Sportiva NEWS
Welcome
to the Sportiva NEWS page. Below you will find breaking news about upcoming events, Athlete accomplishments, contests, and more. Feel free to browse by date by scrolling down the page or press "ctrl f" to type in keywords and search the entire page for a specific article.
Enjoy!
04/09/2012 Sportiva Men Sweep Nationals in Colorado
La Sportiva Athletes Vasya Vorotnikov, Dylan Barks and Daniel Woods took 1st through 3rd repectively at Saturday's SCS Nationals in Boulder, CO. Vortotnikov, fresh off a 4-month shoulder injury perfomred exceptionally, reaching the high point in finals. Everyone was amped up and the competition was fierce throughout the evening but as always, the comraderie was top notch and everyone enjoyed the challenging routes. Louder Than 11 posted a great wrap-up of the event which can be viewed here.
Congrats again to Vasya for an impressive victory and to all La Sportiva Athletes who participated in SCS Nationals including Matty Hong who was 5th overall and Chelsea Rude who placed 4th for women.
02/22/2012 J Star Sends His Hardest Yet!
It's been a long battle on this one but La Sportiva Athlete Jonathan Siegrist has finally sent his project outside Las Vegas, NV. Siegrist states "The route is incredible, unique and gnarly hard." He spent the majority of this past month climbing on it. siegrist has not yet decided on a grade but notes that is certainly his hardest to date. He is calling the route, 'Le Reve'.
12/26/2011 Mayo FA's New Mixed Line, M13
On Christmas Day La Sportiva Athlete Will Mayo climbed a new line in the Rigid Designator Amphitheater as the day's warm-up. It consequently also served as the warm-down. It was his fifth try on what is a variation finish to Red Beard which, despite a number of recent attempts, remains unrepeated as of this writing. The Flying Fortress - B17 (M13) ascends the roof between Red Beard and Red Bull and Vodka and involves a seven foot deadpoint out the roof, a three foot lockoff move to a tenuous hook to reach a good hold beneath the upper overhang and another lockoff sequence from another insecure edge at the lip of the 'hang to work for placements in 1" to 2" verglas. Then, 30 meters up the climb, one must do a final series of powerful lockoffs on tools tapped into verglas to get one's feet up onto the ice and reach the anchor. As with Red Beard, the route is a full 35 meters in length. This route may be the hardest non-manufactured mixed climb in North America. Unlike The Game (M13), for instance, in the Cineplex in Alberta, on which one of the cruxes hinges on a hold that was "made", The Flying Fortress is au naturale.
The name is a tribute to Mayo's late Great Uncle Tom who was a B17 pilot that was shot down in occupied France in WWII (and miraculously survived); also, the route is protected with 17 Bolts (the ice is far too thin for ice protection at the top).
11/15/2011 Sean McColl Sends Big Paw, etc.
La Sportiva Athlete Sean McColl is on a tear in Switzerland. After his impressive ascent of New Base Line (V14) Sean has since sent several more testpieces in the area. To name a few Sean nabbed:
Big Paw (8C) 6th ascent
Delusion of Grandeur (8B) 2nd try
Frank's Wild Years (8A+) flash
Arete with a pocket (8A) flash
And
he's not done yet. Sean has some time left and is showing no signs of
stopping now. We're excited to see what else Seam puts together before
he leaves. Stay tuned for more updates and look for Sean McColl's
feature on Sportiva LIVE in the coming days. Rock & Ice has a nice little article about Sean's tear as well.
10/01/2011 Kamitses FA's 5.14 Trad Route
La Sportiva Athlete Peter Kamitses has established a new trad route in a new area of the Dacks called Silver Lake. The area was previously closed to climbing as it was under lease by a logging company for years but the lease ran out a few years ago so it is now open to the public. Kamitses estimates there may be a hundred crags spread out over the huge mountain ridge. Most of the features are vertical and slabby save for one outstanding 30 degree overhanging wall atop the first pitch of the slab. The stunning feature can be seen from miles away; one 100-foot twin crack system splitting the wall. The route was not previously an aid line, it just sat there unclimbed.
Kamitses worked the project last year but it was too wet to lead. Earlier this year he came agonizingly close the day before Hurricane Irene struck and then waited for weeks for the route to dry. It was still too wet but Kamitses succeeded in getting it dry by stuffing towels and blow torching the rock.
Four days of lead attempts and failures followed as Kamitses placed all gear on lead each go. The crux is a 10-move compression boulder problem slapping slopey sidepulls up twin cracks, runout due to the difficulty being too great to stop to place gear. Peter reports he cam came "a bit too close to hitting the slab a few times" so he moved the belayer above belay anchor of the first pitch to be closer to first piece of gear and to keep less rope out. Eventually Peter was able to find a way to place a piece of gear two moves into the crux which made for shorter falls. Shorter falls equaled a more relaxed climber and therefore, the send! Peter Kamitses sent the route on the perfect breezy, 50-degree day of September 18th and due to the nature of the crux named it "Oppositional Defiance Disorder" (5.14a).
09/22/2011 Joe Kinder Joins the Bad Girls Club
After bolting a monster route in the Wicked Cave at Rifle Mountain Park and leaving it to the masses as an unfinished open project for the season, Joe Kinder returned this fall and completed what he started. Dubbed the "Bad Girls Club project" by Kinder, fellow La Sportiva athlete Matty Hong snatched the FA earlier this year and kept the name out of respect to Kinder. Jonathan Siegrist sent the proj quickly after Matty Hong giving Joe the 3rd ascent of this monumental route. As it stands now Bad Girls Club has been give 5.14d and is possibly the most difficult line in the canyon.
Joe Kinder himself reports, "I am super stoked to have completed my project. Goals in climbing are probably the most satisfying endeavors to complete and now Bad Girls Club is finished. Grabbing the last hold was an all out effort as I missed it, clawed the wall and snagged it just before the window of opportunity closed. The route never got easier, it stayed heinously hard, and took a great focus to execute each section correctly and in a way that wouldn't destroy my power for the exit crux. I am so happy I climbed it... now I need another project!!! HA! I guess that's the name of the game huh?"
Major congrats to Joe for raising the bar in both his physical ability and high-class attitude throughout the entire process. We look forward to seeing what's next!
09/14/2011 BouldeRave at Urban Rocks 10/7/2011
CHATTANOOGA, TN – Urban Rocks Climbing Gym is hosting the second annual BouldeRave presented by La Sportiva. BouldeRave is Chattanooga’s Cosmic Climbing Celebration - a free climbing event with activities for climbers and non-climbers alike. BouldeRave will be the perfect chance for the entire community to try out rock climbing free at Urban Rocks Gym. Cosmic Climbing is similar to late-night cosmic bowling: a vivid light show accompanied by high-energy music, all while climbing on plastic neon holds. In addition to the climbing, the event will feature a climbing gear demo, raffle prizes (benefitting The Trust for Public Land), an exciting speed climbing competition, pre-registration for the Triple Crown Bouldering Series, various climbing games and an after-party fueled by Nashville DJ, This is ART.
BouldeRave will be host to a number of different activities and contests. Visit www.UrbanRocksGym.com for additional event information or talk to an Urban Rocks staff member at 423-475-6578.
08/08/2011 Exciting Finish to the 2011 Mountain Cup
The 2011 La Sportiva Mountain Cup wrapped up this weekend in Park City, UT with the 19th annual Jupiter Peak Steeplechase. The competition among top Mountain Cup competitors was extremely tight coming into the race and the standings were completely shaken up by the time the last racer crossed the finish line. Jared Scott from Grand Canyon, AZ pulled together an amazing last few races for the season and dethroned the 2010 champion Ryan Woods with his win at Jupiter Peak on Saturday (Woods finished 3rd overall for the 2011 Series). La Sportiva Athlete Matt Byrne finished seconds behind Jared Scott at Jupiter Peak with a dramatic finish that brought him up to 2nd overall in the Series. La Sportiva Athletes Jason Bryant and Bernie Boettcher battled it out for the 4th place title and $1,500 prize payout. Bernie had a great race at Jupiter Peak placing 4th overall but fell just a few points short of Jason Bryant for the Series.
La Sportiva Athlete Megan Kimmel confirmed her dominance in the Mountain Cup winning almost every race she entered for the Series. Megan racked up 119 points on the season and earned her 4th consecutive Mountain Cup title. Sisters Ashley and Cynthia Arnold went back and forth throughout the Series but Ashley ended up with more valuable wins and took 2nd place overall for the Women's division. Cynthia placed 3rd. The Women's Division also had a battle for the 4th place spot between Rachel Cieslewicz and La Sportiva Athlete Alison Bryant. Alison had a great race at Jupiter Peak but it wasn't quite enough to top what Rachel had already done for the season as Cieslewicz took the 4th place spot with 77 points over Alison's 75.
Media will soon be posted on mountaincup.com as well as the La Sportiva Facebook page.
For complete results for the Mountain Cup Series click here.
07/07/2011 J Star Puts Tensleep to Bed
La Sportiva Athlete Jonathan Siegrist spent the last few days in Tensleep, and was able to put in two killer back-to-back days. He managed to onsight the bouldery and thin 'Doomsday' 5.14a just before finishing 'Halfenheimer' 5.14a second try. The following day he flashed the powerful resistance climb 'F'd in the A' 5.14a. J Star is now off to Lander for a weekend at the International Climber's Festival.
06/27/2011 Vasya Wins in Central Park!
La Sportiva Athlete Vasya Vorotnikov took the top prize in this weekend's EMS Pro Comp held in Central Park, NY. More than 20,000 spectators looked on as Vasya held a commanding lead beginning in qualifiers and remained strong through to finals where he topped all three in the last round. There is a great selection of media from the event with a brief report from climbing.com as well as a full event write-up from Vasya's Blog. An excellent video from NE2C productions can be found here and the New York time has a great photo album from the event.
06/25/2011 Zanskar Odyssey Premiere in Eldo
The feature length Zanskar Odyssey will premiere at the Eldorado Springs Art Center on July 16. The show begins at 8:30 pm and admission is free! In addition to the great film there will be displays of Kashmir handwoven silk rugs, a photo exhibit by Mick Follari and Jonny Copp, artwork by Renan Ozturk. Plus (yes, there's more) Sherpa's will be providing free food and Upslope Brewing Company will be supporting the event with tasty beverages. And, there will be a massive gear raffle with prizes from La Sportiva, etc. See you there!
06/22/2011 J Star Performs Voodoo
La Sportiva Athlete Jonathan Siegrist established yet another new route in the Seattle are. Siegrist added an extension to a stiff 5.13a called Black Magic consisting of brilliant crimps and slopers stretching the pitch to about 90 feet. J Star is calling the route Voodoo and suggests 5.14b for the grade.
06/15/2011 Siegrist Establishes WA's hardest Sport Climb
Yesterday, La Sportiva Athlete Jonathan Siegrist finished up a 15 year standing project in the Seattle area. the climb is an extension to an old Erik Kubiak route called Whore of Babylon (5.14b). The extension adds a solid 5.14a to the end of Whore of Babylon, resulting in a 45+ meter monster pitch! J Star is calling it New World Order and suggests stiff 5.14c for the grade. As it stands now, this is Washington's hardest sport pitch!
Read J Stars blog report here. Major congrats on a killer line Jonathan!
05/24/2011 Fain Wins the Silver State 50K
La Sportiva Athlete Peter Fain took the top spot in the 50K distance at Sunday's Silver State 50/50 but the victory was bittersweet. Says Fain, "Officially I was first but unofficially second. Gary Gellin made a wrong turn at mile 17 and ended up way off course. I was 3 minutes behind him at that point. Wrong turns are apart of trail racing I guess and I was really happy with my performance."
Regardless of the technicalities, Fain ran an excellent race and broke his personal record for Silver State by 10 minutes. Congrats to Peter for a great start to the season, we look forward to seeing his name at the top of the race results in the weeks to come.
05/24/2011 Pantilat Three-peats at Ohlone 50K
La Sportiva Athlete Leor Pantilat won the Ohlone Wilderness 50K for the third year in a row as he crossed the finish line on Sunday.
The Ohlone 50K is a point-to-point race traversing the entire Ohlone Wilderness Trail. Leor has a great race report written up about this weekend's race on his blog, which can be viewed here: Leor's Race Report
Congratulations Leor on another impressive victory on such a demanding course!
05/10/2011 Zanskar Slideshow at Bent Gate
Last
fall, La Sportiva Athletes Jason Kehl and Abbey Smith, along with Pete
Takeda and Mick Follari, journeyed to the Indian Himalayas in search of
adventure, fresh perspective and the most aesthetic boulders in the
world's greatest mountain range. Tomorrow at 7 pm, Jason and Abbey will
be hosting their first slideshow about this amazing trip in the
Himalayas. The show starts at 7pm at Bent Gate Mountaineering in
Golden, Colorado.
Check out Bent Gate Mountaineering for full details. See you there!
05/01/2011 Pantilat Crushes Course Record
La Sportiva Athlete Leor Pantilat oblitereated the course record at yesterday's Quicksilver 50 Mile when he crossed the finish line in 6:01:45, 14 minutes faster than the previous record set by Chikara Omine. Leor has posted a great race report on his blog which can be viewed here. Congratulations, Leor on a great race!
-- photo courtesy ultrarunning.com
04/28/2011 Matt Wilder Slideshow Tonight!
Check it out at Wilderness Excahnge in Denver, CO tonight at 8:30pm
"Through this multimedia show I'll try to figure out why I tend to find myself far above gear with hard moves between me and safety --- a question I ask myself often. I'll begin by tracking my history as a climber following my split identity as a boulderer and a trad climber with some classic photos from my early days. The bulk of the show will highlight classic climbs and boulder problems I've established, repeated, or failed on in the past. The show will culminate with a personal narrative of my experience establishing two new 5.14R trad routes in the Front Range, Viceroy and Cheating Reality, accompanied by video footage and photo sequences. I'll also be showing a short rough cut from Chuck Fryberger's new film the Scene which shows my ascent of the Golden Bullet 5.13d in the New River Gorge."
04/09/2011 Robyn Raboutou Receives REAL Award
La Sportiva Athlete and Team ABC's head coach Robyn Raboutou, has been named "Boulder's Most Inspirational Athlete" by the Boulder County REAL awards (Recognizing Everything About Local). She accepted the award last night at a local gala and she could not be more proud of this recognition.
03/29/2011 Bowman Sets Course Record
La Sportiva Athlete Dylan Bowman set a course record at the Buffalo Run 50 Mile in Antelope Island, UT on his way to first place overall. Bowman crossed the finish line with an unofficial time of 6:15:35, nearly 20 minutes in front of 2nd place. Bowman wrote a great race report from the weekend which can be found by clicking the link below. Congrats to Dylan for an excellent performance and for setting the new standard for the Buffalo Run 50 Mile race. Read More...
03/23/2011 Daniel Woods Repeats Warpath
La Sportiva Athlete Daniel Woods has repeated the James Litz testpiece Warpath in Idaho for the problem's 2nd ascent. Litz established the problem in 2007 and until now it had not seen a repeat. After coming extremely close to sending the problem on the first day, (having fallen off of the final move to the good rail) Daniel was able to come back the next day and link the moves first try from the start. Daniel plans to post a detailed trip report to Sportiva LIVE so stay tuned for the full scoop...
03/19/2011 Luis Rivera Puts up New Free Route in CA
After
battling horrible weather, bad skin, and even a dab on a small tree
Paul Robinson can finally relax after his send of The Story of Two
Worlds (V15). A few days ago Paul posted a video of a near send of the
route on his blog but removed it after just a few minutes. The video
showed Paul flowing through the moves seemingly effortlessly. On one of
the final V3 moves to top out his heel hook popped off and his leg
grazed a tree. It was apparent that the dab did not help him stay on
and Paul stated as much remarking that in his mind he knew the dab
didn’t help. But with a line of this caliber a flawless ascent is
required and Paul returned to dispatch in perfect form. This morning a
simple Facebook post stating, “The epic is over!!” confirmed that Paul’s
fight with the line had finally been laid to rest. Read More...
03/11/2011 Sendage Keeps Growing!
La Sportiva Athlete Jamie Chong and company have launched a new website to help you manage and track all of your climbing accomplishments. Sendage lets you create ticklists of projects and sends and keeps your friends in the loop (read: lets them know how much harder you're climbing) with it's integration with Facebook.
Jump on the send train and sign up now while the site is new because prizes are being awarded to new members. In addition to other prizes being awarded regularly one of the first 1,000 users to sign on with Sendage will receive a free pair of La Sportiva climbing shoes. Send that! For full details and registration information visit Sendage.com now!
03/10/2011 Jason Kehl Sends the Proj!
This week, La Sportiva Athlete Jason Kehl completed a 25-move roof project on the East Spur in Hueco Tanks, Texas: The Seventh Circle. Though not yet suggesting a grade, Kehl says it has one of the hardest topouts he's completed in Hueco.
03/08/2011 Paul Robinson and The Story of Two Worlds
After battling horrible weather, bad skin, and even a dab on a small tree Paul Robinson can finally relax after his send of The Story of Two Worlds (V15). A few days ago Paul posted a video of a near send of the route on his blog but removed it after just a few minutes. The video showed Paul flowing through the moves seemingly effortlessly. On one of the final V3 moves to top out his heel hook popped off and his leg grazed a tree. It was apparent that the dab did not help him stay on and Paul stated as much remarking that in his mind he knew the dab didn’t help. But with a line of this caliber a flawless ascent is required and Paul returned to dispatch in perfect form. This morning a simple Facebook post stating, “The epic is over!!” confirmed that Paul’s fight with the line had finally been laid to rest. Read More...
02/28/2011 4th Overall for Yellow Dart
La Sportiva Athlete Josh Wheeler placed 4th over at last weekend's Mt. Mitchell Challenge. The field was very competitive and Josh has written a great race report detailing the events from the day. Read More...
02/21/2011 Bowman 4th Overall at Red Hot 55
La Sportiva Athlete Dylan Bowman had an impressive performance at last weekend's Red Hot 55K in Moab, UT placing 4th overall among a tough field. Dylan wrote up a great article on his blog recounting the race. Check it out below. Nice work Dylan! Read More...
02/17/2011 Around Alaska in 176 Days
Nobody had ever done it before: Hike, ski, and raft 4,679 miles through eight national parks, dozens of mountain ranges, and the length of the Yukon territory. Then along came Andrew Skurka. Read More...
02/14/2011 Rutherford and Schaefer send the Fitz!
La Sportiva Athlete Kate Rutherford sent us a message letting us know that she and partner Mikey Schaefer put up a new route on Fitz Roy's south face. They reached the summit on Thursday and are calling it the Washington Route. More details to come...
02/07/2011 3,063 miles. 52 days. 57 years old.
People drive across the United States all the time, touring the 3,000-plus miles for vacation, relocation, or rite of passage. Every now and then, someone makes the trip on foot, taking a year or more to walk across the great expanse of our country.
Marshall Ulrich ran from San Francisco to New York City in 52.5 days. He was 57 years old and making an attempt to break a world record set by a man half his age.
Completing the mind-bending and body-breaking equivalent of 117 back-to-back marathons, he ran an average of more than 400 miles a week, gained 84,430 feet in elevation, dealt with temps ranging from below freezing to the upper 90s, and crossed 12 states.
Ulrich is a versatile, world-class extreme endurance athlete, not only a legendary ultra-runner but also Seven Summits mountaineer and adventure racer. So although his new book, "Running on Empty," is a memoir mostly about the transcontinental run, it also includes tales and lessons learned from all his athletic pursuits, some painful, some funny, some completely life-changing.
"Riveting--the man has endured more, experienced more, accomplished more than you can imagine."
AMBY BURFOOT, editor at large of Runner's World
"An athlete of astonishing grit ..."
MARK BURNETT, producer of Survivor, Eco-Challenge, The Apprentice and others
"Marshall is The Man. Definitively ... Nothing can stop him, and that gives us all hope, gives us resolve to keep trying."
DEAN KARNAZES, ultra distance runner and author of Ultramarathon Man
"Tempting as it might be to describe him as superhuman, Marshall has fallen and struggled ... His story ... is ours."
ARON RALSTON, author of Between a Rock and a Hard Place and subject of 127 Hours. Read More...
02/07/2011 Blanton Ready to Rumble!
La Sportiva Athlete Sean Blanton took first place in Sunday's Red Top Rumble, narrowly squeezing by good friend Jim Bickelhaupt in a race that came down to the wire. Click the link below to read the full race report from the Run Bum himself. Read More...
02/07/2011 2011 Mountain Cup is Underway!
And they’re off!… or at least those running the 2011 La Sportiva Mountain Cup are. This year La Sportiva kicked off the Mountain Cup two months earlier than last year in the mountains of North Carolina at the 20th Uwharrie Mountain Run. The Uwharrie Mountain Run is actually three races, an 8 miler, a 20 miler, and a 40 miler, with the 20 miler included in the Cup.
It rained heavily the night before the race. While the storm broke before the 20 milers toed the line, it was still a raw run on a relentless course. Mountain Cup regular Rachel Cieslewicz commented after the race, “it was the wettest, coldest, crazy technical 20 mile trail run I’ve raced.” Others reported “the trail conditions were pretty gnarly” and “a couple people ate it.” Having run the 40 miler, I can assure you that the course is quite technical and unforgiving.
Read the full race report from irunfar.com's Bryon Powell...
02/01/2011 Mahoney and Wilkinson Repeat Endangered Species
Early in the morning of January 30, New Hampshire climbers and La Sportiva Athletes Kevin Mahoney and Freddie Wilkinson drove across two states to the Adirondacks in New York and did the second ascent of Endangered Species (NEI5+ M6+ R) at Poke-O-Moonshine.
01/25/2011 1st Endurance and La Sportiva Team Up
As we launch into 2011 First Endurance is excited to continue to support endurance athletes by expanding focus into the world of Ultrarunning. In the past five years we have worked with a few Ultrarunners and appreciate their enthusiasm and commitment to the product. Moving forward we look to increase our connection with and commitment to this strong community of amazing athletes. Read More...
01/18/2011 Bryant 3rd at Bandera 100K
La Sportiva Athlete Jason Bryant, an accomplished mountain runner from Elkin, NC added another stellar performance to his resume over the weekend. Bryant placed third in the USA 100K Trail Championships, held Saturday just outside of Bandera, Texas. His time of 8:57:19 was one of four that beat the existing course record. Says Bryant in a letter to La Sportiva: "I finished 3rd In 8:57.19 and heavily abused myself. I had about 6-7 pounds of swelling on Sunday into Monday. I had decided to take a little more risk before the race. I was 6th most of first loop, moving up to 4th near the end. Then Geoff Roes dropped at 50K. I went through in 4:05, over 20 minutes behind Mackey. The last loop was rough, 4:52! I was fighting to get hold of Dan(9:34 at Where's Waldo this year) the whole loop. No regrets. I'm just not ready to be a guy who surrenders on the starting line. Maybe I'm still good at being delusional." Read More...
01/18/2011 Nupste Dreams Remain Just That...
La Sportiva and Freddie Wilkinson would like to share with you an inspiring tale of misadventure on Nuptse. It is too often that we forget the reality of the magnitude of our goals and the challenges we will inevitably face in trying to reach the highest points in our world. More often than not, we fall short of these goals but perhaps it is through these failures that we truly discover what we were seeking in the first place. Read more to hear Freddie's first person tale of one such experience. Read More...
01/18/2011 Major Ascent for McCormick
In 1996, Jeff Lowe and Ed Palen
scratched up the first ascent of Gorillas in the Mist, a 500-foot
thin-ice testpiece at Poke-O-Moonshine in the Adirondacks. The line was
immediately repeated by Alex Lowe and Randy Rackliffe, and since then it
has never been climbed. But last weekend, after several attempts, three
top Northeastern climbers, including La Sportiva Athlete Matt McCormick
completed a variation just to the right of Gorillas, which they called
Endangered Species (3 pitches, M6+ NEI5+ R). Read More...
