Post Awesome Trad Videos #3

Lovely film about Rob Matheson's ascent of The Bells, The Bells! (5.12b X) at a spritely 74 years old.

duncan...wrote:

Lovely film about Rob Matheson's ascent of The Bells, The Bells! (5.12b X) at a spritely 74 years old.

Incredible video, had me begging the screen 'extend your placements!'

Patrick Hwrote:

Incredible video, had me begging the screen 'extend your placements!'

The following geeking-out is all speculation but it is a cold and wet Saturday at the end of November and not much climbing happening here! As background, I've not done The Bells! but I have climbed other routes on this wall so I'm familiar with the nature of the rock and gear. 

In his earlier film, which describes the gear in more detail, Rob says much of it is for retreat only. Many pieces are good for, at most, a few feet of climbing. A hook that might protect a move or two only doesn't need a long extender, it's no bad thing if it falls off after the moves as this reduces rope drag.  

As an example, the hook before the peg is a poor placement in brittle rock. It is clipped with the right-hand blue rope to minimise shock load if you fall whilst clipping the peg with the left-hand red rope. With the peg and beak clipped, the hook becomes redundant. At 16' 00" Rob looks to be deliberately unseating the hook to minimise drag in anticipation of the long rightwards traverse after the peg, the gear for the final moves are clipped with the right-hand rope. 

Conversely, better gear like the cluster before the moves up to the peg, the peg and beak, and the brass offset above the peg all had long extenders.

Charlie Woodburn, an extremely good trad. climber, was impressed by the attention to detail given to the protection. I'm guessing everything about the gear was intentional including the amount of extension.

Ice climbing but the video is still badass!!!! One of my favs with high stoke!

pph213wrote:

What a sick video!!!! The stoke with these guys is amazing. Love the lightness in their attitude, laugh at things when you can, turn it on when it gets serious

Josh Wharton and Phil Gruber climb The Free Nose in the Black Canyon. Josh eats 5.11R for breakfast…

Gregory Schillingerwrote:

What a sick video!!!! The stoke with these guys is amazing. Love the lightness in their attitude, laugh at things when you can, turn it on when it gets serious

And you can’t forget the conclusion of that route!

Is this the same route that kid floated up recently? 

And now one for the rest of us. :)

OK I think I found it, the most trad video of all time: 

This film used to be purchase only when it first came out, but now it is out for free! 

5.13 climbing over RPs. 

Below is a video (and a few screenshots) of a challenging crack pitch I was fortunate enough to make the first ascent of in early October 2025. It is among the most unique climbing features I have seen. The route was complicated to work on due to  its overhanging and traversing nature. 

The crux second pitch is 120 feet in length. It begins 50 feet up with a roof crack and then pulls into a severely overhanging dihedral. Due to its steepness, this section climbs more similar to a roof crack than a corner. The climbing overall is physical and sustained. The upper crack eases in difficulty, but contains a couple of wide sections that require attention.

I hope folks will enjoy.