Killian Fischhuber, the men’s Bouldering champ, on problem no. 2 (left). No wonder it’s so popular — look at that setting! Thousands turned out for the 22nd annual Arco Rock Master. The Castello Di Arco is just visible atop the cliffs above (right).
Killian Fischhuber, the men’s Bouldering champ, on problem no. 2 (left). No wonder it’s so popular — look at that setting! Thousands turned out for the 22nd annual Arco Rock Master. The Castello Di Arco is just visible atop the cliffs above (right).
ARCO ROCK MASTER 2008 — The Competition of World Champions
By Björn Pohl
Welcome to the Rock Master
Just a couple miles north of Lake Garda in northern Italy, among
the foothills of the Alps and hugging the impressive Monte Colodri rock face in the Sarca
Valley, lies the town of Arco, with
cobblestone streets and a quaint
piazza. The 12th-century Castello
Di Arco, perched atop a 700-
foot limestone cliff, towers over
the ancient but fashionable
town, home to a long and rich
climbing history. Still, Arco is
perhaps most famous as the site
of the world’s oldest, and
arguably most prestigious,
annual climbing competition,
the Arco Rock Master. Rock.
Master. Taste it! Not bad...
This year, the 22nd consecutive
Rock Master was held on
September 6-7, attracting
thousands of spectators who filled
the sprawling lawn in front of the
60-foot-tall (and nearly 50-feet
overhanging) artificial wall. Fifty
invitation-only competitors from 27
countries climbed for the title in
the following categories: Onsight,
Afterwork (a time-limited redpoint
event), Speed, and Bouldering.
Arco oozes climbing in every
way. There are climbing shops,
climbing cafés (i.e., cafés with lots
of signed climbing photos and
climbers hanging around), and
famous climbers wherever you
look. It’s also worth noting that the
Rock Master, unlike most climbing
events, is great for non-climbers,
too — the town has great
weather, beautiful views, great
coffee and ice cream, top-notch
shopping, and history. Plus, you
can go hiking or mountain biking,
too. And even though this year’s
entrance fee was steep (25 Euros
≈ $40 for the event), the Rock
Master was packed. The very
Italian atmosphere was relaxed:
parents brought their kids and
friends enjoyed beers in the sun.
Rock Master History
The first Rock Masters, Lynn Hill
and Stefan Glowacz, were
crowned in 1987, but the history
of the competition is older still. In
1986, the white limestone walls of
Arco hosted the second Sport
Roccia competition. This was the
pre-artificial-climbing-wall era, so
the routes were carved and
drilled directly into the rock.
(Needless to say, this approach
would be slightly controversial
today.) It wasn’t until 1988 that
Arco received an artificial wall.
From the start it was clear Arco
was never to be a punter’s
competition; only the Best of the
Best were invited. An invitation is,
and has always been, an honor
in itself, so the very act of
competing puts you in a winner’s
circle of sorts. Perhaps this is why
Arco felt more relaxed than any
other competition I’ve been to.
The climbers here, all elite, act
like buddies just hanging out.
Sure, everyone wants to win, but
there are no tense faces. And
before and after competing, you
might see “fierce” rivals at the
various gelaterias and cafés (the
Conte di Arco, for example)
sharing an espresso or a beer
(depending on whether it’s
before or after the comp).
The Results
Italy and Austria dominated
this year’s Rock Master. But
China, Japan, Venezuela and
Canada as well as Nordic
countries like Norway, Sweden
and Finland were also
represented. No American’s
competed this year. [Editor’s
note: Ethan Pringle recently
expressed an interest in going
to the Rock Master. Perhaps it’s
time America’s crushers
dropped a hint to someone on
the invitation committee…]
In the men’s competition, the
Spaniards were superior —
there’s simply no other way to
describe it — with Patxi Usobiaga
finishing ahead of his compatriot
Ramon Puigblanque. Both were
simply miles ahead of the others.
Likewise in the women’s comp,
the top two climbers dominated
the event, though in this case,
rather than Spaniards, a young
Austrian, Johanna Ernst, and a
Slovenian, Maja Vidmar, were the
victors. It was close, but in the
end, the 15-year-old Ernst proved
unbeatable. In fact, if I had to
pick one highlight from this year’s
Rock Master, I’d have to go with
Ernst’s cruise to the top in the
women’s Onsight route,
accompanied by the cheers of
an ecstatic crowd. Goosebumps!
Björn Pohl is the Managing and
Contributing Editor for 8a.nu. He’s
also a high school teacher
(English and Swedish) and stands
6’ 5” tall.
State Radio rocks the Nor’Easter. Photo: Tim Kemple / kemplemedia.com.
State Radio rocks the Nor’Easter. Photo: Tim Kemple / kemplemedia.com.
The Nor’Easter
Words by Tim Keenan
A weekend of rain. It was bound to happen. After all, the event was named the Nor’easter. Of course rain never stopped Woodstock, but how good could a climbing festival in the middle of a three day rain storm really be? The actual experience was surprising.
I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that 1,500 people would still come out to party, but they did. “Soaked and stoked” seemed to be the catch-all phrase, as a roster of 9 bands, the Reel Rock Film Tour, conservation programs, a huge sponsor village, great food, and the random side activities took up the space where tons of climbing should have been done.
Set at the Tenney Mountain Ski Lodge in Plymouth, New Hampshire, The Nor’easter, a new concoction from Eastern Mountain Sports perched on a hillside just up the road from the cliffs at Rumney. The event was set for a real climber’s throw down with prize money to be awarded to the first person to send Jaws II, an unrepeated Vasya Vorotnikov testpiece at the beautiful Waimea wall, as well as many other hard routes. Climbers such as Chris Sharma, Dave Graham, Tommy Caldwell, Kevin Jorgeson, Emily Harrington, Lisa Rands, Daniel Woods, Ethan Pringle, Joe Kinder, Cedar Wright and others showed up to try their best to win some cash and to teach clinics with the EMS Climbing School. Instead, they spent the weekend giving slideshows, playing “Pros vs. Joes” dodgeball, and getting soaked with everyone else at the concert. Probably the greatest collection of climbing talent ever to play grade school sports as a sponsored activity.
On Saturday it stopped raining long enough for over 300 climbers to jump on the greenfueled buses and brave the elements. The break was also just long enough for Chris Sharma to hit the crag for a 3-hour photo shoot. This proved to be enough time to solve the crux of Jaws II (5.15a) with, guess what, a giant all-points-off dyno. Seriously.
The sponsor village was cool, with GORE-TEX, 5.10, The North Face, Chaco, Clif Bar, Keen, Outside Magazine, Salomon, Smartwater, and others keeping everyone psyched. In the case of the Primaloft Insulation lounge, it also offered a little extra coziness (warm sleeping bags, sweet). At base camp was the conservation village and bike-powered wifi café, which offered an eyeopening education on conservation by powering a TV/DVD player and two computers with bicycles. I was most psyched about the Reel Rock Tour, which drew a packed crowd to watch the latest and greatest from Big Up Productions and Sender Films. On a side note: If you haven’t seen The Sharp End you are missing out.
One portion of the event unaffected by the weather was the cleanup day at Rumney. Climbers, including some of the pros, worked with the US Forest Service rangers from White Mountain National Forest gave back to the best sport climbing in the Northeast. The Sunday “Greening Day” featured trash cleanup, washing chalk off routes, completing several slope restoration projects, and organizing and rebuilding trails.
Most importantly, the music raged all weekend. Hip hop gurus, Glue, delivered an unexpected highlight with a stellar set opening the show for Friday night’s headliner Tapes n Tapes. Described by Rolling Stone as a band known to “strut its funky virtuosity like Prince, threaten to collapse in a drunken heap like the Replacements, or rage like Hüsker Dü”, they did not disappoint, lobbing one irresistible riff after the next straight to the crowd.
Saturday, the music emerged a little more subdued with a couple of great New England Bluegrass bands before things ramped up again with The Dig, a brash, foot stomping (occasionally shirtless) bunch of kids from Brooklyn who proved to be the rough diamonds of the show.
The festival hit its climax with back-to-back sets of Rustic Overtones and State Radio. The two New England stalwarts both delivered blistering sets that left the crowd exhausted, soaked, and screaming for more. Videos from State Radio’s set have started popping up on You Tube. And the die-hard fandom, pouring rain, giant crowd, and undeniable musical talent are definitely worth a look.
Festival organizers NE2C say they are already looking forward to 2009. And who knows, next time there might even be dry rocks to climb!
Justin Feola cruising Cradle of the Deep (5.13a). He and his partner Todd Johnson of team Renaissance Builders both red-pointed the route twice within 20 minutes during the opening hours of Hell.
Justin Feola cruising Cradle of the Deep (5.13a). He and his partner Todd Johnson of team Renaissance Builders both red-pointed the route twice within 20 minutes during the opening hours of Hell.
Exhaustion + Dehydration + Fatigue + Sore feet + Flappers + Lots of food + Lots of water + Beautiful sandstone sport and trad climbing in massive doses = The most intense 24 hours you’ve ever had. Guaranteed.
On September 26-28,2008, for the third year, 200 climbers competed to lead as many routes as possible within a 24- hour time period on the bullet sandstone of Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, Arkansas. The one-of-akind climbing event tests endurance, pain tolerance, and mental stamina as each team pushes on long and hard, all day and all night.
To begin the action packed weekend on Friday night, a pasta dinner and social lubricants, provided by New Belgium, were served to all competitors. After a slackline competition, Jason Kehl busted out a killer video-photo show. And finally pimpinandcrimpin .com tapped a kegger that raged till midnight. Hell was off to a good start.
At 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, the climbing teams gathered at the outpost to pick up scorecards and get a quick debriefing from Andy Chasteen, the master of ceremonies. At 10, the rifle fired! Climbers headed to the rock at a frantic pace. A team’s day would look something like this: climb, belay, switch, eat, drink, repeat — pitch after pitch. The basic premise for 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell is to lead a route clean for points, and do it in succession for 24 hours straight. Team members do not have to climb the same routes, but they only get points for lines that they climb. Harder routes are worth more points. A route can be climbed twice for points.
As the clock wound down, the pitch count for each team went up. Throughout the day and into the night, encouraging hollers were heard, and headlamps flashed across the canyon. At 10 p.m. and 4 a.m, just make sure that everyone was climbing safely, all teams were required to check in for the retina and coherency test.
Just as quickly as it began, 24HHH was over. The rifle blast fired and signaled the end of the comp. In the aftermath, Canadian superstar Sonnie Trotter secured the individual win by climbing 120 pitches on 60 routes — that’s 5 pitches an hour for 24 hours straight!
Trotter, a Patagonia Ambassador who bases out of Squamish BC, wrote the following in a blog at TheCleanestLine.com: “The crux of the event thundered in around 4 a.m. hitting me like a tidal wave. My speech began to slow, my reflexes dulled and my skin showed signs of first-degree burns. When my pace was noticeably slower, my partner Jonathan [Thesenga] would yell at me.”
But the competition was won by locals Cole Fennel and Stark Ligon III (Team Manwich), who secured the overall team win with a solid strategy to climb quality over quantity - climbing mostly pitches of 5.11 and harder.
“I was stoked to see locals Cole and Stark finally bring it home to Arkansas. Those guys have some serious good karma coming their way with all the support they gave to other climbers, via beta and rigging fixed draws for the masses. They were there to perform and really understand the spirit of this event,” said Jeremy Collins, a three year veteran of the competition who lives in Kansas City, MO.
Although winners are awarded, this event is really about overcoming personal goals, climbing with friends, making new ones, surviving throughout the night, and having a blast.
Special thanks go to Barry Johnson (climbhcr.com) for hosting the event on his ranch, Andy Chasteen (andrewchasteen.com) for bringing everyone together, all the volunteers who stayed awake as long as the climbers, and also the support from sponsors who made the prizes at this year’s award ceremony plentiful.
RESULTS:
Advanced Class Team
Cole Fennel and Stark Ligon III — Team Manwich
Sonnie Trotter and Jonathan Thesenga — Crusty Demons of Crank
Jeremy Collins and Josh Carrck - The Murky Brown Pantloaders
Todd Johson(last years individual winner) and Justin Feola — Renaissance Builders
Advanced Class Individual
Sonnie Trotter
Todd Johnson
Stark Ligon III and Cole Fennel
Individual Female
Brittany Griffith
Natalie Neal
Sarah Nieves
Enlarge
