The Flash: Rock+Run Blog

The second of our weekly videos comes from the heart of Llanberis where renowned climbing hardware company, DMM, are celebrating a spectacular 40th year in business. This enchanting video recounts the company’s humble beginnings with its 3 cofounders forming the business in 1981. Having first met whilst working for Clog Climbing, Fred Hall, Richard Cuthbertson and Paul Simkiss recall tales of working for Heinz beans, debt collection and the interview rejections that brought them together in the 70’s. From here, the rest was history, going on to shape a company that has become a cornerstone of both the Llanberis and the worldwide climbing communities. 

Another Friday and another weekly video but, this one is particularly special. In 2019, Nirmal Purja, or more commonly known as Nimsdai, embarked on his ‘Project Possible’ – an insane mission to summit all fourteen 8000 metre peaks in a record breaking 7 months. Having only entered the world of big mountain climbing in 2012, Nimsdai made his first 8000 metre ascent two years later, summitting Dhaulagiri in a return trip of just 15 days. From high altitude novice to Project Possible in 7 years sounds ridiculous, but Nims is pretty unique.

Dave MacLeod is back with another video of cutting-edge trad in the Scottish Highlands. This time Dave has company in the form of fellow Scotsman, professional climber and YouTuber, Robbie Phillips, who has been partnering Dave on the quest for Scotland’s next bold trad line. Well, that line came in the form of ‘What We Do in The Shadows’, E10 7a; first discovered by Phillips at Duntelchaig, the route features 8c level climbing on gear with a 7C+ boulder crux right at the death. 

Midtbo and Ondra are back with another fantastically insightful video. This latest episode in their continued collaboration comes from Ondra’s famed home crag, Moravsky Kras, in the North of Brno. If not for Ondra, this quaint, bizarre climbing location might have been known to committed locals only but, through Adam’s development, the crag has become one of most concentrated areas of hard climbing in the world.

Will Bosi has been on another hard sport sending spree, this time at the mecca of British sport climbing – Raven Tor. Making the long-awaited second ascent of Steve McClure’s 1998 masterpiece, ‘Mutation’, on the 31st of October, Will clipped the chains on the long-standing open project, ‘Brandenburg Gate’, but a week later on the 7th of November. Bosi gave both routes a grade of 9a+, an upgrade for McClure’s Mutation which he originally graded 9a back in ’98. Brandenburg Gate was rumoured to be around the 9b mark having thwarted the likes of John Gaskins in the early 2000s, but Will managed to make the impressive ascent on his first ‘proper’ red point session.

This week’s video comes from one of the most famous and well-known climbing training spaces in the world – Adam Ondra’s old school spray wall at his Brno based gym, Kotelna Boulder Club. 

The second video this week comes to you from the wonderfully picturesque sea cliffs of Gogarth. Rising imperiously out of the swell, the Gogarth cliffs are home to a host of 3-star, ultra-classic, multi-pitch trad routes, non-more famous than the focus of this week’s video – ‘A Dream of White Horses’ (HVS 4c). This beautiful BMC video treats us to an historically accurate recreation of the climb’s first ascent which came courtesy of Ed Drummond and Dave Pearce in 1968. Climbed here by top climber, James McHaffie, and Alexis Pearce (son of first ascensionist, Dave), we’re given a fantastic insight into the route and what defines it as one of the most sought-after trad lines in the UK.

This weeks video looks at renowned climber and local Lakes legend, Rob Matheson, who has recently been repeating some of his first ascents. The video shows him repeating 'Holocaust' (E4 6a) on Dow Crag, 50 years to the day since he pioneered the route.

This week’s video takes us back to September 2006 when a primed Chris Sharma made the first ascent of Es Pontás (9a+), an incredible line through the middle of a beautiful, free-standing limestone arch off the coast of Mallorca. The climb is defined by its huge, seven-foot dyno in the middle of the route.

In February 2021, Lor Sabourin sent their first 5.14 on trad, clipping the chains on ‘East Coast Fist Bump’ (5.14a) in an ascent that wasn’t just a first for them but a first for the entire climbing community becoming the first non-binary climber to achieve the grade. This week’s video is a recently released Patagonia film that follows Sabourin as they tackle one of their hardest challenges to date in the sandstone canyons of northern Arizona.

This week’s video is straight from the Churnet Valley where Lattice Training team members, Ollie Torr, Madeleine Cope and Rhoslyn Frugtniet explore the area’s most popular spots. Churnet’s sandstone conglomerate offers an exceptionally diverse style of climbing with pockets, slopers and minuscule pebbles all contributing to some truly unique problems.

This video follows Sophie, who has significant impairments but refuses to let that get in the way of achieving her goals.
Not only has she set herself the challenge of doing 30 new things before she turned 30. She also completed 30 climbs in 30 days with support from Climb LBG, to raise money for a local hospice.

In October 1986, Johnny Dawes made the first ascent of a climb which defined a generation, a pitch described by Paul Williams in his 1989 guidebook as being ‘of such appalling difficulty as to be almost beyond the realms of human comprehension’. The climb is, of course, The Indian Face E9 – a terrifying slab which claims centre stage on Cloggy (Clogwyn Du'r Arddu), a wall steeped in heritage, perched high on the sides of Snowdon. This short film proves a wonderful insight into the history of the route and the characters that ultimately shaped its story.

 

This week’s video is a Wedge channel feature on British climbing legend, Ned Feehally. Having just released his first book, ‘Beastmaking’, Ned chats about everything from writing the book to training around the British weather and targeting his weaknesses.

Organic Climbing was founded by committed boulderer and geologist, Josh Helke, in the summer of 2003. Having worked in the outdoor industry as a writer, photographer and hold maker, Josh witnessed the very first bouldering crash pad come to market in the US.

Want to know what it takes to climb boulders at the highest level? Well, this week’s video comes straight from Red Rocks where Mad Rock athletes, Matt Fultz, Ethan Pringle and Taylor McNeill get together to take down some of the area’s supreme lines. From first ascents to repeats of Red Rock’s sandstone classics, the trio approach their projects in a variety of styles, utilising a diverse range of tactics to send. Mimicking their different personalities, their distinctive approaches to projecting give us a great insight into what you need to climb at the very limit – patience, grit and a whole lot of determination.

This week’s video is pretty special, not for its latest hard ascent or piece of climbing controversy but because it truly encapsulates what climbing is all about. From the waters of the idyllic Lake Saimaa, Finland’s biggest lake, we’re treated to some of Nalle Hukkataival’s latest and most local psicobloc projects.

The dust has settled, grades have been discussed and finally we have the low down on Stefano Ghisolfi’s second ascent of Bibliographie. It seems only fitting then, that this week’s video focusses on Ghisolfi’s iconic ascent, taking an in depth look at the route and its torturous limestone holds. In typical limestone fashion, the holds are characteristically small, sharp and pockety with the crux sections proving to be as beautiful as they are mind blowingly difficult.

In 1969, Seattle engineer and lifelong mountaineer Larry Penberthy formed ‘Mountain Safety Research’ as a one-man mission devoted to improving the safety of climbing equipment.

Wide Boy Pete Whittaker is back with another light-hearted video – this time from
Sweden as he attempts one of his hardest pitches of rope soloing to date.

The following video incorporates a run down of not only which brands each Olympic climbing athlete was using, but also which models they chose for the different styles of climbing. 

Climbing’s ultimate power couple, Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher strive to climb the Eigerwand’s hardest route, Odyssee (8a+, 1,400 meters), inside a day...