubborn,” says Babs. That is why the Austrian had put the “Silbergeier” route on her to-do list for 2013, the Beat Kammerlander masterpiece in Rätikon. A very special route for the 25-year-old, one which will literally remain a painful memory. That is because the tricky underclings on the 5th pitch were probably the reasons she had to abort her first attempt on the Kirchlispitze in 2011 due to back pain with a vengeance stemming from a slipped disc developed earlier during bouldering. On that occasion she had teamed up with Nina Caprez. Their objective: the first female ascent. It was then claimed by Nina, and Babs had to suffer “the waste”, as she called it, of six months forced rest. In 2012 it was she who came back with a vengeance, snagging Thomas Hubers jewel “The End of Silence” - part one of the Trilogy. It was with mixed feelings when she returned in 2013 to take on “Silbergeier”, a mixture of excitement but also “I was worried about an injury relapse,” she says. But then everything felt so much better. Without having to boulder cautiously she climbed the critical sections and the best thing was that she was completely free of pain on the dreaded undercling moves. On 28 July she had topped out. Everything went so quickly. Faster than planned. And that is how, just a short time later, hikers on the Wilder Kaiser heard the echo of a woman cussing very loudly. Every half an hour the f-word echoed through the landscape. Because yet again Babs was hanging on one of the most difficult routes in the world. This time on the 8th pitch of Stefan Glowaczs highlight “Des Kaisers neue Kleider” (“The Emperors New Clothes”). “For me the most athletically demanding route,” she says. But she pulled through, exceeding the known limits of her strength. Even she was stunned at being able to somehow fight her way up the final pump moves as she grabbed the lifesaving hold at the top of the crux. “My nerves had all but deserted me and I was holding back the tears,” she says. By 7 pm she was standing on the summit of the Fleischbankpfeiler with her climbing partner Jacopo Larcher, who would go on to bag the same route a few days later. What does she look like when she is happy at winning a battle like that? Just watch her film “Same same but different” (about “The end of Silence”) to witness such a moment: she shouts “Fetzengeil, voll cool, geil!” across the mountains! Elated. Happy. Relieved.
des kaisers neue kleider
31
ALPINE TRILOGY
TEXT: EVA MESCHEDE PHOTOS: BEAT KAMMERLANDER, HANNES MAIR, KLAUS DELL´ORTO, CHRISTIAN WALDEGGER, KLAUS FENGLER, adidas
silbergeier
2014 the twentieth
Three climbers, three routes, one objective: raising the bar in sport climbing. 1994 signalled the start to a “new age in alpine climbing” with the euphoric celebration of three first ascents. “Des Kaisers neue Kleider” by Stefan Glowacz on the Wilder Kaiser (9 pitches), “Silbergeier” by Beat Kammerlander in Rätikon (6 pitches) and “The End of Silence” by Thomas Huber on Feuerhorn (11 pitches) still rate today as some of the most challenging routes in the Alps with an upper 10 grade of difficulty. Even after 20 years, the number of repeats can easily be counted on two hands. For all three routes – the complete Trilogy – one hand is enough. So far, only five people have repeated all three climbs: Stefan Glowacz, Hari Berger, Ondra Benes, Mark Amann and, as the first woman, Barbara Zangerl.
the end of silence
birthday
girls
just wanna have ... TEXT: EVA MESCHEDE PHOTOS: HANNES HUCH, CHRISTIAN WALDEGGER
Imagine that you are two metres above your last bolt. It’s only another half metre to the next clip, but you have no idea how you’re going to get there, or what to make of that tiny undercling above your head. Or perhaps you find yourself glancing down at the crashpad far beneath you, wondering whether you should go for the dyno or not. Your body tenses with determination. You jump for the top of the boulder, and pray the hold behind the tickmark is good. These are the moments when the world around you is swallowed up in silence – there is only you and the rock. Obviously what describes your climbing outfit is “Form follows function.” In those intense moments high above the crashpad or far beneath the next clip, you need your outfit to support you, be practical and lightweight, warm yet cooling, and certainly never get in the way. When all those requirements on functionality have been met, form then comes into play. Every
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TALKING. WRITING. BEING SILENT. As long as there are so many topics out there and as long as I feel the longing to describe and mentally digest them, I will continue to write even if I will write a little less than in the past. In the book I am currently working on I try to put to paper my experiences about the naked human nature. I will certainly not write about my past adventures anymore although I might briefly scan some of them to show where the experiences that I am describing are coming from. Of course, these experiences are distinct and subjective but in my opinion they can be transferred to anyone. Some of my future readers might say: “This is terrible, I can hardly believe what he is writing” and maybe this book will be a spark for a discussion about morals. That’s exactly what I want because for me every moral, be it law or religion, is insincere. The fact that we (the traditional mountaineers) are moving within an archaic space following anarchic patterns because all responsibility rests on our shoulders alone, provides us a point of view on the human nature that civilisation does not allow. And this human nature is what I am going to describe. Nowadays those spaces where we can be on the way as “anarchists” become less and less. Gym-climbers know as little about this space as those who climb Mount Everest when there are more than 1,000 people in basecamp and the mountain is perfectly groomed. 90% of the climbers want to climb harder and harder every day but they never sacrifice. Not the chalk, not the bolts and not the oxygen when they climb high mountains. It is therefore obvious that the idea of sacrifice hasn’t been a successful one and remains a past period in alpinism. Nowadays alpinism is mainly a sport. What is happening on the 8,000-metre peaks I call “extreme tourism”. This means that an organiser grooms the mountain to put a big number of people on top of it: the client walks a slope to the mountaintop. There’s no doubt that this is exhausting and also great, because it gives people the opportunity to achieve something extraordinary. But we have to face things as they are: this kind of approach has nothing to do with traditional, independent and self-responsible mountaineering. I am interested in what the British call “trad-alpinism”. There exists loads of mountain and adventure stories that haven’t been dealt with from a psychological point of view. In this regard alpine history is stuck for an answer. I am more and more interested in what happens to humans respectively the human nature when it performs crazy tasks: what have those people felt, in which fear trap have they tumbled? I have hundreds of such topics in mind but you can relax, I don’t intend to work about all of them. In the future I will definitely not answer any denunciators anymore. There exist more than enough conspiracy theories about me already.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
“A GREAT PLEASURE FOR WALKING AND MUCH CURIOSITY IS WHAT KEEPS ME GOING”
34
Reinhold Messner is 70. What can one say about this? Much? Little? The usual? Something different? More than all the others? This is not an easy question. One that everybody has to answer for oneself. The answer that we found is simple: we say nothing – and let Reinhold Messner speak. Last but not least this interview is meant also as a gesture. A gesture of gratitude for a decade-long inspiration as well as one to submit our wishes with. With this in mind we wish you a Happy 70th birthday, Mr Messner! TEXT: FLORIAN SCHEIMPFLUG
CHANGE OF PARADIGMS AND SENSE OF WELL-BEING.
Back when I traversed the Gobi desert I started off in a state of timelessness. I felt neither young nor old. But the Gobi traverse became a key experience. Afterwards I told myself: “You should not do anything like that anymore.” I realised that my ability to suffer was not the same anymore as it always had been. Strength and skillfulness are the first qualities to decrease in the course of a lifetime. From a well-built endurance you can live off much longer. The last thing to decrease is the ability to suffer. In the past I did 2 – 3 expeditions per year. At the age of 55 I switched into politics for a short time and detached from that way of life. The older I got the faster the depletion progressed. I didn’t do as much as I used to and mainly lost my endurance but for a long time I had the feeling I still could achieve anything if I only really wanted to. The Gobi experience has changed that for good, I have accepted it and backed off. Meanwhile I agree to be an elderly gent and I honestly feel good about it. For sure I am not going to deliver any sensations anymore. My 70th birthday is definitely no key experience for me. I see it in a relaxed manner. I will invite my good friends and we will celebrate in an alpine surrounding. Whoever intends to use my birthday to tell any stories may do it, I let it happen.
THE PRESENT AS A MEANS AGAINST BOREDOM. I am not worried that I will be bored in old age and I am sure not going to suffer from the fact that won’t be able to do this or that. I am really looking forward to pursuing my doings with neck and crop. The passion is still there. I am currently working on an idea, indulging in a passion or in other words: I am working on financing my new project. Besides that there exist plans to climb a few moderate routes in the Dolomites in the next year but this will be irrelevant for high-end alpinism. On the other hand I do feel a huge enthusiasm for all these young guys who achieve those crazy things – be it in the walls, in sport climbing or in alpine realms. Some of them push limits and go beyond boundaries which I haven’t even considered. For example David Lama and his project on Masherbrum (7,821 metres, Karakorum/Pakistan) or Hansjörg Auer. I have gazed up some of their walls when I was young only to decide that this wasn’t for me. Impossible! All the bigger is my respect for their attempts. As far as my statements go, my purpose is to not let traditional mountaineering perish. In my point of view the professional alpinism of the present is more of a sport or a kick than it is adventure. In my opinion this is neither alpinism’s greatest value nor opportunity. The task of a self-responsible being moving in an archaic world is what offers the most experience. Neither speed nor the product earned from an ascent play a role in traditional mountaineering. Nowadays every big route is being filmed and documented professionally simply because it is possible. Fair enough. But photo and film only play a secondary role when it comes down to the experience. It holds true for “trad-alpinism” that the better an ascent can be represented the lesser it is worth as an adventure. Mountaineering is about experience and the fundamental question what happens to the human nature when it is exposed to all these difficulties and dangers in the vast world of the mountains. PHOTO: ARMIN HUBER
THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF A SUCCESSFUL LIFE. One of my basic statements – this can be also read in my upcoming book – is that a successful life does not exist. But in the moment of doing there exists a succeeding life. If we are close to our tasks, when we really merge in our issues and dare our things there is flow. The point is that no one can tell us that what we have chosen is not our thing. I have been close to my things throughout my whole life but I was also lucky to having had the opportunity to experience so many great moments. But all of them are gone irretrievably and can’t be added up to a “successful” life. In sum they are my biography which I am responsible for. About a month ago my son found a notebook in my library which contains about 50 records of potential first ascents which I was interested in years ago. These are all first ascents that I never made. The tasks are well-documented: there’s a photo of the wall and the line of the route is marked. My son was quite surprised: “Daddy, so many of the things you intended to do you didn’t.” That’s true, there’s a lot I didn’t do. For example the “Fish” (Via attraverso il pesce, 7b+) on the Marmolada south face (Dolomites) or the Dhaulagiri south face (8,167 metres/Nepal). I failed on the Lhotse south face (8,516 metres, border of China/Tibet) as well as on the Makalu south face (8,463 metres, border of China/Tibet). There´s indeed a lot I didn´t accomplish and even more which I neither tried nor finished. Because I became scared or simply wasn’t able to. On the other hand did I accomplish more that I ever dreamed to do. I owe this to great partners such as Sepp Mayerl, Peter Habeler, Hans Kammerlander or Friedl Mutschenlechner. But also to my wife who let me go without mourning and to my ideas as well as my creativity. I have been glancing at alpine history very early and have gained a detailed picture of the state of mountaineering and its current developments back then. All these sides are part of my life as an adventurer.
BACK TO THE FUTURE. If I was 20 years again, I would not think that I’d be able to generate the same passion that used to carry me in my early years. I simply lack the talent that people like, for example, Stefan Glowacz have. I really admire him for his skills. Or Hansjörg Auer who is built like a spider. Because I always lacked those extraordinary skills the enthusiasm wouldn’t be able to come up again. Back then when I was 20 years old I was a decent climber of the 6th UIAA grade. How safe or not safe I was may be left undecided but the 6th grade was the maximum of what was possible back then. I became extremely lucky to meet climbers who were two, three, seven years older than I was and were way ahead of me as far as skills and experience go. They taught me a lot and I was able to improve quickly. That happened without any rivalry or competition and I always faced them with admiration and respect. Skillfulness I approached their level quickly and that was when I got lucky again to meet famous mountaineers who I accompanied on much bigger ascents only to see that they were also the same everybody else. The understanding of where I was standing at that time helped me to leap forward because it showed me the state of my skills. This led to tensions of all kinds because those people felt outstripped, but without their unintended psychological help I wouldn’t have dared to do a lot of things. If I was 20 years again and climbing with Hansjörg Auer, I would quickly realise that my skills are by far not well-developed enough to get closer to him.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
If that enthusiasm hadn’t struck me like it did, I wouldn’t know what could have carried me and what I would have become. One thousand and one attempts led to my self-empowerment. This self-empowerment helped me to understand who I was within this scene. I owe my career great teachers such as Sepp Mayerl and Peter Habeler but also Toni Hiebeler who gave me a push from a wholly different side to leap forward.
DEATH ZONE.
35
I grew up in a valley in the Dolomites and from when I was five years old I have been confronted with death almost automatically: grandparents, neighbours, friends. Death was self-evident but it never concerned me. I had my first “real” death experience that lasted for a few days when I was on Nanga Parbat (8,126 metres/Pakistan). To me it seemed clear that I would die and not only my brother who was struck down by this destiny. Back then I was content to die because it would have been a redemption. Last but not least this didn’t happen. The attitude to see death as part of the game disappeared after this experience. I have been climbing before this experience as well as after it and I have always done some spicy stuff but I never had the feeling that I would die. “I got it, I am not going to die” was my attitude. Now at the age of 70 I feel that death is slowly becoming part of my life. My view on the world is made out of realities. My father was already dead at this age.
THINGS THAT DISAPPEAR. THINGS THAT REMAIN. The question “What will remain from Reinhold Messner, what will survive him?” I can only answer like this: nothing will remain, everything will disappear. And it’s good that way! Space and time dissolve with death. The image of dying is like entering a desert and getting lost within it. Non-being is time- and spaceless. Finally not even what I have created with the museum (the Messner Mountain Museum) is really me. The museum is about showing the confrontation man-mountain beyond all time. It is not my story in particular which this museum is meant to uphold. This confrontation is meant to be updated until kingdom come by all those people who are occupied with it. In this sense the Messner Mountain Museum is arranged sustainably as a process that can be upheld. Next year when all six houses (a centre and five satellites) are ready, I will say goodbye. I will still hold my hand over it in financial matters and put money into it when a negative balance should arise, but as long as enthusiasm and work are put into it and as long as there are mountaineers who carry on with their passion for the mountains, the museum will be able to survive on its own and I can let it go without a problem. Some of my ideas and perspectives will survive or melt with other beliefs, some will soon be forgotten. Others will interpret my thoughts such as I have updated and amended the thoughts of Preuß, Mummery and Bonatti. Maybe some of those thoughts will last over centuries like those of the founders of the religions but in the end all comes together in a common whole. For me it is sufficient if some of my ideas can contribute a small bit to this common whole.
“For me it is sufficient if some of my ideas can contribute a small bit to this common whole.”
WANTING TO BE OUT THERE: AGAIN AND AGAIN, STILL. My wish for the future is simply being able to make my ideas come true. Of course only those that are realistic. Whereas I may say that some of these visions are already there. Besides health I wish for enough energy as well as the means and possibilities to realise some of these ideas. What I wish for the most is the pleasure to go out as well as a warm nest as a home. Nowadays I notice some old friends of mine – some of them over 80 years old – losing the pleasure to go out behind their garden fence although they have always been outside with great passion. If you lose this passion, you also lose the power to do it. A great pleasure for walking and much curiosity is what keeps me going. I don’t feel the need for extreme climbing anymore. When climbing the worries arise much earlier than they used to. Last year I did a first ascent in the Geisler mountains in the Dolomites with my son Simon. The rock was loose and there was a constant threat of falling stones. By the way I told him: “There’s 300 metres of wall above us and it’s nothing but a pile of debris. If something breaks off, it looks dim – it will slay us.” We pulled it off but I didn’t feel comfortable about it. When you are young you approach things like this differently: “Nothing’s going to break today,” you tell yourself. The ascent was far from uncritical but it was also incredibly beautiful for me to share such an experience with my son.
I have been privileged my whole life which was due to my mother and later to my wife keeping my back free. Only thus I could freely live out my passion. If it stays like that, it can’t get better for me.
PATAGONIA 36
THE SCREAM OF STONE IS SILENT BUT STRONG. We cannot hear it. But we can feel it quite clearly. We feel it right where everyday thinking ends and the soul starts to breathe. The scream stimulates something inside us that is far more elementary, archaic and primal than we can perceive with rational awareness. This scream of stone comes from Patagonia and echoes from the proud, perhaps even arrogant, granite monuments of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. It tells of God forsaken sand deserts, endless grass steppes, immense glaciers that carve their way roaring into the ocean and of course the winds that brutally lash the dark clouds, rain and snow before them. It was the winds that circumnavigators of Cape Horn from an earlier age feared so much. The storm winds that appear to dance wildly with the weather and the landscape. The scream of stone defines Patagonia, a surreal land at the end of the world with an average of two inhabitants per square kilometre. In no uncertain terms does this landscape suggest it needs you, that you have a right to be there. In Patagonia, you may as well be a grain of sand being blown around in the southern tip of South America.
settlers and pioneers there were truly more promising countries to explore. In times however, a few European explorers turned up; then Chile and Argentina extended their agricultural fingers into the barren soil of Patagonia. Finally, very gradually, the scream of stone resounded. It was quet at first, coming from the massive tower of smoking stone and ice that the indigenous people named “El Chaltén”, the “smoking mountain”. The adventurers were drawn to the “smoking mountain”, the peak we now call “Fitz Roy”. In 1951 a French group of climbers led by Lionel Terray arrived in Buenos Aires with two and a half tons of equipment. Their destination: FITZ ROY. One year previously, Lionel had played a major role in an expedition that managed to crack the first 8,000metre peak ever climbed: Annapurna. In 1947, Lionel became the second person to climb the north face of the Eiger. He had also established classic routes on the north faces of many other alpine peaks as well. Lionel was a man who was comfortable both at high altitude and on the most technically difficult routes.
Despite this wildness and desolation, there is no other land that sums up untold longing like Patagonia. The scream of stone reaches your soul – that previously unmoved, wild part of you that seeks adventure and uncertainty. While the Himalayas have gradually devolved into a multimedia sports arena, with insignificant stars seeking their 15 minutes of fame and broadcasting, via every available digital channel, their dramas into the cosy living rooms of armchair climbers, Patagonia has retained its purity, intensity and authenticity. Even now. Is that the reason why I still get goose pimples when I hear the name Patagonia? Thank goodness I am not the only one.
Fitz Roy, however, quickly put him in his place. The first attempt yielded only 20 metres of progress. There were another 700 metres to the summit. Months of nerve-wracking climbing ensued. Ultimately, on 2 February, 1952, a 48-hour push without food or water landed Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone on the summit of the 3,406-metre Fitz Roy. Some viewed this ascent as the beginning of a new direction for alpinism in which technically difficulty was more important than just the elevation of the peak itself. Now, technically demanding walls and aesthetic lines also had their place in climbing. Lionel and Guido could see Cerro Torre constantly during this expedition, but they both agreed that climbing would be impossible.
The first time the name Tierra de los Patagones appeared on the world map was during the 16th century. Serving King Charles V, Ferdinand Magellan was looking for a new route to the spice island of the Moluccas. In 1520 Magellan spent the winter on the west coast of Patagonia and met indigenous Tehuelche Indians, who with their wild and archaic appearance reminded Magellan of the giant Patagon in the “Novela de caballerías”, one of his favourite reads. This means, should this legend be true, that Patagonia is named after a fictitious giant. It remained a fictitious giant for a very long time, because for
BUT THE SCREAM OF STONE WAS LOUDER THAN THE FEAR OF THE IMPOSSIBILITY. In 1958, Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri attempted Cerro Torre from the west side and managed to reach an impressive height. Around the same time, an expedition led by Bruno Detassis and the “Spider of the Dolomites”, Cesare Maestri, approached from the east, also without reaching the summit. While Bonatti declined a second attempt the following year, Cesare Maestri returned to the Torre. Apparently, Maestri finally managed the first ascent via the east wall on 30 January 1959. Why apparently? Well, during the descent Maestri’s part-
ner Toni Egger was killed by an avalanche. The camera with the summit photo was lost. As a consequence Maestri was not able to prove that he really was on the summit. Maestri returned home a hero, but his contradictory accounts caused the climbing community to question his achievement, quietly at first. But increasingly vocal doubts were raised over the years. Despite the criticism and the fact that his lost equipment was never found, Maestri maintained that he and Toni Egger were the first people to stand on top of Cerro Torre. By 1968, however, Cerro Torre was considered still unclimbed – an “IMPOSSIBLE MOUNTAIN”. Enough was enough for Maestri. He went about proving the opposite. In 1969 Maestri returned to Cerro Torre and committed one of the greatest atrocities in the history of alpine climbing. With the help of a 180-kilogramme compressor and more than 300 bolts, he started to drill his way up the southeast ridge of the mountain. The Patagonian winter forced Maestri to take a break, but on 2 December 1970 he and two comrades finally reached the end of the wall below the summit, but decided not to climb the imposing snow mushroom atop Cerro Torre, which they did not regard as the summit: “IT WILL BE BLOWN AWAY ONE DAY ANYWAY,” was his justification. Maestri reckoned that the mountain had been climbed and that his integrity had been restored as a result. What remains of this hack job? An ice mushroom that refuses to be blown off the summit, a compressor that is still hanging on the wall as well as the trauma of Maestri’s vandalism of the route. This was a trauma that the alpine world had to go through again in 2009. The cause of this was none other than the upcoming climbing star of the day, David Lama, who had managed to transfer his technical ability to big alpine walls. He regarded a free climb of Maestri’s “Compressor” route to be an ultimate test of his ability, one that should be well-documented for posterity. However, the film team that accompanied him drilled into open wounds when they drilled even more bolts into the rock on Cerro Torre, which observers reckoned had already suffered enough damage. The public was outraged. David Lama – the public’s darling up until that point – suddenly stood in a crossfire of criticism with the climbing community congregating in major online forums and agreeing that he had committed blasphemy.
PATAGONIA
I HAVE A DREAM “ IF PATAGONIA DID NOT EXIST, WE WOULD HAVE TO INVENT IT; WE HAVE TO BELIEVE IN THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM. ” CHRIS JONES N
PATAGONIA
37
TEXT: MIKE MANDL PHOTO: LUIS PABLO SOTO JUNIOR
PATAGONIA
S
This took place at a time when Everest had long succumbed to big business. Reports from the world’s highest point were being filmed in high quality; high-paying tourists were being carted up to the summit on fixed ropes with all-inclusive hospitality. Over lunch they could check in via satellite phone with their loved ones at home. Chomolungma, “Mother of the Universe”, had been debased, sold-out, humiliated. This was a fate suffered silently by many proud mountains, especially in the Himalayas. It was ironic that all these self-appointed guardians of the climbing’s Holy Grail were publicly dragging down one of the best, one of their own. WHY? It must have been Maestri who started it. But Maestri was not the only one who subdued a mountain with his stubbornness and all the equipment at his disposal. Naturally, his method crossed a certain line in terms of style and alpine ethics, but that is an ugly part of mountain sports – not a particularly elegant part, admittedly, but along the same lines as a cyclist taking delight at a star athlete’s doping scandals. Today, peaks are claimed to have been climbed skyrunning style, with – as Messner has said – routes prepared to make summits more accessible. Plus, David Lama was not alone in attempting a major film project on a challenging wall. So what is with the indignation and outrage when it comes to Patagonia? I have never been to Patagonia. But Patagonia is somehow in me. In image form, at least. As well as feelings for these images. Dreams consist of these feelings and these images. Why? How can a country be so fascinating even if, like me, you have little or no direct relationship to it? And why is it not just me, but so many other people, who feel this way? What is the cause of this tangible fascination? Could it be, that for us Patagonia represents an archaic island, a stronghold, an unblemished rock of serenity in the mad, loud, high-speed chaos of the 21st century? Maybe political turbulence, economic crises, environmental disasters and permanent digital networking simply lose their power in Patagonia’s barren wilderness. Perhaps this desolate land represents a necessary antipode to our modern world of excessive stress and consumerism. After all, where can we find the last place of freedom? WHAT INTERESTING AREAS OF THE WORLD HAVE WE STILL TO DECLARE AS PLAYGROUND OR MARKETPLACE?
Shangri-La is a fictitious location somewhere in the Himalayas. Then again, maybe not. The cloister where residents retreat from the temptations, toil and turmoil of civilisation to lead their lives in harmony and peace has never been found. As a myth, Shangri-La stood as a modern form of paradise. Apart from a few camera flashes, the Himalayas have lost their radiance. As a sounding board for our longings they have gradually lost their appeal. Paradise lost. Not vice versa. Where can we find a paradise today? In today’s modern civilisation we have certainly created a paradise: we are prospering, more than ever before, but every coin has two faces and the other side of our consumerist paradise is the one that suppresses and chokes us with its omnipresent abundance. We have created a prosperity that no longer works for us. It might be better to say that we work for prosperity. We spend most of our time maintaining, multiplying and defending it. We are modern slaves in our own modern world. Inside it we are not only losing sight of the big picture, but also of ourselves. That is why our modern paradise should promise us less, rather than more. Less abundance, more substance. Less noise, more quiet. Less choice, more orientation. Less pressure, more space. Less artificiality, more authenticity. Less supervision, more life. Patagonia, with all its legends, appears to fulfil all of these demands. “IN PATAGONIA EVERY ACT, EVERY CHOICE IS SIGNIFICANT,” says Patagonia expert Gwen Cameron. Meanwhile, are we not living in and with structures that we can no longer really understand or appreciate? An unpaid mortgage in the United States can put jobs in jeopardy in Germany. A storm in India can destabilise the euro. An overambitious banker can put the global economy at risk. Patagonia, by contrast, promises transparency. There are few rules in this land. In the mountains there are even fewer rules. Orientation is easier. Follow them and you will survive. Ignore them and you will suffer the direct consequences. Every choice is significant. It might sound tough, perhaps. But at least it is honest and direct. Could it be that Patagonia reminds us of a time in which our life, though archaic, was both comprehensible and self-determined? Does the scream of stone echo in our genes rather than in our heads? Would our genes prefer a pure life to a complex one? Is it that we have less yearning for Patagonia and more for ourselves, for the intensity of being? Are we happier wrapping
these yearnings in thoughts that we can deposit at the end of the world in the hope that they will blossom better in the raw climate of Patagonia than in over-air-conditioned or overheated working and living units? Does the myth of Patagonia contain the ingredients for Paradise 2.0, for a Shangri-La of the digital age? Is that precisely the reason why Cesare Maestri’s and David Lama’s actions created such tidal waves? BECAUSE THEIR DRILLED BOLTS ATTACKED NOT MERELY A WALL, BUT OUR WHOLE CONCEPTION OF THE LAST POSSIBLE WILDERNESS PARADISE? Anyway, what is it going to be like when I eventually visit Patagonia? Will the land give me what it had promised me in images and myth? Do I even want to go to Patagonia? It may be that I am even frightened of having to face up to possible changes. Changes such as those described by Alberto del Castillo, the founder of “Fitz Roy Expediciones”: “El Chaltén is, as the temporary visitor would like to believe, unfortunately not a tiny island of the blessed, but a microcosm of society.” Of course, the times are changing. The inhabitants of Patagonia want to have their cut from the profits of tourism as well. Investors locate potential. Tourists arrive. And there is one thing they always bring with them: themselves. Unfortunately that is precisely the company they were hoping to take a break from in the emptiness. Is Patagonia strong enough to retain its authenticity? I am not sure. I am leaning towards a platonic relationship, because in the future I will need a sounding board too. Perhaps I do not want to know the truth in such detail. I need Patagonia in my head so that I can continue to dream. I have these dreams and I need these dreams. Although in actual fact I am not dreaming about Patagonia. I dream of being as free as a condor in harmony with its surroundings, soaring to new heights. Is that the message of the scream of stone? Is it that what Patagonia pioneer Chris Jones – who in 1968 managed the 3rd ascent of Fitz Roy – meant: “We have to believe in the impossible dream. Tomorrow’s adventurers will need to seek their own Patagonias!” Over the next few pages we ask the adventurers who have already fulfiled their dreams and found their Patagonias. Although I can still say: “I HAVE A DREAM.”
THREE VIEWS, ONE FASCINATION:
ABOUT PATAGONIA
Thomas Huber and Matteo Della Bordella have dedicated much time to climbing in their beloved Patagonia. The legendary Reinhold Messner has passed through Patagonia on his way to Antarctica, climbing here only a little. Though these three climbers all have different relationships to these stunning Argentine mountains, they all share a deep relationship to and interest in Patagonia, one of the world’s great bastions of alpine climbing. TEXT: MIKE MANDL PHOTOS: ATHLETES, *RIKY FELDERER
WHAT WAS THE REASON FOR YOUR FIRST TRIP TO PATAGONIA? Until 2004, my focus was almost entirely on Yosemite, US, and the Karakorum in Pakistan. At some point, however, I wanted to see and experience something new. My brother Alexander had already been to Patagonia twice and couldn’t stop talking about it. Since reading Reinhard Karl’s book “Zeit zum Atmen” (“Time to Breathe”), climbing in the Torres had become a major dream of mine. The Torres, the Holy Grail of mountaineers! In 2005, I had the opportunity to go to Patagonia and together with Alexander and Stephan Siegrist we set off for our big project: a traverse of the Torres. It was perfect. I immediately felt at one with the landscape, the people and the mountains. In the beginning, everything appeared to go well. Alexander and Stephan had to return home earlier, but I was lucky enough to meet Andy Schnarf from Switzerland, who was also without a climbing partner. We decided to team up and get on with it. We ascended a new route on Torre Egger – at that time, rarely climbed – and Andy became the first person to stand on all the peaks in the Torre group. The end of my first trip was, at the same time, a promise to come back again next year. As a member of the “Lecco Spiders” mountaineering group, I was confronted early on with the legendary stories of Casimiro Ferrari. His historic and wild first ascents in Patagonia – Cerro Torre, Cerro Murallón, Fitz Roy … Each of these mountains was a dream. In 2010, the time had come; I wanted to experience Patagonia in the most pure and intensive way, which is why, even though it reduced the chances of a successful ascent, we chose a tough challenge: the west wall of Torre Egger. It was exactly as we imagined it.
PATAGONIA
I have been there quite often because at the beginning of the 60s I wanted to travel from Patagonia to Antarctica. I didn’t manage that until 1986. The landscape captivated me and I found the people to be very much on my wavelength. My own mountaineering career, however, did not take place in Patagonia. Of course, I followed pioneers like Bonatti, Magnone, Egger, Salvaterra, Ferrari, Bridwell, Karo, Orlandi and many others. Patagonia used to be an imposition – poor weather, storms, exposure. Thanks to the satellite weather reports and new apparel available today, it is a big challenge for the climbing elite. I was too late in coming to Patagonia! To begin with I couldn’t afford to climb there, then I was focused on high-altitude mountaineering. When Hans Kammerlander and I failed just below the summit of Fitz Roy, I was too old for this kind of climbing. Traversing the Hielo Continental Norte, much later, was more my kind of thing.
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For me, Cerro Torre in particular is the reason why I wanted to come back and undertake the long journey. I also love this country, its culture and its people. Although I hardly speak a word of Spanish, as a gringo I have become part of the climbing community in El Chaltén. What used to be Yosemite for me has today become Patagonia.
THOMAS HUBER
MATTEO DELLA BORDELLA*
REINHOLD MESSNER
The mountains there are simply beautiful, huge and complex. It is very difficult to get the right conditions though. You need to be extremely patient in Patagonia and keep trying. In the end, it always works out somehow. I have worked on the west face of Torre Egger three times. The time has now come for new climbing projects. The first impression was of the unmistakeable outline of the mountains: Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre, Paine Towers. On top of the many extremely difficult routes come the rapidly changing weather and a short summertime. Nevertheless, the Argentinian flair in El Chaltén and El Calafate make up for that. Patagonia is in.
WHAT ROLE HAS PATAGONIA PLAYED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CLIMBING AS A SPORT? Because the advancements in development did not reach Patagonia until the 1980s, the Cerro Torre story in 1959 is very exciting. Idealism and realism clash together as hard as granite on granite. Today’s success with tourism was unthinkable back then in 1959 and even in 1970 in the Compressor Route era, it was still a wilderness. The handful of Estaneieros living there were poor and treated climbers with scepticism. Today there are luxurious lodges surrounding Torres del Paine and excellent restaurants in El Chaltén. The tourists make the music while climbers are rated as exotic, like in Cortina, Italy. Patagonia’s mountains were, and still are, a magnet for many climbers. Each epoch sees a new chapter written in the Cerro Torre book and the stories always reflect the status quo of alpinism worldwide. However, where many climbers gather, sparks will fly. There is hardly any other mountain that has been, and still is, the subject of such heated discussion as Cerro Torre. Cesare Maestri started the fire and since then this mountain has found itself in the centre of many burning issues regarding climbing ethics. Cerro Torre is not just about climbing, pain and celebration but arguments as well! However, each round of dispute ends with an acknowledgement and a new stage of development. Consequently, Patagonia, and especially the Torre, is an indispensable contributor to the development of alpinism. The journey to Patagonia used to be a mission in itself. There were no reliable weather forecasts, there was no infrastructure, there was nothing except 100% adventure and pure alpinism. That is why, in my opinion, classics like the Ragni route on Cerro Torre and the Casarotto or American route on Fitz Roy are real milestones. Of course climbing has evolved. With modern equipment, more precise weather forecasting and a lighter kit, you can push the limits of difficulty, even here. Still, climbing here demands maximum effort due to the extremes in the weather and the very special character of Patagonia. That is why Patagonia will continue to play a major role in alpinism, even in the future.
TIMELINE PATAGONIA projects from
Thomas Huber,
Matteo Della Bordella,
Reinhold Messner,
Mario Walder,
Guido Unterwurzacher,
Corrado Pesce
On Fitz Roy to within sight of the summit 1984
No ascents 01|02
01|02 2005 Punta Heron “Spigolo dei Bimbi” (350m/90°/6b) Punta Heron “Spigolo dei Bimbi” (350m/90°/6b), 2nd round Aguja Standhardt “Festerville” – Punta Heron “Spigolo dei Bimbi” – Torre Egger “Espejo del Viento” (200m/80°/6b+), first ascent
2007
2006
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Filming “Am Limit” with Alexander Huber, Stephan Siegrist, Andy Schnarf 2nd withdrawal from Fitz Roy with Andy Schnarf Hiking across Hielo Norte ice cap, traversing from north to south on the Argentinian side
El Mocho “Voie des Benitieres” (400m/7b+/6c/C1) Aguja Desmochada “Puerta Blanca” (1300m/7/A0), first ascent
2008
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Aguja de la Silla “El Bastardo” first ascent Aguja Saint-Exupery Aguja de la Silla Aguja Standhardt “Festerville” (400m/90°/6c) Cerro Torre “Compressor Route” to 5 pitches left under the summit Aguja Rafael Juarez “Anglo-Americana” (400m/40°6c)
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Filming “Kinder milk slice” advertisement in Bariloche. Only a short visit to the Torre. Worst possible weather conditions on the mountain! Torre Egger attempt, winter ascent, had to return home due to knee problems Aguja Poincenot “Whillans-Cochrane” (550m/70°/M4/5+) Aguja Standhardt “Exocet” (500m/WI5+/5+) Fitz Roy “Franco-Argentina” (650m/55°/6c) Attempt at Aguja Saint-Exupery “Austríaca” (550m/6b/C1-6c)
WIND OF CHANGE
Luis Pablo Soto Junior is a key figure in the mountaineering town of El Chaltén. Luis loves this corner of the Earth more than anywhere else. He even loves the wind. That is because the wind brings change. After all, change isn’t just what brought Luis to El Chaltén … it’s what brought him full circle. “Everybody calls me Luisinho because I come from São Paulo. I am a small guy with big dreams and have been able to experience many extremes in my life. The most vivid and lasting impression was definitely travelling with my family from Brazil to Patagonia. I was young and it was a nightmare. By the time we had finally settled in Río Gallegos, my father died. He was 45. It was a sad ending to a sad story. Yet it was also the beginning to a new chapter. I now live in my little paradise close to Cerro Torre.” Looking back, many things appear to come full circle. Destiny works that way too. Especially in this case, the story of Luis Pablo Soto Junior, who feels part of the mountaineering village of El Chaltén as much as the wind is part of Patagonia. Luis is convinced that El Chaltén is his calling, the finished puzzle, put
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2010
together from the myriad pieces of his extraordinary and eventful life. The puzzle includes the building blocks from his earlier years, too, Luis is sure of that. One thing is clear: the death of his father really moved Luis deep down. The process of dealing with his loss took place on long journeys while in deep thought. One question kept cropping up: “Why did my father bring us to Patagonia?” In 1995, while exploring further afield in Patagonia, Luis wandered into El Chaltén for the first time. “It was a difficult place to get to back then and I was almost disappointed at having decided to go on this trip. The old bus, the almost impassable road, two days’ rough ride, El Chaltén – a settlement of just 60 houses at the time, a small shop and nothing else. Plus I was
poorly equipped with a dilapidated tent and shabby clothing. Our destination was Laguna de los Tres. Mother Nature blessed us with the finest weather. Suddenly I was face to face with these granite mountains and knew that after searching for 19 years, I had found my place: El Chaltén. I’m convinced that this was a gift from my father.” For several years after that, Luis worked in El Chaltén during the high season, until in 2007 he bought his own plot of land and settled there. And why? It is quite simple: “El Chaltén is very special in many ways. Above all, Chaltén is the place of big utopias. This is where big dreams grow and become reality like a tree in the middle of the desert.” Luis talks of an “ancient place with a young population”, a kind of melting pot, an extreme soup kitchen where everybody has to adapt to the barren wilderness of Patagonia. The process of adaptation brings out the best, as well as the worst. The worst things usually happen first. That can be a source of motivation to develop and grow. If you are unable to evolve here, then you will fail. Vice versa, this also means: “If you believe in your dreams and work hard, wonders will happen here sooner than anywhere else. Change is practically the underlying theme here in El Chaltén.”
HAS YOUR CLIMBING CHANGED AS A RESULT OF BEING IN PATAGONIA?
CAN YOU GIVE PATAGONIA NEWBIES A TIP?
I have certainly learned a lot. A big wall in Patagonia is different from anywhere else. The extremely unpredictable weather, long periods of waiting, and very long approaches. All these factors have definitely contributed to me greatly improving my mountaineering skills within a short time.
If you are pursuing an objective in Patagonia, it may take some time, but you must never lose hope. You have to wait, be patient, believe in your project and always be ready for the moment when the signs are favourable.
Everybody who has been to Patagonia and has left their footprints in Torre Valley and experienced the mountains in one form or another, is part of the great Patagonian story. It is not important who was first, but what you were able to experience in these mountains. I am happy to be able to say that I was able to experience everything. From the most beautiful moments on a summit to epic experiences. However, my climbing has not been changed by these mountains. Since I was a young boy, my main motivation was my longing for the mountains. And these mountains leave so much room for the craziest ideas. There is only one thing that has changed. During the first few years I looked forward to seeing the mountains, while today I look forward to meeting all my friends in El Chaltén again.
For me Patagonia is the perfect place to slow down! At last you have time to do nothing. And this is a great thing! Things you were never aware of suddenly become important. Here you learn virtues such as patience and finding inner peace. But when the weather clears, then you need to get energised, and you have to do that at the drop of a hat! In Patagonia it is always the now that is decisive and not the tomorrow, because by then you have usually already lost.
AND PATAGONIA? HAS PATAGONIA CHANGED BECAUSE OF CLIMBING? Patagonia has seen positive development from tourism. We hope that the Estaneias survive and that visitors from all over the world experience more than a boozy evening looking out of their hotel windows. You haven’t experienced Patagonia without the wind in your face. Time is running out for the inhabitants of El Chaltén. Ever since the road from El Calafate to El Chaltén was paved, the village is drowning in tourists in the high season. The biggest problem here is definitely logistics: disposing of waste water and garbage. The community needs to do something quickly, but there isn’t really a solution in sight at the moment! It is difficult to assess the developments. Anything can happen. Although tourism is developing rapidly, I hope that the mountains can retain their wild beauty and dignity. For me that means no houses or buildings outside El Chaltén. Patagonia must not be allowed to degenerate to a kind of Mont Blanc with a cable car up the mountain.
WHAT WAS YOUR MOST INTENSIVE EXPERIENCE IN PATAGONIA? The exposure in the middle of the Hielo Continental: whiteout, snow, soaked to the skin. That was an incredible feeling. While writing the book “Torre: Scream of Stone” I kept on zooming back to Patagonia. It was a good time. When Walter Saxer and I were researching for the film “Scream of Stone” (directed by Werner Herzog), we were squatting in one of the shelters on Laguna del Torre – wood and plastic, rain above us – when a young man entered, dug his ice axe into the crossbar of the tent and held out his hand to me. I looked him in the eye first, before taking his hand: he had no fingers. He introduced himself as “El Loco” – his hands had frozen on Cerro Torre. That is Patagonia. The greatest moments were the asado barbecues with friends at “Don Gera” where we always celebrated the end to a successful season. We always celebrated because we never left Patagonia as losers. The saddest moment was when the park rangers together with a headstrong climber tore down the historic hut in Camp Bridwell. For me it was the summit of Torre Egger. That was definitely one of the greatest highlights of my climbing career and my life as a whole.
Read the full stories with all athletes in the iPad® ISSUE 10 Aguja Mermoz “Vol de Nuit” (450m/90°/M5+/A1)
Cerro Torre “Ragni” (600m/90°/M4) Cerro Torre “Torre Traverse” (1,600m/90°/6b+/C1), attempt, reached top of Aguja Standhardt and Punta Heron Aguja Guillaumet “Brenner-Moschioni” (300m/30°/6b), solo ascent
PATAGONIA
Cerro Torre “Torre Traverse” (1,600m/90°/6b+/C1), Punta Heron, “Torre Egger Traverse”
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Cerro Torre, winter ascent via “Ferrari” route Thomas Huber, Tibu, Stephan Siegrist and Dani Arnold
Aguja Rafael Suárez “Anglo-Americana” (400m/40°/6c)
Fitz Roy “Supercanaleta” (1,600m/80°/5+)
“Festerville”, Aguja Standhardt (400m/90°/6c) First ascent “Notti Magiche”, Torre Egger, west face (1,000m/7a/A2/W14)
Torre Egger, new route, attempt at the west face 12
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Aguja de la Silla, first ascent of a new route. Sudden deterioration in weather with Thomas Huber, Mario Walder, Hansjörg Auer, Much Maier. Cerro Torre “Ragni” (600m/90°/M4)
Luis has seen a lot of things happen here. He has seen policemen who have become Rastas, hippies who have become businessmen, gauchos who have become climbers. It is the cosmopolitan mix in this small melting pot in the middle of nowhere. No wonder that the locals communicate using a colourful mix of Spanish, English, German, Italian, Portuguese and many other languages. Luis reckons that has a lot to do with the weather, which can change so rapidly and distinctly in El Chaltén. When Luis arrived here, there was no infrastructure: twelve hours of electricity a day, a few gauchos, gravel roads and lots of wind. Now there are taxis, good restaurants, Wi-Fi and lots of wind. In fact, the wind is one of the few consistent factors down here. “The wind is your boss,” says someone who should know, who has actually seen people with 35-kilogramme backpacks be blown ten metres through the air. “Patagonia is wind”, says Luis. He also says: “The extreme weather helps you to feel more human again. Part of nature.” Luis has always felt part of nature, even without the Patagonian wind. He was always the outdoor type. Kayaking, swimming, cycling or competing in triathlons. And climbing. That is because when you live here, you have to go climbing. It is not only about
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Fitz Roy “Tehuelche” Aguja Standhardt “Festerville” with Much Maier, Mario Walder, Hansjörg Auer. Storm front forces retreat. Aguja Guillaumet “Trollo y Trollin” (500m/75°/M6+), combination of two routes (five new pitches)
the big walls; around El Chaltén there is also excellent potential for sport climbing and bouldering. The annual Boulder Festival at the beginning of February is one of the highlights for Luis because it is about having fun. They stay up all night, bouldering and slacklining to a backdrop of sound and drinks. Then there is the “Piolin de Oro”, the prize awarded for the best alpine performance on the granite walls at the gateway to El Chaltén. Things get serious at the gateway to El Chaltén. It is only 22 kilometres from El Chaltén to Cerro Torre. “But,” says Luis, “it is not just El Chaltén you are leaving. With every step you take you are getting farther away from civilisation. When you are right at the top you can even see the village. But if the weather changes from one moment to the next, it can seem as far away as the moon.” Luis was right on top once. On Cerro Grande, to be precise, with his buddy Andy Schnarf. People in the village were slightly surprised at that. Of course Luis goes climbing, but on big walls? Pragmatically, Luis regards himself to be neither an alpinist nor a climber: “I have many objectives and dreams in my life. Climbing is only one of them.” Another is photography. Another is music. His band “Siete Venas” has just released its 3rd album and that keeps Luis busy with performances, promotion, videos, graphic design and so on. Whichever walk of life he
2014 … and many more projects in 2014
chooses, Luis wants to keep learning. Day by day. In his opinion, he has already learned the most important thing in life: “If you can’t find happiness in your heart, then you won’t find it anywhere. But when you have found it, then your life takes on a different dimension. Then it doesn’t matter whether it is raining or not, whether you have money or not, then you are happy.” And Luis found happiness in El Chaltén.
LISTEN TO “SIETE VENAS”
11 2011
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THE LATEST INNOVATIONS 40 3 4
TEXT: EVA MESCHEDE
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SUSTAINABILITY – EVERY DROP COUNTS Being outdoors means being close to nature. Close to the rock while climbing, close to the waterfall or stream while hiking, close to the skies on the summit. Sustainability is so important because our earth should stay as beautiful as it is and not just in the mountains. We are already doing a great deal to minimise our personal ecological footprint: at home we use economical appliances, lamps, toilet flushes and cars. We buy local fruit and vegetables and fewer processed food products. That the manufacture of our clothing also consumes resources and makes up a considerable proportion of the ecological footprint we leave behind is something that we have so far regarded as unavoidable. The most important attribute of our outdoor outfit has always been functionality. Now it is also possible to take sustainability into account. This summer, adidas presents the Terrex Swift DryDye Tee; the first T-shirt that – thanks to innovative technology – does not use a single drop of water for dyeing the material. No less than 25 litres of water is normally wasted in dyeing a single T-shirt. Put
that in a global perspective and every two years the world’s clothing factories use a volume of water equivalent to the whole of the Mediterranean Sea just to dye clothes. The new dry dyeing technology not only saves water but also halves the amount of energy and chemicals used in the process. The new 1 Terrex Swift DryDye Tee made using Cocona® contains active carbon particles obtained from coconut shells by an environmentally friendly process to give the shirt a surface structure that rapidly transports perspiration away from your body to the outside. This means you get the best functionality with a high level of sustainability and it looks good too. As a result, the adidas shirt was awarded the “OutDoor INDUSTRY AWARD 2013” in the category “Products of high ecological and sustainable value”. One shirt is just the beginning, however; adidas plans to manufacture a wide selection of outdoor outfits using environmentally friendly technology to further reduce water wastage.
PHOTOS: MICHAEL MEISL
KIDS CLIMBING COLLECTION Whether you are climbing in sunny Arco, in the shadows of the rocks of Yosemite, or bouldering in Val di Mello: the kids want to be part of the action. In kindergarten they already have their own climbing shoes, by the time they are in school they are following their dads and spotting the next handhold on boulders. Now it’s time to get them their own cool climbing and bouldering outfit. Now available for girls and boys with the Kids Climbing collection. Girls of all ages will love the Capri Pants that follow every move with their loose fit – from foot hook to frog style – as well as providing especially high protection against the sun (UPF 50+). The matching statement piece is the Girls Print Tee, with a cool graphic print on organic cotton and recycled polyester. The Girls Boulder Tank comes in luminous colours and thanks to PlayDry technology absorbs and immediately transports perspiration to the outside for extra comfort. Boys also get their shirts with an eye-catching climbing print (Boys Print Tee), so that everybody can recognise in which sport they are the champion. The Unisex Boulder Pants or Bermudas go nicely with that, both offering an extreme sun protection factor (UPF 50+). The perfect Outdoor outfits for summer.
PHOTO: MICHAEL MEISL
CLIMACOOL BOAT BREEZE Does the approach to the wall take you across a pebbly mountain stream, shallow seawater next to a reef or steeply uphill through wet grass? In summer, this can be a fun route to get to the climb except for the problem with the footwear. Flip-flops are usually too slippery and do not offer enough protection, while others provide grip and protect your toes but stay wet for the rest of the day. The right shoes for every route through or around water have finally been designed: the Climacool Boat Breeze is the newest member of the adidas Boat family and the king of ventilation. The mesh fabric is not only extremely breathable; it also absorbs virtually no water so that the shoe dries twice as fast as its predecessor. In addition, there are open channels in the heel to promote airflow. As if that was not enough already, the sole is equipped with climacool® technology, which means that its holes provide ventilation from below as well. Plus, because climbing and bouldering approaches can also be steep, gnarly and smooth at the same time, these shoes also feature extraordinary grip. Whether it is sea, lake or stream – water is no longer an obstacle.
PHOTOS: TIMELINE PRODUCTION
NON-DYE On top of our new DryDye technology, adidas also offers NonDye textiles. Following the principle of “no dyeing – no water wasted”. The material for shirts and jackets goes through the entire manufacturing process undyed, saving water, chemicals and energy as a consequence. The colour spectrum of the products ranges from light grey to warm yellow. In this summer’s Everyday Outdoor Collection there are non-dyed T-shirts with eye-catching prints, like the 2 Everyday Outdoor Boat Tee, the 3 Everyday Outdoor Logo Linear Tee and the 4 Everyday Outdoor Native Tee while the Terrex® range includes the 5 Terrex Swift Wind Jacket, a 6 Terrex HiAlpine Vest, and the super-lightweight 7 Terrex Zupalite Jacket.
CLIMACHILL – COOL BODY, COOL HEAD When we say cool, we mean cool in every sense. The Terrex CC Chill Tee not only looks cool, it also cools the skin with completely new climachillTM technology. Regardless of how hot it is outdoors or how many hours you spend training, climachillTM will keep you looking and feeling cool. climachillTM is an innovative fabric made using titanium – aka SubZero – yarn and you will immediately notice its effect: the material provides instant cooling for pleasantly fresh airflow across the skin. The advanced Delta fibres – which is a woolly, highly breathable material – immediately transport moisture away from the body to the outside and dry very rapidly. However, the highlight of this shirt are the 3D aluminium cooling spheres placed strategically to provide additional cooling in areas of the torso most prone to overheating. You can also use the zip to regulate airflow. The result is that even after hours of action you will not be overheated or soaked in sweat. You will be able to rely on the science of Chill to attack the 11th pitch or second summit of the day with a cool head.
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THE LATEST INNOVATIONS
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MÉLISSA LE NEVÉ AND BEN RUECK ON R E D L U O B A TRIP THROUGH MALAWI
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TO: SCOTT NOY TEXT: BEN RUECK PHO
MALAWI 42
k This is Africa: Mélissa Le Nevé and Ben Ruec the From i. Malaw in ing didn’t just go climb Chambe Peak to Mangochi to Cape Maclear, they encountered not only breathtaking landscapes and challenging boulders, but also learnt to not an take anything too seriously, be it lost luggage, a or rness wilde the of le midd empty tank in the rs climb that can’t be completed. None of it matte each chase ns baboo watch can too much when you other into the sunset. ® app: Read the whole story in our iPad magazine adidas.com/outdoor/magazine
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MALAWI
01 | Mélissa Le Nevé committing to crimps on her project at the Seminary Boulders. 02 | Three … two … one … splash down! Ben Rueck trying to work out the beta on the river boulder in Thucila. Always nice to have an audience. 03 | Taking a moment to enjoy the scenery next to the Thucila river boulders. 04 | Ben Rueck seconding “3 Minutes Left”. 05 | Check Mate! Mélissa and Jules mastering chess and thinking a little too much over morning coffee. 06 | Ben and Mélissa trying to work out what to do with all the skin cuts and bruises from the sharp granite. 07 | Look out below! Mél finishing up the first ascent of the high ball boulder, “3 Minutes Left”. 08 | The game is afoot! Prepping to unlock the Seminary Boulders behind St Paul’s Apostle.
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HIGHWAY 37, THE ONE AND ONLY BRIDGE ACROSS THE STIKINE RIVER DISAPPEARED RAPIDLY OVER THE HORIZON. FOR THE FIRST SIX KILOMETRES THE STIKINE FLOWED ACROSS A WIDE, GRAVEL RIVER BED. STILL, NO CANYON IN SIGHT.
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THAT’S WHEN IT GOES FROM ZERO TO 100 IN THREE SECONDS. Called “The Mount Everest of kayaking”, the grand canyon of the Stikine in northern Canada marks the pinnacle of difficulty in expedition kayaking: 60 kilometres long, 460 metres deep, flowing at a rate of 350 cubic metres per second, and boasting 30 top-grade rapids, many of them through narrows, the Stikine lives up to its “Everest” reputation. The gorge, with its challenging narrows, hidden bends and roaring maelstrom of whitewater, creates conditions that would make going through a high-speed blender seem safer. The Stikine’s location in Canada’s wilderness - among grizzlies, wolves and mountain goats offers one of the most amazing displays of untouched nature that you can experience by boat. No surprise then that the Stikine is rated as one of the toughest yet most beautiful wildwater trips on earth.
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Most of the falls in the canyon run through narrows. In this terrain, it is actually impossible to escape, get out and carry your kayak past. It’s full-on commitment. Wasson’s Hole is one such narrow, an infamous rapid in which John Wasson almost lost his life during his first attempt to paddle these waters. We exit at the last possible eddy before Wasson’s Hole to climb high and gain perspective on the narrow. What we see terrifies us: a considerable vertical drop with a powerful diagonal wave running in the centre and a huge breaking wave at the end on the left wall.
STIKINE
Down river, the beautiful Stikine becomes a kayak tourer’s nightmare. “Unnavigable by all craft,” reads the warning sign at the entrance to the area. A huge rock chasm reminiscent of Mount Mordor from “Lord of the Rings” swallows the pumping river quicker than you could ever imagine. The water flows in placidly and peacefully, offering a sense that there might even be plenty of opportunities to turn around. But it’s actually a trap. Just around the corner, between two sheer vertical walls, you encounter Entry Falls: one of the most difficult sections of the Stikine. It calls to mind the opening sentence of a favourite documentary: “The river enthrals you with its beauty, infatuates you with its grace - and kills you with its force.” Darin McQuoid, our photographer, and I climb high to the canyon rim and crawl through the undergrowth to the edge to take a look at the waterfalls below. From above, the scene is a thundering chaos of rock and water. We move into our positions and roll the cameras. Sam Sutton (NZL), Gerd Serrasolses (ESP), Jared Meehan (NZL) and Aniol Serrasolses (ESP) stay on the river and have to paddle down first. When they appear an hour later, we are shocked at the dimensions. Their kayaks are dwarfed, looking like tiny toy boats, amid the shocking mass of water. What appears from our angle to be a small entry wave crashes several metres on top of them. They paddle like machines to maintain as perfect a line as possible, zigzagging into the first eddy below. Aniol’s kayak is caught in a breaking wave and he is forced into a roll. One thing is clear, the Stikine is no kids’ party and whoever enters this maze will have to face a truth within their inner selves.
The choice of line was easy: centre-right. As soon as the path was determined, we suppress our rising fears by taking immediate action. With your heart beating so loud that you think you ought to be able to hear it echoing in the canyon walls, we boarded our boats and headed on our line: centre-right. That was when we noticed that the whole approach was on a slant, sloping over to the left … and straight into an apocalyptic hole. With all our strength we just managed to stay on course along the middle of the flow and we barely swept past a treacherous wall of water. Out of the corner of our eye we catch a glimpse of the biggest wave of our lives …
TEXT: OLAF OBSOMMER PHOTO: DARIN MCQUOID
Find out whether the team can handle with the biggest wave of their lives in the iPad® magazine app: adidas.com/outdoor/magazine
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TEXT: FABIO PALMA PHOTOS: ADRIANO CARNATI
WELCOME STEFANO CARNATI
15 years old. Youth Lead world champion. Youth Lead European champion. Youth Bouldering European champion. First place in the Youth Lead European Cup. He started climbing at eleven, reaching 8a in less than one year – and everybody remembers when he was doing desperate dynos because he was too short. By twelve he climbed his first 8b and his first 8a boulder. Less than two years after his first fifth grade! WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST SPORT YOU PRACTISED?
TO WHAT EXTENT DID VIDEOS HELP YOU PROGRESS SO QUICKLY?
I began with gymnastics in the last year of nursery school and did that for six years. It was my sport; I wasn’t good at soccer or any other team sport.
Really a lot. Firstly “Dosage” and “Progression”. In particular the ones with Sharma, Robinson and Woods.
GOOD … BUT DIDN’T YOU TAKE PART IN NATIONAL COMPETITIONS?
ARE YOU INTO ROCK OR COMPETITIONS?
Stefano stares at me seriously and with no trace of pride he answers: Yes, twice – in the last year of primary school and in the first year of middle school.
My heart is in the rock, but competitions allow a comparison. I thought I was not going to compete this year because last year the competitions stole too many of my weekends. I honestly didn’t expect such results – when I was among the best in Grindelwald, Switzerland, I was surprised. And also in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the Youth European Lead Championship, somebody managed 8c+, while I got to 8b+.
AND HOW WAS IT? I finished 5th at the parallels and 6th at the bar the first time, then 4th and 6th the following year. I wasn’t able to train that much, maybe I could have done better.
PEOPLE SAY YOU’RE A KILLER IN THE FINAL.
REALLY NOT BAD. DID YOU TRAIN LESS THAN THE OTHERS?
I don’t know ... he smiles a little … maybe ...
I’m able to focus and I give my best in the final. I’ve less pressure when I climb onsight. In the qualifying climbs I’m always more nervous. But we’re all nervous. I prefer the final because you don’t know how the others did. In Edinburgh the isolation was really total … I was second in the qualifications, I came out, well, the others were really fast, I imagined they had fallen low.
AND YOUR PARENTS?
WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY ABOUT YOU IN SCHOOL?
Because the gym was far away, I could only train twice a week, instead of four or five times.
SO YOU HAD TALENT?
WELCOME
They brought me to the competitions; my dad was always taking pictures.
They don’t know that much. He smiles. They think I do something like climbing on Everest.
AND CLIMBING?
YOU’RE GOOD AT SCHOOL, RIGHT?
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I wasn’t interested in that. When my dad went to the crags he used to bring me and my mum, but I just played around there.
His mum proudly intervenes. He’s among the best, she says. I like studying, especially science subjects like physics. First I study, then I train.
YOUR FATHER IS A VERY GOOD CLIMBER, AND ALSO A FAMOUS ALPINIST. DID HE REALLY NOT PRESSURE YOU TO TRY CLIMBING?
HOW OFTEN?
Never. I knew about his skill, of course, but simply climbing was not an option to me. I remember I was only interested in doing pendulum on some overhanging crags, and that’s all.
HOW DO YOU TRAIN?
Five, sometimes six times a week. If the weather is good at the weekend, I climb on rock, of course.
SO WHEN DID YOU GET THE SPARK? One September we were in Bürs, Austria. I tried a 5th grade, all dirty. Really not a nice route! But I liked it. On lead. It was September 2009. Then one month later I climbed some 6a and 6b, which were interesting and the rock was less dirty. I quit gymnastics. They even phoned my mother to convince me to come back, but climbing became my only target together with school.
AND IN FEBRUARY, IF I’M RIGHT, YOU FREE-CLIMBED ON LEAD A 7A+ IN GAJUM, ITALY. AND IN APRIL YOUR FIRST 8A. He smiles. Yes, in Scarenna, Italy.
EIGHT MONTHS FOR CLIMBING 8A IS NOT BAD. BUT DIDN’T YOUR FATHER EVER LET YOU TRY CLIMBING BEFORE? No, I wasn’t interested and he didn’t say anything. I went to the Ragni climbing gym and jumped on the mats while he was training. It was a personal decision, he never pushed me. When he was going to Céüse in France, my mum and I stopped at the Gîte d´étape, which didn’t admit kids, but I was an exception. I was doing the Bachar ladder on the stairs! Just playing and doing gym.
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I do everything by myself, including physical workouts. I’m not very strong but I think I have good technique thanks to the rock. I got the co-ordination from gymnastics – I’m very agile and train this skill with stretching one hour per day.
IS THE ROCK IMPORTANT FOR THE COMPETITIONS? Fundamental. You immediately notice the ones who climb on rock – like the French – by their foot technique.
WHAT ABOUT THE YOUTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS? I climbed very badly in the qualifications and in the semi-finals. I started the final in 7th place. I wasn’t the favourite because in Vancouver I couldn’t train and didn’t have a permit to go to the gym. I was lucky that the final was just after the semi-final, and I climbed very well in that moment. I was a little bit surprised that I won, but I was very quiet and focussed, thinking only about the climb and getting up there.
I KNOW THAT AFTER THIS AMAZING VICTORY YOUR FAMILY GAVE YOU A TRIP TO FRANKENJURA, GERMANY, AGAIN AS A PRESENT. Yes, for a couple of days before school started. It’s a fantastic place and ... well, there is “Action Directe”! I tried it. I will come back next year, sure. I want to try it seriously.
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Any monkey resoled with STEALTH rubber could outclimb any other monkey in the world.
NO MONKEYS WERE RESOLED IN THE MAKING OF THIS ADVERTISEMENT (WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION).
SHORTCUTS
El Capitan, Yosemite Valley, California. Surreal, impressive, fascinating. Images of the Dawn Wall have appeared in bursts and spurts over the last six years on the inter-webbed screens of the climbing community. There were some surreal pics that impacted our retinas from our retina screens, photos of Tommy Caldwell as he attempted to hold tiny texture features on the Molar Traverse hundreds of metres above Yosemite Meadow. As he tried to make a sequence out of the tiny holds, pull by pull, move by move, metre by metre, day by day, always getting a bit further and a bit more precise. In fall 2007, Tommy started on his dream, the free ascent of Dawn Wall, a complex 1,000metre high line across the smoothest area of the wall on El Capitan. Bordered in the west by the famous “Nose” route, it follows close to the old “Mescalito” route to the summit of El Cap. Tommy worked hard on his dream, weeks at a time, in spite of wind and weather, but with each day reckoned more and more that he was not up to this project on his own. In 2009, Tommy received support from Kevin Jorgeson. Kevin was, and still is, one of the best boulderers in the USA, well-known for the strength of his nerves in handling fear-inducing highballs. Tommy – with his years of experience – and Kevin – with his discipline from bouldering – worked well as a team and managed to climb higher and higher from one season to the next. They have spent a great deal of time on the wall together and are getting closer and closer to their objective of free-climbing the whole route. If they manage, Dawn Wall will be one of the toughest free-climbing routes in the world. “The Dawn Wall – Episodes” on: www.youtube.com/adidasoutdoortv 1. 2. 2.
2. ANDY RAETHER
5. KALYMNOS
7. VESELIN OVCHAROV
Creativity means to Andy Raether creating something that others can look forward to. However, creating something means investing work and energy. Mr Raether enjoys work, and created on Mount Potosi a rock monument right behind where he lives in Las Vegas, a bunch of unique climbing lines that we can now look forward to. It almost looks as though Andy knew Einstein, who said: “Personalities are not formed by beautiful speeches, but through work and achievements.”
The small Greek island in the Aegean Sea is well-known for its unbelievable climbing and even more unbelievable tufas. Now there is new growth to fulfil multi-pitch ambitions. In September 2013, Peter Keller, Markus Leippold and Urs Odermatt first-sent the route “3 Stripes” (6SL/5c/175 metres) on the left of the Grande Grotta and set it up for leisure climbers.
In May 2013, four friends set off to the Far East, to Islamabad in Pakistan. The members of the group are Veso Ovcharov from Bulgaria, Peter Loncar from Serbia, François Ragolski from France and the filmmaker Adrien Shams, likewise from France. Their geographic objective: the Karakorum Range in the north of the country. Their climbing objective: a route record and an altitude record. Their equipment: paragliders. They travelled by 4WD along the Karakorum Highway, aka “Highway to Hell”, to Hushe near the border with India. Here, the ice giants K2, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum dominate the landscape. In Hushe they meet Little Abdul Karim, a porter who has made a name for himself. Locally, he is known as “King of Karakorum”. This small man, who always greets you with a smile, is without doubt one of the greatest mountaineers there has ever been. “Do not underestimate the weather, wait until the sun is smiling in your face,” says Karim with a broad grin. The coming weeks result in no altitude record and no route record. Then they dare to take a risk, and in the end it pays off. The team can look forward to the greatest flight of their lives. The three paraglider pilots reach a maximum altitude of 6,500 metres, fly close along the ridge of the 7,788-metre high Rakaposhi, sailing past the mighty seracs on Masherbrum, which is almost 8,000 metres high, and glide for hours between some of the highest mountains in the world and the golden granite of Trango Towers. The dream of flying – this must be what it feels like. It is almost a cliché to write about the friendliness of the people of Baltis, but this was also one of the experiences on their journey. The four adventurers were impressed with the joy of life expressed by these mountain dwellers. Especially considering that they are facing a lot of social and political problems in their country as well as the day by day struggle against hunger, poverty and cold. Inshallah - all their wishes will become true soon. https://vimeo.com/74703789
3. DANIEL PEIS & REINI KLEINDL In August 2013, Daniel and Reini flew with some friends to the Malayan part of Borneo, to Sabah, where Mount Kinabalu reaches to the sky. They climbed its ridges, set up highlines, bouldered and rode downhill bikes as well as unicycles. Reini walked an outstanding 60 metre highline at the Donkey Ears at 4,045 metre. The highest Highline in South East Asia and very likely the most beautiful. The finale for Mr Peis was a flight in a paraglider from the highest point in Borneo over the oldest rainforest in the world. Find out more in the interactive iPad® magazine:
6. BERND ZANGERL An adventure that takes us on a trip to the Far East. A journey that starts in “Flirsch am Arlberg”, a journey that passes through Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, a journey that ends in a remote corner of Kyrgyzstan. Bernd Zangerl, following the spirit of discovery, undertook a search lasting several months for new, virgin boulder areas. Whom will he meet on his travels? Do his newly gathered experiences confirm some preconceived ideas of the western media or are they indeed completely different? He will always remember the words of one Iranian climber: “If there are no rocks, there is no happiness.”
adidas.com/outdoor/magazine
4. TOMASS MARNICS Tomass Marnics travelled to Siberia for the 10th time in a row. And why? Only here can he find peace and quiet away from the modern society that often makes him so tired. Thousands of rivers flow from the bowels of the numerous Russian mountain ranges, making Siberia one of the best places for white water kayaking. “Life here is so simple, just me with my friends, wilderness and fantastic kayaking, what could be better?” says Tomass. “I plan on coming back here again and again.” Wanna see more about his Kayaking trips to Siberia check out: www.tomassmarnics.com
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adidasoutdoortv
19–20 SEPTEMBER, adidas ROCKSTARS, PORSCHE ARENA, STUTTGART, GERMANY 19 September 2014, Professional Qualification and first round of the Amateur Competition 20 September 2014, start of the Amateur Finals followed by the Professional Semi-finals and Finals Climbing meets music. Bouldering is climbing without a rope at leaping height. This climbing sport has seen a huge increase in popularity over the last 20 years. Bouldering is about rapid movement, strength and dynamics. In terms of music, everybody has experienced the motivation that music can have on the body and spirit. Music can trigger emotions in seconds. The right beat can get people to clap, while a well-known melody invites them to sing along. Music motivates us and makes emotional moments unforgettable. Sport and music are intrinsically linked. Each athlete moves to his individual rhythm and every boulder demands its unique pace. Boulders compose movements in the same way as musicians compose their music: creatively, progressively, and never in a straight line. This fall adidas Rockstars invites you to the Stuttgart Porsche Arena again to witness the top 30 boulderers in the world, and highly motivated amateur boulderers. A rock band will supply the energy-driven audio backdrop to the athletic high performance produced on the boulder walls, animated by the spectators, and provides a link between the spectators and the athletes. That is when we will find out if anybody can topple Juliane Wurm from Germany and Jeremy Kruder from Slovenia from their throne. To get to compete against the professionals you have to win the amateur competition, because only the winner gets a wild card. This fall is going to rock again! adidas-rockstars.com
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1. KEVIN JORGESON
SHORTCUTS
TEXT: JAKOB SCHWEIGHOFER PHOTOS: ANTHONY LAPOMARDO, MARTIN LUGGER, JOSHUA TARGOWNIK, ANDREA BRUNNER, RAINER EDER, MATT YOUNG, VESELIN OVCHAROV
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Terrex Swift Flex Pants #X11682
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Body hugging, comfortable yet technical stretch fleece hoodie made from a mix of two high-performance fabrics. Cocona® fabric with activated carbon aids evaporative cooling and speeds dry times. Pontetorto Tecnostretch provides durable, insulating and wicking properties.
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2-layer jacket with climaproof® storm certification. Mesh interior for next-to-skin comfort in variable conditions. Outer fabric is soft yet durable. The jacket features a fully adjustable hood.
climaproof® wind provides protection in windy and light rain conditions. Fully adjustable hood, partial mesh lining for enhanced next-to-skin comfort. € 000,00
Soft shell garment combining weather and wind protection with excellent breathability and stretch comfort. Hybrid construction combining the advantages of different performance fabrics in respective body zones.
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Terrex 1/2 Zip Short Sleeve Tee #D81529
Terrex Swift DryDye Tee #D82613
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Cocona® fabric and merino wool provide superior moisture management. FORMOTION® cut for comfort and performance. 1/2 zip for individual climate control. Ample UPF 50+ sun protection.
Cocona® fabric uses activated carbon to disperse moisture evenly for fast wicking. No water is used in the dyeing process, thus saving 25 litres per T-shirt.
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PRODUCTS WOMEN
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Terrex Swift 1/2 Zip Long Sleeve #D81683
Terrex Multi Pants #Z20575
Terrex Swift Flex Pants #X25701
Cocona® activated carbon incorporates evaporative cooling for excellent moisture management. UPF 50+ sun protection. 1/2 zip for individual climate control.
Most versatile all year round alpine pants featuring a durable 4-way stretch Soft Shell fabric. Water resistant and quick drying for uncompromised outdoor performance.
4-way water resistant stretch fabric for complete freedom of motion and comfort all year round. Built-in belt gives a customised fit.
€ 000,00
€ 000,00
€ 000,00
Terrex Scope GTX® #G97929
Terrex Solo #M22271
Terrex Fast R Mid GTX® #G64507
This alpine approach shoe has a new STEALTH rubber outsole for unbeatable grip, especially on wet and rocky surfaces. Features waterproof GORE-TEX® membrane and supportive ADIPRENE® comfort. TRAXIONTM incorporates stability and grip for hiking.
New STEALTH rubber outsole gives this lightweight approach shoe unparalleled performance through unbeatable grip. Lug pattern fades into the climbing zone below the toes. ADIPRENE® insert for comfort and shock absorption. Women‘s-specific fit.
€ 000,00
€ 000,00
Protective yet lightweight mid-cut hiker features a TRAXION™ outsole with Continental rubber compound for unparalleled control on wet and dry surfaces. GORE-TEX® membrane provides waterproof breathability. 3D FORMOTION® unit reduces impact force and improves comfort on steep descents. ADIPRENE®+ cushioning in the heel.
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Terrex Fast X GTX® #G97922
Terrex Swift R GTX® #Q21882
Lightweight fast hiking shoe. TRAXION™ outsole with Continental rubber compound for grip in all conditions. Waterproof breathability thanks to GORE-TEX® membrane. ADIPRENE®+ cushioning in the heel and 3D FORMOTION® unit lend stability and control. Women’s-specific last.
Updated technical hiking shoe now features TRAXION™ outsole with Continental rubber compound for confidence-inspiring grip on any surface. GORE-TEX® for waterproof breathability. ADIPRENE®+ cushioning in the heel and 3D FORMOTION® unit reduce impact force and improve comfort on steep descents. Built with a women’s-specific last for a dialled-in fit.
Lightweight and breathable fast hiking shoe. Features a waterproof GORE-TEX® membrane, ADIPRENE®+ cushioning in the heel and a TRAXION™ outsole for optimal grip in all conditions.
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AX 2 GTX® #M22935
AX 2 #Q34286
Support and weather protection in a versatile outdoor boot. GORE-TEX® membrane keeps feet dry while offering breathability. TRAXION™ outsole for grip in a range of conditions. Last provides a customised fit for women’s feet.
Multifunctional outdoor shoe with GORE-TEX® membrane keeps feet dry while offering breathability and climate control. Synthetic toecaps offer durable abrasion resistance. Features a comfortable moulded sock liner.
Multifunctional outdoor shoe with mesh panels for breathability and climate control. Synthetic toecaps offer durable abrasion resistance. Features a comfortable, moulded sock liner and is designed for women‘s feet.
€ 000,00
€ 000,00
€ 000,00
#Q34284
#M22936
IMPRINT outdoor magazine & product highlights spring/summer 2014 is the official Outdoor catalogue with editorial content of adidas AG. adidas outdoor magazine is published twice a year. Published by adidas AG World of Sports Adi-Dassler-Straße 1 91074 Herzogenaurach – Germany Concept and realisation bøa! agentur gmbh Photographers Timeline Production, Keith Ladzinski, Hannes Huch, Christian Waldegger, Klaus Dell’Orto, Michael Meisl Text Mike Mandl, Flo Scheimpflug, Reinhold Messner, Eva Meschede, Jakob Schweighofer, Andrew Bisharat Copywriting and English translation WordWorks All data are subject to change and are provided without any guarantee. Printing and layout errors excepted. All rights reserved. May not be copied. © 2014 adidas AG. adidas, the 3-Bars logo, and the 3-Stripes mark are registered trademarks of the adidas Group.
The “Lecco Spiders” is the climbing club of the famous Grignetta Spiders Mountaineering Association in Italy. They can look back on a long list of international successes that stretches back more than 60 years. They have among their ranks past heroes Cassin and Casimiro Ferrari, and current big names such as Matteo Della Bordella and Fabio Palma. Over the years they have not only opened up numerous new routes but also been in the spotlight of international fame.
DAV Summit Club GmbH is the German Alpine Association’s mountaineering school and special travel organiser for active mountaineering and cultural vacations worldwide. DAV Summit Club evolved from the mountaineering service of the DAV founded in 1957 and is now one of the largest mountaineering schools in the world.
The Zugspitze Mountaineering School is the mountain guide association on Germany’s highest mountain. The specialist knowledge of the team is clear from the high quality of training and tours they provide. Some are old hands with a valuable source of knowledge; others are up-to-date thanks to their training activities with various alpine associations and many tours with their clients, who they don’t only accompany up the Zugspitze.
The Zermatt Alpin Center – founded in 1894, the Swiss association can look back on a highly successful history spanning more than 100 years. Over 60 professional mountain guides at the Zermatt Alpin Center have been relying on adidas Outdoor products since spring 2011.