Sharma Warms Up On a New 9a For His Mega Project

by Mick Ryan Sharma Mega Project (click to enlarge) In the 90´s the American climber, Randy Leavitt (read his bio here), already famous for his hard sport climbs, trad climbs, big wall solos, jumping off cliffs once you have climbed them or para-alpinism as it is called now…. and his method of ascending off-widths coined Leavitation, struck white gold above Interstate 15 on the California/Nevada border between Las Vegas and his home town of San Diego in the good ol´ US of A. Imagine finding a pristine and virgin cliff as extensive as Raven Tor, High Tor, Malham Cove, Kilnsey Crag and Portland combined….times that by 10 and in places up to 300ft high, with limestone of a similar quality to the main wall at Blue Scar in Yorkshire, but with more features and far steeper. Oh and it rarely rains there…. Heaven it is and this writer has first-hand experience. Read Randy´s article about Clark Mountain at UKClimbing.com, here Randy and friends beavered away, enduring an hour up hill walk-in each session, for several years starting in 1992, in secret I might add, and established 85 routes culminating in the mega-hard classics at the upper third tier that includeJumbo Pumping Hate, a four pitch 5.13d (8b), Tusk 5.14a/b (8b+/8c) and Wall of Glass 5.14a (8b+). Randy also left several projects undone, one of which Chris Sharma has been working on, see photo here Josh Lowell, the Dosage filmaker (and owner of Big Up Productions) and a friend of Chris Sharma says that “When he sends that thing it will redefine hard sport climbing in the same way Realization did six years ago.” Meanwhile, Sharma has been at Ceuse (France) again and as grant727 reports down the UKClimbing.com forums Josh Lowell has revealed all at his blog. See the photo, read the report, watch the video of Chris´s latest climb, Three Degrees of Separation (9a) at: www.bigupblog.com

QuelleUKClimbing