Cineplex update, from various living room sources.
It's been a full-on week of interesting action in the Cineplex, with up to 20 people sessioning at a time... Here are the highlights, which are likely correct but this is a free web site and I'm updating it while drinking wine, update me if it's wrong. If you're pilfering this site for a another website or magazine please at least mention where you got the info or, better, send me enough money for more wine.
March 9
Evgeny sent Musashi without heel spurs... Vince Anderson said, "It was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" There are several other people working hard routes in the Cineplex without spurs also, a new style seems to be catching on with mixed climbers. I hope it does, it's clear that heel spurs and tool rests are, in the context of the general climbing circus, turning mixed climbing into the clown act. Spurs Are For Horses Rant here.
Chris Cubbit (England) sent Musashi third (spurs) try with Simon almost falling on him from Rocky. More impressive was his bare-footed competition climbing in Canmore--heel-hooking the ice barrels with bare feat after falling off and removing his shoes...
Ines Papert sent Musashi at the end of the day fourth try (second female ascent).
Roger Strong sent the Rocky Horror Picture Show (BTW, your CDs are at 168 Coyote, come on by if you want 'em).
March 8
Bubu "onsighted" Rocky with spurs (other people had climbed it while Bubu was there but he made an effort not to watch anybody for sure), also a very long time on the route.
Evgeny repeated The Game (45 minutes on it).
Bubu climbed Musashi without using his heel spurs on his tools, a distinction he felt upped the difficulty...
Pre March 8
Bubu sent The Game after adding something like 10cm to each tool to extend his admittedly short reach.
Harold Berger did the game with the Rocky Horror finish (it's not exactly clear in the sea of quickdraws in the Cineplex where to go, I don't think Harold as trying to finish on an easier route. Rocky is different and reportedly easier than the Game finish), generally called the Rocky Game.
Israel Blanco from Spain repeated the Game using his feet to remove his lower tool on the crux, whacky!
Anna Torretta was the first woman to repeat Musashi in very long effort.
There was a raging controversy over whether or not some of the holds had been "enhanced" on the Game. Nobody is willing to comment publicly on the culprit at the moment, but both sides of the Atlantic are getting equally slandered at this point. Regardless, several well-known climber haven't been afriad to hammer hard on one tool while the pick of the other was on the rock. This is sort of standard operating procedure up to a point, but apparently that point was passed by a fairly wide margin.
The Conditions Pages have lots of current info too.
See an error here? Drop an email to: gadd@gravsports.com and I'll fix it.