The North Face

Feb 14 | China's First Ever Trad Climbing Festival.

By Cedar Wright

A couple of months ago I attended China’s first ever Trad-Climbing Festival in the small village of Li Ming with fellow athletes and good friends Matt Segal, and Yuji Hirayama.  Matt had visited Li Ming the year before and established “Air China,” the hardest trad-climb in China, and roped me into the trip.  “Dude you are going to love it their,” he told me.  I’m always game for something new and adventurous, but was skeptical.  As far as I was concerned the only good sandstone crack climbing was in the U.S.

 

Li Ming is located in a river valley surrounded by wild red and black streaked Sandstone walls and happens to have hundreds of cracks of all sizes splitting through the steep towering walls.   The terrain is reminiscent of Zion, Arches National Park, and Indian Creek, if you mashed them together with the sensibilities of a Buddhist landscape artist, and then dropped the amalgam into a mountainous high altitude jungle.

I first visited China for climbing about eight years ago to visit Yangshuo, the premiere limestone sport climbing area in China.  I was excited to see a budding Chinese climbing community that was still finding its legs, and “learning the ropes.”   Returning this year I was impressed by how quickly the climbing community has grown and progressed in China.  Not only were are ten times as many competent climbers as my last visit, but many had graduated from sport climbing, to the more technical and committing world of gear protected Trad-Climbing.

Three years ago there was no climbing in Li Ming to be heard of!  American Mike Dobie was one of the first climbers to realize the epic potential of Li Ming and has spent the last three years leading the charge to develop what may be China’s best Trad-Climbing resource.   Mike, put up countless routes, established trails, and made a guidebook.  With the area opened, word caught on in the Chinese climbing community.  Soon, the Chinese were putting down their quickdraws and putting together racks of Cams for burly crack climb assaults!

For Mike this years Li Ming Trad-Climbing festival jointly sponsored by The North Face, and Black Diamond was a emotional and cathartic experience.  Over two hundred climbers from around the world showed up to climb on the routes that he had developed.  “Sometimes I wondered if I was crazy to spend so much energy on this project,” he told me one evening, “but seeing everyone enjoying the climbs here makes it feel like it was all worth it!”  Yuji, Matt and I all agreed that Mike’s time was well spent!

I lead two days of intermediate crack climbing clinics, and was impressed by the enthusiasm of my group.  Most of them were sport climbers but they seemed much more open to trying something new than most American sport climbers.  I think because China is a young climbing community there are less preconceived notions of a separation between sport and trad that have developed over time in the U.S.  To them it’s all just climbing. 

I put up several burly offwidth climbs for them to practice on.  Offwidths are considered by many to be the most physically demanding and miserable form of climbing in existence.   I think offwidth climbing takes, heart and grit.  Most American climbers avoid offwidths like the plague, so it was heart warming to see my motley crew of Chinese climbers throwing themselves at this unique type of challenge with boundless enthusiasm. 

Almost all of the good sandstone crack climbing is in the United states, so the fact that China now has what I would consider a world-class crack climbing destination is huge for Chinese climbers, but also for Eastern European climbers who now have a way practice this unique art form much closer to their homes!  And Li Ming is only about twenty percent developed, with many side valleys that have yet to see first ascents, so crack climbing only just beginning in China!

In America the routes of our climbing history are in trad-climbing and while I believe it’s all just climbing, there is a special place in my hear for trad-climbing.  It requires more expertise, commitment and risk, and therefore I believe yields a deeper and more meaningful reward than sport climbing.  To put it simply, Trad-Climbing is more adventurous.  To put it colloquially, Trad-Climbing is more badass!

Because China is still a developing country, especially in terms of climbing, there are literally hundreds of world-class crags waiting for a motivated soul to develop.  In the United States several generations of climbers have left few crags left to pioneer, but in China a country with as much land and variety of terrain as the U.S.A.!   It is truly a climbers frontier of mind boggling proportions. 

I’m already planning my next trip back to China to travel deeper into the beautiful and in terms of climbing, unexplored country. 

 

 

Sep 30 | Nepal Inspiration

By Renan Ozturk

I'm just returning from a North Face supported expedition to Nepal, reeling in the inspiration of the mountains and culture at the roof of the world.  Nepal is a place I first visited in 2001 as part of an intense language program and I'm been back almost every year for expeditions of all shapes and sizes.  I can honestly say that it has molded my moutain experience as a TNF athethle more than any other place!

This time around instead of focusing on the big projects like the Khumbu Climbing Center, Caves of Mustang or a climbing objective we were lucky to be just zoning in on capturing the beauty of Nepal through film and artwork.  I was humbly working with ultra talented Dave Mossop, one the main founders and creatives of Sherpas Cinema.

Our main goal was to capture footage for Sherpas Cinema new ski feature film that will be realed in the fall of 2013.  Judging by the beauty and aclaim of their last film All.I.CAN it is bould to be utterly mind blowing!  Along with cutting edge ski footage the film will be a creative depiction of intense environmental and social themes that are relevent in this day and age.  For us, Nepal was the ultimate target rich environment to play with for such symbolism.  The fact that we didn't have a big ski/climb objective also allowed us the "dork out" the full extent and go a lot heavier with cutting edge film gear to elevate the visuals we captured :)  

Among the many highlights of our oddysey included shooting with one of the oldest Sherpas of the Khumbu, Karma Tsering (pictured above).  At 80 years old he is one of the happiest and strongest people I know, still hiking the 5 hours to market each week with his Yak to buy goods.  I've known him for years and was still sporting the classic TNF himalayan parka we gave him years ago :)  The special light and moments we captured with him were pure magic! 

Also pictured above (another iphone shot) is a Lama at the Upper Pangboche Monestry, the oldest in all of Nepal.  He gently swung the burning pot of juniper doing his morning Puja (blessing) in the sacred upper chamber, ambling slowing across the old creaking wooden floorboards.  The small skylight window above happened to catch the first rays of sun in weeks, creating a shaft of light, a slintered god beam like I've never seen before in my life.  We rolled the cameras with all our facy equipment in slow motion, not even whipspering during his chants.  After he finished the ritual we exited the monestary and into the glowing the vistas of the high himalaya, stunned to have catptured a few moments that could have been the most epic images of out lives.   

There are no words that can do these experiences true justice, I'm just just trying to share the inspiration with a few photos and then the eventually film :)  Thanks for checking it out and stay tuned!  ~renan

Jun 03 | The Tooth Traverse

By Renan Ozturk

 

Renan Ozturk on 'The Tooth Traverse' Photo: Freddie Wilkinson

We left basecamp in the Ruth Gorge beneath Mount Dickey and skied up the glacial cirque beneath the Eye Tooth at 6 a.m. on May 17^th. Our goal was to traverse the Moose’s Tooth massif from Cavity Gap to The Gateway, passing six notable points along the way: the Sugar Tooth, the Eye Tooth, the Missing Tooth, the Bear’s Tooth, the Moose’s Tooth, and the West Summit of the Moose’s Tooth.

At first glance, conditions this season were far from optimal. Alaska had just experienced one of the snowiest winters in recent memory. Then, a significant storm cycle arrived the second week in May, depositing another three feet of snow throughout the range. In Talkeetna, dispirited guides and rangers told stories of nipple-deep faceted slopes and epic slogging – conditions not exactly ideal for the some 5 kilometers (or more) of corniced ridge we planned to cross. The only option for us was to counterbalance this reality with a relentless optimism best summed up by the Dougal dictum: If you can lead the next pitch, if you still have some food and gas left, if nobody’s sick or injured…. you can keep going.

The first section of the climb, from Cavity Gap to the summit of the Sugar Tooth, consisted mainly of low-angle mixed climbing interspersed with a few challenging rock pitches and rappels: nothing too desperate, but certainly deceptive. The amount of transitions the terrain demanded – from boots and crampons to rock shoes to boots and crampons to a rappel, ad naseum – made for slow going.

The endless ridgline. photo: Renan Ozturk

For the first three days of the climb, we stopped around 6 p.m. (quite early for Alaska climbing), dug out a comfortable bivy, and relaxed. This was our vacation, after all.

On day two, we climbed the Talkeetna Standard to the summit of the Eye Tooth. Although the original ascensionists, Jeff Hollenbaugh and Steve House, gave the route a modest grade, it has since rebuffed a number of suitors. In the conditions we faced, we found eight pitches or so of mixed climbing, followed by a couple of short but significant rock leads. On day three, we traversed a heavily corniced ridge towards the summit of the Bear’s Tooth,  passing an alluring and possibly unclimbed summit along the way we had dubbed the Missing Tooth.

Renan and Freddie on the Summit of the Bear Tooth Photo: Camp 4 Collective

On day four, the nature of our adventure changed completely. Vacation was over. We summited the Bear’s Tooth by nine in the morning, rappelled the White Russian Route, and traversed the large snowfield to the start of the technical pitches on the Swamp Donkey Express, a route we had established in 2010, with Zack Smith. (Note: this section of the climb is the only place where we deviated notably from the crest of the ridge.) The first rock lead took Renan two hours – we suddenly felt Zack’s absence, who had originally led this pitch. I took over the sharp end for the one true aid section of the entire traverse, the Bleeder Pitch. Above, snow and icy cracks slowed me even down more. We eventually summited the Moose’s Tooth around 11 p.m.

Sunrise from the climb Photo: Renan Ozturk

The West Ridge of the Moose’s Tooth, our descent route, beckoned, and we decided to push on into the night. Six hours, three mixed leads, and three horizontal ridge rappels later, we stopped for a brew stop on the West Summit as the sun rose over the Eastern Alaska Range. Six hours after that, we stopped again on the West Shoulder of the Tooth. Six hours after that, we stumbled out onto the Ruth Glacier, having rappelled and glissaded down a seldom used couloir to deposit us safe and sound back on the Gorge floor.

A high bivy perch on the ridgeline photo: Renan Ozturk/Camp 4 Collecitve

Our only regret was that Zack Smith, with whom we had shared this dream for four years, was unable to join the final effort. That aside, the Tooth Traverse remains one of the most challenging – and fulfilling – mountain adventures we’ve ever had.

- Renan Ozturk & Freddie Wilkinson

The Tooth Traverse (5.10 R A2+ M5, 10,000 meters), May 17 – 21, 2012

sunset on the sugar tooth summit Photo: Renan Ozturk/Camp 4 Collective

The Video from the previous attempts:

Jan 27 | Climbing and Filmmaking, a Life of Passion.

By Cedar Wright

When I went on a climbing trip to Brazil in 2009, with Renan Ozturk, I had just bought a video camera and loaded Final Cut Pro onto my rickety laptop.  A month later, I was loving Brazil so much, I ended up staying an extra two months, and shot and climbed the entire time.  When I came home I had SO much footage, and decided I should try to put together a short film to enter into film festivals.  This was the beginning of what has become a career within a career.  I've been lucky to shoot short films in Australia, Malaysia, all around the western united states since then!  Here is Pra Caramba!

 

Now three years later, I am still passionate about climbing and filmmaking.  I sometimes struggle with finding the balance between these two passions but in the end they are complimentary, and whether I am hanging off the side of a cliff filming or climbing, I feel like I'm living my own personal version of the DREAM!!!  Here is my most recent work, that features fellow TNF athlete Sam Elias defying gravity.

 

Dec 13 | 2011 TNF Athlete Summit, Sayulita Mexico

By Cedar Wright

The North Face's Global Athlete Team is one of the most unique and cutting edge Professional Athlete Teams in the world, with some of the best climbers, skiers, and ultra-runners in the universe all working together. The team spans the globe representing Europe, Asia, South America, and us here in North America.

The North Face supports a classic cast of characters in their dreams to push and live within the sport. Each year TNF hosts an "Athlete Summit," which is essentially a team meeting, that brings all of these talented global athletes to one place, to talk about expeditions, product, and most importantly to bond as a team. I have attended all of the Athlete Summits since their inception eight years ago, and have become good friends with skiers and runners who I would never have otherwise met.

This year the Summit was in Sayulita Mexico, a beautiful little surf town near Puerto Vallarta. Call it a work meeting or a paid vacation... I can say that at times like the Summit I feel very fortunate to have climbed for The North Face for the last eight years. Sometimes I have to pinch myself and ask, "is this really my job?" 

It feels more like a family then a team really! On our third day, in Mexico with all our meetings done, we had an activity day, and I opted to go snorkeling instead of surfing, which turned out to be a great decision, as our crew of runners, skiers, and climbers saw Dolphins, Whales, and a host of beautiful sea birds. It was one of those magical playful moments when you really appreciate and feel a part of the natural world. Inspired by Sage Cattabriga Alosa one of TNF's top skiers who had showed me his workflow for shooting and editing short films on his IPhone, I was psyched to give it a whirl, so here it is a short film about our adventure, shot, edited and uploaded, using only my iphone! Technology has come a long way!!!

 

Nov 10 | The Dragon Horns, The Climb of a Lifetime!

By Cedar Wright

My life has been marked by the good fortune of adventure, travel and an intimate connection with the natural world.  Growing up on eleven acres on the side of Black Mountain in the Sierra Nevada, I spent most of my time outside exploring and playing in the dirt.  My dad took me on my first backpacking trip soon after my first steps, and I spent most summers sleeping on the back porch under the stars.  Looking back I realize how formative and therapeutic this early connection with nature was, and it's a large part of why I am a professional climber today.  Unfortunately many teens in our growing urban centers, never get outdoors.  In fact, with stars drowned out by the lights of the city, maybe they never get to marvel at the milky way!  Surrounded by the influence of gangs, crime, drugs, and the often isolated reality of city existence, it's easy to see how life can begin to feel hopeless for a young kid. So I'd like to encourage you to donate to Big City Mountaineers in the name of our climb. It's tax deductible, and you'll be donating hope to our younger generations.

After graduating from college I spent a few years working intermittently as an outdoor educator, and witnessed first hand the simple power of nature to heal and steer a young soul in a more positive direction.  I am a huge fan and believer in nonprofit organizations like Big City Mountaineers which each year gets thousands of urban teens from San Francisco, Denver, Portland, Minneapolis, and Chicago outside on sponsored week long wilderness expeditions.  They have a great fund raising program called SUMMIT FOR SOMEONE, and I put together this trip to Malaysia's Tioman Island to climb the Dragon's Horns specifically with the program in mind.  My main sponsor The North Face generously helped finance the trip, and offered to match the first four thousand dollars we could raise in the name of our climb!!! We hoped to climb first ascents on the legendary dragons horns said to be an ancient petrified Chinese Princess.  The fact that only one of the two horns had been climbed was quite alluring, and being able to raise money for a good cause while doing what I love was a definite win win.

Above is Lucho Rivera.  At first I planned to go to Malaysia with an old friend from Humboldt, but when he wasn't able to make it, I realized that my homie Lucho would be perfect and pulled him in!  Since it is the modern age, I invited him while chatting on facebook!  Lucho and I shared a lot of adventures together in years past with numerous first ascents in Yosemite and the Sierras including the F.F.A. of The Camp Four Wall 5.12 and The Gravity Ceiling 5.13 a huge roof on Higher Cathedral Rock.  Lucho is one of the few people these days still putting up new routes in Yosemite Valley.  He's got an adventurous spirt and an infectious if not overly zealous sense of confidence.

There was no doubt Lucho'd be a great climbing partner, but what tipped the scales and made it kind of karmic even, was that Lucho grew up in the Mission district of San Francisco amidst the negativity of gangs and violence, and was headed down a dead end road until he was exposed to the mountains by an organization similar to Big City Mountaineers called The Urban Pioneers.  Soon instead of hanging with his thug friends in the Mission, Lucho was spending his free time in Yosemite climbing.  I bought Lucho's ticket on half airline miles and half personal cash , and a few weeks later we were on a plane.  I've been living the playboy dream for nearly ten years now, traveling and climbing on the regular, so it felt great hook a brother up, wasn't so lucky to have those opportunities.  This would be Lucho's first trip overseas, and I knew he would be hungry and psyched to get shit done, which for me is invaluable.  On big trips I  like to drop the motivation clutch.  I know I won't go home happy unless I give it everything.

After putting up the first route to the summit of the North Dragon's Horn on our first full day in Malaysia, (see previous blog) which involved wasp attacks climbing in the rain, a dicey descent and a horrifying lightning storm, we turned our sights to the more impressive South Tower and one of the proudest looking lines on the entire formation, a wild unclimbed "nose like" white buttress.  Scotty Nelson who with Nick Tomlin did the first ascent of the tower in 2000 when he was only eighteen mentioned to me that this was the line to do, after seeing it in person it was love at first sight.  A dream line, which is rare in this modern age of climbing exploration.  On our recon day we traveled heavy with 60+ pound bags filled with first ascent supplies.  The Jungle in Tioman Island is pretty treacherous, with heinous spiky ferns dripping spiny tendrals that manage to consistently grab your clothing and skin as you attempt to weave through unscathed!  "OUCH!"

Above is my make shift rain vest, constructed out of a heavy duty trash bag. The fact that I own probably twenty North Face rain jackets and managed to not bring a single one up our climb was certainly equal parts exasperating and comical.  But actually it worked alright... waterproof, but not breathable...just don't be looking for TNF to be coming out with one soon!  But I digress...As we attempted to approach our second objective, I realized just how hot it is in the jungle.  If you want to train for Tioman island, just get in a Sauna with a heavy backpack and do jumping-jacks and pull-ups! 

We passed all kind of heinous creepy crawlies; ants the size of my thumbnail, angry monkeys, a black snake that we later learned was a poisonous pit-viper, bizarre frogs, and this oddness all highlighted by the constant screech of mysterious bugs (or were they birds?) that sounded like really, really loud car alarms!  "RUHEEEE RUHEEEEE RUHEEEE!!!""  Lucho did not mention it to me until we were on the island, "Dude I'm afraid of Spiders and Bugs."  Around each corner, Lucho would scream and jump back like a scared little kid, at some real or imagined threat to his existence.  I had one main concern, the hummingbird sized wasps or hornets or whatever they were that had attacked me on the previous climb. 

Above is a carnivorous plant, that waits for ants or other bugs to get a drink, and then it DIGESTS THEM.  There is a lot of wild flora on the island.  You half expect a dinosaur to pop up!

We had some loose beta on how a british team had approached the general vicinity of our proposed line, but it was going poorly, with lots of machete work, backtracking and thorny bushwhacking.  At one point Lucho looked at me and said "Do you ever wonder what the point is?" "Man Down" I thought to myself...time for a pep talk.  "Lucho" I said,  "their are different types of fun...and sometimes the most fun you can have isn't fun while it's happening, but it's SO FUN when it's over."  Err was that motivational?  "Well right now this sucks," said Lucho as he tried to extricate his hair from one of those damned ferns.  Every ten feet or so, along the approach we'd encounter another "fern from hell."  These ferns look friendly, but THEY ARE NOT, they are evil and their thorns are hidden on the bottom side of the leaves so they can trick you into a false sense of complacency.  They grab on and don't like to let go.

This is a poisonous Frog...don't lick him!!! Actually I don't know if he's poisonous for sure!

So, anyways, about four hours into our hike even I was losing a little bit of psyche and I live for this kind of stuff.  Of course I wasn't going to tell Lucho, and I continued to stumble aimlessly under the increasingly heavy feeling burden of my pack.  I mumbled "we've got to be close!" "ARGHHH" I yelled, "Damn you thorny fern." Sweat dripped down my face fogging up my glasses.  Lucho helped me pull the fern out of my hair and pack, and then a glorious moment!!  I noticed the remnants of the British teams camp.  We were probably the second party ever to stand here at the base of the west face, and it was AMAZING.  A bit of scrambling, and tree climbing and a wild traverse later, and we were at the base of the beautiful white buttress that we had been singing it's sirens song.

Above, this Monkey found out we were roguing his line on the dragons horn and was very upset!!!

And so after four and a half hours of circuitous spiral/slogging , fern whacking, and a lot of whining from Lucho, we collapsed in disbelief at the base of our proposed line.  It looked steep, gnarly, and....maybe not even possible! "Dude this is SICK," said Lucho, having already forgotten how heinous the hike had been.  After a little food and water I racked up as I eyeballed a wild corner that lead to a series of impressive roofs.  Soon I was run out and at the top of the corner, but unsure if I was going the right way.  I pounded in a pin, lowered down, and pengied around a corner to see if it looked easier.  It did look easier, but their was a giant Hornets Nest right in the middle of the path with several of my friends buzzing around it.  "Definitely not the way," I yelled down to Lucho.  

I brought Lucho up and then began making my way out the roof.  It looked to be hard 5.12 at the easiest, but every edge and ripple seemed to be placed in a divinely perfect alignment, and after installing one quarter inch bolt with our hand drill I managed to free the pitch at hard 5.11!  The line went out a roof, onto an arete, and then out another roof, on perfect golden stone.  Some of the best climbing on the planet really!  At the lip of the second roof there was a hero jug and you could hang like Sylvester Stallone in Cliff Hanger and enjoy a nice view of the South China Sea!

Right as I got out the roofs, something happened that would become a theme of the trip.... it started to rain.  For a while I just huddled there getting soaked and hoping it would eventually stop.  Finally I realized the rock was soaked and it was time to go down.  I fixed the line and rappelled back to Lucho who was completely dry under the roof!  "Were, back on it tomorrow if the suns out" I said hopefully.   

 After the four and half hour epic stumble thrash to the base the first day, we got the approach dialed and could make it to the base of our route in around an hour and a half.  Each day I could literally squeeze the sweat out of my t-shirt from the "SAUNA APPROACH." Over the next five days we established one of the best climbs I have ever done, first ascent or not.  The rock on the white buttress was nothing short of impeccable and offered up diverse, unique and specific movment, characterized by tricky boulder problems out mini roofs and big run-outs on wild flakes, pockets and nob features.  At some point every day the rain and lightning would come, and we would nervously head back down our fixed lines hoping that the next day would be clear.   

This is me drilling on lead, eventually we got the power drill up there.  Putting up the route involved lots of running it out while searching for a flake you could hook off of, and then gingerly weighting it.  At one point I had two marginal mini-hooks and a dubious looking slung nob that somehow together held my body weight.  I began gingerly towing up the drill, praying that I didn't whip and break my legs, or worse, and drilled a bolt with a genuine sense of risk and urgency!

Each day we'd either push the route a couple pitches higher, or realize that the sky had opened up, and we'd huddle into our little cabin that we'd rented.  I'd read "The Smartest Guy in the Room" about the Enron scandal, or manage and back up all of the video I had been shooting.  The reality was that even though we were nearing the top of our route, we were there late season, and any day the Monsoon would come shutting the  Dragon Horns down completely for climbing.  My worse nightmare was getting rained out before we could climb the route bottom to top in a day.  For Lucho and I getting to the top would be a small victory, it was only when we climbed it all free in a day that the project was done.

On our fifth day we headed up the fixed lines, and finished the final two pitches to the end of the white buttress.  The final pitch involved climbing out overhanging tufa runnels, then manteling onto the top of the buttress.  From there we scrambled up about three hundred feet of easy fifth class and then bush whacked to the summit up vertical steps of grass.  The view from the top was a kings view of the town of Mukut where we were staying.  Fishing boats looked like little toys far below.  

Every pitch on the route turned out to be a five-star classic!  It was hard to believe just how good the climb we had just put up was.  I equate it to going to Yosemite and doing the first ascent of Astroman, or going to Squamish and doing the University Wall.  It was a MEGA-CLASSIC!!!  Now all we had to do was free it in a day!  An awesome challenge no doubt.

On the way down, the weather came in hard, but we figured that was fine... we were both exhausted from a week of toiling, and enjoyed some fresh local seafood and napping in our cabin.  But when the next day, it was still raining, we started to get worried.  Was this the Monsoon?  Were we going to sit there in the rain for a week and lose the plot.  After three days, I came up with a plan.  "If it's not raining at 3 a.m. tomorrow morning Lucho, we start hiking up and hope for the best."  At midnight it was dumping, but by 3, there was no rain, we also couldn't see any stars as they were covered by a blanket of clouds.  It didn't look good.  It was a hail Mary, but we reached the base of our route at the first inklings of light and began to climb earnestly.  The weather looked less then optimum, and the thunder and lightning was dancing and singing out on the sea.  I prayed that the sky didn't unleash half way up the climb.

Re-climbing my pitches I realized just how much I had run it out.  "Damn it Cedar" I said to myself, "what were you thinking," and then I'd commit to another dicey move with incomprehensibly huge whipper potential. Four and a half hours later we were on top of the buttress having completed the first ascent of the route.  The weather had miraculously held, but looked ominous and we toyed with the idea of descending from the top of the buttress and not summiting, but I knew we'd regret it.  An hour later we were on the summit of the South Dragons Horns for the second time, having summited in just under five and a half hours!  We were the first people to climb both horns of the Dragon which felt pretty special, and both of the routes especially this one were world-class!  I gave Lucho a big hug on the summit and new that this would be one of the best climbs of my life!

Repeating parties should be ready for big run outs on 5.10 and easier ground, and not be afraid to be creative with their gear, including, shallow cams, weird R.P. placements, and slung knobs and flakes.  The 5.11 and harder ground however is relatively well protected, and this really is one of the best routes in the universe.  Perfect stone on a beautiful buttress in a wild location!  ENJOY!!!

We called our route Batu Naga, which is Malay for "Stone Dragon," and rated it 5.12a R.  We think from the base to the summit is about fifteen hundred feet of elevation gain, but only the first 900 feet or so is technically challenging....but there is some proud bush-whacking to reach the summit!

I highly recommend a trip to Tioman Island to climb the dragons horns.  Where else in the world can you sit on a beach eating fresh seafood, snorkel through the wild coral reefs that surround the island, bivy in a sweet little cabin, and then an hour later be climbing on a world class granite big wall.  Just watch out for the Wasps, poisonous snakes and Spiky Ferns!

Lots of Love for the Journey!  Cedar Wright.

 

Aug 16 | On Assignment

By Renan Ozturk

As TNF athletes sometimes our biggest job is the tell stories and try to do justice to our fellow athletes. For this piece I worked with our crew at Camp 4 Collective to tell TNF athlete Jimmy's Chin story as he in turn highlights modern day climbing Yosemite for a National Geographic feature story. Thanks for checking it out!  ~renan

Jul 31 | The Tooth Traverse

By Renan Ozturk

This little piece is comprised of some of the attempts Zack Smith , Freddie Wilkinson and myself have put into the 'Tooth Traverse' of the Ruth Gorge, AK. There has been a log going on surrounding our adventures: The 1st attempt was heavily embarked upon only days after the memorial for the deaths of our close friends vimeo.com/​5065432, the 2nd attempt ended with helping with body recoveries of other climbers in the gorge and the just before our proposed launch day this past spring I almost died in a skiing accident. Beyond the allure of enchaining one of the most iconic & untrodden skylines in NA the Tooth Traverse represents so much more than that to the 3 of us. With the healing going well and the inspiration (and angst) greater than ever we are planning another attempt in the NEAR future. I see the eventual story breaching some pretty heavy topics involved in alpine climbing: sponsored vs. non-sponsored expeditions, dealing with death and the effects tackling dangerous objectives has on friends/family. At any rate here is a little window into our work in progress. ~reo

Jul 25 | creative video short: "Living The Dream 2"

By Renan Ozturk

A standard day in the life of the recovery from a few broken vertebrae and a skull fracture. Even though I'm not technically cleared for psychical therapy yet, the time has finally come for some soul therapy. Best, ~renan and in case you missed it the original Living The Dream:

Jul 24 | TNF Newfoundland Expedition Dispatch #3

By Mark Synnott

Rain, rain, go away come back another day

After the beautiful day Mark and I had to climb Leviathan and James and Alex finished an incomplete route just to the left, we naively thought that the rest of the blue skies of the day might be the mark of the trip.  How wrong we were. Rain followed for several days and then several more days... Our saving grace was a big dome tent, a substanstial food supply and lots of hiking, all of which served to keep insanity at bay.

Every morning I would peel back the door of my tent, hoping for a least some semblance of clear skies and dry rock, but after the one morning, Devil's bay only greeted me with either full rain or fog so thick that I couldn't see anyone else's tent.  We managed to climb two more days in between rain but since the majority of the wall was either wet or seeping, we were quite limited with what we could do.

Impressivly James and Alex managed to climb Lucifer's Lighthouse (a 12c that Chris Weidner and Justin Sjong  put up) which they dubbed the best route on the wall.  Since Mark and I though Leviathan was amazing, we were curious to see how they compared.

After more days sitting in the rain, we realized we would be robbed of our chance to try Lucifer's Lighthouse and fulful our initial ambition of adding some new routes to the wall.  One memorable evening we were almost robbed of our tents as well.  A vicious storm boasting 70mph wings ripped through our camp.  Having been rather blasé about securing my tent to the ground I woke up in the middle of the night alarmed to find that it had detached itself from its anchoring and was by the most part held down by me alone.  With nothing else to do but venture out to try to repair it, I struggled with one hand to prevent the tent from taking flight and with the other I managed to attach the guide-lines to some bigger boulders.  I woke up to find the rest of the team bleary eyed, telling stories of similair experiences.  Well, apart from Honnold who managed to sleep like a baby throughout the whole storm.

The final few days of our stay at Devil's Bay were particulary wet and when George's boat finally appeared through the fog, we were certainly ready to leave.  All in all our mission to Devil's Bay has been a fun adventure- Blow Me Down is a cool wall with some really good routes and loads of potential for more, the people are really interesting and friendly and the area has stunning natural beauty...it's just a shame about the rain!

--Hazel Findlay