EOFT 10/11

The famous Peak District, located close to Sheffield, has always been very fascinating to climbers from all over the world. During the 80ies and the 90ies, it was here, where local climbing legends such as Jonny Dawes opened some of the most difficult routes on the island. They are considered to be an absolute highlight and have only been repeated a couple of times ever since. Of course, this is a challenge which the Mammut climbing team is eager to face!

The routes are quite short but there are not many belay points. This causes their moves to be even more demanding. But Gritstone is Gritstone and climbers like Anna Stoehr, Alex Johnson, David Lama, Céderic Lachat, Magnus Midtbø and Jakob Schubert enjoy the feeling of the rough, compact sandstone underneath their fingers and to try out the amazing variety of routes.

Even the Northern-English locals are impressed with the climbing skills of the international pro-team. After an exhausting day of climbing, they can cool down their tortured hands with a refreshing pint of beer in the Broadfield Pub.

Alex Honnold has just managed to climb "Moonlight Buttress" in Utah - alone and without a rope. Now he's one the rock again and he knows, if he lets go, this would be the last thing he would do. He would not even have enough time to enjoy the breathtaking view over Yosemite National Park.

"Half Dome is an incredibly fascinating rock: unstable granite ledges and not even the cracks are easy to clamp. I am especially proud of this solo climb." And this is for a good reason. Normally, it takes a team several days to climb the Regular Northwest Face, a route which is rated a 5.12. Alex however does it in only a few hours - and he does it without any ropes. "If I do an easier route, I just have fun, talk to others or listen to music. It has even happened that I picked up the phone.

Half Dome however demands my full attention and all ten fingers. Chalk is good against sweaty hands, but being fully concentrated is just as essential." And even if there was a pill against free-solo-panic-attacks: Alex would not have a hand available to pop it.

Kayak world record. It is not for everyone to plunge down a 56-metre deep waterfall in a kayak. For Tyler Bradt, however, one of the world’s best whitewater kayakers, it is just what he likes to do.

When his head pops out of the spumous spray of the waterfall after seven endless seconds, all he says is: "I thought this clash would be way harder." All of us would have probably lost our imagination already a long time before, since the Palouse Falls in the state of Washington are massive. Therefore it is simply mind-blowing that Tyler has only contracted some minor sprains during his 65-metres fall. And in spite of this, he would do it all over again. "There is nothing more exciting than flying through the air in your kayak!"

The world record at the Palouse Falls was not the first crazy thing he did in his life. Two years ago, him and his buddy Seth Warren went on the first ever CO₂-neutral roadtrip on the Panamerica, with their truck "Baby" which only runs on vegetable oil (Oil and Water, E.O.F.T. 08/09).

In 1989, it was Wolfgang Güllich and Kurt Albert who did the first ascent of the "Eternal Flame" route at the Nameless Tower (6.251m). Both of them were free climbing pioneers and the first ones to tackle the big walls in the Karakoram without any technical tools. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to free climb the whole route completely. At the end, they still lacked four pitches. Four pitches which challenged the world’s best extreme climbers for 20 years to come.

Who would be the first one to successfully redpoint the "Eternal Flame" route? In the summer of 2009, Thomas and Alexander Huber made their way to Pakistan in order to finally illuminate the flame which Güllich and Albert had sparked 20 years earlier. The conditions at the rocks were perfect and even the weather was on their side for weeks so that the two Huber brothers managed to make their way up the 1000 meter high granite wall. Of course not everything went smooth and without any sort of problems.

"We want to create a film that is super upbeat and remind everyone why we all love mountain biking".

Could one ever forget that? It is true that one can get used to everything - even to the crazy feeling of speeding at full throttle and to do a front flip without a crash-landing. But it is also true that all of that is only half the fun if you do it by yourself. And since it is always better to explore unknown territory with someone else, the makers of "Roam" and "Seasons" send out the best mountain bikers in the world in teams of two and three in their latest film Follow Me.

The bikers are having a blast out there and prove quickly that the there is not much fun if you do not have the necessary team spirit. From free riding in Kamloops to downhill in New Zealand - Follow Me is a big bang and will even get the last couch potato up on the saddle.

The secrets of the Caribbean lay underneath the water surface. Close to Long Island, only a few meters away from the white sandy beach, there is a dark, gaping hole in the turquoise water: Dean’s Blue Hole, the deepest underwater cave in the world.

It is a mystical and seemingly bottomless place and simply perfect for Guillaume Néry’s Free Fall into the still, blue world. He takes a deep breath and jumps in. Normally, it is a place where apnea-diving competitions are being held. But this time, Guillaume is not doing a regular dive, he is much rather performing a "B.A.S.E. Jump" into this hole in the seabed which is 202 metres deep - a perfect symbiosis between free diving and B.A.S.E. Jumping.

Most of the time, the cloud keeps everyone waiting - as if it knew that people will exercise patience because of it. Meteorologists have still not completely decoded its secret and cloud lovers from all over the world, fascinated by its imposing appearance, travel to Burketown on the coast of Queensland (Australia) every year at the end of September in order to take pictures and to surf with gliders. So far, nobody has tried to do this with a hang-glider.

Jonny Durand wants to be the first one to do it. Technically, the cloud is ideal for that since the air stream provides for a sufficient updraft. But that far up in the sky, there is always the danger of spontaneous turbulences, especially in case the hang-glider gets caught in the air pocket behind the cloud. Ditching in the ocean, however, is not an option for Jonny and he also tries to avoid an uncontrolled landing on the Australian salt flats, unless of course he wants to introduce himself to the crocodiles that call this their home.

In search of the best north faces in the Alps, Loris and Nicolas Falquet, also known as "Huck & Chuck", have already gone about a lot. The two are quite picky when it comes to the ideal run. It has to be steep - the fun part only starts with at least 50% decline - and of course (fresh) powder is a must! And in case of a danger of avalanches, a blasting will have to secure the area for them.