Another early-season ascent has come from 39-year-old Swiss master Fred Nicole, who climbed The Swarm (v14), taking advantage of the cool temps on Monday 19th.
Fred had tried the problem about four years ago, but was on a very short visit then and didn't have time to get the line done before a heavy dump of snow shut down the area! This year, he and his wife decided to spend about a week in Bishop. He went up and impressively did the line on his first day. Fred used a similar method to that which Matt Birch used on the first ascent, matching close on the crimp for the third move, before the shouldery move right, saying it felt less powerful that way.
See also: Wilder and Clifford's ascents of The Swarm
Friday, October 23, 2009
Fred Nicole, The Swarm (v14)
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3 comments:
wow. The big man strikes again. This blog just makes me long to return to Bishop to be honest...
That's truly motivating. Fred has been at the top of the game for so long, it's no suprise to hear that he has climbed the Swarm.
Did Tim Clifford downrate this to 8B?
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