Ryan Siacci gives us the low down on how this year’s festival went The early morning yoga session was one of the climbing-est things I have ever seen. Scattered amongst the standard yoga mats were an eclectic assortment of improvised alternatives – one of those woven plastic jobs from Thailand, the rubber flooring from a camp shower, a crash pad. You certainly couldn’t fault anyone for their spirit, but if the weather was anything to go by, their sun salutes can’t…
Tiffany Melius reports on the 2017 Oceania Sport Climbing Championships On 12–15 October, a team of almost 40 Aussies competed in the Oceania Continental Climbing Championships in Nouméa, New Caledonia. A French Territory in the South Pacific, New Caledonia is known for its beaches, snorkelling, and native Kanak culture. The majority of the team were youth competitors, with only four non-youth women competing in the Open category, and no non-youth men. Campbell Harrison, the previous men’s Oceania Champion, was notably…
Oz comp climbing hopeful, Oceana Mackenzie, has been awarded a sought-after Olympic scholarship designed to help participants in fringe sports to qualify for Tokyo 2020. In the run up to each Olympics, the Australian Olympic Committee petition the International Olympic Committee for the scholarships, which are designed to help participants in less-well funded sports to qualify by relieving some of the financial burden. Because the three Australian recipients of the Rio Games equivalent scholarship all qualified and went on to do well, this…
We speak to Sam and Liam Healy, identical-twin crushers from Sydney who prove that no matter how similar two people may be they will still not climb boulders the same way. Sam and Liam have been climbing extremely well of late. At home in Sydney, recent ticks for Sam have included Double Demerit (V13; which seems to have dropped a grade of late from V14), One of a Kind (V13), Deep Blue Sea (V12; down from V13), Tyler Durden (V12)…
Ryan Siacci outlines the beauty and the (tips) carnage of the upcoming Passchendaele V2 Bouldering Festival, which is happening the weekend of 20 October. Exactly a century ago, the Allies and the Germans were engaged in a terrible and titanic struggle as they fought for control of the land around Ypres, Belgium. Some of the bloodiest battles of the Great War took place in the apocalyptic hellscape near Passchendaele, a small village reduced to a smouldering ruin by years of…
As the temperatures have dropped in recent weeks so the steady number of big ticks has risen. Tom O’Halloran sent a project he bolted three years ago at the Underworld in the Blue Mountains, giving it the very uninspiring name of Sack o’ Woe (33/34).He says about the route, “It’s ultra short and powerful, the holds are all pretty good but they are just a touch too far away to make things easy and are tilted at funky angles to…
