Mike Doyle’s Rants&Raves

In the climbing world there are lots of strong people who like to fly under the radar, stay out the news and just go about their own thing. However these people do deserve recognition for their accomplishments, even if it is just from me, on my blog, that three people read (hi Mom).

First of all I want to give a shout out to Bill Ramsey. Easily one of the most psyched and motivated climbers I have ever met. Famous for his tireless training ethic Bill would hike up to his project, give it a few burns, hike down and then train for a few hours. Bill just sent a route called Hold Your Fire (14b) up at Mt. Potasi that he had been working for the past four months. He was agonizingly close for a good month, falling at the last move. I probably screwed him up a bit by going on it and giving him some different beta that he tried a few days before reverting to his original sequence.

Second, and the reason for this post, is to give credit to Ben Gilkison for his FFA (First Free Ascent) of a classic aid climb in Zion called Master Blaster. This is a spectacular roof crack that appears on many of the product tags for Black Diamond with Didier Berthod trying it. Ben did the first ascent in April of 2007 but this past weekend at the Red Rock Rendezvous people were still talking about it as unclimbed. In fact Sonnie and I hiked out there to try it both for its beauty but also to try and see if it would go. A long rambling email chat with Will Stanhope led to the discovery that Ben had done it two years ago. A quick Internet search only pulled out a few tidbits of information, mostly from Ben’s own scorecard on 8a.nu. How can an ascent like that fly under the radar? Congrats Ben, it’s a beautiful line and I’m happy to know it is possible. Here’s a link to Ben’s gallery on 8a.nu where he has a photo of him working the route. Pretty isn’t it? Sonnie and I are jacked to get on it a few more times, me with my sport climbing lie-back beta and Sonnie with his technique and ring-locks.

Of course I have to hand some props out to Bruce Adams (Alaska Bruce), dude sent Full Heinous in Smith Rocks a few weeks ago. Must’ve been the hangboard session up in AK.

Last but not least is a quick note about my girlfriend, Audrey Sniezek’s recent redpoint of Fall of Man in the Virgin River Gorge. Fall of Man is a 35m long technical and runout pitch that I think has some of the best climbing at the VRG (where there is lots of good climbing). While maybe not as newsworthy for the mags it is still a proud accomplishment. Many people shy away from that route since it is so long and technical but facing a short deadline and bad conditions she did it quickly (5-6 tries?), nailing the redpoint the first time she stuck the midway crux. Wish I had some photos of her on it. Good job Audrey!

People get psyched and motivated hearing about all sorts of sends. That’s why I like 8a. I can see what friends are up to and get excited for them half a world away.

Posted on March 25th, 2009 by Mike Doyle
Filed under: Rave, Uncategorized