Climbers

References

[1] Interview with Niall Grimes.

Half Norwegian, half Belgian. Based around Bergen, NO.

Magnus Midtbø is a Norwegian sport climber and boulderer. He competed extensively between 2002 and 2015 while also climbing hard outdoors at the same time, notably he climbed Ali Hulk (extension sit start) 9b in 2010 (without knee pads!) and onsighted Cosi Fan Tutte 8c+ in 2013.

Since retiring from competitions he has started one of the most successful climbing youtube channels [2], and has also launched an online education platform called Altitude Climbing. [3]

References

[1] Interview with RockClimbingUK, 2012 https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php?topic=23695.0

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_2GqTlg--Q

Nico Pearlson is a prolific name and developer in the Fontainebleau scene and further afield. He is known for his ascents of Soudain Seul 9A and No Kpote Only 9A. He subsecquently downgraded both boulders to 8C+ and 8C respectively.

Nico is also known for his interesting music career being behind the masterpiece Mini Drill.

Lucien Martinez:

A last one for the road. In the 65° overhang of Blocage, the small ‘gym’ in Font, Nico Pelorson opened a boulder (red holds) with a move of pure crimping and core strength that seemed to me not to work. Yet Nico managed to do it, and even adding the two moves prior. It was around the time he made Big Island sit [Soudain Seul] and he was a monster. The climbers who passed by the gym and saw his boulder thought it was so impossible as to be a joke. [1]

References

[1] https://fanatic-climbing.com/interview-lucien-martinez-irreductible-acharne-interview-lucien-martinez-inveterate-and-tenacious/

[2] Interview with http://escalade9.wifeo.com/, November 2015 http://escalade9.wifeo.com/nicolas-pelorson.php

[3] https://bleau.info/profiles/nicolas.pelorson.2

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBS_nOUZUFY

Dave Cuthbertson is an extremely influential Scottish climber who was operating at his peak in the 1980s. He was responsible for some of the hardest routes of the era, for example his route Requiem was established in 1983 and features ~8a climbing on trad gear, making it the hardest route in the UK at the time.

Features in E96c and Clown Ascending.

On E96c:

It was from my warehouse home here that my involvement with E9 6c was filmed and recorded. This happened within the last few weeks of my departure from this special perch. John Mortimer’s son, Jeremy, produced an excellent piece for Radio Three called, ‘Between the Ears’. Dominic Clemence produced and directed the film for BBC2. This was the attempted story of The Indian Face, a fierce route on the cathedral of rock, Clogwyn Du Arddu, on the flank of Snowdon. I liked the bit where I am sat under my climbing wall in the studio flippantly explaining the image I painted on the scar where the flake had been. This small granite flake had come away in my arms whilst testing the peg that had been smashed into its side. I drew a quick sketch on the wall of ‘the hunt‘, something that had stayed with me from viewing the Lascaux Caves in France. Only two people had seen it. Paul Williams had photographed it and Johnny Dawes had scraped it off (or rather, an acolyte had scraped it off). One had died and the other had seemingly gone mad! [1]

References

[1] http://footlesscrow.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/sacred-ground.html

[2] Interview with Adrian Berry June 2004 https://web.archive.org/web/20061022044820/http://www.planetfear.com/article_detail.asp?a_id=250

Ryan Pasquill is a British climber known for his bold, intuitive climbing style as well as his ability to crimp.

Tom Randall is a British climber known for being a crack-climbing specialist, one half of WideBoyz and co-owner of Lattice Training.

References

[1] A previous 8a.nu account https://www.8a.nu/user/buster-martin/sportclimbing

A prolific force in the Lake District in the UK, establishing many hard and bold trad lines throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

References

[1] https://fanatic-climbing.com/babsi-zangerl-nous-parle-trad-et-grimpe-en-general-babsi-zangerl-on-trad-and-climbing-in-general/

[2] Interview with Sonnie Trotter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_KQe7o3zoc

Charles Albert is one of the worlds best and most unique boulderers. Charles ability is hard to define on paper due to his unique choice in style: he typically climbs without the use of chalk, climbing shoes, and kneepads. In this style Charles is undoubtedly a master with no one repeating any of his boulders in the the same style as he climbed them.

Charles is notable for his hard first ascents, for example La Révolutionnaire Assis 8C+/V16 and Hypothèse Assis 8C+/V16. In 2018 Charles did the first ascent of No Kpote Only in which he proposed the grade of 9A/V17, however this was downgraded by both Ryohei Kameyama and Nico Pelorson. Though these ascentionists did use shoes despite the translated name being "Bareback Only".

In 2023 Charles did the first ascent of L’Ombre du Voyageur for which he proposed 9A/V17 after spending 60 sessions to complete the problem. He commented that he thought it would be 9A+/V18 for the style he did it in, without shoes or knee pads, but suggested the lower grade for an ascent in a more typical style.

Lucien Martinez:

In Font, many times I saw Charles Albert do things so out of this world I would have called them impossible without having been a witness. Like flash FAs or in a handful of runs of 8A on a move that no one else can get anywhere near, or 7B slabs in trainers by simply annihilating miserable grains of sand with his nails… [1]

References

[1] https://fanatic-climbing.com/interview-lucien-martinez-irreductible-acharne-interview-lucien-martinez-inveterate-and-tenacious/

[2] Reel Rock 16: Barefoot Charles https://www.redbull.com/int-en/episodes/reel-rock-s8-e2

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVSC9vIb-PU

[4] https://www.8a.nu/news/qa-with-charles-albert-6net8

References

[1] Ask Me Anything on reddit, 2014 https://www.reddit.com/r/climbing/comments/1whcrp/hi_folks_im_ethan_pringle_ask_me_anything_be_my/