Squamish ?Triple Crown? link up repeated and extended.

Matt Maddaloni and Paul Cordy repeated the gold standard of Squamish link ups, by climbing three major routes to separate summits, in a day on August 11th. The pair climbed Seasoned in the Sun 5.10, University Wall 5.12a, Roman Chimmneys 5.11a, The Northern Lights 5.12a and Freeway 5.11c/d. This lot amounted to 37 pitches, climbed in 16.5 hours. After each route, they ran down trails, and used bikes to pedal between formations.Maddaloni led every pitch of the link-up with no falls, and Cordy followed each pitch, free-climbing about 90 percent of the distance. The two had been gunning for the Triple Crown for weeks, inspired by Sig Isaac?s 1996 link-up of University Wall, Northern Lights, and Freeway in 14.5 hours. “This feat has inspired my climbing throughout the years and in my mind remained the greatest climbing feat in Squamish to date,” said Maddaloni. University Wall 5.12a, (photo courtesy ClimbLife) This slot is gained by hard moves on sidepulls, or a flying dyno into a chickenwing. Another Squamish link up landmark was Sonnie Trotter and Tommy Caldwell?s 2004 link of Grand Wall (5.13b), The Shadow (5.13b) and Freeway (5.11c/d). This trio amounted to a mere 28 pitches, although Trotter said ?we could have done it faster, but we wanted to enjoy it so we paced ourselves well.? The difficulty bar was raised on August 7 2006, when Sonnie Trotter and Matt Seagal (USA) linked The Grand Wall 5.13b, The Shadow 5.13b and the Black Dyke 5.13b.

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