There is an interesting phenomenon in climbing that involves what I am going to dub “contingent ascents.” That is, ascents that often are not cutting edge but garner a lot of attention or interest because the ascent hinges on some kind of contingency. This category of ascents contains a degree of gradation, from the “first female ascent” (which may or may not be significant due to many factors) to something as contrived as the First Deaf Colombian ascent of Mount Everest (not that being deaf or Colombian is contrived—but these days climbing Mount Everest is). Other contingent ascents might be: Climbing a famous route and downgrading it. Climbing a route without a chipped hold. Mixed climbing without heel spurs. Mixed climbing without leashes. Climbing a Grit headpoint without crash pads. Everest without oxygen. Everest without porters. Everest without fixed ropes. Not using kneepads. Climbing a sport route on trad gear.

Photo: Ammon McNeely and Rich Copeland on the Pinnacle of Hammerdom, during the second ascent of Hole World on El Cap. Photo: Tom Evans

Ammon McNeely, fresh from his second ascent of El Cap's Wings of Steel (VI A3+ 5.10+), see most recent issue of Rock and Ice for the Wings feature, has repeated Eric Kohl's 1990 line Hole World (A4).

Hole World, named by Kohl after the large amount of drilling he used to link features between Lost World and West Buttress, was one of El Cap's last independent lines, and reportedly quite hard—Kohl's routes have the reputation of being difficult, dangerous, and understated.

McNeely began the route soon after this summer's ascent of Wings, with big-wall aspirant Clif Jordan, but two pitches up, Jordan had had enough, a fact confirmed by a core shot on the lead line that forced the duo ...

Mayan Smith-Gobat has posted on Facebook that she sent the 3,000 foot Salathé Wall (VI 5.13b).

"Thanks for all the bday wishes," she posted from Yosemite. "Just got off the Salathe! Bday sendage!!!"

Smith-Gobat had attempted the route in  2010, but was thwarted by a five-day rainstorm.  

Having returned to Yosemite Valley this fall with the Salathé Wall as her main goal, Smith-Gobat reported on her blog, “My season in the Valley has been filled with psych, I have become very comfortable on the slick  granite slabs and perfect splitter cracks of El Capitan and my sights have been broadened. I have spent most of the last few weeks building up my fitness and re-familiarizing myself with the crux pitches of the Salathé Wall.”

The Salathé Wall was first free climbed in 1988 by Paul Piana and Todd Skinner, opening central El Cap’s first free route.  In 2005, Steph Davis sent the 32-pitch line for the ...

I was checking out the latest edition of Summit, the British Mountaineering Council’s quarterly and I came across an article by Doug Scott, the famously tough, knighted British mountaineer who climbed the Southwest Face of Everest in 1975 but is best known for his crawl with two broken legs off Baintha Brakk (AKA the Ogre), a 23,901-foot peak in Pakistan.

In the essay, Scott looks at competition in climbing. Prompted by sport climbing’s possible inclusion in the 2020 Olympics, he starts by running down the history of alpine competition, a subset of the sport with a surprising history of accolades including Olympic medals (20 awarded so far for alpinism) and Piolets d’Or. Scott shows that competition is nothing new, but his thesis really is the question of whether there should be competition in climbing at all.