2022 Round-Up: Part 1 (January to June)
- Thursday 29th December 2022
With some staggering performances across the pistes, 2022 has seen British climbers standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their international counterparts. In this first part of the 2022 Round-Up we canter through the news we reported online at Climber Magazine looking at the news as it unfolded throughout the first half of the year.
January
Rock news in January was dominated by news of two young crushers - Chinese youngster Ziheng Qiu and USA star Bayes Wilder. Ziheng Qiu became the youngest ever climber – of either gender – to climb 5.14a/F8b+ when she redpointed China Climb at White Mountain. For his part 10-year-old Bayes Wilder sent Barefoot on Scared Ground at Font 8A+.
Click here for more on Dubouloz’s ascent.
February
Reacting to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the IFSC suspended the proposed Boulder and Speed World Cup events due to be held in early April in Moscow.
Having climbed the Eiger Direct over a four-day period in mid-January, the trio then followed this with a three-day ascent of the Directe de l'Amitié. Finally, they completed their audacious project in early February climbing Gogna-Cerruti in the narrowest of weather windows prior to an incoming storm.
Click here for more on that story.
March
On home rock, Franco Cookson made headlines with the third ascent of The Meltdown (F8c+/9a) in Twll Mawr; doubly impressive given that his hardest previous sport route had been F8a! Cookson went on to make an impressive stream of ascents in the spring; more of which anon.
Whilst Adam Ondra popped up once again to make the news – in this case with the first ascent of Wonderland (F9b/+).
Click here for more on Hazel’s ascent.
April
Franco Cookson’s purple patch continued with ascents of The Sandman (E10 7a), Meltdown Extension (F9a) and Hold Fast, Hold True (E10, 7a).
Click here for more on Will’s time in the Czech Republic.
May
May typically will see Kenton Cool summiting Everest; his ascent this year – his 16th – gave him the most ascents of any non-Sherpa mountaineer.
With the domestic rock season well and truly underway, there was no shortage of news items making headlines. In the far-flung reaches of Orkney, Robbie Phillips and Alex Moore repeated Longhope Direct (E10) on Hoy. Also making trad news was Matt Wright who snatched the fourth ascent, the first of 2022, of Lexicon (E11) on Pavey Ark; remarkably, Wright – although an accomplished sport climber with F9a under his belt – was a relative newcomer to trad climbing.
Sport climbing news came from Malham when UK-based Basque climber, Eder Lomba, made the second ascent of Steve McClure’s Rainman (F9b). As Britain’s hardest sport route, Lomba’s success only came after considerable effort and training during which he specifically trained to rest in what McClure had considered a super marginal knee bar.
Click here for more on Seb’s tenacious ascent.
June
Will Bosi’s rampage continued with yet more hard blocs including the first ascent of Trance (Font 8C), the sit start to Bewilderness (Font 8B+) at Badger Cove and the second ascent of Outliers (Font 8C), Aidan Robert’s desperate addition in the South Lakes.
Over at Malham, young Josh Ibbertson got the third ascent of Rainman (F9b). Having worked Rainman with Eder Lomba, it was a thoroughly deserved conclusion to a lengthy campaign; impressively Josh was in the midst of taking his A-level exams when he made the third ascent!
James Pearson stepped into the limelight once again with an unconventional if super impressive repeat of Lexicon. Without the safety of a top-roped inspection, something which all previous ascensionists had used, James’ fifth ascent was made ground-up, albeit after abseil inspection. Given the right route, Pearson’s ascent suggests that a super-hard trad on-sight or flash is coming! Currently, Steve McClure’s on-sight of Nightmayer (E8 6c) is the hardest on-sight achieved on a UK trad route.
Click here for more on Max’s medal-winning performance.
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Catch our second and final sprint through the Climber news - the highlights from July to December - here