Friday, March 16, 2012

Saigon Superdirect ground-up by Dan Fong

Matt Mersel wrote to me with a link to a vid of 19-year-old UCLA student Daniel Fong (originally of the Bay Area) climbing Saigon Superdirect in ground-up style. Matt says, "We were out a few weekends ago and Daniel gave it a few burns and took some steep drops, but he got it first go last weekend. Never used a rope!"

As far as I know, the FA of this line was done ground up by George Ullrich in 2008, after half-hearted efforts by all the top names in the game, but it still rarely gets climbed and certainly sees few serious attempts in this on-sight style. Though it is above a flat landing, it's a very bold line, differing from the regular "direct" by gaining the good pinch with the right hand and slapping over the lip to a sloper where the regular direct goes right. See also a pic of Charlie Barrett on this. Nice work Dan!


Above: Daniel Fong holding the sloper after the big move on Saigon Superdirect (v9/10). Image by Edward Cheung.

Here's a vid Matt shot with a GoPro:

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice send, lame vid. slow news month.

Wills Young said...

Hey Matt did say, "I took it with a GoPro and you can't see what you're filming with those things." The vid is only intended as a record and for your entertainment!

Anonymous said...

Awesome! nice send D. Fong! What matters is that the send was captured... :)

Anonymous said...

GoPro Vids kann be alot worse!