Saturday, February 20, 2010

Sean McColl completes Evilution Direct, Ground-up

Sean McColl arrived here in Bishop about a week ago, down from Vancouver, Canada. After re-acquainting himself with the rock here (checking off a few classics including Stained Glass Sit), he went back to finish up the climb he came close to doing on his last visit a couple of years ago: Evilution Direct. A prior ground-up ascent had been made by Tobias Haller (all be it with a huge number of pads). Others had inspected the line on a rope.

Sean had attempted it ground-up a couple of years ago, locked off the crux and pulled up above the lip before backing down and dropping because the upper section was snowy/wet. Despite a small breakage a year ago, leaving the move past the lip a touch harder, Sean took just a couple more goes this visit to complete his ground-up ascent. No doubt there'll more to come from Sean if the weather holds!

Ethan Pringle also checked off Evilution Direct. He'd rapped the line to familiarize himself with it in the morning and did it in the cold after the sun dropped behind the mountains.

Sean also did a bizarre start to The Fall Guy/Haroun that begins up to the right of the normal Haroun start and leans into the start of Fall Guy using toe hooks. It sounds utterly crazy and if/when I get more info I'll add to this report.

No comments: