Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Ambrosia 2nd Ascent by Alex Honnold

This afternoon at the Buttermilks, Alex Honnold made the second ascent of Ambrosia, the striking highball up the Grandpa Peabody's immaculate, gold-and-black streaked east wall.

Kevin Jorgeson who made the first ascent last winter was there with Alex, spotting him during the climb which was also watched by a group of onlookers who helped to pile a dozen or more pads at the base. Alex has suggested that the new method he figured out for the lower crux checks in around v10--a little easier than Kevin's method, due to the discovery of a wide pinch that helped him past the hardest sequence.

However the real meat of the climb comes committing to the next section of the line, beginning with an awkward few moves just above the rest that check in around v7, followed by sustained though relatively easy climbing all the way to the summit. Alex had top-roped this section before his solo, though he did get a bit confused near the top to find chalk from another climber who had also been working it by a different sequence! I took a few snapshots of the ascent.

4 comments:

jayshay said...

Sick! Nice job Alex!

Historias de montaƱa said...

Wow! Congratulations Alex!

See you

Tim said...

Good work Alex!

angle45media said...

How many crashpads did you lay down for this high-ball?!?!?