Yi Chao Foong on the first ascent of the Cape Pillar Trident’s final prong, 44 years after Mendelt Tillema and his merry men climbed the first two prongs WORDS: Yi Chao Foong, IMAGES: As credited 10th December, 2016 I stare at my feet, ignoring the drizzling rain as I focus my centre of gravity over a shallow toe jam my trembling right foot is in. In my peripheral vision I spy my two RPs behind a flake that looks unlikely to…
Editor’s note to issue 21 of Vertical Life. Download the issue here. Climbing is full of things relative. Linking two moves on your project could be heralded as great success for you, whereas your mate falling off on the last move on the flash of the same problem could be an utter failure for her. Adventure is relative – a cakewalk for you is an epic for someone else, bigness is relative, easiness too. And so is the cock up. Getting your…
We’ve just hit the 20th issue of VL, a fact that has made us pause on the hamster wheel and take stock. When we look back at the last five years of pumping out VL, the thing we see most is the love and passion (and elbow grease) of our contributors, most of whom provide their words and photos gratis – VL would not exist without them. It makes us think that there must be something in helping to create…
Cherry Picking or On the Beach – which is the Grampians’ best V13? We asked our panel of bouldering experts, David Mason, Adam Watson and Niky Ceria, all of whom have done both, to give us their reasoned opinion. WORDS & IMAGES: As credited We humans are weighers and assessors. We see contrast and difference and our minds are calibrated to compare. This with that, one with the other, Granny Smith vs Pink Lady, Aliens or C3s, was Stalin…
Editor’s note to issue 20 of Vertical Life. Download the issue here. 0.0062% chance. That is what I gave myself. Not great odds. I was trying a route that I had been trying on and off for a few years. One shot here, one there six months later, one again a year after that. I hadn’t been climbing much. I hadn’t been to a gym in months. 0.0062% chance of ticking it. That’s about the same odds of hitting the jackpot on…
Amanda Cossey teaches you how to fuel for multipitching by remembering a time when she got it all wrong WORDS: Amanda Cossey, IMAGE: Tom O’Halloran I have always loved mulitpitch trad climbing. The scary bits, the suffering, planning the rack to take, food and drink rations, timing of pitches and the approach to the route are all awesome. Echo Crack (163m, four pitch, grade 25, trad classic in the Blue Mountains) had for a long time been high on my…
