Anna Hazelnutt Ticks 5.14 Gear; Canadians Climb Big New Route in Patagonia
This article originally appeared on Climbing
In an attempt to make space for the newsworthy ascents that occur with ever-increasing regularity, we're launching a new weekly series in which we try to celebrate a few outstanding climbs that for one reason or another caught our attention. We hope you enjoy it.--The editors
New 2,000-foot Route on Poincenot's North Face, Patagonia
While it didn't happen in the last week, the ascent that's stuck out to me recently is Canadians Mateo Esposito and Ripley Boulianne's four-day onsight effort on the North Face of Aguja Poincenot. Their new route, The Power of Independent Trucking (ED- 5.9+; 2,000ft), is a fully independent line that, as Ripley later described it, is "generally moderate, protects well, and is characterized by lots of blue-collar wide climbing, the Steck-Salathe of Patagonia if you will."
On their first day, from Niponino camp, they hiked and then climbed some 4,500 feet of elevation, ducking below seracs and rope-cutting rockfall, before establishing their first bivouac 500 feet up the North Face. They climbed about the same distance the second day--hauling to have a chance of free climbing the endless offwidths and deep chimneys--and did well over a thousand feet on the third day before reaching the summit ridge.
I will be transparent here: both climbers are friends of mine, which certainly contributes to my stoke; but I also have perspective of what on earth that "5.9+" grade may entail. For example, last summer, in Squamish, I belayed Mateo on the approach pitch to a golden finger crack at the tippy top of the Stawamus Chief. Our beta instructed us to "climb a 5.8." Mateo bypassed a dirty slab (the actual route) and racked up with a few hand-sized cams below a leaning, flaring, six-inch splitter offwidth. He lurched up about half of it--looking to be closer to 5.11, IMO--before greasing off. He told me it felt a bit hard for 5.8.
Ripley and Mateo are also recipients of the John Lauchlan Award (JLA)--the only alpine-climbing grant of its kind in Canada--which provides cash and mentorship to young climbers who may not otherwise have the funds to make it to their dream locales. Ripley and Mateo were awarded the JLA's new "Mentor's Edge Award" which prioritizes applicants from the LGBTQ2S+ and/or BIPOC communities. And, not that my $0.02 matters here, but I think that sort of representation is pretty great too.—Anthony Walsh
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Anna Hazelnutt Sends Another Hard Trad Line
Last week, 24-year-old Anna Hazlett (who prefers to be called Hazelnutt) ticked Prinzip Hoffnung (5.13d/14a E9/10) in Burser Platte, Austria. The spicy line is yet another on a tick list that began in earnest in 2021, when she sent the UK line Once Upon a Time in the Southwest (E9 6c 5.13b/c R) and, six months later, made the first female ascent of the line's neighbor, Walk of Life, also E9 6c.
In addition to the routes she's been putting down, what I find so remarkable about Hazelnutt is her self-transformation. She was a self-identified boulderer in 2020 who got scared and upset whenever she climbed on a rope. But she wanted to push her comfort zone. Fast forward to December 2022, when we last spoke to Hazelnutt, and she needed only eight sessions to put down Spank The Monkey (Full) (5.13d R), in Smith Rock, Oregon.
"I've done so many 13d's now, and I feel like I've done them relatively fast--like a week to three weeks generally," she said at the time. "And it's really awesome. ... But I really think it would be good to get on something that's really going to shut me down, whether or not that's a harder grade, just something that's not going to be that perfect ending. I think I'm really craving that."
Although Prinzip Hoffnung marked a slight step up in difficulty, Hazelnutt still managed to get her perfect ending. According to her Instagram, she sent it during a short trip and in spite of a nagging shoulder injury.
Prinzip Hoffnung was FA'd in 2009 on gear by Beat Kammerlander. It's since seen a number of repeats, including by Alex Luger, Jacopo Larcher, Babsi Zangerl, Nadine Wallner, Madeleine Cope, and more.—Delaney Miller
A Klem Loskot Classic Gets a Rare Repeat--and an Upgrade
I'm a sucker for history, so the thing that most delighted me in the past week was Nicolai Uznik's repeat of Klem Loskot's Emotional Landscapes, in Maltatal, Austria. Loskot spent years working on the climb before finally sending in 2002 and grading it V15--and his process on the climb was immortalized (for arthritic nerds like me anyway) in a pretty awesome video shot in 2000, two years before he finally sent.
For whatever reason, though, Emotional Landscapes hasn't seen the kind of attention from visiting climbers as Loskot's other major contribution to the area, Bugeleisen, which has seen numerous ascents in the last decade. In the last 21 years, Emotional Landscapes has seen repeats by only four climbers: Martin Moser, Florian Shmatlz, Nalle Hukkataival, and--last week--Nicolai Uznik.
Widely known as a comp climber (he won bouldering at the Continental European Championship last year) and as one of Jakob Schubert's training partners, Uznik reports that Emotional Landscapes' starting foothold has broken. And he says that, in his opinion, this raises the grade to V16.
Perhaps the upgrade will give renewed attention to a pretty classic looking bloc.—Steven Potter
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